hummm

[Ramer]

i have a 700 athlon it is slot A first i would like to know if its a tbird and what that is and sencond i want to know if it is overclockable i have a msi ms-6195 mobo

[Floppyman]

Take a look at the cpu. If it's a tbird, it won't have any L2 cache chips, plus it will have a little shoe with a wing drawing on the pcb signaling it's a tbird, otherwise it's a regular athlon. For info on your board check MSI's site www.msi.com.tw If it's regular athlon you won't be able to overclock as much as the L2 cache and the core to some extent will limit your overclocking. And lastly, to overclock you will need what is called a "goldfinger" card that plugs into your athlon on the top (the case on the cpu will need to be removed to expose the "goldfinger") that will then let you adjust mutliplier and voltage. For more info on Amd chips and Amd stuff in general check out www.amdzone.com

[shivers]

Yea, from what i seen on the hard ware sites your board is very over clockable - as for your cpu they do look alike & Im sure someone on here knows how to tell the differance.Hang in there.check your board out here http://hardwarezone.phing.com/php/pc...6+00%3A08%3A08[/url][/URL]

[Ramer]

ok now do you know where exatcly on the cpu it will have the little wings is it on the outer facing side or the side on the heatsink

[Floppyman]

It's on the heatsink side. If you don't see any L2 cache chips, that's another indication it's a tbird, as the tbird cache is on die.

[Ramer]

i dont see the wings. What do the l2 chache chips look like.

[Floppyman]

There are 2, one on either side of the core, They should have some thermal paste on them too like the core.

[Ramer]

all that i see is on one side itsays amd athlon and the other side is flat and gray

[Floppyman]

Hi again,

I wanna say it's a tbird since the slot a tbird I had, had a a gray heat transfer plate, while the normal athlon I had, had a black heat transfer plate but I'm 100 percent sure. When the pc boots check the bios screens, if it says 512k L2 cache it's a normal athlon, if it says 256k L2 cache it's a tbird.

[Ramer]

ok its a bird now what do i need to do to overclock it to like 1 gig

[Floppyman]

A goldfinger device, and a good quality heatsink/fan (like alpha). HTH

[Frey Grimrod]

Floppyman just wondering what is a goldfinger device? Is it some more reliable way to unlock the chip or is that guess totally off?

[Floppyman]

Frey,

A so called "goldfinger" device is only needed on slot A athlons and tbirds. What it is, is basically a little card that plugs into a connector that's on top of the athlon, you would have to remove the front plastic casing to access it. I believe it was originally put there by AMD for diagnostic purposes. Once you plug on one of those "goldfinger" cards into the connector, you will be able to adjust the multiplier of the cpu and also the voltage. Don't know if there are a lot around anymore these days, since AMD has gone back to socket, and the technique for overclocking there is different.

The main problem with original athlons and overclocking was the cache. It ran either at 1/2 1/3 or 2/5 of the cpu speed. The cache was somewhat the limiting factor of overclocking the athlons, when you were overclocking the cpu, you in turn were overclocking the cache as well. There were ways around this, you could solder certains spots on the cpu and change your cache that originally ran at 1/2 to 1/3, giving you a better chance to overclock to a higher speed. There were also programs that changed the L2 cache speed in windows and also at boot.

On tbirds the story is different though as the L2 cache is on the die of the cpu, therefore running the same speed the cpu is. The overclocking procedure is also a little different for socket a chips. In this case the L1 bridges on the cpu need to be closed. Then jumpers on the motherboard, or the bios can be used to change the multiplier--definetely a lot cheaper than having to buy a goldfinger card, which ran up to $50 back when I bought one a while ago.

Also Ramer, I had a early tbird 700 slot a while back that I was successfully able to run at 900mhz. Depending on the week (and other factors as well) of your cpu, 1ghz may/may not be attaintable (cpu's manufactured later usually overclock better than the first batch), just remember to always use caution when overclocking.

[Frey Grimrod]

Thnx for the reply it makes sense now I thought you were talking about the Socket A chips needing a goldfinger card for some reason and I had neverheard of such a thing.