Fop 38 Fan And Heatsink

[Nick Fury]

Eventually I want to overclock my Athlon 900 (socket a) I was wondering if this fan would be sufficient without system fans or any of that malarkie to cool my processor.
Also does anyone else have an OC'ed T'Bird 900 if so where did you get the guide from? And what speed is it running at ?
And Replies Greatly Appreciated !!

[Nick Fury]

Supposed to say any replies appreciated by the way.

[Rob Cork]

There's some excellent guides on the front page, look in the 'beginner's guides' section. Could you tell us which mobo you have? Hopefully it's one that lots of people have like the A7V or KT7 - but there are other good ocing boards. That tbird'll do at least a gig, probably a fair bit over, and you couldn't ask for a better heatsink.

[Nick Fury]

Yeah I got a TMC ?? motherboard with a VIA chipset on it

[Rob Cork]

Hmmm, I'm not sure about that motherboard. It probably doesn't support mutliplier adjustments, so you'll have to overclock by the fsb. It is possible to set the mutliplier by reconnecting the tiny copper bridges on the chip - this isn't too hard to do, and is similar to the pencil trick you may have heard about, but it is a lot of hassle. Here's a guide to the pencil trick: http://www.athlonoc.com/unlocking.htm - and here's how to change the mutliplier on the chip: http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q3/000711/index.html
To overclock by the fsb, look for an option in the bios called something like 'cpu speed' or 'cpu frequency', and set it to user define (if the option's there) - you should then be able to raise the fsb, and as such the cpu speed, for a little overclock. At a multiplier of 9 (if you don't want to fiddle around on the ceramic to set it), you'll probably only get to 990 or 999MHZ - KT133 boards don't normally go over 110MHZ fsb, if that high.

Raise the core voltage if you need to (hopefully there'll be some jumpers on the mobo or a bios option) to achieve stability at higher speeds, and watch your temperatures. Try and stay below 50C - this shouldn't be a problem with the FOP38, but keep an eye on temps just in case.