Introduction
I published it yesterday in my latest Monday Blurb. AMD is planning to lock the internal multipliers of their Athlon/Thunderbird and Duron processors. This would mean that the technique that I presented in the last ‘Overclocking SocketA‘ article, which works by altering the multiplier of those CPUs from the motherboard, might be history very soon.
Overclocking By Altering The Processor — The Tiny Copper Bridges of TBird and Duron
Luckily we found an alternative, as also already pointed out in my blurb from yesterday. The ‘other’ way to alter the multiplier as well as the core voltage of AMD’s SocketA processors is to alter the settings of those tiny little copper bridges found on each of those CPUs.
Wadhah Al-Tailji To The Rescue
Yesterday I hadn’t quite been able to give you the full low-down on how to alter the multiplier, but after Wadhah Al-Tailji was nice enough to send in pictures of his Duron 600 processor I had finally received the last piece of the puzzle:
You might remember that I had already fiddled out that the row ‘L7‘ represents the core voltage setting and that row ‘L6‘ holds the Frequency IDs, short ‘FIDs’. I knew that L3 and L4 keep the additional ‘BP_FID’ settings, but with the four processors I had it was impossible to find out which of the pins had to be set how. The pictures of Wadhah’s Duron 600 changed this situation.
Can you figure it out by yourself?
If you want, you can try it out by yourself. It’s nothing but a mid-class riddle. You need Wadhah’s picture from above, the settings of the four other CPUs and the good old BP_FID settings from the initial Athlon overclocking article from last year. It wouldn’t really have required five processors to find out about the BP_FIDs, but unfortunately Duron 650 and Duron 700 are complementary to each other, which means the one doesn’t add any information over the other. A Duron 600 and 650 plus an Athlon 800 plus 1000 would have been enough as well.
Good luck! Can you figure it out?
Opening and Closing The Copper Contact Bridges
The next problem we’ve got to tackle before I’ll get to the actual settings is how to open and close those copper bridges on the processors. I received several suggestions, which can be divided into two sections. The one half of my most helpful readers suggested etching the bridges with PCB-etching material.
While this solution might sound most sensible, it produces the problem that the etching agent can hardly be applied to the tiny bridge area only. The very contacts might go away as well, unless you’ve got top notch masking material. In this case a reversal of this operation could become close to impossible, which is obviously rather dangerous.
The other half of my readers suggested several kinds of micro files or saws, going from dental equipment to optical tools. James D. Flodin came with an excellent suggestion. He pointed me to an electric engraving pencil, as the one shown below (Dremel Electric Engraver):
Finally Robert Kelley thinks that the bridges might be little fuses that can be ‘blown’ by a low-voltage/high-current without damaging the chip. It sounds possible, but you got to be careful that the voltage stays low (I’d suggest 2-3 V) and you connect tiny electrodes to the two ends of the bridge. Make sure that there’s no static voltage on the electrodes!
Thanks for all the suggestions folks!
Closing the bridges is an actual piece of cake. Every electronic engineer will know those conductive silver pens, which can be used to fix little errors on PCBs. Those pens work perfectly to connect the two contacts and the bridge is closed.
Now Here’s The Beef — The Voltage And Multiplier Settings
I guess you’ve waited for this part long enough, so here goes. Let’s start with the voltage settings.
Please remember that 1.85 V is as high as you can go here. A normal Athlon/Thunderbird comes with 1.7 V core voltage, the Athlon 1000 with 1.75 V by default. Durons only require 1.5 V, but for overclocking you will definitely have to raise the voltage. All SocketA processors survive the 1.85 V, but you better ensure top-notch cooling.
Now Here’s The Beef — The Voltage And Multiplier Settings, Continued
Finally, here are the adjustments you need to make for the multiplier settings:
The first column is for ‘L6’, the other two are ‘L3’ and ‘L4’. I added the little additional contact on the side to make it look the same as it looks on the processor.
Additional Thoughts
Well, I guess I don’t need to tell you that altering your processor will void any warranty and might destroy it. Tom’s Hardware Guide will not take any responsibility for damaged computer parts or systems. Please be reasonable and take the procedure easy. A professional would never rush and do this job in hectic, because that’s exactly when mistakes happen and parts get destroyed.
We are still not clear which way is the best to open up those copper bridges. Etching them away would probably be the cleanest way, but it’s extremely important to not remove the whole contact that goes inside the processor packaging. First class masking or possibly applying the etching agent to the tip of a needle, so that only minimal amounts will reach the middle of the bridge might be another option. The next days will show which way is best. I am sure that a lot of people will be crazy enough to try it out.
I guess that the best technique is to get the conductive silver pen, to open all L6, L3 and L4 bridges and then adjust the settings you want with the pen. The conductive silver paint can be removed if you need to alter your settings, and then you can start again.
What can you expect?
Well, you might remember that I successfully overclocked a Duron 650 and 700 to 950 MHz. This frequency was reached after cranking up the voltage to 1.85 V. I used an average Thunderbird heat sink with fan and made sure that there was enough airflow around the heat sink. My Thunderbird 1000 went up to 1100 MHz, also after raising the voltage up to 1.85 V. You’ll need a good power supply for this kind of speed and you want to make sure to get a high quality active heat sink as well.
OK guys, good luck to all of you! May the Force be with you!
Check out AnandTech: AMD Thunderbird & Duron Overclocking Revealed.
