keep or sell?

-mogwai · Post by **-mogwai** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 12:25 am

should i keep my p-m 760 or sell it?

if i sell it, i'd buy a p-m 730.

the only thing i'm worried about is if asus puts out a bios that will unlock the multipliers. should i hold my breath?

Post by **Apoptosis** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 2:23 am

All Intel Pentium M processors come unlocked from the factory.

-mogwai · Post by **-mogwai** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 5:16 am

Apoptosis wrote:All Intel Pentium M processors come unlocked from the factory.

really? i must have gotten confused. i thought someone told me the opposite.

in that case, why doesn't asus allow the user to unlock the multiplier?

Post by **Apoptosis** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 7:41 am

On the ASUS P-M adapter? They do on most newer BIOS's on the mainstream boards. Most clock gens will also allow you to change the multi on the fly.

-mogwai · Post by **-mogwai** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:48 am

*confused* then, how come the 730 overclocks better than everything else?

obviously, i'm a newb at this...

-mogwai · Post by **-mogwai** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:49 pm

audiophile wrote:*confused* then, how come the 730 overclocks better than everything else?

obviously, i'm a newb at this...

can anyone please help me on this? i'd like to learn more about why the 730 can overclock better than a 760. if the 730 starts at a lower clock than the 760, why would it overclock better (given the fact that the 760's multiplier can be lowered).

Post by **Apoptosis** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 8:39 pm

maybe a certain stepping likes higher voltages or something, but all processors are based off the same die so all "should" O/C the same.

Post by **Illuminati** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:46 pm

I don't know why the 730 overclocks better than the 760... but I just wanted to chime in and add to what Apop said...

The Pentium M's have to be unlocked from the factory in order for technologies like Speed Step to work. Speed Step lowers the multiplier of the processor to save on power. The 735 I have used always runs at the lowest multiplier of 6 at idle (600 mhz)... and increases the multiplier on the fly when I need the higher frequency.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:55 pm

I think what you are stumbling on audio is the overclocking ability in general...

For example we take an Intel 770 (2.13GHz) and an Intel 730 (1.6GHz) and overclock both.

The Intel 770 tops out at 2.6GHz which is only a 470MHz overclock.

On the other hand the Intel 730 overclocks to 2.6 GHz but is a 1,000MHz overclocker.

Oh my god the Intel 730 overclocks so much better than the Intel 770... Well it does overclock more from where it started, but is still at the same frequency. My point is that all the Dothan cores are the same... Overclocks vary a little due to different "batches", but should be similiar for the most part. I've personally owned six Dothan and they all overclocked roughly the same. One of my best overclockers is the Intel 755 that I bought retail boxed.

When it comes to price versus performance the Intel 730 is the winner because it costs so much less and should overclock the same.

BOTTOM LINE: You already own and run the Intel 760, so if you are happy with the performance then don't worry. If you feel you are unhappy with your Intel 760 overclocking then by all means sell it and get another chip. Please keep in mind the DFI 855GME board you are using already has the 1.6V mod on it that I did and I could never get it stable over ~165FSB. Part of the "low" overclocking you are getting is due to nothing more than the motherboard.

-mogwai · Post by **-mogwai** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:56 am

hmmm... good post.

i'm running pretty stable at 169 fsb right now.

i think i may have found part of the answer to my confusion in this forum i stumbled across.... does it make much sense to you (the part where they advocate the 730 and 740 over all other dothans)? read section 1.2.... i guess it has to do with stable booting or something... i think that's the part i'm getting caught up on.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=393963

can you guys explain why it boots more stable on one chip and not another?

sorry if i am annoying anyone.... i'm just trying to better understand. i like knowing stuff and actually understanding it (if its within conceptual grasp).

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 5:28 am

A quote by Sjaak on OC Forums:

A bad thing about the Asus boards mentioned above is the fact that the PCI/AGP lock doesn't work correctly between 166 and 199Mhz FSB. Therefor, you need to boot the chip at least at 200MHZ FSB. Most Dothans will do somewhere between 2.4 and 3Ghz on high end air / water, so this is what you get:

730: 12x200 = 2.4Ghz
740: 13x200 = 2.6Ghz
750: 14x200 = 2.8Ghz
760: 15x200 = 3.0Ghz

Problem arising: booting it at 2.8 or 3Ghz may not prove to work too well. That's why, for now, we recommend either the 730 or the 740 models. Those have low multipliers and thus have the highest chance to be able to boot at 200FSB+.

I am guessing that Sjaak is doing all his overclocking from the BIOS and is not adjusting the multiplier on his CPU's at all. In the BIOS and in clockgen (a desktop utility you can download) you are able to change the multiplier. He is saying that the 750 and 760 may have booting issues when booted above 2.8GHz. I have never seen the problem he stated here with booting issues, but I was able to run mine at 15x200 on the ASUS board. I don't get why he doesn't lower the multi on the others as the problem/issue that he talks about can be adjusted in the BIOS or desktop in 2 seconds.

I guess many Intel desktop users that change over to the Pentium M do not understand that these chips are fully unlocked and one can use various methods to change the multi.

Sovereign · Post by **Sovereign** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 5:31 pm

Pentium Ms are just tested at lower voltages (to lower battery consumption in laptops). Thus, since they can tolerate lower voltages, they usually make kickass overclockers.