help

hi can any 1 help me im new to overclockers so bare with me,ive got a xfxkt400alh board and my chip is a xp2500 barton and im wanting to overclock it not sure if or how i can do it so can any 1 help please please

Welcome to the Forum!

I have not seen that motherboard model. Do you know who makes it or is this a pre-build system from someone like HP, Compaq, etc...?

hi the board is made by pine i think there somthing to do with nvidia anyway if u cant help me with this can u tell me what a decent board will overclock the xp2500 and iwill it be easy enough to sort

Alright. Here is a link to the manual http://www.xfxforce.com/mb/pineuserguides/KT400-ALH_UM.pdf

I see two major issues with overclocking that board:

1. The VIA KT400 chipset which controls the board is not capable of overclocking a 333MHz fsb cpu like the 2500+ Barton much beyond the stock speed.

2. Pine (or XFX) did not inclued the sort of controls needed to have a successful overclock.

An answer to this would be a new motherboard like the Abit NF7-S v2 or the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe. These are full featured boards based on nVidia's nForce2 chipset which has more overclocking capability than the KT400 chipset. If you change boards, you may also have to change memory to a higher speed rating (PC3200 or higher).

hi iff i get an asus whats to do with the board to overclock it , ive got pc2700 333 dimms will they be ok cause ive 1 gig intailed

What is the week of your barton 2500+, or do you know that your multiplier is unlocked already? Most pre-week 39's are unlocked and anything after that has a good chance up to the 43rd week where it may or may not be locked and after so far all have been reported locked. If your chip is unlocked then I would definitely go for an abit NF7/-S or a Soltek FRN2 because they allow the full range of multis to be chosen if your processor is unlocked. Welcome to the Forums!!!

If you have a 2500+ that is more than about three months old, it is likely unlocked for multiplier manipulation which means that you can overclock with the multiplier while keeping your front side bus closer to the specifications of your PC2700 ram.

If you have a newer, locked barton then you may find yourself limited by your memory speed. This will depend on the individual modules in your system as they may have headroom for overclocking.

hi yes my barton is about 4 months old so if i get a asus or an abit board to overclock it is it just a case of altering the vcore

Altering the multiplier.

You only alter the Vcore if you have reached a limit in overclocking that might be breached with more power.