O/C'ing my Duron/Morgan

[BrettJRob]

(This is a follow-up thread to my "Lots of Unlocking Info Needed" one)

I finally unlocked my Duron 1.2GHz CPU last night, and now have free reign to change the multiplier. I'm trying to decide what settings I want to leave my system at for good right now. Here's what I have:

I've tested 105*12.5 = 1313MHz with memory at CL2, which was very stable, temperatures of 44C idle, 51C load.

The other spec I've had luck with is 133*9 = 1200MHz with memory at CL2.5. With this setting I have 44C idle, 52C load. I could try pushing up the multiplier to 9.5 and seeing how it runs at 1266/133, but I'd rather not damage the CPU.

Voltage has remained at 1.725 (default is 1.75) throughout.

So, based on the two settings I've tested, which will give me better overall system performance? I know I could get a 110+MHz gain in CPU speed by using the slower FSB setting, but maybe that 33MHz (66MHzDDR) increase in memory speed is more significant. Any advice?

 

[SidVicious]

I unlocked my friend's Duron Morgan 1200 AHLCA, running it @ 166 x 7.0 on a A7V333-RAID with PC2700 CL2.5, resulting in a slight 40MHz underclock but the additional bandwidth more than compensate for the lost MHz. I even undervolted the CPU to 1.45V and it's fully stable, cooled by a Volcano 7 with an AS2 interface. I suggest you use the highest FSB, a memory overvolt might be needed to run it @ CL2 . Keep experimenting and you'll find the perfect sweet spot.

I suggest using PRIME95 to measure both stability and performance, the benchmark results are time based so lower numbers = better performances. PRIME95 is a small program that use distributed computing to find huge prime numbers, it really stress the CPU and return benchmark scores and reports stability errors after a 30-60 seconds delay. It's more time effective than using MadOnions.com 12 minutes benches. Just make sure you check Athlon in the Option/CPU menu and assign a priority of 10 to PRIME95 in the Advanced/Priority menu. To have access to the Advanced menu, enter 9876 in the Advanced Password dialog box.


Fok Speling Misstake

 

[BrettJRob]

The problem with a 166MHz FSB is that I only have PC2100 RAM. Also, what setting would you use for CPU:MEMCI then? Even at 4:4:1, a 166MHz FSB would then yield a 42MHz PCI bus, which could damage my cards I assume.

Anyway, I am having good luck right now and have been running at 107*12.5 = 1.34GHz. Of course I'd love to use any setting that would give me better performance than that and still wouldn't risk damaging anything. Since I've heard that Durons generally don't go above 1.35 or 1.4GHz, I guess I shouldn't be looking for any higher clock speeds than I'm at now, but rather better FSB speeds. I would try something more like 110*12 or 115*11.5, but I'm afraid the FSB running that much higher than default would damage my PCI cards.

I think I have to mention that I am only using the <b>retail/stock HSF</b> with Arctic Silver 3. Right now, my idle temperature is 45C, and load is somewhere in the low 50s. My motherboard, again, is ABIT KG7 (AMD760 chipset).

As for the voltage, I can't believe you were able to set a 166MHz FSB and only use 1.45. As a matter of fact, I tried 133*9.5 = 1266MHz today, and within a minute of booting up the system suddenly rebooted. This with a voltage of 1.725!