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Review:
Abit
BX 6 Revision 2.0 7.25.99
What's overclocking? People all over the world are introduced to PC’s and the Internet every day. And most of them are pretty illiterate when it comes to how a computer works. Unfortunately, when they go through message boards, sometimes they're met with the all too common computer-genius who brings up terminology they're completely unfamiliar with. One of the most common is in regard to the dark art of overclocking. Overclocking is, in layman's terms, making your processor run faster than originally intended. For example, someone with a Pentium 350 may be able to change a couple of settings and end up with a PC running at 400 MHz. However, CPU manufacturers do not condone such actions, and they can significantly shorten the life of any given processor. If you haven't been scared away
by the preceding paragraph, then perhaps it's time to go more
in depth on overclocking, and the equipment for successfully
doing it. What we used Aside from the BX6, we needed
a processor that was more than at home in an overclocked environment.
Finding the right part took little work; the Celeron 300/A has
proven itself to be one of the most highly overclockable CPU’s
on the market today. They’ve been known to run at speeds
as high as 450 MHz, so it was a no-brainer when it was time
to choose. The next thing we needed was something to keep
the CPU cool. And since we’re on a limited budget, we
didn’t go with anything fancy. A simple Celeron fan/heatsink
combo was purchased. The Test To test the ability of the BX6 under a multitude of conditions, we used several BUS speeds and voltage settings. But first, an initial run at the original 300 MHz speed was done to make sure everything was in working order. Needless to say, there were no problems. Next, we upped the processor speed to 374 MHz by adjusting the System BUS to 83 MHz. Once again, the system ran flawlessly. However, successfully reaching 450 MHz got a little tricky. While the processor posted on the BIOS screen, it simply could not make it into Windows. It was obvious that other settings would have to be modified. Here’s where Soft Menu becomes
a Godsend. Instead of having to take off the case and
mindlessly move around jumpers, we simply went into the program
and changed the voltage from 2.0 to 2.1. Unfortunately,
the results weren’t much different: error messages and correction
faults were still popping up left and right. Being the
troopers that we are, though, we pressed on. The voltage
was moved to 2.2, and we finally made it into Windows.
However, it was still unstable and locked-up frequently.
Down to our final option, we cranked the setting up to 2.3 volts
(the highest anyone should attempt to run a Celeron) and ended
up getting an operating system that was fairly stable, but when
running games the computer became unreliable. Not willing
to stop there, we took off the cover of the case, went down
to the basement and grabbed an old house fan, then aimed it
directly at the motherboard and turned our machine on.
And while that may seem a little extreme, it worked. The
test rig was finally running stable at 450 MHz. Why would I want to overclock? By now, most people probably
think that overclocking is nuts. However, for the most
part, it isn’t nearly as arduous as described above. The
374 MHz setting should be more than enough to satisfy most people.
But for some, the question of why anyone would want to overclock
still remains. The answer? Not everyone has the
money to upgrade their existing processor, so making it run
a little faster than it should buys a little more time, and
usually allows the CPU to run games and applications which were
previously just too slow.
Why should I get a BX6? You don’t necessarily need a
BX6 to successfully overclock your PC. However, it is
highly recommended that you use one. Not only are they
extremely stable, they’are made for running CPU’s at a higher
spec., which makes them an ideal choice. --- Conclusion ---
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