[mantis69666]

I am planning on replacing my HSF tonight or tomorrow and want to be sure of what bridges should be closed/open so I don't have to keep taking the HSF off.

1. If I understand correctly, I should make sure that all the L1 bridges are connected and that the 1st, 3rd, and 5th L3 bridge are open, right?

2. Which one will give me the high multiplier and which one will give me the low?

3. Is a #2 pencil still sufficient to bridge an open gap I need to bridge?

4. How do I know which pins on the bottom to bridge so I can us a small wire to bridge the jumpers? (Mainly for removeability, seen the "how-to" on tomshardware.com but didn't say which pins for which bridges)

5. Can anyone give a good starting point for OC'ing my PC2700 Crucial Ram?

[Methusela]

The 2800+ Barton chip that you have is already factory unlocked, you just need to change the multiplier in the bios, that is, if your Soyo board allows it. If not, search for a newer (or user-hacked) bios that allows you to change it. I don't know much about Soyo boards, though, so I'm not certain it's possible...

You can hard-code the multiplier with the bridges... but do you really want to do that on a 2800+ barton? I'd rather increase the fsb personally... unless your ram is holding you back severely (which, considering it's crucial pc2700, might be the case).

Hope that helps! Good luck!

Methusela