o/c amd 2000+ with pc2100

How's it going? I've read a lot of Hoods posts about o/cing this athlon xp 2000+ chip with this gigabyte 7vaxp kt400 mobo, and they've been very helpful, but I'm sure in my case my limitations lie with my pc2100 ram. Basically my question is, what's the best I can do with the limited gear that I have?? I've managed to get my system running up to 1.8 by just increasing the fsb, but brought it back down due to the fear of the agp and pci increase. This whole overclocking is new to me and I wanted to see what my options are. Any benefit to increasing cpu voltage? does that make sense at all? does this mobo sw1 mod make any difference in my case, or am I pretty much S.O.L? Any help would be MUCH appreciated. Cheers!

Need some more info,
What core 2000 you got, Palomino, T/Bred A or T/Bred B?
What Rev of the VAXP do you have?
Hood

Hey Hood! Thanks for replying. Unfortunately I'm at work and not at my computer right now, but perhaps we can assume the worst case senario for now and figure that I've got a palomino (in which case I need to connect all the L1 bridges using a pencil, I think?) Or could I just boost the fsb a bit and settle for a less than kick-*** improvement? How far would you go? I read one of your posts earlier about a program that will allow me to see which core 2000+ I have. (although I'm not sure of the difference between the t/bred A and B)... And I'm almost positive my mobo has two sw's. (If not, I have no prob soldering if need be) How am I doing so far? I might be a little vague with the details, so feel free to give me a refresher. Thanks again!

OK if its a Pally you need more than a pencil im afraid. Its still fairly easy but you will need an insulating material(superglue) and a conductive material(conductive paint ie rear screen defogger repair kit). To see how to do it look HERE
One of the proggies that will tell you what core you have is CPUz this version will actually say what you have, it will either say Palomino or ThoroughBred and if it says T/Bred then if you look at the revision box it will say A0 or BO and that is A or B core.
If its a Pally you will be looking about 1800MHz, If its an A then 2000MHz and if its a B then possibly around the 2200MHz. Obviously you may be lucky and get better than that but you may also be unlucky and get less.
Increasing the VCore when you have reached your temporary max should get you a bit further but watch the temps dont get too high.
What you want to do is drop the multi down a bit (will depend on what core you have) possibly 10x for a start. Then increase the FSB to 166 by the dips or solder method.
In fact look Here and it should give you an idea of how to proceed.

With your PC2100 you will have to run Async and that will not give best performance but should still be an improvment over what you have now.
Anything your unclear of or need more info, just ask.
Hood

Hood, you rock man! O.K. so I can pull off the unlocking of the cpu if I find that it's a pally (I'll check when I get home)...that seems pretty easy to understand actually. And I can pull off the mobo mod...But, what I dont' understand is how do I run the fsb at 166+ and keep the pc2100 memory at 133...isn't that what you mean by async? I'm totally appreciating the help BTW! Cheers.

I think the way the DDR speed works on the VAXP is that what you set in the BIOS is what you get, so if you set to 266 then it will be 266 at any of the standard FSB settings (100, 133 or 166) it will however increase as you go past these settings but probably the FSB would be about the 18o mark before you have probs. As I said im not 100% sure it works that way but you will soon know by dropping the multi way down and setting the FSB to 166 by the dips, if you have probs then it has to be the DDR and it would then seem that it works like the VRXP which is not so good for you.
Im just awake and probably not making much sense.
Hood

Well, I've just realized I have the palimino and my board is the gigabyte GA-7VAX rev.0. I think what I'm going to do is just unlock the cpu, boost the multi to 13 and up the fsb only to 139, that way I've got he cpu running at 1.8gig, the ram can handle 139fsb in sync, and my pci is only stepped up once to 34. You said I probably couldn't get more than 1.8 out of a palomino, so is this most likely the best way to go about it? How does that sound? Or do you think I should still go ahead and do the mobo mod? Obviously where I went wrong was just last week when I opted to go for another 512 of pc2100 to go with my existing 256 pc2100, instead of what I should of done was kissed my 256 goodbye and stepped up my ram to 2700m or even pc3200. oh well What would you do?? Cheers!

You say you have a Rev 0 , have you missed out the 1. ??
I presume you have the 2 dips at SW1.
What I would tend to do is test it out at 139FSB like you said and then try dropping the multi down to 10.5x or 11x and set SW1 to 166 and test it out and see which gives better performance. Normally the higher FSB would be better but as you will be running Async it might well be the lower FSB thats the best.
Yes you did do wrong by getting the DDR266 but then again if your not really wanting to push the system hard it will suffice. I suppose its too late to take it back and exchange for DDR400?
Let me know how you get on, whichever route you take.
Hood

K, will do Hood. One thing though, how can I run my system at 166 or more, when my ram won't go past 143fsb? Is there something in my bios that I need to adjust, or do I just swith my board to 166 and drop the multi and that's it? Cheers, The Chief.

Im not 100% sure on this but I think on the VAX series the DDR is set to what you have in the BIOS no matter whetther the FSB is at 100, 133 or 166. It will increase with the FSB if increasing between these standard settings but should be in spec at any of the FSB settings.
On the VRXP it works differently, what it should say in the BIOS of that mobo is 2X PCI or 2x(PCI+FSB) for 266 and 333 settings.
As I said I am not 100% sure but I have seen people running up to 180 or so with PC2100.
Hood

The VAX does have the option of what speed you want to run your RAM. Actually, since you're running above 133, the ram frequency section should be grayed out and kept at DDR266 or 133...I forget which spec it says.

k, so what you guys are saying is...just flip the sw1 to 166 on my mobo, drop the multi to say 10x, and that's it? I won't risk frying my ram? From there I guess it's just a matter of increasing my multi until it's unstable, or until temps get too high? Or should I try increasing the fsb a little as well? Thanks again for the responses, I'm learning a lot here! this forum rules!

Increasing the FSB will give better performance but if you go too high(probably mid 180FSB) and you have the HDD on the Via channels then you can risk data corruption. Put the HDD on the Promise and you should be OK.
Shouldnt be a risk to DDR cause if it doesnt work the way I think then you just wont POST or will be unstable, but DDR will be OK.
Hood

Well then, what would you say would be the safest way to get my cpu running at 2gig, stable and most efficient? (say 11.5x 175 maybe) I don't want to push anything too hard, nor do I want to worry about data corruption as I'm using my system mainly for audio recording/editing purposes...plus this whole switching my hdd from via channels to promise is a little over my head. Is this possible, or do you think that 1.8 is probably the best I could expect from my palimino chip? Cheers.

Its easy to switch the HDD to the Promise, all you need to do is set the Promise to ATA in the BIOS, boot to windows and load the drivers when it asks. Then you shutdown, put the HDD onto IDE 3 or 4 and then set first boot as RAID/ATA(or what ever it's called in the VAXP BIOS)
If you still dont want to do it then you should be safe enough up to 180FSB, but its always best to have an Image just in case.

To get 2 Gig out of the Pally you will have to have the best stepping (AGOIA Y) and also be pretty lucky. If you have the stepping I mentioned then around 1900MHz should be expected but 2 Gig is probably just out of reach.

It should always be faster to have a higher FSB and lower multi than the other way round, but with you running Async it may not be the case as your DDR will be holding things up. You might find it better to have the CPU running faster by multi as it would be closer to your DDR speeds. Only real way to find out is try both and bench to see.
Hood

Alright, so that's what I'm going to do then. Unlock my pally and boost the mult to 13x and leave the fsb at 139, that should have everything running stable....I hope. But is connecting the L1 bridges the only thing I need to do to be able to increase the multi? Right now the default to my chip is 12.5, but I read somewhere that I might need to reverse the two L10 bridges. Is that right? and if so, how do I do that? Cheers.

You have the Rev1.0 or 1.1 of the VAXP if I remember correctly. If so then you wont be able to get any more than 12.5x unless you actually change the L3 bridges on the CPU to default it to a certain multiplier. If you do that then the dips should be set to Auto and your chosen multi (what you set by L3) will work, but to change to a different multi you would then have to alter the L3 bridges again.
For your 2000+ the L3 are open, open, closed, closed, closed,
For a 2100+ they are closed, closed, open, closed, open.
So to change it to 13x you will have to join the first two and cut the third and fifth L3 bridges.
Hood

Cant I just unlock the cpu and then bumb up the multiplier on the mobo? Are you sure about messing with the L3 bridges, I haven't read that anywhere?
And when I look up my mobo type with cpuid, it says that it's a 7vaxp rev. 0. (not 1.0, not 1.1....0)

Also, what if I just boost up my fsb even higher, to say 144? will that fry my agp or pci? Thanx.

If you have the Rev 1.0 or 1.1 then you have 2 dips at SW1 but only the ability to set to 12.5x at the multi dips. If you have the Rev1.2 then you only have 1 dip at SW1 but you will have the ability to set the multi dips up to 18x. You will have to look at your mobo to see which one you have then we will get a better idea of how to proceed.

Boosting the FSB to 144 wont kill anything the worst that will happen is you wont POST, run with glitches in graphics or the very slight possibility of Data corruption.
Let me know which Rev you have, it will be written between the North Bridge and the DDR slots.
Hood