Behind The Silicon Curtain: Exclusive Test Of The P4/2666 With 533 MHz Rambus

How To Get More Voltage For The P4

Overclocking par excellence: 1.88 Volt through modification of the voltage regulator.

The voltage regulator module of the Abit TH7 II. Pin 7 is grounded with a pull down resistor - this enables higher voltages of up to 2.05 Volt.

The grounded cable.

In order to overclock the latest Pentium 4, the CPU core voltage needs to be significantly increased. All P4s with the Northwood core are factory-set to 1.5 Volt - but this is not enough for a big increase in clock speed. Most of the motherboards allow for voltage adjustment between 1.05 Volt and 1.65 Volt maximum - the absolute limit lies at 1.85 Volt.

Still, the BIOS can be misleading with voltage increases: after setting the voltage to 1.85 Volt, only 1.65 Volt is indicated. The reason for this is that Intel has set guidelines for motherboard manufacturers to limit the maximum core voltage. We'll show you how to modify the voltage regulator chip through resistance, using the Abit TH7 II as an example. For this, the seventh pin of the module was grounded (15 to 20 kilo Ohms). Our images show you the details.

A serial connection of resistors for various core voltages of the Pentium 4.

A close-up of the regulator module.