AMD slot a overclock

[OCn00b]

Ok, the comp in my sig is an old slot a. It runs 100% stable at 950Mhz but anything above that and it won't even attempt to post and i get an error displayed on screen. I've talked to a few people that have slot a amd's and it seems they've only been able to get 150Mhz extra also. Is this typical of the old amd's or could I get a little more out of a different board maybe. The board it's on now is a Jabil-Kadoka that Gateway(these people suck) uses, so I can't oc the fsb at all. I know with it being a slot a, it's not really going to be worth going out and spending alot of money for some newer stuff but once my new one is finished, this will be a folding rig so I'd like to get as much out of it as I possibly can. Thanks for the help.

 

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

Uh Ok, look in the "cpu database" from O.C.'s main page, and look up your model cpu and see for yourself how well it does on average...sometimes they (the posters) will tell the tricks or follies they went thru to get where they are, and it can be quite usefull in deciding how to go about a paticular overclock.
You might also check out a prog called "softfsb" to get around the bus limitations.
Hope this helps

 

[OCn00b]

I've looked in the database before, which i should have done again before posting, but none specify slot a. Are all the old TBird 800's slot a's? Also, softfsb doesn't recognize my motherboard.

 

[quegyboe]

Do you have a gfd, (Gold Finger Device)? I remember hearing about these things, they could unlock the CPU and allow for multi changes on slot A athlons....

 

[pltguy]

break open the black plastic case and see what core u have,my old 750 slot bird had a 950 core that i soldered to 1 gig at 1.85,also u can use CPUcool to overclock with,it will change the cache from 1/2 to 1/3 , also mount the coller straight to the core.

 

[OCn00b]

Yes, i've got a GFD right now but it won't let me set the multiplier to 10. Well, I can set it to 10 but then when I hit the power, all i get is an error.

To check my core, i'll have to take the fan off of it again won't I? If so I might just wait till saturday to do that. Also, my L2 cache is running at the same frequency as my core. Is it only supposed to be half or a third?

 

[SickBoy]

TBirds in slot A were produced mostly for OEM's, some of them made it to the aftermarket though.

Most TBird's are socket A.

 

[The Coolest]

The slot a tbirds are the same core as the socket a tbirds, so you have the same amount of L2 as the regular tbird has and its on die, that's why its running full speed. the older Slot A Athlons had their cache running slower than the cpu.
Did u try to up the voltage a little? Also what are your temps?

 

[OCn00b]

My voltage right now is 1.85(1.9 and 1.95 won't boot either and anything under 1.85 is unstable). Also, I have no way to check the temps on this one, the cpu feels warm but far from being hot.

 

[smudged]

I manged to get a slot a 900 t-bird from Ebay which does what is in my sig with no sweat, I suspect that you have more than one stick of RAM to get that many MB's. Maybe that is a limiting factor....maybe not, have you tried lowering the multi with your GFD and raising the FSB. If it still crashes at the same overall MHz speed then it's the cpu, if you get less speed it's something on the FSB like the RAM or a PCI ar AGP card.

I was pretty lucky I think. Nobody seems to know that much about slot A's any more so I am not sure how well I did.

 

[OCn00b]

Smudged, i can't raise my fsb, my motherboard is horrible and i can't find any programs that work for it. Also, how are you pretty lucky?

 

[smudged]

Well, the system started out as a 600 MHz slot A athlon. When I saw the advert for the T-Bird on ebay I went straight for it.

After I got the chip and I started to hang around these formus I discovered that not all slot A mobo's would run a T-Bird. So that was my first and second bit of luck really. Getting the chip (which was only meant to be OEM with new setups) and it actually working at all.

I was also lucky that the manufacturer had used a half decent mobo which allowed me to mess with the FSB and the core voltage.

Are you saying that your BIOS will not allow you to change the 'CPU frequency' at all? ie is there no option to do so or that you can but if you do it causes problems?

 

[OCn00b]

Nope, I have no option in the bios to change the frequency or fsb. Like I said, this motherboard is horrible. I'd like to get a new one but apparently my luck with setting a motherboard up is worse than the board i've got now so I'll probably end up having to leave it like it is

 

[smudged]

Keep looking dude check ebay etc all the time someone will want to get rid of an old mobo sooner or later.

Also have you tought avout upgrading the mobo+cpu+memory?

You have got the beginnings of a good rig there, send a few pounds, sorry dollars and you could be flying high.

 

[OCn00b]

I've thought about it alot but my history of setting up motherboards sucks so i'm not too sure I want to spend much money til I can get the other boards I've got now working. I've got an old board for a celeron 400 that I never could get to work and now I've got a dual P3 board that I can't get to work so I'm pretty frustrated at the moment. I think I'll try to find somebody around here that can look at my boards and see what I'm doing wrong with them. Unfortunately I think I'm going to be reduced to buying pre-made comps for a while

 

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

Check out www.tigerdirect.com I seem to remember that they were just selling slot A mobo's with an 800, or 900 athlon, and they would probably sell just the mobo if you want....I just can't remember what brand of mobo it was.
Look in the clasifieds section of this forum, or even post a request for someone to "offer" you one for the right price.
Like Smudged said, someones always getting rid of old mobo's somewhere.
Good luck

 

[juliendogg]

you can't count on more than that out of that chip, even with another mobo. it may go a little further, it may not. alot of the earlier slot k7's topped out around 900. i had a "classic" slot a 650. cracked it up and soldered like pltguy said. i ended up trying just about every multi i could, my board topped out @ 110 and the chip was stable @ 990. pretty kewl. all i'm thinkin, is if it's not a fsb issue, you've tried different voltages, and it will boot @ multi 9.5 but not 10, you've probably hit the chips limit.

 

[Skiing Squirrel]

Wait, how are you overclocking your jabil? I have a slot 850 on a jabil (gateway) and how did you do this?

 

[OCn00b]

Wait, how are you overclocking your jabil? I have a slot 850 on a jabil (gateway) and how did you do this?

I'm using a GFD, it's the only way I know how to overclock these boards.

Juliendogg, I don't know if raising the fsb will help or not. This board does not allow for adjusting the fsb. That's why I want a different board, to see if i can raise the fsb and get a little more out of this chip.

 

[The Coolest]

You can try and get a program like SoftFSB or something and try to squeze more FSB out of it this way, I think that the GFDs let the CPUs go to like 1100MHz (if the chip itself could), so I think all you will gain is maybe a few dozen of MHz which won't give you much at all. I'd just save the cash and get SoftFSB first to see what is the top speed of the chip.