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PC Hacks
book

PC Hacks

by Jim Aspinwall
October 2004
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
304 pages
7h 44m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from PC Hacks

Hack #21. Which CPUs Are Hackable?

Know which CPUs can be hacked or overclocked.

With this brief look at the evolution of CPUs, you'll quickly see who makes the most hackable CPU. Armed with positive CPU identification and knowing what you want to accomplish in terms of performance, you'll be able to determine if your present CPU can be hacked or if you need a new CPU to gain better performance.

AMD CPUs are typically deemed more hackable than Intel CPUs as there are usually more system boards for AMD CPUs that provide the option to adjust the base clock speed [Hack#25] and clock multiplier [Hack 27] and [Hack 28] ] Intel has typically locked down their CPUs to function at only one or a few clock multiplier settings, and they have usually rated and sold most of their CPUs at the highest speed they can be reliably be run. Table 3-1 provides a quick overview of the most hackable CPU types and methods. Most CPUs can be overclocked by changing the base clock frequency, while some allow multiplier changes. In the case of a number of AMD and a few Intel CPUs, the chip can be modified to support overclocking.

Table 3-1. Overclocking methods by CPU type

CPU

Overclocking options

Overclocking method

AMD Athlon

FSB clock, multiplier

Jumpers, BIOS, chip mod

AMD Duron

FSB clock, multiplier

Jumpers, BIOS, chip mod

Intel Celeron

FSB clock, multiplier

Jumpers, BIOS, chip mod

Intel Pentium I

FSB clock, multiplier

Jumpers, BIOS

Intel Pentium II (pre-8/98)

FSB clock, multiplier

Jumpers, BIOS, chip mod

Intel Pentium ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596007485Errata Page