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In the Forums... |
Posted: July 20, 2000 Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy Burn in? Or Burn out? If you're an overclocking vet, you've probably heard of this process called "burning in", or perhaps you've even burned in a CPU yourself. But does it do anything? Some may disagree with me here, but I have yet to see a benefit from burning in a CPU. So what is burning in? Well, my understanding of the process is: 1) Find the highest rock solid speed for the CPU. 2) Set the voltage slightly higher than needed. 3) Run the system as you normally would (at this solid speed) for a given period of time (usually a few days to a week). 4) Try to set the CPU at a higher speed. Some people claim to gain several MHz using this method. Give it a shot if you're interested... it can't hurt, can it? Slockets and CPU SoftMenu II or III If you're using a slocket (for an FC-PGA based Celeron II), there are a couple tricks you can do with the voltage and FSB settings to achieve better performance and stability. If you want to set the voltage to what is on the slocket, set the SoftMenu settings to use Auto or Default for voltage. This allows you to use 1.8 volts or higher on the slocket itself, regardless of what the BIOS supports. This is especially useful on older Abit motherboards where the voltage can only be set up to 1.7 volts for the Celermine CPUs. For stability at 100 MHz or higher, set the slocket to 100 MHz FSB, even if you're planning on setting it differently within the BIOS setup. This seems to make the CPU more stable, at higher speeds (at least, on the Abit Slocket !!! it does). Pushing the Limits of AGP and PCI Clock How does overclocking or adjusting the FSB effect other components, such as video cards, sound cards, and hard drives? Greatly. Make sure if you're running at 100 MHz FSB, you try to set the PCI clock to 1/3. For anything significantly higher, try to set the PCI clock to 1/4 (if available). If the PCI bus clock reaches about 43 MHz or higher (remember, 33 MHz default), it could possibly fry the contents of your hard drive (the data, that is). Also it could make items such as sound cards and network cards not function properly. On the same note, AGP clock shouldn't be set much higher than 66 MHz (default). If you set the bus speed to 100 or higher, set the multiplier to 2/3 or lower (if available). Higher AGP clocks will not help performance, but can harm stability, and possibly kill an AGP card over long periods of time. Conclusion With a little bit of work and tweaking, your CPU can be running at amazing speeds. And remember, folks, the brag factor goes up with every MHz. If you have questions or you need help, consult the Tweak3D Forums. And as always, thanks for reading. :) Click here for a printer friendly version of this article |
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