Thanks to AOpen i975Xa-YDG mainboard we managed to conduct a number of overclocking experiments on our Intel Core Duo T2600 processor. Overclocking proved to have significantly raised the performance of this mobile dual-core processor so that we could place it on the same level with the fastest Intel Pentium Extreme Edition and AMD Athlon 64 FX processors.
We have checked that right away when we started overclocking our Intel Core Duo T2600 CPU. By raising the Vcore just a little bit ? up to 1.4V ? we got our CPU to run at 2.6GHz set as 13x200MHz. Of course, we knew that this processor can do even better. However, AOpen i975Xa-YDG allows to continue CPU overclocking beyond 200MHz FSB frequency only after you perform a few tricks. Namely, you have to reset two jumpers on the mainboard PSB.
Once the jumpers have been set to allow access to higher FSB frequencies, the BIOS Setup of AOpen i975Xa-YDG increases the supported frequency range from 200MHz to 320MHz.
So, we continued our overclocking experiments. With the Vcore set to 1.4V, our gradual overclocking stopped at 210MHz FSB frequency. Further frequency increase resulted into unstable system operation. However, we couldn?t possible be satisfied with this result, so we raised the processor core voltage by another bit ? to 1.5V. However before we proceeded, we decided to replace the default cooler with a more solid-looking boxed cooler for the top Socket 478 Pentium 4 processors, which was definitely more efficient. Since AOpen i975Xa-YDG mainboard uses a standard Socket 478 cooler retention mechanism, the cooling system that we chose is ?relatively? compatible with the board, as we have already mentioned above.
Once the cooler had been replaced, we managed to increase the FSB frequency to 231MHz. At this speed the CPU remained stable, however if the FSB frequency rose at least 1MHz higher, stability was gone. So, the maximum frequency we managed to get our Core Duo T2600 work at was 13x231MHz=3.0GHz.
X-bit Labs
Once the jumpers have been set to allow access to higher FSB frequencies, the BIOS Setup of AOpen i975Xa-YDG increases the supported frequency range from 200MHz to 320MHz.
So, we continued our overclocking experiments. With the Vcore set to 1.4V, our gradual overclocking stopped at 210MHz FSB frequency. Further frequency increase resulted into unstable system operation. However, we couldn?t possible be satisfied with this result, so we raised the processor core voltage by another bit ? to 1.5V. However before we proceeded, we decided to replace the default cooler with a more solid-looking boxed cooler for the top Socket 478 Pentium 4 processors, which was definitely more efficient. Since AOpen i975Xa-YDG mainboard uses a standard Socket 478 cooler retention mechanism, the cooling system that we chose is ?relatively? compatible with the board, as we have already mentioned above.
Once the cooler had been replaced, we managed to increase the FSB frequency to 231MHz. At this speed the CPU remained stable, however if the FSB frequency rose at least 1MHz higher, stability was gone. So, the maximum frequency we managed to get our Core Duo T2600 work at was 13x231MHz=3.0GHz.
X-bit Labs
