Author: Aaron Gordon
Date: 22:11:39 01/06/02
Go up one level in this thread
Instead of spending tons of money just do a little research in overclocking. If you know what to look for you can find the right CPU that will do much more than it's rated AND have it last for quite some time. My past overclocking experiences included a Celeron 300a @ 644mhz, Celeron 366 @ 735mhz, Celeron-2 566 @ 1202MHz, Thunderbird 1Ghz at 1.7Ghz and this Athlon XP 1900+ 1.6Ghz @ 1.81GHz (will get more out of this 1900+ soon). When I say look for the right stuff I'm mainly talking about cpu steppings or some type of marking on the CPU itself. Currently for Thunderbirds the best stepping is "AYHJA". The second best is "AXIA". With a few tools you can take an ordinary 1Ghz Tbird and have it beat a stock 1900+. AYHJA's are superb as they run 20% cooler mhz for mhz than any of the other Thunderbird cpu's. All 1.4Ghz Thunderbirds are AYHJA's. It's just a hit/miss between AXIA/AYHJA now days on the 1Ghz, 1.2, & 1.33Ghz (all C models). Here is a good way to get started. Take an Epox 8KHA+ for $100, a 1Ghz AXIA or AYHJA Thunderbird for $70, 256mb stick of PC2100 DDR for $50, $30 for a Thermalright SK6 (0.14c/w) with a 40cfm 60mm fan and 50 cents for a pack of 220k ohm 1/4 watt resistors. Stock the system may not look like much.. but both the AXIA & AYHJA pack some power. The AXIA normally does 1.5GHz at default voltage, 1.6-1.65ghz w/ the voltage mod. AYHJA does 1.6Ghz w/ default voltage, 1.7-1.75Ghz w/ a voltage mod. For $429.50 you can build a good overclocking 'base'. With what I have mentioned you could run 1.7GHz after the voltage modification (with pomona clips you don't even need to solder!). Later on when the various Athlon XP chips get cheaper guess what? Slap in a 2000+ or whatnot and push it up towards 1.9GHz w/ the volt mod. Beats spending $3000 for a top of the line system but having a motherboard that can't overclock for crap and thus wastes your cpu's potential. If you're wondering about dangers to the chip itself.. don't. If you're using good heatsink compound (Arctic silver, Arctic Silver 2, Arctic Alumina, & the Metal tube (not plastic) Radio shack compound) with the SK6 (or similar, 0.14c/w or lower) you won't have problems with CPU failure. The damage is due to electromigration.. and that is accelerated by heat. If you keep your CPU cool even overclocked beyond belief it will last a long, long while. An Intel engineer told me once that for every 10C a cpu is dropped the lifespan is doubled. I had the formula but unfortunately I forgot it. Perhaps one of you guys in here knows it.. Anyway. Even if you run a 1Ghz AYHJA which basically has a 1.6Ghz core (just marked as 1.0, 1.2, 1.33, 1.4, whatever) at 1.75Ghz, 2.2v at 35-40C full load it should last longer than someone with some cramped pre-built company computer with a subpar heatsink/fan that lets the CPU run idle at 60C. If anyone has any questions/comments reguarding this post feel free to email me (as I'm sure it will lead to non-chess related stuff). I updated my email address to a working one.. so anyone in the past thats tried to email me feel free to do so (as I will finally see it:).
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