Socket-A Overclocking Guide

The KT133a chipset brings a new capability to the overclocking table.  It has the support to run the FSB up into the 160MHz range and above.  With this chipset, your RAM will likely be what limits your FSB overclock.  Motherboards with the KT133a also support the 266 AMD Athlon processors.  What has been found is that the 200 AMD Athlon processors are capable of running FSB speeds up to and above the 133MHz mark.  There is however a process to follow when wanting to run FSB speeds of 133 MHz and above.  Most KT133a motherboards are equipped with a 100/133+ jumper.  To utilize FSB speeds of 133 and up, you have to move this jumper.  To get these speeds, first determine the multiplier that when coupled with a 133MHz FSB will equal your processor’s default speed.  With the FSB at 100MHz, underclock your processor with the determined clock multiplier.  Save these setting in your BIOS and reboot.  Make sure when your computer POSTs that the multiplier setting is correct.  Now power down your system and change the FSB jumper.  When you reboot all should be well, and you can now start with the multiplier, FSB, and core voltage tweaking.

The technical data sheets for AMD Athlon and Duron processors show that they can operate up to a maximum core temperature of 90C before catastrophic failure.  Obviously you will not want to run at temperatures close to that, and in all likeliness would not be stable at such high temperatures.  The problem with these processors is that there is not a thermosister inside the core to give the true temperature of the core.  Instead there is a thermosistor on the motherboard inside the socket, underneath the core.  Because of this, the temperature readings that your BIOS and software report are severely under read.  This means that if your BIOS reports a CPU temperature of 50C, the actual temperature inside the core is actually closer to 65-70C.  Due to the design and compensation figured by each motherboard company, the amount of under read differs between the manufacturers.  As a generalization though, the under read is usually about 15C.  I tell you this so if you are running in the 50C range, and are experiencing lockups, you may want to look into additional cooling, instead of immediately expecting a RAM problem. 

You may come to a point where when having your processor highly overclocked, and needing a core voltage of 1.85V, that you get a black screen when booting.  This may be attributed to the fact that the default values, as read from the chip bridges, are used at the instant of power on, before reading the BIOS value.  A way to get around this is to change the default core voltage from 1.75V to 1.85V.  How do you do this you ask?  A way to get around this is to change the default core voltage from 1.75V to 1.85V.  How do you do this you ask?  Just as you connected the L1 bridges, you should now do the same to the L7 bridges.  There are 5 L7 bridges, and the default setting of 1.75V is to have 4 bridges closed, leaving the center bridge open.  By closing that middle bridge the same way you did the L1 bridges, your default core voltage is now 1.85V. This should give the boost needed at power on.  Your voltage setting in the BIOS is then read and set.  You can see a picture of the L7 bridges here.  

Click on Picture for larger image

I hope this guide answered your questions about overclocking in general, and specifically about doing so with Socket-A chipsets and processors.  Overclocking is a great way to get more performance out of your processor.  As long as you take the steps to keep your processor cool, you will have a more powerful computer for less money.        

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