AMD Athlon XP 2200+ - Suggestions - Faster or Slower?

I just put my new Athlon XP 2200+ system together today (see specs in sig). Once I made sure that it was running stable at stock speed (1.8GHz), I decided to do a little tweaking. I've never overclocked before and while I was quite nervous at first, I am now thoroughly impressed with my results. I slowly managed to bump the FSB up to 166MHz/333MHz and the VCORE up to 1.675V for a net result of 2.25GHz (Athlon 2800+). I also tried changing the multiplier from the stock 13.5x but I could not get it to work with anything else. :-P I want to see if I can push it further but I am quite nervous about the fact that it is running at 130°F/55°C (stock 115°F). I am using a generic 60MM heatsink that I modified to accept an 80MM tri-speed fan (set at high) and Arctic Silver 5 in-between. Is it safe to push this thing any higher than 2.25GHz, should I slow it down, or should I just leave it where it is? Thanks for your suggestions!

 

Here's proof of my 2200 come 2800.

 

An AthlonXP 2800+ is rated at 2083Mhz. At 2.25Ghz, you've just gone past AthlonXP 3200+ speeds. Nice overclock :good:

 

Thanks! I was just doing some research and discovered that myself. I had a good scare though. I was recording some TV shows (3.5 hours worth) with my tuner card and at one point the thing hit 140°F. When I was done, though, it went back down to 130°F. I use Motherboard Monitor, btw, to keep an eye on my temps from the system tray.

 

nah it is a 2800+ coz it is a thoroughbred core, if it were barton, then 2.2ghz would be 3200+ speeds but since it isnt, 2.25ghz is 2800+ speeds.

anywayz i would reccomend that u dont go any further since the XP's dont have a thermal sensor so if it overheats, it doesnt switch off, instead it just fries the chip and possibly the mobo too. u havent got any good cooling jus the stock so this shud be the limit which u stay at. plus if u dont need the speed then theres no point in going higher. i know i oc'ed my athlon 64 3800+ to 2.8-3ghz but i didnt need the extra speed so i stayed on stock speeds. not tryiing to scare u in any way, just informing u.

 

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That's what funny about this thing. I have the BIOS set to switch this thing off at 140°F but that didn't happen. Maybe there was some utility that I was supposed to install?

The cooler is not stock. This chip was OEM so it did not come with a cooler. I bought a generic Socket A/370 cooler rated to 2800+ and modified it to take an 80MM Antec TriCool Blue LED Fan. Before the mod, that cooler had it running stock at 130°F which is where it is now that it is OC'd. I'd call that a worthwhile mod.

The point behind this new system was to see if I can build a budget system for around $300-500 that keeps up with systems that most people pay close to $1000 for (stupid SC P4s). It also serves as a primer for the 64X2 system I've been dying to build for a while but may not get to till next year when I can afford it.

Thanks, bud.

I bought all of the parts for this project at the computer shop that I work at. At another location that I worked at last week, I believe I saw a nice watercooling kit for $99. I'm thinking of buying that (if it's still there) to see how much further I can go plus this thing sounds like a mini-fridge with all the fans that are in it.

 

If you get the watercooling kit, make sure to put the thing together and run it outside the system before you install it. That way you'll know if you have any leaks.

If you're going to build a new box, you may want to go with a Core 2 Duo. Their E6400 performs on the same level as an FX60. Also, as they say in the 'hood, these things OC like a mofo.

 

Thanks for pointing that out man, I totally missed that

 

Wow! I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the results of this cooling kit. 95°F-I and so much quieter. I think I'll see if I can push this thing further...

[ot]As a side note, has anybody noticed a strange issue with the time on this forum? It's roughly 10:30pm according to the clock at the bottom of the page and my post time is 3:30am. WTF?![/ot]

[ot]Now that I have edited my post, the time is correct. [/ot]

 

Well, I think I found the limit at which I can run XP. I slowly took the thing up to 2.7GHz and after several voltage tweaks and CMOS resets, I managed to make the thing boot to this BIOS. XP, however just failed with a blank screen. I lowered it to 2.6GHz and (with more tweaks and resets) got XP to boot but it restarted immediately after the loading screen. Finally, I went back to 2.56 and with a few more tweaks got XP to fully boot which is where I am now. The thing is currently running at 130°F again. Now to play with the memory... :evil:

 

LOL. That's some old school OC'ing right there.

 

Well as it turns out, I wound up having to drop the thing down to 2.5GHz. I was trying to encode some more DVD quality video and Windows gave me a BSOD, restarted, and then refused to boot. Windows encoded 2 hours of video at 2.5GHz without a problem but it hit 140°F again.

 

also another thing to point out is that ur PSU is not really going to handle it anyway becoz its generic and these XP's take more or just as much power as the athlon 64's. the psu may be the reason for the restarts and u will or most likely will see random lockups and restarts even at the speed ur at. the psu most likely wont hack it so that wud be a worthy investment.

spend about £50-60 or $100 and get a descent one now so that u can use it for ur upgrade next year and it will serve u the purpose of keeping this XP at good speeds aswell which is a bonus. if u build ur system next yer then u can use the generic one for this XP again but run it at stock speeds becuase u will have a fast system anyway.

 

is this just a experiment or am u after a gd performing pc?bcus ur lanes are like rle small with the amount of cache u got and more prone to crashes,unless u got a huge amount of ram and a big hard drive

 

English. Do you speak it? I have no clue WTF you just said.

 

Totally agree B. This forum is not a TXT session.

 

TRUE. i had to read that twice to understand wat he was saying. (dont really want to be a hypocrite but i do occasionaly use ''becoz'' for because. ''nd'' for and. ''ur'' for you're) but i think these are understandable

 

Hey guys! Please do not turn my thread into a shouting match.

Yes, this PC is an experiment but it is also meant to hold me over till I build my new 64X2 rig.

I see what you are seeing about the PSU but I really can not afford to put any more money into this project.

 

sorry about the txt wiriting i was half asleep lol.you should have looked for somthing the same price with a better cache because thats not realy too good.its like using a computer 10 years old lol.but good experiment.went u go 4 ur new 1 tho make sure u got a good 512 kb cache or more and a good 512 or more ram so it can do you better performance

 

Well, I decided to go ahead with the suggestion for a new PSU because the old one was getting hot enough to burn under load. I was quite worried about it blowing and taking something with it. Now I have an Antec SmartPower 2.0 500W.