yes UNDERclocking...

I was having some stability issues when doing high cpu operations like nuvexport. Essentially the machine would freeze after a long period of work. When I checked the temp on my mobo bios it was about 57 celcius

I replaced the CPU fan and thermal goo. I also added an additional case fan, this did not help very much with the stability in nuvexport although it did lower the working temp a bit.

I have an Athlon 1333 Mhz CPU on an Abit KT7A mobo w/ 640 MBs of ram. By my understanding, Athlons are known to run a bit hot.

In the end, I ended up UNDERclocking the chip through the bios settings. I am currently running the chip at 1100 Mhz. Naturally at this setting, the CPU is receiving less voltage. This has had a really dramatic effect on the stability of my machine without a significant performance penalty. Underclocking might also be a good way to cut down on the noise from fans.

Not being funny but... get rid of the Athlon.

Athlon CPU's of that era ran icredibly hot and were pretty unstable anyway.

I'm using a P3 -933MHz for my set top box, and its completely glitch free and has a somewhat small heatsink and fan on it.

As for wanting to underclock your chip, remember the CPU multiplier id locked in the processor, you'll probably need to reduce you FSB rate for a successful underclock.

athlons are all ive run in my comany (55 clients). they are rock solid, and run cool. or about what then p4 equivilants run. Athalons are what are in my box.. 3000+ Anyway i just i'd give my 2 cents and defend my friend the AMD.


Care enough to give the very best.... AMD

To be fair hottest processor "honors" seesaw back and forth. The Dual Athlon box under my desk at work is like an electric heater (the CPU temps hover around 52-54C), and the current Intel Prescott chips can do double duty as hotplates in a geeks apartment. However both the P5-3.0 (Northwood) and the Athlon XP +2500 (Barton) in my home machines run comfortably in the 35-45C range.

I read an article a little while ago about underclocking for the purpose of getting rid of the heatsink fan, on the athlon the guy was testing he could run without a heatsink fan at about 2/3 clock speed or lower. He had unlocked the clock frequency on the athlon though so the fsb was at full speed, so performance was at around 80%. I'm thinking of doing the same as soon as I have money for something faster than my athlon 750.