Factory unlocked

[nukes]

Are they still pushing out Factory unlocked TBreds, or was that just when they first came out?
I'm looking to buy another, and was wondering if its likely to be unlocked like my other one was? (currently running at 2150mhz @ 1.75v)
BTW What's a safe voltage for a 1700XP Tbred B? I've got a coolermaster X dream on it and lots of case fans. Temps atm stay around 43 at full load. (that's at 1.75v btw)

Thanks in advance!

[rpertusio]

As far as I know, they are still unlocked. It is the Bartons that are now starting to be locked. (I would double check that though.) You can unlock it manually if it is locked :-p I've manually set my 1700+ Tbred at a higher multiplier.

Safe voltage for 1700+ Tbred B? Default voltage of course! If you want to be technical, the processor can *theoretically* go up to 2.0v as per spec. I have run my 1700+ Tbred B overclocked for 9+ months now, at a voltage of 1.775v to 1.850v. I ran it at 1.900v for a short period of time.. to try and get my 'maximum' overclock (about 2350mhz).

If you're trying to get years and years out of your 1700+, then maybe a higher voltage (than 1.75v) isn't such a good idea.

- rp

[Jeordiewhite]

Robrich posted a nice article on modifying your barton core.
However what do you mean they are unlocked? My athlon xp 1800+ was locked and had to mod the l2 bridges to get it to overclock.
However I just used the ram multiplier to overclock it.

[Xtreeme]

"However I just used the ram multiplier to overclock it."

Wha? How does changing your mem multi (or ratio)increase the cpu mhz? Do you mean the Front Side Bus?

[Jeordiewhite]

Yes that's what I meant, however I am still wondering about the cpu being unlocked?

[nukes]

Sometimes you get a chip that was unlocked from the factory, that is to say there is no need to mess around with the bridges to change the multiplier in the BIOS.
So far I've got it to about 2200mhz, but I get MCE errors on the console. I'm not sure what to do about this, as everything works fine, it will crunch FAD all day long with temps in the low 40's. However I'm not sure what to make of these errors. Are they something to worry about or can I just boot with nomce and forget about it?

[Jeordiewhite]

Have you tried running a stress test like prime95 to see if your computer is stable? You may run into data corruption if it is pushed too high and your getting errors.

[jmichna]

Originally posted by Jeordiewhite
...However what do you mean they are unlocked? My athlon xp 1800+ was locked and had to mod the l2 bridges to get it to overclock....

(At least some of the) XP1700 and XP1800 TBred-As were manufactured and sold unlocked. My daughter's Athlon T-Bred A (AXDA1800DLT3C, 4119227250163, AIUGA0241MPM) is lower multiplier (13.0 and below) unlocked from the factory. We've run it all kinds of multipliers on an EPoX KT333 chipset mobo (8K5A2+).

[nukes]

This one works fine with the 13x and 13.5x multipliers.
As to the errors, they're reported as non-fatal and correctable, and the system keeps running fine. I reckon its just the ecc for the cache doing its job. Its only when I set the cpu to > 2.27ghz that it won't boot without putting the voltage up to like 1.825, which I don't want to do. it runs fine as a 2600+ (the speed is actually closer to a 2700+, but that's what it posts as)
As to stressing the system; its compiled the ENTIRE operating system from source (Gentoo stage 1) and has been running FAD since it finished the "emerge system" step.
If you could point out a linux version of superpi or prime95 I'd give it a go, but googling doesn't turn up much .
Sorry for not mentioning that I was running linux, I just figured you would have guessed that from me mentioning kernel options and 'the console'
Thanks again.