Speeding up a Barton 3200+ 400 FSB

[RichardJSampson]

Hello friends,

I just got an MSI mobo with the VIA KT600 chipset, because my friend just got a new computer and gave me his old AthlonXP Barton 3200+, with the 400Mhz FSB (He had a crappy OEM mobo, so the $50 board and free Barton was quite a bargain!). I have 1 GB of Kingston DDR400 RAM.

So how fast can I go? The new Barton is multiplier locked, but from what I understand, it can be made into an MP and cutting one of the L5 bridges would unlock the multipliers (or something like that -- I printed it out somewhere and can't find it right now). The board can go up to 480 MHz FSB, and I'm wondering how far I can take my new Barton.

I hear that multipliers must be changed via a software tweak as there's no way to do it in the BIOS. Is this the case? Also, how much faster than 400MHz can the memory safely go? Anyone with some experience with Overclocking a 400MHz FSB Barton?

Thanks for the help and don't get too hammered tonight!

 

[Decker87]

First of all, the barton's actual FSB will be 200, not 400. So if you only have DDR400/200mhz RAM, upping the FSB at all will be OC'ing your ram too. So you might want to stick with the multiplier, or you might not. I don't know of any software that can change the multiplier...where did you hear that? How far you can go depends almost completely on cooling, which you didn't mention at all. What kind of heatsink and fan do you have?

 

[addiarmadar]

You are alrady at a snagg here. Your ram is rated for only 200 and the barton's stock is 200. Upping the FSB of the CPU is the Up the FSB of the ram and Id would not recomend going past the rating of RAM.

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>

 

[RichardJSampson]

Decker, take a look at the following link regarding changing multipliers through Windows. Apparently, someone has developed a tweak to do this, and from what I could gather, this is the only way to unlock the latest Barton dies as they all come factory-locked internally.

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2004/guides/unlockwk43update/ocw_unlocking_xp39+.html

As for cooling, great question and I have not invested in a new cooler just yet. There's a very old DragonOrb III from my Coppermine days ArcticSilvered on the chip right now, just to allow me to run the system, since it's the only thing I had lying around that would fit Socket A and it's a pretty good chuck of Copper.

I am not interested in water-cooling, and I want a cooler that's inexpensive (first priority), highly effective (a close second), and quiet (would be nice!). I am currently looking at some of Vantec's products, but let me hear what you all have to recommend.

Thanks for your help!

 

[addiarmadar]

Yeah thats a good article on unlocking the new bartons. Just remember by bridging the L5 cache will make it look like a mobile barton but will most definately RUN as good as the real thing.

The article did mention the speedstep software but I would forget such a thing and just manually set teh FSB and multiplier in the BIOS for getting that software to work of desktop machine is no walk in the park.

To OC the chip on air you will need to use cooper HSF for alluminum just wont get the heat off fast enough. For the air cooling solutions I have always looked into thermalright products, the slk900u, slk947u, or SP97. Now these coolers and a good chunk of copper but dont come with a fan so you will have to buy that seperately. For saying that I would recomend the enermax 92mm fan. If you plan on some serious Ocing on air or just cant get the temps dont good enough then time to get the tornado 92mm fan. That SOB will put out a TON of cfm but at the cost of noise. Really the thermalright copper coolers are the next best thing to water cooling and as a matter of fact better then some stock water cooling kits out there.

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>

 

[addiarmadar]

Of course its possible, with the the tornado fan added and not living in a hot area.

Either way there is no guarantee that his specific chip can do that high. Desktop barton going over 2.4ghz is really luck and even at that speed the vcore is usually 1.9-2v. I have a Danger Den Water block kit which I used to use on the desktop versions alot but just went back to air when I used the mobiles.

Just keep upping it till it start to tank and there will be your cap buddy but make sure the temps done go over 60c

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>

 

[RichardJSampson]

For the record, I will be building an A64 platform as soon as I can afford it, but I'm hurtin' bad for cash right now. So before you tell me to wait until I get the new system to try OCing, are there any conventional cooling solutions including both Heatsink and the fan for under $40? I'd love a pretty new Thermalright HS, but it's just a few bucks too expensive. I'm looking at something along the lines of a Volcano 12 (but am hesitant about that particular cooler, as I've found Thermaltake to have more aesthetic value than performance).