Overclocking a Barton 3000+

[josh609]

So I went into the Bios yesterday, I noticed I could change the FSB, Multiplier, and voltage setting on my ASUS A7V8X. So I decided, what the hay, why not overclock. So I upped the Multi from 13.0 to 13.5, and increased the FSB from 166.6-167Mhz. I saved and restarted settings, and booted into windows, and according to CPU-Z, only my FSB was changed not my multiplier. I then restarted, went back into he bios, I looked and saw that my multiplier was still at 13.5 just like it was set to when I restarted. I then just gave up, and set everything back to default where my multi is at 13 and FSB is 166.6. Any thoughts on what i could of done wrong?

One other thing. My voltage is at 1.744 right now, is that fine?

 

[imported_Kiwi]

I have had three or four XP Barton core cpu's. All but the XP-M had locked Multipliers. Makes no difference what you do in the BIOS in that regard. I have an Asus MB with a 400 MHz FSB version of the XP 3000 that is running at 420, I believe, might be 430 MHz, using some HyperX 500 RAM. Mine is in an A7N8X-X, so I just have the one 512 MB DIMM in it (no dual channel in the -X).

I've also had a couple of Thoroughbred XP's, one -A & one -B. Both had unlocked multipliers from the factory (one 1700+, one 2200+).

 

[Mogadon]

Yep, all post week 39 Bartons are locked, I was lucky and got a pre week 39 one.

 

[josh609]

Originally posted by: Mogadon
Yep, all post week 39 Bartons are locked, I was lucky and got a pre week 39 one.

Sad for me. Well anywho, i was able to up the FSB from 166 to 170Mhz. Everything seems fine, my barton is now running at 2.21Ghz. I have Kingston Value Ram 2700 512MB x 3 @ 1.5GB (1.5GB of ram counting all 3 slots). How much higher do you think it is possible to up the FSB?

 

[Mogadon]

The only to find out is by testing it.

 

[TrevorRC]

Pencil mod?

 

[Greenman]

It should go to 200, most do.

 

[DJExoddus]

Originally posted by: TrevorRC
Pencil mod?

Pencil mod is a good thing for overclocking XPs as long as you unlock the multi too. too bad pencil just doesn't cut it, need to find something more permanent.

 

[josh609]

Originally posted by: Greenman
It should go to 200, most do.

even with 3 512MB sticks of DDR 2700?

 

[Mogadon]

Originally posted by: josh609

Originally posted by: Greenman
It should go to 200, most do.

even with 3 512MB sticks of DDR 2700?

Possibly, probably not, only one way to find out ...

I'm under the impression they are totally locked but I have seen stuff online regarding pin mods to unlock them.

 

[selfbuilt]

Originally posted by: josh609
So I went into the Bios yesterday, I noticed I could change the FSB, Multiplier, and voltage setting on my ASUS A7V8X.

What BIOS version are you running? My old (unlocked) barton 2500+ is sitting in my son's A7V8X, and I don't have an option to run the fsb above 166 ("333" in the bios). For that matter, I don't recall being able to go above the 12.5 multi on that board, but I'll need to double-check that. Sure would love to crank it up further, because I'm sure it can do more (i.e. another barton I had would do 12.5x200 in my A7N8X, with sufficient volts).

EDIT: ah, found it. I was being fooled by the mem setting ("333") - but now I see you can increase the fsb and it will adjust the mem up as well and remain sync. Unfortunately for every 4-5MHz you increase the fsb, it insists on upping the PCI/AGP freq by 1MHz ... so, 167/33, 172Mhz/34, etc. (don't plan to go past 34 myself). In any case, I was surprised to find I can go up to 13x multi ... my A7N8X reverts to 5x if you go past 12.5X multi, and I never thought to push the A7V8X. Chalk one up for VIA on that front ... thanks for the post.