How far can you push a locked Barton 2500+

[Matthias99]

So, now that the new Barton 2500+ chips are locked, you're stuck with an 11X multiplier and the only way to O/C them is by upping the FSB.

My question is: How far can you push the FSB with these chips? Will they hit 11x400FSB reliably on stock cooling? What about with a better HSF? If so, it's still a better deal than the 3000+/400FSB chip, which is running around $200.

I ask this mostly because I'm looking to upgrade to one and I'm not sure if it's worth paying more to be guaranteed a 400FSB chip. :)

So if you've got one of these, how far can you push it at the 11X multiplier, and what MB/HSF/RAM are you using?

[georgelogy]

Almost any Barton, locked or not, will have no trouble running at 200*11 FSB with a minor voltage bump, as long as your motherboard and memory support that speed. With the newest chips, even if they are locked, will still overclock very well. You can probably expect to get *at least* 200 FSB pretty easily with a descent NForce2 setup and descent cooling. Just make sure you replace the regular thermal interface on the stock HS with either Arctic Silver or Ceramique.

If you are soing to overclock much past that, the stock heatsink will not be sufficient.

[hitechjb1]

If there is no workaround for the locked Barton, these would be the scenarios:

Impact of Barton 2500+ w/ locked muliplier on overclocking

If there is no workaround for the locked Barton, these would be the scenarios:

1. It would mostly affect users with KT266A, KT333A motherboads, since those boards can achive max FSB around 150 MHz and 190 MHz respectively, due to 4:1 and 5:1 PCI lock, .... As a result, a Barton 2500+ with 11x multiplier, the max CPU overclocking frequency would be 1650 MHz and 2090 MHz respective. These number are way below the norm of 2.2 - 2.4 GHz for Barton 2500+.

2. It would also affect users using extreme coolings. Assuming they are using nforce2 which can do 220 MHz FSB on the average, and as high as 240+ if using enough Vdd, Vimm and chipset cooling, and "good" RAM, ... So the Barton 2500+ in these systems with 11x multipliers would be limited to overclocked frequency of 2420 MHz (220 FSB) to 2640 MHz (240 FSB). Not 2.7 - 2.9 GHz as hoped for. One would need a Barton with 13x multiplier to achieve 2860 MHz running 220 FSB.

3. For air cooling using a good nforce2 motherboard such as NF7-S rev 2.0, whose FSB averages around 220 MHz +- 10 MHz. The Barton 2500+ should still be able to run at 220 x 11 = 2420 MHz, which is above the norm 2.3 GHz for Barton 2500+. At FSB 230 MHz, which is doable, the Barton would then run at 2530 MHz.

Now the burden becomes putting more demand on the FSB, memory, and how to tune/optimize the FSB reaching 220 - 230 MHz, so that the motherboard, good memory (modules with WinBond CH5/BH5 chips) and FSB are not holding back the Barton 2500+ due to the fixed multiplier 11. If one can only achieve FSB 210 MHz, the Barton would be running at 2320 MHz, which is still above the PR rating of a 3200+ AMD processor.

To achieve 2.3 - 2.5 GHz speed for a 2500+ on air, a copper HSF such as SLK-800/900/947U and a high CFM adjustable fan such as TT SFII would be the choice. It is doable with a TT SFII fan running 3000-3200 rpm at which the noise should be acceptable for 24/7 run. Barton 2500+ at 2.3 - 2.5 GHz can run few degree C cooler and less power than a Tbred B 1700+/1800+ DLT3C delivering the same overall performance.

So I would say at multiplier 11x, currently with high end air cooling, for system w/ nforce2 rev 2.0 board, there is not much an impact for 24/7 usage:
- The impact is at most 12% (2200 MHz at stock FSB 200 MHz) on CPU frequency from the best Barton 2500+ overclocking on air (assuming 2500 MHz). Even in this worst case situation, it is already running as a 3200+ CPU.
- An average system at FSB 220 MHz can run Barton at 2420 MHz (about 3% off the best Barton at 2500 MHz on air).

[JaY_III]

they should overclock the exact same as unlocked Bartons.
Only thing is your RAM my hold you back.
11x200= 3200+ barton, so anything over that is gravy and the better RAM will help..
Ram that can get you to the 210-220FSB Range is what you are going to want as that is what most bartons tend to be cabable of using the 11x mutliplier

[login211]

i would say it all depends on how far the cpu can go and your ram

in my case if my barton was locked, i'd be pretty screwed since i can no longer do 11x200 like i was once able to... 11x197 or so will be the max my cpu can handle and i would be wasting my pc3200 mem than can run at 228mhz...

i always thought eventually there would be a B version of bartons that would overclock really well, kinda like thoroughbred B's but i guess that ain't happening :/

[The Coolest]

Actually every barton out there IS revision B.

[JaY_III]

Originally posted by login211

in my case if my barton was locked, i'd be pretty screwed since i can no longer do 11x200 like i was once able to... 11x197 or so will be the max my cpu can handle and i would be wasting my pc3200 mem than can run at 228mhz...


how long could you do 200x11?
could it have been that you were never really stable at 2200Mhz?
or did you change something within your computer (new hardware, or placement?)