Help needed, buying a XP2500+

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 9:46 am

I need to know where on the CPU one locats the productiondate?

If anyone know, please help me, I need to buy a new CPU...

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 12:34 pm

Look at this huge image.
It is my processor, and it happens to be an XP2500+.
The bottom row where it says 0336 is the production date.
03=Year 2003
36=Week 36

I guess you are looking for an unlocked multiplier. So 0339 is good 0340 and later is bad.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 4:15 pm

Thanks.

SO, if I end up being forced to buy one of these lemons, what are my options? Hardwire the multiplayer by the bridges? I don´t usually run overclocked, but it would be nice to have the ability...

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 4:57 pm

Hi Tobias, as far as I know the locked multipliers are just that. Locked inside the chip with no way round it, like Intel chips. (I may be wrong and someone's found a way) This means you overclock by increasing the FSB (front side bus). 2500s run 1833MHz, 11x166FSB (333 as it's double pumped) Many 2500s will run at 2200MHz, 11x200 (400) which is the speed the 3200 runs at. An nForce motherboard is preferred as they can fix the AGP/PCI speed while increasing the FSB. They give best performance when running the memory "in sync" ie at the same speed as the FSB. If you aim for 200FSB (400) you'd want DDR400 (PC3200) memory, 216FSB would be DDR433 (PC3500).
I have a (locked) 2500 in nForce2 mobo with DDR400 memory and it's fine overclocked to a 3200. Except my Zalman 7000 is "lost in the post" so it's rather loud.
Seb

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 2:13 am

But you can still mess with the bridges on the CPU and let the mobo and the chip believe that it is default som other multiplayer. I mean, since the mobo and chip is scanning the bridges of the chip to get the information about what clock/multiplayer/Vcore/FSB the chip should use default, a change in the bridges must mean a changed multiplayer, even if it is not unlocked and can be changed via bios. (A hardware-mod, that is...)

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 4:05 am

The FSB is never locked, so you can change that freely if your motherboard allows it. Preferably if you have a motherboard that lets you set FSB in 1 MHz steps.

If you modify the bridges of the CPU (AMD only) you will unlock the multiplier, so you can choose your multiplier in BIOS. I remember that I saw a link in this forum to a great manual on how to unlock the multiplier.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 5:10 am

About unlocking multipliers..

http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/html/AXP_multi ... iplier.htm

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 5:41 am

Actually this is the site I had in mind.

rp · Post by rp » Mon Jan 19, 2004 7:38 am

Unless everyone at overclockers.com are complete morons, then the new Bartons are LOCKED HARD, as in Intel style. So you can cut and join bridges from now until eternity, its still going to be locked.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 7:51 am

Well, the article posted by Mats seems to suggest that as long as the L1 bridges all are connected, the multiplayer can be overridden by the mobo and this is supported by the fact that on all the sample-pics posted show all L1-bridges connected.

I have been checking around in the computerstores in town today and looked specifically at the L1-bridges, and on the new 2500+ half of the pins in the bridge doesn´t seem to be connected to anything at all, and if that is correct, RP is right, you can cut and join brigdes till eternity.

Question is, is it still possible to change the default multiplayer so the chip will think it is 12*166 instead of 11*166? (for instance)

Bailey · Post by **Bailey** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 8:37 am

Unless everyone at overclockers.com are complete morons, then the new Bartons are LOCKED HARD, as in Intel style. So you can cut and join bridges from now until eternity, its still going to be locked.

Yep, just check this thread - they tried everything. If there's something they missed I'm sure they'd like to hear about it!

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php? ... did=245742

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 3:54 pm

Unless everyone at overclockers.com are complete morons, then the new Bartons are LOCKED HARD, as in Intel style. So you can cut and join bridges from now until eternity, its still going to be locked.

Yep, just check this thread - they tried everything. If there's something they missed I'm sure they'd like to hear about it!

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php? ... did=245742

In a way, you're both right. But maybe they haven't made their own software like these guys had:

http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/html/Tweaks.htm

It is now confirmed desktop to mobile mod and L6 change work also on post week 39/2003 superlocked CPUs. On those CPUs, startup multiplier can not be changed (L3 bridges are blocked on those) but you can set multiplier by software to a new value as you wish. There are some articles about this on various web sites.

It seems like you can't use nvidia for this kind of software.

I haven't tried it myself though.

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 4:30 am

It seems that I was wrong in my earlier post where I said that you could unlock the multiplier of locked AMD's. You simply can't (at least not by just opening/closing bridges).
What you can do is modify bridges to make your CPU register as a mobile CPU. Once you got a "mobile CPU" it is possible to change multiplier by software.
To my knowledge there is only one software that can do this at the moment, and the goal is to make this similar to mobil computers speedstep technology.
Time will tell if it works as expected.

The nice thing I read is that you could get an Applebread CPU and modify the bridges to make it a Barton. Only difference is that part of the L2 cache is disabled on the Applebread by default.
Did I understand this correctly or is there anything that would differ between a modded Applebread and a Barton?

Justin_R · Post by **Justin_R** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 8:52 pm

Rather than trying to find an unlocked 2500+, why not try and get a Mobile 2400+ (or other mobile CPU). From what I've read, they're all unlocked. They also run at lower voltage and have a higher max temperature than regular Bartons. And (at newegg anyway), they're not really any more expensive than a regular Barton.

The only speed difference in terms of their stock configuration is that the default speed is 13.5 x 133 for the Mobile 2400+, while the stock 2500+ is 11 x 166. Since the mobiles are unlocked, though, you should be able to set it to whatever you like. No bridges, no pin mods, no software, no invalidating your warranty. Of course, your motherboard has to play nice with Mobile CPUs, but this seems to be true more often than not.

HammerSandwich · Post by **HammerSandwich** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 9:11 pm

silvervarg wrote:Did I understand this correctly or is there anything that would differ between a modded Applebread and a Barton?

No and yes. The Applebred is actually a Thoroughbred core with some disabled L2 cache. As you mentioned, people have been activating this cache with some success, but it will never match a Barton's 512k.

Harry Azol · Post by **Harry Azol** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 10:45 pm

I think he was thinking of the thorton

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 1:06 am

Well, the 2400+ mobile is actually available here, or at least, it can be ordered... might be worth a shot. I was thinking thinking a thoroughbred 2600+ as an alternative. Hmmm, gotta think about it a little while...

I don´t think I am going to run the CPU at stock speed anyway, but it is always good to have some headroom:)

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 1:32 am

Harry Azol:
I think he was thinking of the thorton

Thanks Harry, yes I was thinking about the Thorton.
So lets try the question again.
Will a Thorton with modded bridges to enable the disabled cache be a Barton or is there any other difference?