Who's had the guts to try unlocking their XP, and how did you do it?

[MichaelD]

Did you basically use the method described/shown in the Tom's article from a couple months back? How are your results? I.E. can you get an XP sold w/an 11.5 multiplier to a 12? 12.5?

I've already purchased an 1800XP (1.53GHz) and am toying w/the idea of unlocking it. I've read the Tom's article quite a few times...it looks risky. Superglue/epoxy is permanent, you know? One boo-boo can wind up being a $150 boo-boo very easily. Just curious. Thanks.

 

[gaidin123]

Check this thread: http://subscriber.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=713479 or Forums
for my answer.

After the 12.5 multiplier you need to do something with the L10 bridges but I was mainly interested in unlocking mine to lower the multiplier to 11 or so and bump up the FSB into the 150s. For that just doing the L1 bridges worked great.

Gaidin

 

[MichaelD]

Hey, thanks a lot!

How does the rest of your system run with a 150FSB? That is 17MHz over spec, which means your PCI devices are running at 50MHz. I'm new to FSB OCing...my KT133 board doesn't like anything higher than a 102FSB!

EDIT
I'm not a subscriber, so I can't see your linky.

 

[gaidin123]

Hehe that's why I provided links to both the subscriber and normal forums.

Actually if the system is running at 150Mhz the PCI bus is running at 1/4 of that speed so, 37.5Mhz. My system starts getting unstable somewhere in between 155-160Mhz depending on the room temp and what cards I have in there. With my NIC, SBLive, and old GF2MX (can't wait for the full GF4Tis to come out) the machine is totally stable at 154Mhz in the week or so that I've had it running. I'm going to try to push it back up higher soon but I think my SBLive is holding me back the most.

Yeah the KT133 boards were horrible overclockers. I had a Abit KT7 that I just switched the CPU multiplier on rather than fiddle with the FSB. It was just way too unstable. The KT133A was a great overclocker and the KT266A has proven to be almost as good in my case.

Gaidin

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks again. This is encouraging news for me, as I've never had the luxury of FSB OCing before...and that's where you get most, if not all, of your performance gain, w/the FSB.

Funny, you had a KT7...I have a KT7R now. Great board. Feature-rich. Stable. Awesome board...lousy OC'er. I look forward to fiddling around w/my new board. Thanks much.

 

[MoFunk]

My system gets really flaky above 147FSB so I am planning on taking the plunge and unlocking my XP someday! Little nervous to do so, but I will wait a couple months so I at least have 5-6 months of good use out of it before I try and accidently kill it.

 

[MichaelD]

<< so I at least have 5-6 months of good use out of it before I try and accidently kill it. >>



Heheh, we think alike. I'm pretty sure that I will be so happy with my new-found speed with my new rig that I'll be very happy with it for awhile. Besides, it's one thing if you fry a $40 Duron and completely another if you fry a $140 XP1800!

 

[cheetoden]

If I try to unlock my 1800 XP and fry it, I'll probably only be able to afford a $40 Duron.

 

[gaidin123]

<< My system gets really flaky above 147FSB so I am planning on taking the plunge and unlocking my XP someday! Little nervous to do so, but I will wait a couple months so I at least have 5-6 months of good use out of it before I try and accidently kill it. >>



It's hard to accidentally kill your Athlon by unlocking it as long as you're careful with the conductive stuff. Just study those bridges and gaps carefully with a magnifying glass before actually flipping the power switch.

Though I will admit that I was holding my breath the first time I fired up my XP1900 (unlocked it before ever using it).

Gaidin

 

[MichaelD]

Hey Gaindin123,

I'm curious. When you filled the gaps with Crazy Glue, how many coats did you use and how did you apply it? Did you just CAREFULLY drip a tiny drop right from the tube into each pit, or did you make one long line to fill it? How many coats did you use?

I have a conductive pen that I used to unlock my Athlon B (Too bad it won't do more than a 10.5 multiplier...waste of my time) and I have a tube of super glue...you've got me thinkin' man!

 

[scoobydooby]

If you're scared about frying your XP you could look at this unlocking kit. It says that it's reversible so if you mess up you just use the supplied cleaner to start over. I figure that it might be worth it to gurantee that you won't fry it. Good luck
Scoob

 

[gaidin123]

You definitely want to be liberal with the krazy glue. That's why the masking is really important on that step. You want to dump enough glue on there so that there are no doubts that the pits are completely filled. Once you dump it on there you probably want to push it around a bit to make sure you get even coverage.

Once you let it dry and remove the tape you use a razor blade to scrape off the excess since it kind of mounds up. That was the only part of the process where I was a little sloppy (I was afraid of shaving too much off) and some of my final bridges were a little elevated. But everything works fine...well at least multipliers from 9-12.5. I have no reason to go lower and can't go higher without doing something to the L10 bridges.

I just used one heavy coating of super glue. Supposedly you can remove it with alcohol or acetone if you do a bad job (but really as long as you mask things it's hard to mess up).

I almost ordered that XP unlocking kit but then figured it'd be more fun to try it one of the cheapie ways.

Gaidin