AMD Athlon Buyer's Guide - Part 2: Overclocking

Summary

The overclocking options offered by the Athlon are tremendous, and they help the performance user tweak every last bit of power out of their system. Simply increasing the clock multiplier is the most effective way to obtain a performance increase, but when limits such as the L2 cache come into play then, at times, this isn't possible. The 1/3 L2 cache frequency divider is a viable option as well, since the performance drop is negligible. This option is also an indication that the future Athlon CPUs with a 2/5 L2 cache divider won't sacrifice too great of a performance loss since the 2/5 divider will still place the L2 cache at a higher frequency than the 1/3 divider does. A full speed L2 cache would still be preferred, but that's some time away, at least for now.

As for possible Athlon overclocking options, Trinity Micro's solution is a fairly decent one. The only real problem we found with it was that it prevents the use of certain coolers, such as the MC1000, which we reviewed a while back. If anything would make the perfect addition to a modified Athlon, it would be a peltier cooler capable of driving temperatures well below zero.

It's only a matter of time before do-it-yourself kits emerge for the Athlon, either by offering tips on soldering or by taking advantage of the Athlon's unique feature connector at the top of the PCB. It's about time that AMD leaked the data sheets on that connector.

Part 3 of this guide will focus on finding the best video card for your new Athlon system, so keep your eyes peeled for that addition to this series.

Be sure to read Part 1 of our Athlon Buyer's Guide