An Athlon cpu with open bridges (bridges not connected)
Overclocking AMD Athlon's |
Overclocking the Asus A7V motherboard: |
AMD have recently released new versions of the Athlon CPU. The Duron is the budget version, and the Thunderbird is the newer version of the Athlon. The Thunderbird has the processor core, as well as the second level cache, on the same die. Making the chip faster and smaller. The Duron is the same chip as its big brother, but only has one quarter of the second level cache.
As any good overclocker will tell you, the secret to overclocking is to alter the multiplier or clock speed of hardware to make it run faster. These are usually altered by jumpers or pins on the M/B or via a softmenu screen in the BIOS. However, on these new AMD CPU's those two functions are controlled via a few pins on the CPU itself, the CPU tells the system what multiplier and clock speed the CPU is set to via the "Serial Initialisation Packet Protocol" or SIP-Protocol. So you would think you need to mess with the pins on the CPU, which is only for those who *really* know what they are doing! However, this is not so, read on....
Core voltage is also important when overclocking. Duron uses 1.5v and Thunderbird uses 1.7v. The voltage will need to be raised to overclock successfully, which can usually be achieved via the BIOS screen on most PC's. NB: Please note, the absolute *MAXIMUM* voltage for both Athlon CPU's is 1.85v This means you can only increase the Thunderbird voltage by 0.15v (less than 10%) this will limit the amount of overclocking available to the Thunderbird chip, Whereas the Duron has a bit more to play with. (0.35v)
NB: to successfully overclock any Athlon Duron or Thunderbird CPU's, the "L1" bridges (or level one bridges) on the Athlon must be closed. These are tiny metal connectors on one side of the CPU. If they are connected (or closed) the CPU can be overclocked. If they are not connected (or open) the CPU may still be capable of being overclocked, but only after the connectors have been closed. To close the connectors various methods have been used. One method is to use the "Goldfinger" devices (see below), another is to solder the connectors (only for the experienced as you can easily damage your CPU!) and another is to use a soldering pen otherwise known as a "conducting compound" pen, or a soft lead pencil to close the L1 bridges. Quite literally drawing a connection between the connectors! If you are really stuck, try to buy your Athlon from a guaranteed source, such as HERE:
New Athlon M/B's are becoming available which allow both the core voltage and the multiplier settings (or SIP-Protocol) of the CPU to be altered via the M/B itself (using dipswitches and jumpers). Such a M/B is the Asus A7V board. So overclocking these two CPU's is as easy as flicking a switch! Duron 650/700's can run at 900+! And Thunderbirds may run at over 1.0Gb! (My own Duron 650 runs happily at 900)
The "Original" AMD Athlon CPU (eg: non Duron or Thunderbird CPU) can also be overclocked. Originally only the really dedicated overclockers could manage it, by soldering bits onto the CPU itself. But, all it takes is a specially designed add-on card (available from the Net called a "Goldfinger" device!) which usually have small jumpers or dipswitches on the card, to alter the FSB and multiplyer settings. An example was the "FreeSpeed Pro Athlon Overclocking Card". The card allows you to overclock your Athlon CPU without any soldering. It is made using a dual sided PCB with ISO quality control standards, unlike other cards of this type, it can be used with any existing Athlon CPU without complicated modifications.
Overclocking the Asus A7V Motherboard:
To overclock the Asus m/b you need an Athlon that can be overclocked (it has closed L1 connectors), and you need to change the multiplier. This can only be changed if you have the m/b without the onboard sound chip. The m/b with the onboard soundchip does not have the dipswitches that are needed. The dipswitches are a small row of six, they are next to the DSW dipswitches, which controls whether the m/b is jumperless or not (controlled via the bios set-up screen) or manually via the dipswitches and jumpers on the m/b.
First, to change the multiplier, you need to turn off the jumperless setting, by setting all the dipswitches on the DSW block to ON, this also sets the busspeed to the default 100Mhz. If you leave the m/b set to jumperless (all DSW switches OFF) you cannot change the multiplier. Also change the JEN jumper from 2-3 to 1-2 (next to the PCI slots).
Next, in the bios settings, in the hardware monitor section, where the cpu voltage is shown, change the setting to ignore. If you don't ignore this setting, the pc will not boot with any higher voltage than the default, you will get a warning beep on boot up and the pc will not boot.
Now set the core voltage to the desired setting, by using the VID1 to VID4 jumpers on the motherboard just below the main CPU. The motherboard manual has the settings for VID1 to VID4. You need to RAISE the core voltage if overclocking. NB: see the Athlon section above re: the maximum core voltage settings for these CPU's. Generally if running the cpu at around 800 or above you will probably need to set the core voltage to 1.8v and you may need to set it to the maximum of 1.85v. Make sure you have adequate cooling if you are doing this! I have four fans in my case, one on the CPU heatsink, one on the PSU, and two pointed at the CPU/graphics card (Voodoo3), just in case....
You are now ready to change the multiplier settings. The settings are not yet in the manufacturers manuals. The multiplier settings used in the block of six dipswitches are as follows:
Multiplier |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
x5.0 |
ON |
ON |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
ON |
x5.5 |
OFF |
ON |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
ON |
x6.0 |
ON |
OFF |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
ON |
x6.5 |
OFF |
OFF |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
ON |
x7.0 |
ON |
ON |
ON |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
x7.5 |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
x8.0 |
ON |
OFF |
ON |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
x8.5 |
OFF |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
ON |
ON |
x9.0 |
ON |
ON |
OFF |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
x9.5 |
OFF |
ON |
OFF |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
x10.0 |
ON |
OFF |
OFF |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
x10.5 |
OFF |
OFF |
OFF |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
x11.0 |
ON |
ON |
ON |
ON |
ON |
ON |
x11.5 |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
ON |
ON |
ON |
x12.0 |
ON |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
ON |
ON |
x12.5 |
OFF |
OFF |
ON |
ON |
ON |
ON |
As the 100Mhz busspeed is set when you turn off the jumperless setting via the DSW dipswitches, select the appropriate multiplier. EG: 100 x 7.5 = 750, or 100 x 8.0 = 800, or 100 x 9.0 = 900, etc, etc. Remember, as you increase the speed, the core voltage will also need to be increased. If the pc fails to boot (with a warning beep from the m/b) you will have chosen a setting that does not work, or the m/b is incapable of using. Simply turn off the pc and select some other settings, or go back to the previous settings.
As you can see from the table above, the dipswitches 5 and 6 must be ON to enable the multiplier to be changed. The dipswitches 1, 2, 3 and 4 set the individual multiplier speeds. To summarise; Set the JEN jumper to 1-2 position (to set jumpermode), Set the VID jumpers to 1-2 (to set the core voltage to 1.85v), Set the FSB jumpers to all ON (to set 100MHz busspeed), Set the 5 & 6 switches on the dark blue bank to ON (this enables multiplier adjustment), Set 1, 2, 3 & 4 to the desired setting for the correct multiplier. Good luck and have fun....
Got problems with your A7V motherboard? Go to HERE: for a very useful A7V troubleshooting page, which contains most of the commonly found A7V problems, and the solutions.
