Extreme Amiga overclocking.

[BoingBoss]

As always, I do not recommend over-clocking a processor.  In fact, some processor boards for the Amiga 2000 need to be "under-clocked".  For instance, the Progressive 2000 / 040 board has a 25 MHz 68040 chip that is clocked at 28 MHz.  It uses a 56 MHz crystal.  I am looking for a 50 MHz crystal so I can clock this board at 25 MHz, like it should have been done to begin with.  Then this board will be a lot more stable and will run much cooler.  If you guys actually need a lot of speed, then get yourself a PC computer.  The Amiga was designed to do WORK.  It was not designed to be fast.  To give you an idea of what I am talking about think about this:  a car is faster then a locomotive, but a car can only pull 1 or 2 more cars.  A locomotive can pull hundreds of cars.  One was designed for speed and the other was designed to do actual work.

[redrumloa]

@BoingBoss

Bah humbug! Your Amiga 2000 Professional probably wouldn't benefit from overclocking, but there is nothing wrong with users tweaking their systems if they take some precautions. As for me I am seeing a 30% improvement in Quake II framerate, and I havn't even overclocked anything yet:-D

[Mugo]

@redrumloa

Will you ever stop all the mistery, and tell us what kind of "magic" are you doing with your system  :-o
I'm really curious . . . and looking forward too to apply your "magic" in my BPPC for testing purposes !  :-D

Regards,
Marcelo.

[Brian]

@Mugo

Red: I know something you don't, nah nah naah nah naaaah nah (childish tone) :-P

[redrumloa]

@Mugo

I will in due time.. There is more testing and experimenting to do and I have more parts on order..

All in due time.. Sorry if it sounds like I'm gloating, I'm not. I just want to not only perfect, but also verify what I'm doing is safe and does not affect stability etc.

[redrumloa]

Brian wrote:
Red: I know something you don't, nah nah naah nah naaaah nah (childish tone) :-P

 :sealed:

Ever heard of a cliff hanger? Well this is a cliff hanger, stay tuned to Amiga.org :afro:

[PMC]

@BoingBoss

Well, I agree in principle that an overclocked system can run hotter and be prone to unreliability, but there are methods of mitigating these factors.

Paying attention to cooling goes without saying, and you'll find that several accelerator cards are retailed new running at higher clock rates than is actually shown on the CPU.  Amiga Format ran an article back in July / August 1998 when they researched the subject which might well be worth seeking out.

Fact is, there are people out there who want to play Quake or use CPU intensive image processing software on their Amigas.  If they're willing to take the risk of irreversible damage to their CPU and take all practical precautions then fair play I guess.

[BoingBoss]

If these people want to play Quake then they should get themselves a PC computer.  The PC version of Quake is the best version of the game.  The Nintendo 64 version of Quake is also really good.  Quake II is actually much better then Quake and Star Trek Voyager Elite Force blows them both away.  I have discovered that the most fun games on the PC are the following:

Doom II (Ranked # 1 game of all time)

Blood (Banned in most countries and states)

Shadow Warrior (Also Banned in most countries and states)

Duke Nukem v1.3 (Still played every day on Kali)

Star Trek Voyager Elite Force (Ranked Best Quake Style Game)

Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption (Ranked # 1 RPG Game)

Wings of Glory (Ranked # 1 WWI Flight Simulator)

If I am going to play these kinds of games, I am going to play them on my Pentium 4 PC computer, NOT an Amiga computer.  I use my Amiga computers for what they were intended to be used for- Graphics, Music, and Classic Amiga Games.   :-)

[Mugo]

@Redrumloa

Fine. I'll be looking forward for your treasure reveal
But, if you need some help, and/or have any doubts, please consider asking me for some help, and i'll be very glad if i can actually do.
I'm an electronics technician, and sucessfully did many overclocks. In fact, i even did an 68k processor upgrade in my BPPC. It used to have an 040 25MHz processor, until i transplanted the 68060 50MHz that was in my Blizzard.
Now i have an BPPC 200MHz, overclocked to run at 240MHz, with a 68060 rununing at 66MHz, and a spare Blizzard 040, running at 35MHz, waiting for some spare time of mine, to be in another A1200, that is disassembled for now.
Hope to hear from you soon !!! :-D

Regards,
Marcelo.

[Brian]

@Red

Please tell me you've overclocked the Voodoo3 card, or something simular that I can transplant onto my Mediator system. :-D

[adolescent]

@DoomMaster

Your Car vs. Locomotive logic is flawed as they are completely different things, built for completely different tasks.  A FASTER CPU of the same type, on the same board, will do MORE WORK, period.  A 28MHz 040 is faster than a 25MHz 040, period.  

As for reliability, I'd suggest it's your system, as the PP&S fan is sufficient to cool the very slightly overclocked CPU.  Clocking the board down could cause more problems because it was designed to run at a certain speed.    

[HopperJF]

Shaddow Warrior.. I have that game here, it is pretty damn fun

Too bad every PC my family buys claps out after 2 or so years (theyre silly and wont get a Mac)

[magnetic]

Red

I may be getting a Cyberstorm MK3 soon. What crystal speeds do you have and what can I clock it to without getting to crazy?

tia

magnetic

[BoingBoss]

Hi adolescent,

As for reliability, I'd suggest it's your system

My system is an Amiga 2000 Series computer, the highest quality Amiga, so NO, my system is working just fine.  The PP&S 2000/040 board is a piece of crap.  I have it up on eBay for sale.  I am looking for either the GVP 68030 Combo or a Blizzard 68060 Combo board.  I mainly need the extra 32-bit memory, not the faster processor, for 24-bit graphics.  I am staying away from the 68040 processor.  They are the worst of the 68000 Series processors.

[Brian]

@magnetic

I'm a scary cat so I wouldn't overclock a 060/50 to more then lets say 55-60Mhz but 66Mhz is still within sanity boundries. Clocking it to 70, 75 or even 80 as some report they've done will even with sufficient cooling be puching it and it deffinitly needs to be an MC060 not an XC060 CPU then. I do belive that some MK3 came with a 060/60Mhz CPU and then it's quite possible to clock it to 70-75Mhz but still more then that is pushing it.

[Brian]

@BoingBoss

Every time you get the chance you promote the old fart A2000 and no it's not the highest quality Amiga. About the 040 CPU I'm prepared to agree with you that it is the worst 68K CPU, though the not so common 3.3V version didn't run nearly as hot and much more stable than the 5V version of the CPU.