"Dale said:
Yes, but you memory better be able to keep up. You'll need to tweak both
memory and CPU voltage, in addtion to keeping an eye on CPU temps. I had
mine up to 180 MHz, but beyond that it was not stable. Others run this board
at 200MHz and beyond.
The 2800+ is 2083MHz core and 166MHz bus. The AthlonXPs are
locked, unless perhaps it is possible to change the bridges
and make a mobile processor from the thing. It's been a while
since I've read up on such things.
If I had to guess how far it would go, I'd say somewhere around
2200 to 2400MHz. That corresponds to lifting the CPU clock to
175 to 191 MHz. Leaving the CPU:Mem ratio at 1:1 (sync) means
you won't be exceeding the labelled rating of the RAM, which
would be 200MHz. The problem is, if you run dual channel, the
chipset is very picky about RAM at 200MHz. I had some pretty
ordinary RAM, and 180 to 185 was where it was comfortable. The
new RAM I got to replace it (Ballistix) runs at 200MHz (DDR400),
no problem. Depending on how the chipset feels about the RAM
you bought, determines where your fun will stop.
I would think it would be a fairly evenly matched race. Either
your core, or the RAM+chipset, will let you down before you
get all the way to 200MHz.
To check for stability, boot the system using memtest86+ to start.
Do not boot your OS while doing the initial steps of overclocking.
I also find it handy to have a Knoppix Linux read-only CD boot
disk handy, as you cannot corrupt a CD, and Knoppix will boot to
a Linux desktop without the user having to configure anything.
Apps in Linux will crash, and the windows will disappear, if you
overclock too far. Knoppix is a 700MB download (when I got it),
but is better than booting Windows and corrupting the registry
or something. You can disconnect your hard drives while using
Knoppix, and in fact, with the quantity of RAM you've got, there
would actually be room to store the entire CDROM in memory, pop
out the CD, and have Knoppix run complete disk-less (nice and
quiet). Unless you use the "toram" option at the boot prompt,
the CD has to stay in the tray (Unix works that way).
Knoppix also contains a copy of memtest86 on the CD, so one
CD can perform both tests.
http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes
Once you've proved there is a decent level of stability, and have
stopped adjusting clock speed or Vcore voltage setting, then you
can return to Windows and run Prime95. If you cannot run Prime95 for
three or four hours, you've still got the system clocked too high.
Playing a 3D game for a few hours error free, is another step
in proving the machine is completely stable.
The A7N8X-E BIOS has graceful recovery, and in all the experiments
I performed, I think maybe once I had to "clear CMOS". Switching
off and on again, is usually enough to get back into the BIOS. The
reset button on the computer doesn't always work, which means not
all the circuitry on the motherboard is tied to the reset signal.
But the power switch works pretty good for clearing an overclock.
HTH,
Paul
