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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.
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.
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
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...
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?
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. ... at least until they go 0.13micron.
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
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.
shouldn't that read "from the chips-to-HEAT-up-your-neighbor dept."?
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.
with my homemade "equivalent" dollars. Really, Mr. Dealer, one MyDollar® is the equivalent of $3USD.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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).
A solution to the problem with music today
I think those are referrerd to as 'British Pounds'...