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Defaultly Overvolted?

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Will Eatforfood

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2003
Location
Your basement
Wow.......I just downloaded a pretty recent Aopen Config program that displays things like how much mem is used and bios ver. and core speed and all that....Well, I look under bios and it says the core is at 3.3v!Isn't this a bit high?......this occurred with the katmai, which I believe should be at like 2.00v-2.08? The mobo is AX6BC.......I got it to 558mhz, and will boot at 581, but like 10 seconds in, it will restart......I just downloaded a newer bios version, which is better, because before, it didn't even post at 581. Maybe I'll put in better stuff......Two more months until my sis gets this old comp for websurfing/warcraft3:RoC/"solitaire" anyways.
 
The default vcore of a P3 katami whoose default speed is less than 600MHz is 2.00v. However, the default voltage for the L2 cache is 3.3v. Remember, the L2 cache is not on die, but still on the CPU's PCB. Perhaps this voltage is being mistakenly interpreted to be the core's?


On another topic, I wonder if you could get 3.3v to work with adequate cooling...
That would be a 65% boost in voltage. A 500MHz katami would go from producing 19W to 31.4W without any increase in speed. Maybe with a prometia or something? I mean, my cpu chews through more watts at stock.
 
I don't think so. Remember electron migration? Even if it could be kept cool, that would shorten its lifespan to weeks maybe. People with athlons a 2v arent expecting their chips to last more than a couple of years, and that is less than 30% most of the time overvolted.
 
I was thinking that with bigger interconnects and slower speeds, along with less current draw, it might work for a while. It would, of couse, be only advisible if you diodn't mind frying your cpu. When power levels got high enpough for electromigration to be a serious problem, manufactures switched to Cu interconnects. With less resistance, the interconnects didn't heat up as much, and electromigration was slowed considerably. Of course, the Katami still used Al interconnects. If we calculate the power draw of the highest pentium-class chip with Al interconnects, that might be the limit before serious electromigration occurs. Honestly, I'd be more worried about straight frying the cpu.

I still think the original problem is a result of the cache voltage being misinterpreted as the core voltage.
 
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