Overclocking Duron?!

Most can overclock them about 250-270MHz at a 124MHz FSB. Some Durons can do a 133MHz FSB and above, make sure you get an XP-stepping, if you want to overclock. Look for the 4.th and 3.rd last letters in the second line of the product code (should be either MP or XP).

I did'nt overclock my Duron Morgan 1000 ( AHHAA, no sign of any XP or MP in the OPN or Date Code... ). I'm currently running it with a 133 MHz FSB ( with a 7.5 multiplier, unlocked with a 4B pencil ! ) on a A7V333-RAID and I UNDER volted it to 1.375 v !

Once I get some good PC2700 memory, i'll try to run it on a 166 MHz FSB ( can't wait to see the benchmarks ! ). For all those reason, I belive the Duron is a really good processor !

Fok Speling Misstake

Thank you guys! Your messages were very helpful.
And which cheap mobo could you recommend me?

I recommend the ASUS A7V333-RAID, it got a lot of potential, IEEE-1394 Firewire, a RAID chip from Promise, good onboard sound ( which you can disable if you got a better sound card ) COP ( Core Overheat Protection ) that can save your CPU life, Q-FAN which control the voltage fed to the fan to keep it quiet when the core is under 50 C and the board is supposed to support a FSB as high as 230 MHz.

I'm sure your friend won't need all those option when he will build his initial machine but I'm sure he won't regret having bought an A7V333-RAID in 2 years from now, Socket A is a long way from being a dying platform if I belive AMD roadmap.

P.S. Just make sure he NEVER flash his BIOS with anything else than a boot floppy with AFLASH.EXE ! Asus provide a Windows utility that is SUPPOSED to flash the BIOS in Windows environement, I tried it and it ruined my board BIOS !

I had to return my first A7V333 board because of that ( it was the non RAID version ), the local computer store ( LCI in Montréal ) accepted to replace it and gave me an A7V333-RAID instead...

I was lucky, so don't take any chances and flash that board the good 'ol fashioned way !

P.P.S. I had an other problem flashing the BIOS with my current board ( Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa ! I stepped on the powerbar ON/OFF button while it was in the process of flashing the BIOS, I know, that was stupid... ).

I first panicked then tried to find a way of getting a second try, and I did find a way ! Just move the ROMSIP jumper to 2-3 Et Voilà !

The computer will boot with very limited functions, no access to BIOS or IDE devices and some keyboard buttons will be messed up, it will only boot from a floppy. Just insert a "clean" ( no CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT ) bootable floppy with AFLASH.EXE and a flash file ( AV333xx.AWD )and try again...

I can't guarentee this last trick will work all in any situation ( I chickened out at the tought of flashing the BIOS with a .BMP file to find out ) but it worked for me and save me a lot of loonies and a whole lot of trouble...



Fok Speling Misstake

You're right on this one, I just finished building a system for a friend based on a A7V333-RAID.

I unlocked his Duron 1200 MHz and it's doing just fine, under volted it to 1.425, running on a 166 FSB ( x7 ), in synch with 256 Mb of Samsung PC2700 memory. The Duron Morgan is a really an amazing core !


Fok Speling Misstake