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Unlocking the T Bird.......should I?

R

Rhodent

Senior member
I just got the 1000 T Bird. I am useing the MSI K7T Pro2-A board inthe enlight 7237 with 300 watt P/S and the Super Orb with 5 Case fans. I am currently running 1070 =10X107. The board passes 3D Mark 2000 all the way at 108. I am running around 42C and it seems to vary little if at all Whether its idle or under stress. This temp reading is from the bios and a motherboard utility from via. I basically want to know what are the real risks in unlocking this chip. ie if I bridge across two of the bridges and don't notice and start the comp, will it fry the chip or simply not work and I'll need to erase? Also, I was told by someone that unlocking only realy worked for slower chips to make them faster and that my chip being a 1000 would not be able to work at a faster setting or maybe just see little increaseability. I do not want to risk frying my chip because of bad bridgeing.
Also, Does increasing ram speed decrease its life significantly. I have a 128 piece of PC133 Cl2 a 64 Piece of PC133 CL3 and a 32 piece of PC 100 CL3 and they are running at 133 CL2 without any problems I can see. IS this ok or am I doing long term damage?
Any comments are welcomed. thanks
 
You should be able to get some more speed out of that tbird. Some people are able to hit 1.3 Ghz
 
What is the risk in actually doingthe unlock? As in can I possibly bridge it wrong and cause a short and burn the processor?
 
If I bridge the chip with just a pencil first and I were to accidentally connect across two bridges vertically will the chip be toast or will it just not post and can I simply erase and start over? I am afriad that a mistake ould fry my chip. Who has some experience with this who can tell me? I'd appreciate it
 
Just do the L1 bridges. That is all you need to do. Also if you mess up just erase the pencil marks with one of those mechanical erasers... they work great. It took my 3 tries before I got it right and it is running perfectly for a month so far. I will post a link to a picture of the L1 bridges in a bit.

[EDIT] L1 Bridge Pictures [/EDIT]

Hope this helps. 🙂

Note: You do not need to use a conductive ink pen. Just use a mechanical pencil and a steady hand 🙂

Patience is a virtue.
 
Thank you for your reply. and the pic would be much appreciated. I just want a little confidence before I try this and bridge it wrong.and get no post and think my chip is fried. Can you tell me how it reacts? As in...when you did it wrong, do you mean you just didn't get enough pencil on it so it disregarded your changes? or did you bridge across the L1 bridges as in for example the L1A to the L1b between those....and if this is what happened...does it just not post?...or...does it stil simply disregardyour multiplier changes? I just don't want to riska 200 dollar processor.
 
There's actually a small chance your chip will "fry"

The symptoms of bad unlocking jobs are that the chips only "work" at certain multipliers....meaning if you set it to 9.0x, it may work at 8.0x, but if yo uset it to 10x it may work at 10.5x.
Wierd, but that's how you can tell.
Obviously if it doesn't work, you won't be able to move the multiplier at all 🙂
 
Basically what Viperoni said. The symptom will be that you cannot alter the multiplier. It will post and boot fine and just act as a regular computer if it is done wrong. You just won't be able to overclock till you try again and get it right.
 
Hey Viperion, So, you're saying not necessarily, but possibly if I bridge between the bridges (such as the picture at the bottom of page which is linked above) it could mess up the chip? I can perfectly see that if I don't get enough on it that it wont unlock..and wont be adanger. But If I get to much and basically overbridge between what should be bridged then how serios is that? Is this something I should be able to see with my eye after I get done before I actually put it in the socket? Or are you more refering to me possibly running it to hot after the unlocking takes place? I am aware of the temp ranges and I have a super orb on it. So..If I get it unlocked I'll be able to handle it. I just don't want to fry it due to too much bridging and shorting between the bridges.
 
Rhodent, I do not like Orbs for cooling. I recommend a Hedge Hog, Fop32-1, Fop38... (There are more but they don't pop into my head)

What is your cpu temp FULL load? (At regular speed) Try running RC5 if you don't know if you are running full load.

When unlocking my processor I never had any experience in having the clock speed changed due to my penciling.
 
The Via monitor utility and the bios both say it runs aroud 40 C regular use and never past 43 C when running 3DMark2000 for a couple hours. I am running it at 107 bus and its rock solid at that bus speed. 108 and I can get about 3 minutes into 3d mark2000 and it crashes. So i don't think cooling is an issue. I just don't want to fry my chip by shorting between two of the sets of bridges. I am thinking use pencil and at least I can maybe see my job when done and erase if I see anything before I even test it. If I use the pen then I don't think there will be much fixing it. If I don't get it unlocked I'll just do it again. I just fear bridging too much and it shorting the core. Have you heard of this happening?
 
Despite what the Anand review says, using a pencil is just peachy. Just thought I'd say that cuz I personally think that guide is deceiving.
 
Um, guys don't take this wrong or anything, cause I do appreciate comments but everyone seems to be jumping around the point here. Its like talking to a used car salesman. LOL When he avoids your question it makes you wonder why. I have plenty of cooling and I know the whole exact procedure for unlocking the chip and pretty much how and why it works. I am just interested in knowing what will occur if I bridge between two of the bridges as in the bottom picutre in the link above. Will the board simply not post or will it fry the chip. And..also.thanks for whoever posted about pencil being good to use. That was useful. I just don't want to risk a 200 dollar processor. If there is a snowballs chance in hell of screwing it up then i'll go for it. If we are saying pretty much that if I over bridge it that the chip is toast..then i wont bother doing it. Thanks guys..and don't take this in a bad way, I just felt it was needing to be said.
 
I'd like to hear any relavent comments that anyone has that will help me decide. Sorry if I offended someone who is really trying because of a few people who simply post to boost their member status. Thanks guys
 
yeah orbs are awful
fop38s are real loud but REALLY GOOD COOLING

basically it is not a question of whether u cross the L1 bridges but whether you are dumb enough to stick that in your mobo. Just look at your chip with a magnifying glass and it is pretty obvious if you crossed your bridges or not,

Id say go for it, if you only get it to 1.1gigz or so, oh well but its still 100mhz

good luck
 
well, i don't know if it would fry if you did a bad job on it, but to be on the safe side i would assume it would. I don't think it would be good, you'd probably have a very unhappy chip on your hands...
 
Rhodent, I gave you all the info I know. You will not fry your processor unless you are a complete idiot and go connect other bridges (some of the other L# bridges adjust voltage used). You will be fine. Stop worrying and go have fun OCing 🙂

BTW you should be able to pull off 1.2GHz pretty easily... I found most Tbirds will do the 200MHz jump easy. If you will be messing with FSB then that is different and that also depends on your components.
 
I probably should have asked it if would fry the chip too as I recently did this for the first time too. But what I found useful to make sure I didn't cross the connections was to get a 10X magnifier that are used by photographers for inspecting negatives - I think they are called loupes. This really helped me see what I was doing. I then used a 0.3mm lead that was 5H (heard 5H was best) and a mechanical pencil to hold the lead. When I was done I was positive I had connected them with no crossover.
 
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