hi all, I have an Athlon xp 2000+ on a ECS-K7S5A Pro. and I put together an athlon xp2600+ system on a ECS-K7VTA3 for a friend. Both have 512 of 3200 RAM (400) Temps are ok-low (they're under 40C, that's fairly good, right?) I want to overclock them...I've been accumulating information but haven't really had the time to sit down to it yet...I had a minute the other day and tried to jump mine from 133 to 166 fsb. The system went blank on startup, nothing, not even able to get into the bios program to change it back. Had to manually clear CMOS. I'm gonna get a chance to work on them soon and I wanted to seek some last minute advice before I begin. Everything is appreciated and nothing is too elementary. If anyone has a spare minute, and the desire, I'd appreciate it. Thanks, C.

You'll have to lower your multiplier to keep the CPU speed close to it's default speed...that should get you to boot up...then you can experiment from there. For instance, your 2000+ runs at 1667mhz (12.5 x 133mhz/266DDR FSB)...if you just raise the FSB to 166 without touching the mutiplier, you'd be clocking at 2083mhz...that's quite a jump in one shot (25% increase). You should lower the multiplier to 10 & raise the FSB to 166mhz, that would clock you at 1667mhz & your system "should" boot...then you can play around from there...try it at 10.5x, 11.0x, etc & see what you can get out of it.

Thanks Jam, I just tried CPUCool to manipulate via software. That seems to be working great. I would like to ask two questions though: 1-Is a software OC as good (essentially equal to) a more physical bios oc? (if they're not, aside from one being after the fact, is there a drawback to the software method?) 2-I understand that the only way to change the multiplier in my situation is by physically altering the cpu (because my m.b. is set to cpu-configured multiplier). Is that worth it for me to do if I can just use the software o.c.? note: without any difficulty I brought the cpu core to 2083.4 MHz (166.6 x12.5) This is assuming that the software readout is an accurate depiction of an actual increase.

Sorry, I've read a lot about that board but have never worked with one...I didn't realize that you can't change the multiplier. The ECS-K7S5A was (& still is) very popular, & there are 3rd party overclocking BIOS's that are available...Cheepoman is one, another is called Honey X. Here's some links that might help: http://www.lejabeach.com/ECS/ez.html http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/ecs/k7s5abios/cheepobios.htm http://www.page.sannet.ne.jp/k-hazama/setfsb/k7s5a/list-k7s5a.htm

That's cool, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. What about my first question: How does a software o.c. (like CPUCool) compare to an OC done off the bios (like with Honey)? And is the software version an accurate reflection of actual performance> Either your own experience or what you've heard is cool. Thanks. C

I've never had to use any of the software OC'ing programs...but as far as I know, they work. If you're in doubt, download CPUZ & see what it tells you. It'll give you all sorts of info about your configuration...including CPU clock speed, multiplier, FSB, voltage, motherboard, etc. Here's the download site... http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

I checked CPUCool against CPUZ and they say the same thing...thanks. -C