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AMD Athlon XP 2000+ Review 6 Weeks Before Release

Mathew Solnik writes: "Tom's Hardware has a review of the AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 6 weeks prior to its official release. This review shows how to unlock the multiplier on the AthlonXP and how to reach AthlonXP 2000+ speeds easily." Note that by doing so, you are voiding any warranty you may have started with, risk blowing up your eyeballs, etc; do proceed with caution.

48 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Please by cosyne · · Score: 3, Funny

    someone explain to me why they had to choose that name.

    As far as I can tell, one product named XP is one too many.

    1. Re:Please by hearingaid · · Score: 2

      simple. they mean that you need at least this class of processor to make WinXP usable.

      at least that's my theory :)

      --

      my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore

    2. Re:Please by hearingaid · · Score: 2

      I dunno. Sexium... mmmm... I can see that selling to, uh, lonely geeks ;)

      --

      my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore

  2. Re:thanks for the warning... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Software can be re-installed, but dead hardware is dead.

    If Slashdot doesn't print those warnings, could it be interpreted that they are encouraging behaviour that may physically destroy your system (and not "merely" cause downtime)?

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  3. Re:Just what we need... by cnvogel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    > Is AMD trying to associate itself with a software
    > company out of Redmond?

    Well... not with the software company itself but when Microsoft spends huge amounts of $ to make everyone associate that "XP" with "modern, fast, up-to-date, stable, ..." they sure want to ride that wave...

  4. wow, the cluetrain really left you at the station by ebbv · · Score: 2, Interesting


    as has been stated on /. hundreds of times by now, the AthlonXP has nothing to do with windows XP. it was conceived totally separately, and is a coincidence, odd as that seems.

    they stand for different things, etc.

    try doing a little investigation before you just blurt out some random stupidity.
    ...dave

    --

    Think different? I'd be happy if most people would just think...
  5. the good toms hardware by NeoTomba · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tom's Hardware has been getting a lot of bad press these days. Thier burning Athlon videos caused a lot of controversy, and regulars at some other tech sites (*cough* Anandtech *cough*) have a strong dislike for Tom's work.

    But this article just goes to show you why Tom's Hardware is the best hardware review site out there, just like it has always been. Over the years, Tom has written some of the best articles for hardware enthusiasts and has pushed "overclocking", a term which was once mysterious, into one of the big issues of modern computing. Motherboards are now being designed specifically for overclocking, and this has lead to huge increases in performance. Most people forget that Tom's Hardware has been one of the most influential sites as far as this is concerned.

    It's good to see what is undesputably the best current article on technology. I hope even those who hate Tom's Hardware will see the light. No other tech site has anywhere near the ability to do stuff like this.

    -NeoTomba

    1. Re:the good toms hardware by XBL · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Overclocking was cooler back in the olden days. Taking a 300 MHz Celeron to 550 MHz, or whatever was much easier and more productive.

      Looking at the benchmarks, doing this is NOT worth the time and effort.

      Tom has the time and money to dink around with these types of things. It might be worth it to him, but this article is likely worthless to 99.9% of his readers, simply because they aren't going to do it.

      Compare this with overclocking a Celeron, I bet over 50% of the readers gave it a try. Writing those articles were actually relevant. I'm sorry to say that this one isn't.

    2. Re:the good toms hardware by chrysrobyn · · Score: 2

      Overclocking was cooler back in the olden days. Taking a 300 MHz Celeron to 550 MHz, or whatever was much easier and more productive. Overclocking sure was much cooler back in the olden days. But a Celeron is "olden days"?! Now, if you had mentioned tweaking a 286, 386 or 680x0 (you get the idea) up 5 or so MHz, I would have agreed with you. Overclocking in those days wasn't "because it's easy", it was "because it's there"-- a much better reason to recklessly endanger your hardware in my opinion.

    3. Re:the good toms hardware by kreyg · · Score: 2

      It might be worth it to him, but this article is likely worthless to 99.9% of his readers, simply because they aren't going to do it.

      Mmm... I would call it valuable for a couple of reasons. One, it's geeky, so it has some interest to me whether I'm going to do it now, some time in the future, or never. Two, it's a good indication of just how stable a processor is, and how close the manufacturer is setting the "recommended" clock speed to its "maximum" speed.

      One other thing is, we're overclocking now by as many cycles as processors ran at full speed just a few years ago. Impressive or not, it's still interesting to watch people shrug at speed improvements they couldn't have imagined a decade ago.

      --
      sig fault
    4. Re:the good toms hardware by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      and has pushed "overclocking", a term which was once mysterious, into one of the big issues of modern computing

      No offense intended, but it's only a big issue among the script kiddies of the computing world. Everyone else just thinks "Hmmm...I could get a 10% higher clock speed, for a total system throughput increase of 2%, and there's the chance I'll either destroy and expensive processor or gain hard to track system stability problems. Or I could just let well alone. No contest."

    5. Re:the good toms hardware by Rupert · · Score: 2

      Back when I was a slip of a lad, apprenticed to a bunch of telephone engineers at IBM who thought PCs were beneath them, I "acquired" the clock chip from a 3750 PABX. Since that ran at 13.6MHz, and my PC-AT ran at 11MHz, I popped the case off the AT and switched the chips. Voila! 20+% better performance, but the 287 math coprocessor stopped working until I replaced the original clock chip.

      --

      --
      E_NOSIG
    6. Re:the good toms hardware by jejones · · Score: 2
      No other tech site [besides Tom's Hardware] has anywhere near the ability to do stuff like this.

      You might want to look at icrontic.com or at this blurb about how to use trace tape to unlock the Athlon XP. I know I saw the latter something like a week before I saw the Tom's Hardware article.

    7. Re:the good toms hardware by Rupert · · Score: 2

      Oh, I probably remember wrong. It was a genuine IBM PC-AT, though, larger than many modern apartments.

      The AT was the biggest (and most powerful) box I had at that job. By the time I left it had 2 20MB drives in it. I pretty much mirrored all the interesting tools on the IBMPC internal BBS, and could still backup the first disk onto the second.

      --

      --
      E_NOSIG
  6. Re:Just what we need... by dillon_rinker · · Score: 5, Funny

    And you call yourself a geek! It is obvious to the rest of us that both AMD and MS are trying to ride the coattails of D&D, where the goal is to accumulate as many XPs as possible. I've almost got enough to reach second level, which means more HPs and another spell. It's a good thing CDRs are so cheap these days...

  7. Will people buy it? by xdangavinx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With the down turn in the economy, and there not being a great deal of software that non computer savy people use that require processors of such speed do people think that there will be a great demand for this chip in the consumer market?

  8. Very nice ... BUT by arminh1974 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now all that is quite an achievement, that they figured out all what's involved, but let's face it: Overclocking an Athlon XP 1900 to 2000 won't do anyone any good. That's like 2% more performance and at what kind of expense and risk? What would be informative and what wasn't provided would be if an Athlon XP 1500 (1.33GHz) can be rigged to reach 2000+ (1.66GHz) that way. It's all about how much headroom the CPU-core has and the price/performance overclocking provides.
    Tom's article shows that the Athlon XP clearly doesn't have a lot of it. We can expect the Palomino core to stick around the 2000-rating (1.66GHz) for a while ... at least until they go 0.13micron.

    1. Re:Very nice ... BUT by Shadow99_1 · · Score: 2

      There were people posting about ocing their 1.33 & 1.4 Ghz Athlon XP's to 1.7-1.8 Ghz within days of the release...Aparently the smarter members of the ocing community have already proven the type of headrom a proper Athlon XP system has...

      AMD has been playing it very safe on clockspeed to make sure infrastructure is in place to get better performance (& not overwhelm or hurt next years profits due to performance beign to similiar between Athlon & Clawhammer). Tom is just an Id10t so he managed a whole speed grade increase with his oc... Wonder if he even bothered to use a non-standard heatsink... But I'm not about to read the crap he puts out to find out...

      --
      we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
  9. Connect 2 contacts. by laserjet · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think it's cool that AMD has made it so easy to make this chip overlockable. According to the article, all you have to do is connect the L1 contacts, and that's it.

    although, keep in minde this is not for the faint hearted. you will also need a conductive lacquer to connect the contacts, tape, super glue, a scalpel, and multimeter. I don't know about you guys, but I think when all this is required to overclock your CPU, it's a bit much for the rewards you get.

    Also, for most users, the faster processors like this new AMD are so fast anyways, that overclocking them will probably give a faster experience only in benchmarks, and not in real user experience. It's a cool article, none the less - but if you just bought one of these babies, would You want to pull out all these tools to overclock it?

    I would play it safe and be happy with my already fast computer.

    --
    Moon Macrosystems. Sun's biggest competitor.
    1. Re:Connect 2 contacts. by CtrlPhreak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Easy? The amd engineers made it much harder this time. This is 100x harder to do than just connect them with a standard graphite pencil, like the T-Birds. AMD does not want you overclocking their chips, why do you think they cut the L1 bridges in the first place

      --
      WikiAfterDark.com It's a sex wiki, go now!
    2. Re:Connect 2 contacts. by denzo · · Score: 2
      The amd engineers made it much harder this time. This is 100x harder to do than just connect them with a standard graphite pencil, like the T-Birds.
      Actually, AMD's engineers didn't do anything specifically to make overclocking Athlons harder. Converting from the hard ceramic processors to newer organic grid array, for economic reasons, causes the laser cutting of the bridges to make deeper pits. It looks like they probably used the original laser power initially, since the first batch of Athlon XPs had large, charred pits, while newer batches have smaller, cleaner pits.

      <humor>I just hope they use soap and deoderant to clean their pits.</humor>

  10. Nice!! by tcc · · Score: 2

    that means even more room to overclock when it'll shrink to .13 microns.

    I didn't think the current process would go above 1.5 with standard cooling, this is good news :)

    Now where are those Nvidia boards...

    --
    --- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
  11. Re:wow, the cluetrain really left you at the stati by MindStalker · · Score: 2

    I have never seen such info? Please link?

  12. Re:Just what we need... by kraf · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Think Alpha AXP.
    AMD + XP = AXP.
    AMD has quite a few features from the Alpha processor, so I guess this is not too far-fetched.

  13. hmm by sinnyin · · Score: 3, Funny

    shouldn't that read "from the chips-to-HEAT-up-your-neighbor dept."?

  14. How much difference will this make? by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I took a look at the benchmarks that Tom provided. Is anyone really going to notice the performance difference of overclocking their 1900+ to 2000+?

    It's a few hours of work besides, and they run the risk of destroying a piece of expensive hardware to do it.

    This space for rent.

  15. Maybe I can buy an AMD chip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Offtopic

    with my homemade "equivalent" dollars. Really, Mr. Dealer, one MyDollar® is the equivalent of $3USD.

  16. Illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    This sort of circumvention is illegal under the DMCA.

    In addition, since it makes Ahtlons explode it can be construed as a terrorist act under the recent counter-terrorism act.

    In short, Tom will be shot at dawn.

  17. Be very careful if you do decide to overclock. by Anton+Anatopopov · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If I could give one piece of advice from personal experience, the pink thermal pad supplied with certain heatsinks is not adequate for the job. If you intend to overclock your cpu, scrape off all the pink crap, and use some proper thermal compound like arctic silver. Spread it very thinly, too much and it will act as an insulator.

    Also, bear in mind that not only will your warrenty be void, but some people have said you may be liable to penalties under the DMCA, since the clock multiplier lock is considered a form of 'encryption' and the increased processor speed gained by unlocking it can be seen as 'copyrighted software'.

    Quite how this can be the case is beyond me, surely the speed at which I run my software is down to me, but you never know with these DMCA issues. It can all get a bit surreal at times.

    1. Re:Be very careful if you do decide to overclock. by CTho9305 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Be careful when scraping off the pad. You don't want to roughen the bottom of the heatsink. Ideally, it would be as smooth as a mirror, but few heatsinks are of that quality. Scrape carefully, and at the end, use a finger nail / alocohol to get the last bits off.

    2. Re:Be very careful if you do decide to overclock. by BadBlood · · Score: 2

      Actually, scraping the heatsink isn't so bad. You actually increase the surface area of the heatsink, and as such, increase its effectiveness. The thermal compound is there to fill in the gaps between both micro and macro-scopic "scrapes."

      --


      Praying for the end of your wide-awake nightmare.
  18. superglue by mc2Kleen · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you read through the article, it points to several pictures where things went awry. One such example is where the superglue ran under the scotch tape onto the contacts and couldn't be scraped off.

    Some superglue manufacturers offer a thicker type that doesn't run quite as eagerly as the liquid type. It is more the consistency of model airplane glue so you have more control as to where the glue actually goes. It can be found at hardware stores and any place that offers a decent selection of adhesives. This may be a better solution than hoping and preying that your masking job is adequate and liquid superglue does seem to have a mind of it own sometimes as my fingers will testify.

    1. Re:superglue by ncc74656 · · Score: 2
      Some superglue manufacturers offer a thicker type that doesn't run quite as eagerly as the liquid type. It is more the consistency of model airplane glue so you have more control as to where the glue actually goes.
      When I read the article, I wondered why they didn't just cut out a smallish piece of tape and use that to cover over the holes. A sliver of electrician's tape ought to stick to the processor package fairly well and would keep the conductive ink out of the holes. You could then use Scotch tape over it to mask off the pads for the conductive ink; I would think that the edge of the electrician's tape would be no problem for the ink to cover. It would seem to be much more foolproof than trying to plug the holes with glue.

      Another possibility might be to just route the ink around the holes...it's a bit tricker than making a straight line, but steady hands, a fine-tipped paintbrush, and a magnifier ought to do the trick

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  19. How about skipping the superglue altogether? by Svartalf · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since you're going to the trouble to buy silver laquer (in either the bottle like Tom's used, or in an applicator pen) you might as well go to the trouble of buying conformal coating material in a bottle or applicator pen- it's not THAT much more expensive. While it's cure time is a lot longer than superglue's, it's designed for this sort of thing and it's at least a little easier if you fsck things up with your end run around AMD's overclock blocks (because it's laquer and will give you some options to carefully scrape any overflow off of the lands.).

    By the by, this all seems like a lot of effort for little payback. Some of you may not want to do this.

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
  20. Superglue. Now 1002 uses. by GISboy · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can't wait to see someone show up for work with processor stuck to their fingers.

    I'm sure the song by Huey Lewis "Happy to be stuck with you" will surge in popularity for a brief moment.

    --
    If it is not on fire, it is a software problem.
  21. Inadequate testing by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative
    I'd be more impressed if, after their rather tacky jumper insertion, they ran a good hardware diagnostic program for 24 hours straight and didn't detect any problems. The overclocking crowd tends to think that if the machine will boot up, it's working. They're wrong.

    Tom's Hardware is also using the wrong tools for the job. Even other overclockers know better. There are pens for writing PC board traces with conductive ink. Using conductive paint and tape is doing it the hard way.

    1. Re:Inadequate testing by zulux · · Score: 2

      There are pens for writing PC board
      My limited experiece with conductive ink makes me think the stuff woulden't work too well on a searing hot processor. It doesn't adhear to smooth surfaces too well that are under stress - a circut board would be fine, but a processor that goes though heat cycles, would make me think that it would flake off over time. The Mac people probably get away with it because the PowerPC processors run cooler than the electricity hungry Athlon. Just my $.02 ($.01 after taxes.)

      --

      Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  22. Overclocking is evil! by GISboy · · Score: 2, Funny

    From the article:
    However, the maximum setting is currently limited to 12.5X, which allows you to reach a clock speed of 1666 MHz (12.5 X 133 MHz = 1666 MHz) without having to increase the front side-bus clock speed

    Or maybe what is being said is that the Athlon XP's are wickedly fast

    You be the judge

    --
    If it is not on fire, it is a software problem.
  23. What about the FBS? by 10Ghz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I would have liked more results with overclocked FBS. If I got XP, I propably wouldn't bother to connect the L1-bridges just to gain few % of additional performance. I would increase the FSB. Easier, and it gives you more performance.

    I think XP is just begging for more FSB. Cranking it up to say 300Mhz (2x150MHz), would increase the actual MHz of the CPU, and it would nicely increase you bandwidth (both memory and FSB).

    Of course, I would much rather have the Clawhammer with it's 800MHz FSB...

    --
    Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  24. Relevance of Publications by gmhowell · · Score: 4, Funny

    A ferrari vs. lambo vs. porsche shootout is pointless, yet many magazines do them. How to build a $10,000 small block engine is pointless, yet there is at least one or two per year in hot rod.

    Many publications do pointless things. Not always is the point "this matters". Sometimes it is "isn't this some cool shit?"

    Like the Linux kernel source. I'm not going to monkey with it, but a handful of others will.

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  25. Re:Is mentally undressing women banned by DMCA? by Fucky+Badger · · Score: 2
    Can we get over this DMCA nonsense.

    Yes. The day Congress repeals it or the Supreme Court strikes it down.

    HTH.

  26. Very, Very, VERY old news... by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Overclockers.com had the information out a couple of days after the XP came out. This article came out on 19 October with essentially the same information as Tom's. Since then, at Overclockers, there have been other articles dealing with other approaches to reconnecting the bridges and how the laser cuts have changed.

    I don't know why people think that Tom's is a particularly good source anymore. These days they really seem to be slow off the mark...

    --
    That is all.
  27. Re:Risky ... by Richard_Feynman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have had server with MoBo's without fan outputs. It always worries me to have the cooling system hooked directly into the power supply. So I aggree wholeheartedly that MoBo controlled cooling is the way to save your equipment.

  28. Re:Bypassing security to overclock by i_am_nitrogen · · Score: 4, Informative

    You are comparing a CPU to a piece of software. When I buy a CPU, I am buying a physical device. When I buy software, I am buying a license to perform only a few particular acts with that software, not the software itself. Since I actually own my CPU, I can do whatever I want with it: overclock it, paint it, use it as a frisbee, burn it up, freeze it, chew on it, sell it, whatever. All I can do with software is use it as the license dictates, and sell that license to someone else (right of first sale (or something like that) -- no matter what anybody says I can do this, as long as all physical copies of the software are transferred as well).

  29. Re:wow, the cluetrain really left you at the stati by Oztun · · Score: 2

    and the 2000+ is also just a coincedence?

  30. Re:Golden age, yes; olden days, certainly not. by Eccles · · Score: 2

    You mark my words, Linux will lose friends quickly if it ever sits on more than 10% of the world's PCs...

    Sounds like a Yogi Berra-ism: "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."

    --
    Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  31. MyDollars by Tumbleweed · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think those are referrerd to as 'British Pounds'...

  32. XP vs MP? by Snowfox · · Score: 2
    So - can the XP be turned into an MP? Is this also just bridge work, or does it just drop right in?

    I'd kill to have a Dual 2000+ MP system...