Resume: Money Saved - Significant Performance Increase
The WCPUID tools demonstrates the successful change of the multiplier: The multiplier of the Duron 700 was set from "7" to "9". Because the tool takes into account AMD's DDR technology, it displays only half the value for the FSB clock rate and the multiplier.
To sum it up: This modification of the Asus A7V bypasses the multiplier lock in all AMD processors. Therefore it allows getting a significantly higher performance from a more affordable processor without overclocking the Front Side Bus. The example of our Duron 700 running at 900 MHz (multiplier increased from 7 to 9) shows how much the performance of AMD's Duron and Thunderbird processors can be increased. On top of that the user saves a lot of money, and the Duron 900 (to relate to our example) is not even available on the market yet. Regarding the modifications on the motherboard we want to point out the following: The necessary components cost less than 3 Dollars. You will need some soldering skill to do the intricate soldering correctly. Otherwise the motherboard could be destroyed, while also losing the warranty for it.
Last but not least: AMDs multiplier protection is cracked. Intel's solution with the integrated SRAM registers on the CPU core remains a challenge. Still, while it is hardly possible to overclock any of the AMD processors by increasing the Front Side Bus clock, this method is quite feasible for Intel's Celeron and many Pentium III CPUs.
