AMD Duron Overclocking Guide

AMD Duron Overclocking Guide

AMD's new Duron processor is an overclockers delight; cheap, fast and fairly easy to squeeze more power out of it. [I say 'fairly', because it isnt all that simple.]

If you are thinking about going down the Duron road, and you are interested in overclocking it, you might want to read this guide first.

Now, if you aren't prepared to fiddle about with the CPU to overclock it, then don’t bother buying a Duron. Get yourself a slower, more expensive Celeron. Oh! And don't forget that by overclocking the Celeron you run the risk of damaging other components in your computer because of the high PCI bus. I should know, I used to have a Celeron and I broke my hard drive after a while because of this problem.

Anyway, getting back to the Duron. Lets start by finding out what hardware you need. I bought myself a shiny new Duron 750 from Dabs. I also got a hold of an Abit KT7 (non-RAID) from Insight. I've heard some excellent reviews of the alternative from Asus, the A7V, but I finally chose the Abit because of the brilliant Soft Menu feature, which saves you mucking about with jumpers or dipswitches on the actual motherboard.

Now, I already had everything else I needed for the system except for a good socket a heatsink/fan. So it was over to Overclockers.co.uk to check out their selection. I chose a Globalwin FOP32-1, and it cost me about £15 (excluding P&P).

Now, I am making the presumption that you already have a suitable ATX case, PSU, Video card etc. Now that's straight we can begin!

The Locked Duron

When you buy a new Duron, the sad fact is, is that it will be multiplier locked. For years now, Intel CPU's have been multiplier locked. This was introduced in the Pentium 2 range in an attempt to stop overclockers getting something for nothing out of Intel's processor range.

The Pencil Unlock

Many of you may have heard about the 'pencil trick', but you might not be sure about exactly how to do it, and what it does.

If you look closely at your Duron, you will see a set of 'bridges' - metal connections - labeled L1. And when you look even closer, you should also notice that the two sides of these L1 bridges are not connected together. These bridges are circles in the red, below.

When these CPU's are manufactured, a tiny laser cuts through these bridges, and BINGO, the CPU is multiplier locked. The simple way around this is to reconnect the bridges. And what could be a more widely available tool than a pencil?

I used the thinnest pencil I could lay my hands on - a 0.3mm HB Staedler Marsmicro pencil, bought from a local art/graphics shop. When you look at the L1 bridges, they should look like this:

Can you see where they are cut? Simply go over the bridges, connecting the top and bottom of the bridges as you go along. You might want to use a magnifying glass to get a better view. Be careful not to connect two bridges together, as this will 'short' the circuit. Don't worry too much if you do connect them be a mistake - just rub them out with an eraser!

The *

The next thing that needs covering is the heatsink. As I said before, I bought a Globalwin FOP32-1 from Overclockers.co.uk. The heatsink comes pre built in an ugly olive and white box, with a YS-TECH 2.16w fan clipped on.

I've had this fan before, and while I had slight reservations about the noise it makes, I can't complain about the job it does.

Now, you might be wondering, "Why the hell is he doing a section on a stupid heatsink?” The reason is, because I found it almost impossible to fit to the motherboard. The clip that comes with the heatsink/fan assembly is so stiff, that way too much force is needed to clip it on.

10 tries later and a very sore thumb, I gave up. I simply found a clip off an old heatsink and used that instead. I only mention all this to warn you about this shortcoming.

Heatsink Compound

Since I am aiming high with this CPU (1Ghz), I am going to need some heatsink compound to cool this monster down. I have used the stuff I had lying around the house. It's called "Servisol silicon heatsink compound", and it comes in a 25g tube.

Before you go any further, remove the little circular feet from the heatsink.

I've heard that "Artic Silver" heatsink compound is the business, but right now, it isn't at the top of my priority list.

Apply a 'splodge' of the stuff in the middle of the heatsink and spread it with a bit of paper so it forms a very thin layer over the centre part of the CPU. The next thing to do is to attach the heatsink/fan assembly and clip it to the motherboard. If you are anything like me, this might take a considerable amount of time.