Can EasyTune 4 unlock a Barton?
 

I'm thinking of upgrading and overclocking. I read a review that said that
Gigabyte MoBos can unlock Bartons without any hardware modification with
Easy Tune 4. Is this true for all Bartons?

My other question is would I be better off OC'ing a Barton 2600+ ($100) or
3000+ ($200). My main objective is number crunching speed. Would the 3000+
be a waste of money or will it hit a faster speed or the same speed as
2600+? I'm planning on keeping the PC 2700 RAM and looking at the 7N400L
MoBo.

TIA,

Pete

On Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:10:06 +0000, Peter Harrington wrote:

I'm thinking of upgrading and overclocking. I read a review that said that
Gigabyte MoBos can unlock Bartons without any hardware modification with
Easy Tune 4. Is this true for all Bartons?

No MB can unlock a cpu. It only provides bit settings for cpu's that are
multiplier unlocked. If the cpu is locked, the settings have no effect.

My other question is would I be better off OC'ing a Barton 2600+ ($100)
or 3000+ ($200). My main objective is number crunching speed. Would
the 3000+ be a waste of money or will it hit a faster speed or the same
speed as 2600+? I'm planning on keeping the PC 2700 RAM and looking at
the 7N400L MoBo.

All Bartons will clock about same regardless of model number. that PC2700
ram might throw in a problem though unless the ram bus can be set lower
than FSB.

--
Abit KT7-Raid (KT133) Tbred B core CPU @2400MHz (24x100FSB)
http://mysite.verizon.net/res0exft/cpu.html

"Wes Newell" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:10:06 +0000, Peter Harrington wrote:

I'm thinking of upgrading and overclocking. I read a review that said
that
Gigabyte MoBos can unlock Bartons without any hardware modification with
Easy Tune 4. Is this true for all Bartons?

No MB can unlock a cpu. It only provides bit settings for cpu's that are
multiplier unlocked. If the cpu is locked, the settings have no effect.

My other question is would I be better off OC'ing a Barton 2600+ ($100)
or 3000+ ($200). My main objective is number crunching speed. Would
the 3000+ be a waste of money or will it hit a faster speed or the same
speed as 2600+? I'm planning on keeping the PC 2700 RAM and looking at
the 7N400L MoBo.

All Bartons will clock about same regardless of model number. that PC2700
ram might throw in a problem though unless the ram bus can be set lower
than FSB.

True. But the faster ones do it with less volts (typically) and therefore
running cooler and therefore potentially quieter. There aren't that many
2500's that will 11x200 at 1.65v. Most you have to bump up the volts a
little.

Chip.

Peter Harrington wrote:
I'm thinking of upgrading and overclocking. I read a review that said that
Gigabyte MoBos can unlock Bartons without any hardware modification with
Easy Tune 4. Is this true for all Bartons?

My other question is would I be better off OC'ing a Barton 2600+ ($100) or
3000+ ($200). My main objective is number crunching speed. Would the 3000+
be a waste of money or will it hit a faster speed or the same speed as
2600+? I'm planning on keeping the PC 2700 RAM and looking at the 7N400L
MoBo.

TIA,

Pete


better off oc'ing a 2500 @ 11*200 @ 1.65V

"James Paraskeva" wrote in message
...
Peter Harrington wrote:
I'm thinking of upgrading and overclocking. I read a review that said
that
Gigabyte MoBos can unlock Bartons without any hardware modification with
Easy Tune 4. Is this true for all Bartons?

My other question is would I be better off OC'ing a Barton 2600+ ($100)
or
3000+ ($200). My main objective is number crunching speed. Would the
3000+
be a waste of money or will it hit a faster speed or the same speed as
2600+? I'm planning on keeping the PC 2700 RAM and looking at the
7N400L
MoBo.

TIA,

Pete


better off oc'ing a 2500 @ 11*200 @ 1.65V

Or even better oc at 15 x 250 @ 1.45v. Or 14 x 300 @ 1.3v Hell, go for
it: run 11 x 500 at only 1.0v! ;-)

Seriously, I agree he should go for a 2500. And he *may* manage to get it
to do 2200MHz. Probably he will. He *might* even get it to do 2200MHz at
1.65v, but I doubt it - almost all need just a little bit more voltage, like
1.7v maybe.

But the way you worded it, it sounded like 2200MHz at 1.65v is a "given".
It isn't.

Chip.

Chip.

On Wed, 24 Dec 2003 11:33:38 GMT, James Paraskeva
wrote:

Peter Harrington wrote:
I'm thinking of upgrading and overclocking. I read a review that said that
Gigabyte MoBos can unlock Bartons without any hardware modification with
Easy Tune 4. Is this true for all Bartons?

My other question is would I be better off OC'ing a Barton 2600+ ($100) or
3000+ ($200). My main objective is number crunching speed. Would the 3000+
be a waste of money or will it hit a faster speed or the same speed as
2600+? I'm planning on keeping the PC 2700 RAM and looking at the 7N400L
MoBo.

TIA,

Pete


better off oc'ing a 2500 @ 11*200 @ 1.65V

Mine won't do it at 1.65. It only became prime95 stable around 1.775
with MBM showing 1.86 vcore. A7N8X Rev2 DX. Diode runs 48-50C working
hard so I think it's fine. Zalman HSF so it's even fairly quiet. Can
hardly hear it over the 4 case fans, 2 PSU fans, and VGA fan.

Thanks for the advice. I will try the 2500+ and an Ultra all copper fan
ULT32017.

I will still have to short out the two pins to unlock this chip?

Pete

"dgk" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 24 Dec 2003 11:33:38 GMT, James Paraskeva
wrote:

Peter Harrington wrote:
I'm thinking of upgrading and overclocking. I read a review that said
that
Gigabyte MoBos can unlock Bartons without any hardware modification
with
Easy Tune 4. Is this true for all Bartons?

My other question is would I be better off OC'ing a Barton 2600+ ($100)
or
3000+ ($200). My main objective is number crunching speed. Would the
3000+
be a waste of money or will it hit a faster speed or the same speed as
2600+? I'm planning on keeping the PC 2700 RAM and looking at the
7N400L
MoBo.

TIA,

Pete


better off oc'ing a 2500 @ 11*200 @ 1.65V

Mine won't do it at 1.65. It only became prime95 stable around 1.775
with MBM showing 1.86 vcore. A7N8X Rev2 DX. Diode runs 48-50C working
hard so I think it's fine. Zalman HSF so it's even fairly quiet. Can
hardly hear it over the 4 case fans, 2 PSU fans, and VGA fan.

Peter Harrington wrote:
Thanks for the advice. I will try the 2500+ and an Ultra all copper fan
ULT32017.

I will still have to short out the two pins to unlock this chip?

If you get a locked Barton 2500+ there is no known way to unlock it. You
can up the FSB to 200MHz though, which will give you 2.2GHz (since the
multiplier is locked at 11) or a 3200+ if it gets there.

What you are referring to is not unlocking, it is changing the 5th bit of
the multiplier, which allows you to traverse the 12.5/13x multiplier
"boundary".

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

AMD does speed bin those chips, you know.

Dave


"Chip" wrote in message
...
"Wes Newell" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:10:06 +0000, Peter Harrington wrote:

I'm thinking of upgrading and overclocking. I read a review that said
that
Gigabyte MoBos can unlock Bartons without any hardware modification
with
Easy Tune 4. Is this true for all Bartons?

No MB can unlock a cpu. It only provides bit settings for cpu's that are
multiplier unlocked. If the cpu is locked, the settings have no effect.

My other question is would I be better off OC'ing a Barton 2600+
($100)
or 3000+ ($200). My main objective is number crunching speed. Would
the 3000+ be a waste of money or will it hit a faster speed or the
same
speed as 2600+? I'm planning on keeping the PC 2700 RAM and looking
at
the 7N400L MoBo.

All Bartons will clock about same regardless of model number. that
PC2700
ram might throw in a problem though unless the ram bus can be set lower
than FSB.

True. But the faster ones do it with less volts (typically) and therefore
running cooler and therefore potentially quieter. There aren't that many
2500's that will 11x200 at 1.65v. Most you have to bump up the volts a
little.

Chip.

"DaveL" wrote in message
...
AMD does speed bin those chips, you know.

Dave

Well exactly.

Chip.