OC & Modding Overclocking Sempron 2200+

G

guru

Adept
this is my first ever dab at overclocking... so bear with me :)

This is what i have --> Sempron 2200+, A7V400-MX , PC3200/DDR 400 Hynix Ram, 400watt Power Supply. A7V400-MX doesnot support PC3200/DDR 400 ram :blink:
right now its running at FSB is 333 mhz

Steps

1. Set the Jumper the 200mhz setting
jumper settings from this thread http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=42366 thanks to AMD808 for pointing that the Asus manual DSW Switch picture/setting is wrong :[
2. Follow the Unlocking the multi. on the sempron PICS! thread and increase the multiplier

but, wont setting the FSB @ 400mhz and DRAM at 333mhz reduce performance? should i go for a different motherboard with pc3200 support ?
 
Increasing the FSB frm 333 to 400 is a biiiig risk :O avoid it at all costs!!!!!!!

The A7V400-MX doesnt support increasing the FSB...so, bad luck.....
 
@sunmysore so which motherboard do you suggest i buy? i checked there are no socket A mobos that support pc3200 ram atleast as far as i know.[in bangalore]
 
i cant go for nforce option :(
reasons
1. in which case the "pencil trick" for overclocking wont work...
2. too expensive i paid 2700 for the board in SP Road
my best bet is via board capable of pc3200
 
If i'm not mistaken all Athlon XP's are "super-locked" , i.e. even the pencil trick does not unlock the multipliers. Only option for overclocking is increasing the FSB.

With Socket A Via chipset mobos, as you increase the FSB speed the speed of the PCI/AGP bus increases as well and beyond a certain level is harmful for your system (hard disk data corruption, some AGP cards cant handle the higher AGP speeds). Only at the default FSB speeds of 400/333/266/200 are the PCI/AGP speeds at their default speeds. If your Sempron is fully stable at 400Mhz FSB, only then would a Via motherboard be recommended as you can set the FSB to 400Mhz and need not worry about the PCI/AGP bus being outside default speeds. However a huge jump from 333Mhz to 400Mhz is highly doubtful and *may* not work.

If you need PCI/AGP locks (keeping the PCI/AGP bus at the default 33/66Mhz speeds) irrespective of the FSB speed, there's no better option than the nforce2 boards.
You could try the Asus A7n8x-x boards as well, they're stripped down versions of the A7n8x deluxe featuring only a single-channel memory controller. Should not hurt performance much as the Athlon XPs do not benefit much from a dual-channel memory setup. They're available for approx Rs. 3900 in Chennai.

On another note, its not necessary that the board should have official support for 400Mhz DDR RAM. While i'm not too sure about it, Often when the FSB is increased to 400Mhz, the RAM speed too should automatically be raised up in sync with the 400Mhz speed by the motherboard. However its quite true that Athlon XPs work best with the mem speed in sync with FSB speed, so to answer your query, yes FSB at 400Mhz and RAM at 333Mhz would affect performance.

Hope this helps :)
 
thats was some nice info crazy_eddy i'. sorry for the misleading links heres in the link about unlocking a "locked " sempron/Athlon XP http://forums.amd.com/index.php?act=ST&f=29&t=40753 with pictures
yup straight from amd forums.

here is a pic [there are step by step instructions in the link above]:
DVC00039.jpg


Asus [nforce/via] by default locks PCI?AGP speeds so apparently fsb in pretty much independent

On another note, its not necessary that the board should have official support for 400Mhz DDR RAM. While i'm not too sure about it, Often when the FSB is increased to 400Mhz, the RAM speed too should automatically be raised up in sync with the 400Mhz speed by the motherboard
Click to expand...

now that gives me hope.

The reason i'm overclocking is i've read in amd forums that people have overclocked 1.5gig sempron to about 2 gig safely and upto 2.2 gig with a few tweaks.

now if im getting 500-700 mhz increase on this it would be great.

I'm going back to sp road [Bangalore] again tommorow lets see what i can come up with :)
 
Interesting :D :D :D

BTW which mobo did he use????

heheh...all thses makes me just go to our comp shop and get a Sempy 2200+ :D
 
Hmm Semprons being unlocked, thats great but then again you wouldnt want a VIA solution to overclock, your best bet is the A7n8x dlx option.

Also If I am not mistaken your board has onboard gfx so overclocking will be hampered big time.
 
ok guys i'm gonna do this tomorrow wish me luck.... now if anyone has any suggestion for cooling please let me know by 12:00 AM .. I'm going to SP Road tomorrow again to buy thermal paste/ chassis fans...

I decided against changing my mobo as other options gigabyte/asrock didn't look good to me :(
 
I checked [cursory search ofcourse didnt have time as i was late for work :(] for thermal paste today couldn't find any :(

tomorrows buying list
|_Sunon Case fans :)
 
go to any electronics shop, ask for heatsink compound....will cost 6-10rupes for a 10g box.

well...i get my sunon fans in an electronics shop too..hehehehe....

in case u wont find em in blore, i can send some for ya ;)
 
:clap: thanks for all the tips sunmysore :hug:

tomorrow's buying list
|_Sunon Case fans [2]
|_heat sink compound

One last question 2 chassis fans + thermal paste + heatsink&Fan that came with my processor ought to be enough right :)
 
Oops guess I was wrong, looks like the pencil trick still works.
Have heard of the conversion to a Mobile Athlon XP and then using a tool like CPU MSR to change the multiplier, but I thought a lot more modifications were needed than the plain closing of bridges? I wrecked an XP 2600+ Barton while trying the mod, will re-check it though.

If you can get the multipliers unlocked, go ahead with that instead, and you definately wouldnt need to change your motherboard. You can increase the multiplier in 0.5x steps which would be approx 83Mhz speed increases for your proc (assuming the FSB is at 333Mhz). This should work out relatively safe.
Keep a check on your temperatures, as long as it remains cool nothing should happen to your proc. If you go above your proc's capability, nothing drastic will happen except that it wouldnt boot up. Simply reset the BIOS , boot up and try the last multiplier that worked properly. However its very important to increase the multiplier gradually in steps. Do not jump from say a 10x multiplier all the way to a 15x multiplier.

One last question 2 chassis fans + thermal paste + heatsink&Fan that came with my processor ought to be enough right
Click to expand...
How much is enough is a difficult question to answer, based on just the number of fans :) it all depends on your current temps - What are your current proc/case temperatures? More number of fans obviously results in better cooling, but it could also result in your case sounding like a jet ready to take off hehe :D Applying some common sense with respect to creating proper airflow/good cable management should bring about respectable cooling results as well
 
guru said:
:clap: thanks for all the tips sunmysore :hug:
tomorrow's buying list

|_Sunon Case fans [2]

|_heat sink compound
One last question 2 chassis fans + thermal paste + heatsink&Fan that came with my processor ought to be enough right :)
Click to expand...
anytime :D
yeah...1 exhaust fan and an intake shud suffice....

temme if ur unlocking expt works,,,i'll try too......
 
Overclocking guide from official AMD forums http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=16788

@crazyeddy
current temp:
50 in idle
55 when 100% CPU for ~10mins [7 zipping 624 mb directory office2k3 :) ]

If you can get the multipliers unlocked, go ahead with that instead, and you definately wouldnt need to change your motherboard. You can increase the multiplier in 0.5x steps which would be approx 83Mhz speed increases for your proc (assuming the FSB is at 333Mhz). This should work out relatively safe.
Click to expand...

right now the proc is at 166*9<-multiplier ~ 1.5 ghz and in CPUMSR i can change it only by steps of 1 ie 166*10 and 166*11 => ~ 1.83 ghz anything above 11 apprently doesn't work. Correct me if i'm wrong

@SunMysore
monday i'll post the results :)
 
This link might serve to get a more detailed understanding about your conversion from a Sempron to a Mobile Sempron processor.
http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/html/AXP_multiplier/AXP_Multiplier.htm

You're absolutely right, on desktop processors the L6 bridges (the ones that serve as the multiplier identifier for mobile processors) are all closed. When all bridges are closed, it corresponds to a multiplier rating of 11.0x. So the max multiplier rating you can go upto is 11.0x. My XP 2600+ had a multiplier of 11.5x by default, so by unlocking it as a mobile i actually reduced my multiplier to 11.0. Had to cut L6 bridges to increase the multiplier and thats where i damaged some traces :D. I'm not too sure, but I believe CPU MSR has mutipliers of 10.0, 10.5, 11.0, 11.5 .. etc ?

Nonetheless an overclock of 333Mhz shouldnt be too bad either.
Since your motherboard supports 400Mhz FSB, if you're able to increase your CPU speed to 1.83Ghz, you could bring down the multiplier to 9.0x again and set the FSB to 400Mhz to set a speed of 1.8Ghz. Again try increasing the multipliers gradually till you max out the CPU.

Idle temps seem marginally high, preferably should be around the 40s range. Guess a couple of case fans would help things.
 
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