AMD K6-2... Can I overclock it?? Help appreciated!

Firegod · 15 May 2006 at 16:29

Alrite guys n gals,

My mate gave me an old PC for free as he was just going to throw it away, so I couldn't let that happen. I've cleaned it all up and re-built it today and it turns out its running an AMD K6-2 550Mhz CPU (woo!) with 128Mb SDRAM, a 20Gb Seagate Hdd, a 145w PSU and a DVD-ROM. Not too shabby for free!

So I've put in a 10/100 NIC which I had lying around and if all goes well I'll buy a nice 64Mb PCI graphics card or something and some more RAM for it.

/excited mode on

Now the fun part..... can I overclock this old K6-2 (Socket 7) CPU?

It states 2.3v Core on the CPU and the model is "A 0014MPMW". I don't know if perhaps if this means anything?

Many Many Many Many Thanks!

/excited mode off! (so sad

)

basmic · 15 May 2006 at 16:42

I don't think you can increase the multiplier any more - I think 5.5x is the highest you can go.

Best you can do is up the FSB, step-by-step - if it crashes increase the voltage, but not too much. I think there's a large jump in most Socket 7 motherboards, ie: 2,2v, 2.3 then 2.6v, 2.7v, etc. I've ran them at 2.6v happily before.

What motherboard you running it on?

Firegod · 15 May 2006 at 16:51

basmic said:
I don't think you can increase the multiplier any more - I think 5.5x is the highest you can go.

Best you can do is up the FSB, step-by-step - if it crashes increase the voltage, but not too much. I think there's a large jump in most Socket 7 motherboards, ie: 2,2v, 2.3 then 2.6v, 2.7v, etc. I've ran them at 2.6v happily before.

What motherboard you running it on?

Cool thanks for that, so 2.6v should be considered ok. What temps can these CPU's do again? Is it around the 80 degree's mark? It's higher than, for example, A64 which is roughly 60 degree's on air cooling.

The motherboard I'm not too sure what it is. The PC is from an actual company, so it's not like Asus, or MSI on the board, etc. It runs a VIA chipset though (VT8501 Northbridge and VT82C686A Southbridge) and it has an AWARD bios chip. I'll see what happens when I boot it up now!

m3csl2004 · 15 May 2006 at 16:53

if you set the multiplyer to 2 is will read as 6

utherpendragon · 15 May 2006 at 17:35

increasing the multipolier is by the far the better option, and try to keep the fsb as close to 66mhz as possible (75mhz absolute maximum), as it will be overclocking every bus in the computer (pci, etc)

m3csl2004 · 15 May 2006 at 18:15

the 550 chips were 100 fsb

Mikebert4 · 15 May 2006 at 19:48

I was playing with my Old K6-2 quite some time ago, and the biggest thing is watching the PCI/AGP bus speeds,k as they go up with FSB. Keep the FSB around 100 (up to about 120 max) as was mentioned before. I blew my PCI bus at around 127 FSB, so be careful, except from that, i managed to get 800Mhz core speed, and that was happy at 2.7v with slightly beefier cooler (still air though) I tried to keep the core temp below 80'C though I think it's safe-ish up to around 90. (don't quote me on that, blowing up components is a regular occurance in my house)

That aside, good luck to ya! noting like blowing the **** out of old PC bits!

Properly disguise your swearing.

Otacon

utherpendragon · 15 May 2006 at 19:57

ooops been a long time forgot about that. The locks will be activated at both 33mhz and 66mhz, but the majority of the time,m on super socket 7 boards the 100mhz speed syncs the bus speed.

mmj_uk · 15 May 2006 at 22:04

they didn't overclock well at all i'm afraid, you'll be EXTREMELY lucky to get anywhere near 600MHz; and even if you do they still sucked balls for gaming since the FPU was so weak.

I think Celeron 300's were probably better for gaming.

InSanCen · 15 May 2006 at 22:23

For a bit of extra cooling, a Socket A Heatsink will usually clip on it, but it'll be a beatch to get back off again... I had a Golden Orb (I know, I know), and FatRakoon put it on a 550... can't remember what he got it up to in the end... I'll point him in this Direction though...

Firegod · 16 May 2006 at 20:46

Cheers guys, somehow I never got emails to say I had replies. :rolleyes:

I've decided to put the PC up for sale on the forum, I decided not to mess on oc'ing it in the end.

Always next time though when I find another old PC!

Splint · 17 May 2006 at 19:03

sale?! lol i wouldnt even pay the p&p

Fulcrum · 17 May 2006 at 19:51

I had one of these 6 years ago and it was a good rig, the heatsink fell off and it didnt die as I remember so I used a kitchen fan shoved into the side of the case, jobs a goodun. 550 was top of the line for this series I think and dont remember anyone overclocking them too well, celeron was the star of the time.

They worked fine in games for me, half life was good and driver and anything else I tried. An entire rig of this age will be worth less then 100, best deal would be done local I think. Give it to a relative?