overclocking mobile AthlonXP - noob help.

[dodecahedron]

hi.
looking for some help.

my current setup:
CPU - Athlon Thunderbird 1400MHz
mobo - Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev 1.04
memory - Kingston ValueRAM 2x256MB KVR266X64C25/256 (yeah right PC2100 memory).

i'm thinking of getting a mobile AthlonXP to replace the 1.4 Athlon, thinking of maybe a mobile XP 2600+, and overclocking it.
i've no expectations from the memory, so i'll probably try to keep the FSB at 133 and overclock just with the multiplyer.
possibly buy another stick of 512MB memory (speed not an issue since i will be limited by the slow old memory).

questions:
1. is this realistic? can i assume that i will be able to overclock in the manner described ?
(i understand that there's a certain amount of luck involved - what chip i get).

2. are there any special issues with using a mobile XP in a desktop computer? or is everything cool providing the mobo recognizes the CPU?
are there any special issues with using a mobile XP on my A7N8X-Deluxe motherboard?

if anyone's got a link to an article like "how to overclock a mobile Athlon XP" i would appreciate it, searched a bit, and read some in this forum, but didn't find anything of the kind. i don't know if there's anything special about overclocking a mobile XP, like i said i'm a noob to overclocking!

3. what's the current king of TIM? Arctic Silver 5 ? AS Ceramique ? AS Alumina ?
(i guess you can see from my questions that it's a long time since i spent any time reading about overclocking LOL)

4. any recommendations for a really good heatsink for a socket-A CPU?
i'm thinking of the Thermalright SI-97.


any other comments or opinions appreciated.
TIA

 

[brazzmunk]

yeah i'm in the middle of the same delema, i have the same motherboard as you do
but this is outside your topic. Have you gotten your 3com lan to work? I tried everything and it still litst as unknown device and won't accept drivers

 

[Lonyo]

You might be limited in what you can do.
I have an Abit NF7 and it allows use of basically all multipliers with a nobilechip, but not all motherboards do.
Your main problem might be a lack of multiplier options if you do want to try and overclock.
You can easily hit decent speeds with mobile chips though, I have a 2500+ Barton running at 2400MHz (200x12).
But you can definately overclock just using the multiplier, as long as the motherboard lets you use all multipliers (that would be my main worry, I don't know what your mobo will be like).

 

[Quentin]

Lonyo is right, the A7N8X will only give lower multipliers with a mobile (5-12.5). You will need to do a pin mod or wire trick to access 13-20. You'll probably want 15 or 16 depending on how well your components work together.

 

[dodecahedron]

thanks guys.
Quentin: are these mods difficult for a beginner?
do you have a link to an article or a forum topic that explains how to do it?
(or is it general knowlege? or is it very commonly discussed and searching the forum will help?)

@brazzmunk:
i installed the drivers from the CD that came with the motherboard, and the 3Com lan has worked just fine from the start.
actually, that's the one i'm using, not the other one.

 

[Quentin]

Well, it's really not for the beginner but here's one website (German): http://ocinside.de/index_d.html and if you search more you'll find it - as it is common.

Click on Workshop (the icon with the red W on the left) then select:
Interaktive Pin-Mod Anleitung für Athlon XP, T-Bred und Barton CPUs

I would much rather have PC3200 RAM (or see if yours will overclock to 166). The problem is to get to 2200MHz or above you need a high FSB or high multiplier. 2200 divided by 133 equals a multiplier of about 16.5 but divided by 166 about 13. If you could get to 176 then you could use your highest multiplier of 12.5 without a wire trick. I've gotten my FSB up to 218 and with an 11 multiplier am up to 2.4GHz.

 

[dodecahedron]

thanks Quentin.
you're right, BIOS gives me only up to 12.5x oh well.
i would really like to tinker with things, but i don't have the time for it.
so i'll give up the idea of overclocking a mobileXP.
maybe i'll just try to overclock my Athlon Tbird a bit (for some reason it appears to be unlocked!) and wait until i can upgrade to an Athlon64.
thanks again.

 

[TheStu]

OCing your Tbird might be your best bet... At the RAM speed you are running you wont be able to get much higher than what you are running at anyway, and therefore not get much of a difference.