I'm about to buy an AMD Duron processor and I'm looking forward to overclock it.
I have read several reviews from people that have successfully overclocked a Duron 600 to 900 MHz, thus saving lots of money and getting an outrageous gain of 300 MHz.
If I buy a Duron 800, however, would I also be able to get a gain of 300 MHz? I don't think so. I suppose a processor has a limit because of its architecture, right? I think I would be unable to push it beyond 900 MHz, so I would gain only 100 MHz and have the same final speed than the person that bought a Duron 600 and saved a lot of money.
For example, I can't overclock my K6-2 500 any higher than 560, because that's the average maximum speed of _ANY_ K6-2. So I've only got a gain of 60 MHz. Other people who bought a K6-2 450, however, have been able to push it to 550 or even 560, so they are getting the same speed as me by having paid much less. And that's just because the processor itself can't go any faster than 560 approximately.
So the question is: Should I buy a Duron 600/700 and get it to 900 MHz or a Duron 800? What speed would I be able to push the Duron 800 to with no problems? If you were me, which one would you choose?
Imagine that if I could get the same gain of 300 MHz people can get out of a Duron 600, I could push a Duron 800 to 1100, and I think that's ridiculous, I'm almost sure I would be unable to do it. I think a Duron has a limit itself, and that's why it's not currently being sold in speeds higher than 800 MHz.
I'll really appreciate any advice or comments you may have regarding this matter.
I have heard of people getting 600 Durons up to 1100 or around there(with modifications and extreme cooling). So 900 is not really the limit of the core. I would say get at least the 700 and try pushing it to a gig. I'm pretty sure the 800 would do it fairly easy.
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So if people have been able to push a Duron 600 to 1 GHz (a 400 MHz gain), do you think I could get a Duron 800 to 1.2 GHz?
I think I should be really lucky... Maybe a Duron 700 would be the best choice?
By the way, I've read messages talking about the color of the core of Durons, and since I've never seen one myself, would you please tell me where to look for this color and what color is the best?
I think the sweet spot would be the 700. It will most likely hit 1Gig without a problem as long as you have good cooling, probably even more than a gig. If you want to make sure you get to a gig, go with the 800. And NO, I dont think an 800 would do 1.2Gig, not very easily anyway.
As for the colors of the cores, they are either blue or green. If I'm not mistaken the blue ones are from Dresden, Germany and the Green ones are from Austin, Texas. The blue ones being the best. Dont hold me to that, but I am pretty sure. You might want to get conformation from someone else also. The core color is impossible to miss. Just look at the middle part of the CPU and tilt it till you see either blue or green.
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For example, I can't overclock my K6-2 500 any higher than 560, because that's the average maximum speed of _ANY_ K6-2. So I've only got a gain of 60 MHz. Other people who bought a K6-2 450, however, have been able to push it to 550 or even 560, so they are getting the same speed as me by having paid much less. And that's just because the processor itself can't go any faster than 560 approximately.
I know a lot of 500's that went to 600mhz without to much trouble. My 550 is running happily at 600mhz as well. It would go higher, but the mobo is maxed. The K6/2's reach 600-630mhz with proper cooling and a good set up. Anyways, about your main question............
If I buy a Duron 800, however, would I also be able to get a gain of 300 MHz? I don't think so. I suppose a processor has a limit because of its architecture, right? I think I would be unable to push it beyond 900 MHz, so I would gain only 100 MHz and have the same final speed than the person that bought a Duron 600 and saved a lot of money.
Most people are easily going past 900mhz wothout to much trouble. In fact, the newer Durons are commonly reaching 1000mhz with proper cooling. It all depends on how lucky you are. There are Duron 600's reaching 1000+ quite often. I think that the 800 Duron should go to 1000 pretty easy. I picked the 700 myself and only got lucky enough to get to 950mhz. Luck of the draw....
Imagine that if I could get the same gain of 300 MHz people can get out of a Duron 600, I could push a Duron 800 to 1100, and I think that's ridiculous, I'm almost sure I would be unable to do it. I think a Duron has a limit itself, and that's why it's not currently being sold in speeds higher than 800 MHz.
I think 1100 is stretching it a little, but 1000mhz is not out of the question. Also, the Duron is not being sold in speeds higher than 800 because there is currently no competition for the 800! The Celeron can't keep up, and with no competition, why go higher in speeds yet???
Should I buy a Duron 600/700 and get it to 900 MHz or a Duron 800? What speed would I be able to push the Duron 800 to with no problems? If you were me, which one would you choose?
If I was doing it again, (and I will be shortly! ) I would go for the Duron 800 and try for 1000-1050mhz using air cooling. I would look at the MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus boards. I like my Abit KT7 RAID, but it seems to need a little more TLC than other boards I've used. My next will be the Asus A7V for the hell of it. That way I can Make my own comparisons.........
Nice combo. The MSI K7T-pro2 gets good marks too, it's supposedly the most stable socket-A out there, or at least that's what I've seen.
If it was me (and it might be soon enough) I'd go with the 700; I'd highly doubt the core of a 700 is any different from a 750. You'd be paying for a speed grade that you should be able to achieve easily on your own. You'll be unlocking the multiplier anyway, so why bother? The 800 is kind of an "insurance" buy; maybe you won't be able to O/C very far, but the stock speed isn't all bad. The 700 is kind of the sweet spot.
I don't think there's any difference in the cores. All Durons have an aluminum interconnect. I believe the reason some of the T-birds have different colored cores is because some are fabbed at Dresden where they use a copper interconnect.
As for your setup, with a little luck you could probably hit 1 ghz. If not, 900-950 is certainly reasonable.
*Remember: You may not get any increase! It depends on the chip. If you get a bum one, you may have to be happy at default speed.
These are conservative and based on a common o/c of 150-200mhz. You should be able to get more with proper cooling and luck, but these speeds should be easily attainable.
As for core color, the way I understand it, the "green" cores were earlier releases. Recently, the Austin Fab started using a new polisher which causes the "blue" core similar in appearance to the Dresden cores. That is what I've heard anyways!
Anyways, I wanted to add that I have a "blue" core 700 that went to 950mhz pretty easily with 1.85v core, but it runs hot as a firecracker. It is stable at 950, but very hard to keep cool. It is happiest at 904mhz using 113mhz FSB with an 8x multiplier running a core voltage of 1.7v. It is very stable here and a lot easier to cool!
Alos, the memory bandwidth and overall performance is much better at 113*8(904) than at 100*9.5(950) so that is where it currently is running.
I have a Duron 600 on an A7V and it runs nice and smooth @ 1010 MHz and 1.74V core.
It also does it on 1.7 but less stable ... I think that voltage is rather low for 1.01 Gig but it does nicely ! And I'm still topping temps of 50-51°C sometimes depending on room temp (FOP32-1)
I don't think there's much difference between a 600 and a 700 core anyway (if any)
I would estimate you can get every duron wether it's a 600 --> 800 to 900-950 MHz for sure . And with a tad of luck you'll hit 1 Gig easily . If you want to be virtually sure you'll get the Gig the 800 is the way to go . But recently manufactured 600's are very likely to make it too I think ...
About my Duron , strangely I can't get it much higher ... i've had it on 1.85V / 1050 MHz but that wasn't totally stable , and too hot to run with my case closed. So even though I have plenty of headroom in the voltage department , my chip isn't comfy on anything above 1020 .
Arrrr well i'm not complaining about a 55$/1GHz CPU :-))
DuronDude
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Listen to these guys more than me, they've got real-world experience with this processor. I'm basically repeating what I've seen.
You might get unlucky and receive a bum processor; no guarantees! But 900-950 seems a common overclock with this chip.
The temps around 50-51 deg. C don't surprise me much; my "classic" Athlon would hit that (and sometimes more) over the summer when it got really hot outside. Now it is much cooler Either way, invest your money in a good heatsink/fan--GlobalWins, Alphas get good marks. I've seen some people running those copper shims and knocking off another degree or so with those, but I don't know how useful they really are, other than insurance against cracking your core.
I run my duron 700@850 with default vcore. Temps run at 26C and 36C. With a globalwin fop38 and two 120mm 85cfm case fans. It booted and ran fine at 1059.42.
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) I would go for the Duron 800 and try for 1000-1050mhz using air cooling. I would look at the MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus boards. I like my Abit KT7 RAID, but it seems to need a little more TLC than other boards I've used. My next will be the Asus A7V for the hell of it. That way I can Make my own comparisons.........
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