Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/06/16/how_the_hell_do_you/

How the hell… do you overclock the AMD T'bird?

The screwdrivers are out

By Fuad Abazovic

Posted in Channel, 16th June 2000 07:52 GMT

Well that didn't take long: K7oc has successfully overclocked the new Athlon Thunderbird, cranking up the speed from 700MHz to 850MHz. You can read the review here.

That certainly removes one question mark over the New Athlon - as the Thunderbird is now officially known.
Many overclockers were anxious that the capability to overclock the chip would be severely curtailed.

The New Athlon is found only with Slot A processors - and the implication for overclockers is that they could not get cranking up using simple chips -as OEMs would sell these as part of complete system solutions.

Instead they would have to buy a complete system, to take advantage of regular GFDs (Golden Finger Devices).

Certainly, there is more potential for overclocking with the New Athlon. The Slot A version of Thunderbird looks just like a regular Athlon, but without cache chips on the sides of processor PCB (remember, the New Athlon has on die cache).

This could make one infer that the New Athlon is more overclockable then regular Athlons - just like it was (or was supposed to be) with Pentium III CuMine processors.

AMD refutes this supposition - it declares that such devices cannot be produced because of technical reasons.

But then it said exactly the same thing about so-called Slocket adaptors.

I understand that some European factories are testing a Slocket adapter for the New Athlon, and I'm told they should hit the streets in six weeks or so. But there is still some mystery - is this adaptor going to have AIC (Athlon internal connector), the connector which was mainly used to attach this Athlon overclocking device?

Soon we can expect to see some solutions for the Socket A processor and, if it's possible to make a Slocket converter. This would also probably include support for AMD's cheapo Duron processor.

So let's be optimistic that we will see such solutions. It would be a shame to see a great tradition wither away. ®