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Socket-A Overclocking Guide
Most Socket-A motherboards are now nearly jumperless. This means that multiplier, FSB, and voltage settings are no longer made by moving jumpers on your board, but instead in your BIOS. Turn on your computer, and when it POSTs, you should see a message that says something like, “Press Del to enter setup.” Press that key to enter your BIOS. The first thing we want to do is to check and make sure your chip is successfully unlocked. To do this, consult your motherboard manual and find which menu contains the clock multiplier adjustment. Increase the multiplier up 0.5. (ex. If default is 10, set the multiplier to 10.5). Then save changes and reboot. Now watch as the computer POSTs, it should show the new clock speed. If not, go back into the BIOS and make sure the change was recorded, and try rebooting again. If the change is still not showing, this means you have not connected the L1 bridges successfully. Take it apart and try again.
When overclocking, your processor is going to need more voltage to be able to run stable. When you start increasing the overall speed, you will have to increase the core voltage as well. If you try an overclocking setting, and the system fails to POST properly, it means you have either passed the limit of your chip, or you need to increase your voltage. Increases in voltage will result in increased stability and higher clock speed capability, but will also increase temperature. Your goal should be to get your processor to run as fast as it can, with the lowest voltage setting that will provide good stability. The default voltage of AMD Athlon and Duron processors is 1.75V, unless, it is marked differently on your chip (Consult the Identification Table). The maximum voltage that you should run at is 1.85V. Do not worry about running at any voltage equal to or less than this. You can adjust the Core Voltage either with a jumper on the board, or more likely in the BIOS. Consult your motherboard manual to find the appropriate location.
This is the easiest way to overclock your processor. You will only run into limitations with the processor itself. You want to start with small multiplier increment increases. Remember that you will need to increase the Core Voltage, and also monitor the CPU temperature. When you get to the point where the computer won’t POST, back it off by an increment of 0.5, and then boot to your OS. Let in run for a while, and try to keep it under load. Put it through your favorite stress tests, and applications. If your system will run without locking up, then congratulations on a successful overclock.
When overclocking with the FSB, there are a few things that
you have to be aware of. When
increasing the FSB, this in turn increases the memory clock speed, the PCI bus
speed, and AGP bus speed. Some of
the devices that you have in your computer may be very sensitive to the bus
speeds that they run at. One of the
first places to look is at your RAM. Depending
on the manufacturer, it may not be able to run at your adjusted speed.
If you have high quality RAM you should have nothing to worry about, but
if you are using a generic RAM, and are having lockups at above default FSB
speeds, you may know the source of your problem.
When overclocking with a motherboard using the VIA KT133 chipset, multiplier overclocking is the smartest choice. Due to chipset limitations, the highest FSB that you will be able to run is usually about 110MHz. This makes the use of the clock multiplier the logical choice. You can also use a combination of both, which will give you the best overall performance.
Page 5 - KT133a Chipset and Conclusion
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