hi

asus a7n8x deluxe
athlon 1800+ t'bred
2 x 256mb corsair xms2700 cl2
asus v9180 vs mx440 video
wd 80gb 8mb cache hard drive

i've read numerous posts on this and other sites regarding multipliers and front side bus settings, but i just want to be sure before i play around with it.

i don't really want to overclock the cpu as such, just take full advantage of the memory. the current fsb is 133 with the memory in sync with this. multiplier is 11.5. since the memory can run at 166, i was wondering if i could raise the cpu fsb to 166 with the memory in sync and drop the multiplier to 9.5. this would result in a clock speed of about 1.58ghz, compared with the current 1.53ghz (which i guess would make it slightly overclocked). would this work and would i need to upgrade cooling? i just have the standard fan at present. also, are there any particular problems that could be created by doing this?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

many thanks
damon

that would be nearly impossible if you do not unlock your athlon xp.
if you just set your fsb to 166 without unlocking, you are most likely going to damage your hardware, its possible. I have done it..
the safe fsb i can reach on my athlon xp 1800+ is 143, perfectly stable, don't need to raise the vcore or mutipler

Your cpu is very likely not locked. Your motherboard age suggests you have a tbred 1800+ which is not locked and is very overclockable. This will tell you.

http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/apps/GCPUID16.6.zip

Your plan is fine and should work. Make a note of your temps.

Then try inching that multiplier back up to 11.5. There is zero chance of damaging hardware if you watch your temps and take it slow and you have a tbred and you leave voltage alone.

The above poster surely had a palomino if he thinks your cpu is locked. And yes a sudden jump from 133 to 166 can result in damaged goods. That's very different then taking it 6mhz at a time or 0.5 multiplier at a time.

No additional cooling will be needed. Expect a 0C-2C cpu temp increase if you oc to a 2100+

thanks to you both for your replies!

i used that program and, johnoh, you are right, it says that it is a thoroughbred 'A', model 8.

>And yes a sudden jump from 133 to 166
>can result in damaged goods. That's very different then >taking it 6mhz at a time or >0.5 multiplier at a time.

are you referring here to my original plan of dropping the multiplier to 9.5 and upping the fsb to 166, or to your suggestion of gradually increasing the multiplier back up to 11.5 once i have done so. i was originally just planning on doing a straight jump from 133 to 166 whilst dropping the multiplier to 9.5.

also, which would be more accurate for temperatures? there is about a 15 degree difference between the asus probe (currently says cpu temp of 33 deg celsius) and my bios.

thanks again
damon

I'd take more notice of the bios.

"are you referring here to my original plan"

no just referring to the guy who implied that 166 was a bad thing because when he jumped from 133 to 166 all at once he regretted it. Your situation is different, but I would still recommend not increasing the fsb in anything but small bites even after lowering the multiplier, at least initially.

The asus probes are often way high. But you can't just go by bios because your machine has three states, windows loaded, windows idling, and bios idling, in decreasing temp order. The last state produces the lowest temps. Try reading through these a7n8x posts. Lots of people with bogus temp numbers on your board.

http://www.livewiredev.com/bbs/search.php?s=30b8d9be343f0a26e2ff017130aacd0e&action=showresults&searchid=44984&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

i tried dropping the multiplier to 9.5 and set the fsb at 143 and then rebooted. it stopped after the memory test with the message "warning! cpu overspeed!", even though those settings would make it "underspeed". funny thing is, if i adjust the fsb, but leave the multiplier setting on auto it will boot properly, but it doesn't actually lower the multiplier automatically, so in this case it is "overspeed".

i read some posts that suggest that this could mean that the processor has not been unlocked (actually, they say that the processor is still locked, it's just that some motherboards, supposedly including the a7n8x, can automatically unlock thoroughbred cpu's). they also suggested turning off the "halt on all errors" field in the bios to prevent it from halting the boot process. haven't tried this yet in case there is a problem.

is there any way to truly tell if the processor has been unlocked? i would have thought that if the bios allows you to change the multipliers then it should be?

thanks
damon

if its a tbred its unlocked

but some boards will not have access to all tbred multipliers unless a physical mod is made to the cpu bridges. This is incorrectly called "unlocking" since if the mobo knew how, all multipliers would be accessible.

nforce2 and kt400 boards do have access to all mutlipliers on tbreds

hello again

i turned off the 'halt on all errors" and tried dropping the multiplier to 9.5 and raising the fsb to 143 mhz, but when i ran mbm5, sandra and gcpuid they all showed the cpu speed as 1644mhz, so it appears that the multiplier didn't change from 11.5.

can you think of why this happened? i set the appropriate bios controls to user defined.

thanks
damon