decisions,decisions

[ad_rach]

I am using an xp2000 (palomino) on an albatron kx400+ (kt333) motherboard with 512Mb DDR266.I was planning on overclocking the cpu by unlocking the multiplier, since i have tried oc'ing the fsb and it was very unstable.However, albatron have told me that if i do so,only mulipliers 5-12.5x will be available to me.They said that 13-24x are available, but only on processors with a default above 13x.I still want to overclock though. I know i don't even vaguely need to but i can never stay at one level of performance for more than a couple of months without getting restless.
What do you think i should do:
a)get an nforce 2 mobo so i can oc the fsb stably?
b)get an xp 2100 or higher so i can increase the multiplier?
c)something else?
I want to do this at the lowest expense and be able to sell whatever i am getting rid of on ebay-it's all no older than november 2002.The other thing is, if i get an nforce 2 mobo, i would want to take advantage of dual channel ddr, so i would have to get new ram too.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[StarkMjolk]

I believe A or C is best for you, if you only try to oc by increesing the multiplyer, you will be able to go some way, but not too far. The best way to overclock is to lower the multiplyer, and increese the FSB alot. That will get the best out of the system. Normally.
But then as you said, you are using DDR266, and if you overclock the FSB, the memory might go unstalbe. Hard to say, depends on how good the memory is. So perhaps the reason you got unstable results while ocing the FSB wasn't the mobo, but some other component? graphics card? memory? Would also be useful to know what cooling you use, and your temp right now. If your components can handle the FSB oc, you should try to go for that.
I can't gaurantee any success in only overclocking the multiplyer, but if the other components can't handle the FSB overclock, perhaps that is the best.
Sorry I didn't have a straight awnser

 

[ad_rach]

cooling should be no problem- i am using a volcano 7+ and have an exhaust fan etc. so temperatures are low- around 35 degrees cpu and 30 degrees system.memory is probably the problem- it is generic, although when i bought it they said 'major brand' but i can't tell what it is.graphics card is a sapphire radeon 9000 and i have a pci LAN card.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[StarkMjolk]

Ok. Then perhaps it is the memory.

Anyways, as I said, just overclocking the multiplyer will not give you any special results, when i tried it on my 2400+ on asus a7n8x, succeeded with a 1.5 increse, from 15 to 16.5, got a 200mhz overclock. And that is with a big watercooler rig. So I don't know if you are supposed to expect so much more from pure multiplyer overclocking.

I believe if your components can handle it, I believe FSB overclocking is much better. Do you know if you can lock AGP/PCI on your motherboard? and memory speed? I have no experience of that motherboard myself... It is allways better to have them synced, but if that doesen't work, you could try to lock them on lower speeds and only overclock the CPU. perhaps it would be better than multiplyer overclocking...