• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Diff between locked and unlocked

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

Superman

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2002
Location
Michigan
I have been looking at some of the forms and one said something about locking and unlocking a cpu. I dont know everything about computers yet so can ne one tell me what that means and how if its possible how to do it to a cpu. Thanks
 
People are talking about "unlocking" the multiplier. Thats the thing that tells the CPU how fast its going to use the FSB (or something like that, my terminology isnt quite right I dont think). Some Pentium 2s and all Pentiums after have a locked multiplier. Mine is locked at 5, so all I can do is play with the FSB. AMD proccessors on the other hand are "unlockable". This gives you tons of more options for OCing, since you dont have to screw your whole system up running the FSB out the roof.
 
unlocking

CPU mhz= multiplyer x Front Side Bus

ex. Athlon XP 1600+, what I have.... 10.5 (mult) x 133 (FSB) = 1400 Mhz.

I can overclock by raising the front side bus up to about 150, where some piece of hardware in my system starts to have trouble. 10.5 x 150 = 1575 Mhz

Unlocking allows for flexibilty when overclocking because you can also set the multiplyer. For example, sometimes I run at 11 x 148 = 1633 mhz.

What most pepole do is lower the multiplyer and raise the Front Side Bus as High as they can. The reason is that Front Side Bus affects all the components in the system, whereas raising the multiplyer only affects the CPU. But if you're like me and find that your FSB is limited by something in the system, raising the multiplyer is a nice way to get a few more Mhz.

All current AMD CPu's can be unlocked by connecting a few electrical contacts on the surface of the cpu that have been severed. Multiplyer adjustment actually takes place by setting a switch or jumper on the motherboard, or by a setting in the motherboard's bios.

The electrical connections are usually accomplished by using conductive paint to reconnect several contacts on the CPU surface. look aorun the AMD forum and you'll find guides for unlocking Durons - XP Thoroughbreds.
 
cpu's

Some CPU's have unlocked multiplyers already, but very few. What cpu do you have, superman?
 
pentium

You may very well be able to change the multiplyer then, if its an older pentium. But you'll have to find out what kind of motherboard its on, and examine it closely for jumpers that control the multiplyer.

A 150 could be made to do 200, or a 166 could do 233, for example.
 
Its a gateway 2000 machine i dont know the name of the board but im running at 233Mhz with 144mb of ram (dimms).
 
If you have your Mobo manual, or other literature, you can usually find someplace in it that will tell you if it has a jumper free mode or not. On my ASUS, all I have to do is click a few switches over and then its in jumper free mode. Dont do me a lot of good since my CPU is a PIII, but at least the Mobo has the option. You can also check the multiplier by going into the BIOS, usually you can find info on what the clock speed is and stuff like that. If you know your way around a BIOS, it should be very tuff. If a BIOS is new territory, read up on your Mobo and try to acquire as much knowladge as you can about it. Good luck.
 
Hmm, gateway, not very OCing friendly. Neither are Dells or Compaqs, or HPs, or any of those big brand name machines, hehe. They want you to come and buy and knew one when you want more power. But since you do have an older machine, you could probably OC it a little bit with minimal fuss. Just look around at the info on your hardware and then look around the BIOS and see what you can play with. Untill you are sure with what you are doing, just exit without saving and you wont cause any harm. Good luck
 
I dont have the manual the board says 3.0(highest) and 66Mhz(highest) which = 200Mhz but i read on the board that it can go to 233Mhz if the settings were 1.5 and 66Mhz so it runs at 233Mhz some how
 
Back