For Sale: AMD XP3000+ for £45 ono

[TeaLeaf]

Don't be square, overclock a rectangle instead!

You were interested in a £500 XP3000+ for £45 right?  Then read on and I'll tell you where you can get one

If you make chips (the silicon type not the potato) then one of the ways to make them go faster is to make the pathways closer together (smaller process, i.e. AMD's 0.18u Palomino XP chip compared to the AMD's 0.13u Thoroughbred chip).  The AMD XP Thoroughbred is a good example of this as you can buy both Palomino or Thoroughbred CPUs with the same GHz rating, so I thought it was worth pulling together some of the things I have read about how good one particular type of Thoroughbred chip can be if you want to squeeze some extra juice out of it.     I have ignored the Barton in this posting because they are too expensive at the moment and the ability to pay less and get more performance appeals to me!

How do you know you have a Thoroughbred instead of a Palomino?
The outgoing 0.18u Palomino has a square cpu core.  The newer 0.13u Thoroughbred has a rectangular core.  The Throroughbred core has been issued in speeds right down to the XP1700+ (1.466GHz / 133FSB) and this slowest version is currently available for about £45.

AMD grade all of the silicon wafers used in the manufacture of their CPUs and obviously the purer wafers are destined for their high end processors.  However, from time to time their stock levels mean that they find themselves short of lower graded silicon wafers and with a slower processor speed order to fill.  So they use the high quality core originally destined for the 2800/3000+ CPUs to make a 1700+ CPU.  Now it stands to reason that if you could get hold of one of these CPUs then you are likely to be able to overclock it by a fairly considerable amount    And that is where knowing what the codes on the CPU mean comes in real handy.  The trouble is that so few retailers actually differentiate betweeen the different codes, but if  you find one that does then the CPU you are looking for is either a AMD XP1700 JIUHB or a AMD XP1700 AIUHB..  If you want to know what all of AMD codes are then have a look at AMD's CPU Code Guide which can be found here.

Hexus reviewed one such high quality silicon 1700+ CPU, the AMD XP1700 JIUHB.  They overclocked in three stages:

(1)  Choose a higher multiplier:  
Booting into a fresh Windows XP Pro installation they managed to get a stable running speed of 1869MHz (14 x 133.5FSB), all at a normal CPU voltage of 1.5v.   That makes the £45 CPU faster than the XP2200.

(2) Raise the FSB:
Raising the FSB by 5MHz at a time, they got 2.130GHz (faster than an XP2600+ and still only using normal Vcore of 1.5v).

(3) Raise the Vcore:
They managed to get the normal XP1700 JIUHB CPU successfully booted into Windows at 2.305GHz / 200FSB / dual channel memory with 2-6-2-2 timings, all with just 1.65v CPU voltage, 1.7v chipset voltage, and 2.7v DDR voltage.   That's faster than any CPU that AMD retail today.

£45 on an AMD XP1700 JIUHB is a heck of a sight cheaper than trying to buy a slower 2.167GHz XP3000+ Barton from a retailer for c.£500 or a 2.25GHz XP2800+ Thoroughbred for not a lot less!  Note: You will need a good nForce2 mobo and low latency dual channel DDR RAM (I recommend Corsair) to allow you to realise all of the above increases, but it does reinforce the sense in overclocking to gain the extra performance rather than spending the extra cash.  Using the above method Hexus got in excess of an extra 800Hz and made a 1700+ CPU go faster than any retail AMD CPU     Not bad going, huh?

Me?  I've bought one from here and it is going into a test rig Real Soon NowTM.  

But what are YOU going to do?

TL.  

[Doorman]

Done that. Next!

[albert]

You're justing me TL?

Buy one of these XP1700 OEM Thoroughbred cores JIUHB for £45, slap it on an nForce board and then..... what else, major levels of cooling or just a bog standard heatsink and fan for a XP300?

Give me more details, you have my attention as I was unfortunate enough to buy a 1600+ which does not come in the Thoroughbred version. And I was thinking about building a PC soon anyways.

Oh and I noticed on that web page you recommend:

XP2100 OEM Thoroughbred cores AIUHB for £75. Do you think the 2100 will overclock higher than thr 1700 or are they just using the same core quality and hence there would be no point in splashing out £30 more for the extra 400 AMD MHz?

 :lol:  

[smite]

Just bought a XP2200 thoroughbred does that mean i can get 4000+  

[albert]

Done that. Next!

Me too.  

[sheepy]

i dont have any money

any one wanna buy me one :?:

[smite]

no

[TeaLeaf]

You're justing me TL?

No.

Let me get my caveat in  :wink:   I am just reporting what I have read and discussed with others - I am becoming increasingly interested in the o/c world and this is just something that I thought was worthy of sharing with you peeps.  But if you go blow up or melt your components or entire system then it is YOUR fault not mine, OK?  Caveat emptor applies.    :onfire:

However, as my post said, I have not tried this particular o/c yet - but the sheer volume of source material out there in terms of commercial reviews, anecdotal evidence on o/c forums etc tells me that this can be done.  Just read the Hexus review and that should tell you enough!

Buy one of these XP1700 OEM Thoroughbred cores JIUHB for £45, slap it on an nForce board and then..... what else, major levels of cooling or just a bog standard heatsink and fan for a XP300?

According to many o/c haunts, 2GHz overclocks are being regularly achieved with air cooling only.  Obviously it is sensible to monitor your system temperatures as you overclock.  If you have a hot room or a component laden and badly ventilated case then you will need more cooling than most!  I have seen systems at 1.8GHz with cheap watercooling setups, right the way through to 3GHz+ systems on Prometias.  2GHz o/c is reported as very achieveable with good air cooling.  But each system is different and you need to watch your own temperatures and take appropriate steps accordingly.  According to the article the Hexus o/c results were on air cooling only - albeit with a big noisy Akasa cooling system stuck in there!

In addition, I read this afternoon that it is not just the nForce2 mobos that have done this o/c, however it apears to be the favourite - I am still researching this aspect of it though.

Give me more details, you have my attention as I was unfortunate enough to buy a 1600+ which does not come in the Thoroughbred version. And I was thinking about building a PC soon anyways.  Oh and I noticed on that web page you recommend: XP2100 OEM Thoroughbred cores AIUHB for £75. Do you think the 2100 will overclock higher than thr 1700 or are they just using the same core quality and hence there would be no point in splashing out £30 more for the extra 400 AMD MHz?

Like you I have been looking at building test rigs for o/c purposes.  My main interest is to try to get my knowledge of o/c to a level where my brain no longer thinks a Lian Li Prometia Mod kit is a crazy purchase  :lol:  I have only just come across this o/c information myself - in fact only days ago I bought a spare 2100 CPU from Smilo - but I have now bought a 1700 as well and will be playing with that first.

As for 'will a 2100 o/c any further than a 1700'.....well I am not a chip techie, but my understanding would say no it should not.  The principle is that these 1700's are cheap because they are sold as and set to 1700 clock frequencies etc.  BUT, and this is the crux of the matter, they are made using the exact same pathways and silicon wafers as the top of the range CPUs would have been.  So in theory, all you need to do to make a 1700 into a 3000 is change the clock freq, multipliers and Vcore, and then find something to spend the other £450 on.  BTW, £450 is almost exactly what an entire Prometia cooling system would cost - can see the logical path  that my manic brain is trying to take my wallet down?   So buying a 2100 CPU would just be wasting your money.

Hope this helps....

TL.  

[TeaLeaf]

Just bought a XP2200 thoroughbred does that mean i can get 4000+

No, see my above explanation.  

TL.  

[smite]

Just bought a XP2200 thoroughbred does that mean i can get 4000+

No, see my above explanation.  

TL.  [/b]

Was just kiddin..

Im not into the overclocking thing as it makes very little difference to what im interested in. Not having a dig at anyone else doing it though ........just my personal feeling.

[albert]

Cheers TL, I agree with you on the chances of o/c ing the 2100 any more than the 1700. They are the same chip, just set to a different clock rate.
 
I ordered one. I also quite fancied buying the Abit nForce mobo a few months ago as they came out so I think I will look into that one again.

Check this page out, one guy has done a nice bit of o/c on a 2100 chip and seems to get the same results as your reference got for the 1700.

http://www.pcclub.com/forum/messageview.cf...7&threadid=5688

I got a nice gfx card that can handle increased clock rates pretty well:

http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/engl...+Ti4200-8X+OTES

Check the close up by clicking on the box.

It has a pretty good cooling system and hardocp ( //www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzYy ) have an o/c test clocking it beyond the Ti4600 rate and the gpu still running stable. It's around £120 ( //www.komplett.co.uk) , not a bad price for Ti4600 performance.

[Doorman]

i dont have any money

any one wanna buy me one :?:

No. You'll only break it.

[Stryker]

tolerences is the name of the day.... FFS thats been the case since the day of valve amps, some valve amps were stonger some were weak.  Nothing has changed, only the complexity has risen...... just wait till silicone is second to polymer chips!  the day you get a 50Ghz chips and all the memory you ever wanted embedded into a credit card is something that is closer than you may imagine.

What I want is a way of identifying the chip while its mounted on my motherboar without having to remove the heatsink and goo just to read the serial number.  PS anyone who answers that correctly get a cock up the ass from oooh about 10 million geeks worldwide  :lol:

[TeaLeaf]

I got a nice gfx card that can handle increased clock rates pretty well: http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/engl...+Ti4200-8X+OTES

Check the close up by clicking on the box. It has a pretty good cooling system and hardocp ( //www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzYy ) have an o/c test clocking it beyond the Ti4600 rate and the gpu still running stable. It's around £120 ( //www.komplett.co.uk) , not a bad price for Ti4600 performance.

Nice choice, quite a few of the 4200s o/c very very well - and if this one has been set up like it says it has, then you ought to be able to get some serious o/c work done on it  

TL.  

[Anonymous]

What I want is a way of identifying the chip while its mounted on my motherboar without having to remove the heatsink and goo just to read the serial number.

Why have a CPU on a female pig?