Overclocking and System Setup
This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.
Overclocking features on motherboards are becoming more and more common. Nearly every board I review now has all the options for multiplier and front-side bus. The AK31 is no exception implementing all the features into the bios. Allowing FSB modifications from 95 MHz to 166 MHz in single MHz increments and multiplier options of 5.5x to 12.5x and voltages up to 1.85v, the AK31 has just about everything an overclocker and system tweaker could want.I was able to get my 1.4 GHz Athlon overclocked to the same level as the MSI K7T266 Pro and 8KHA motherboards: 1.55 GHz with modifications of both the multiplier and FSB options and a voltage 1.85v. For the FSB junkies, I was able to push the AK31 to 158 MHz, just a bit ahead of the K7T266 Pro at 157 MHz.
Here are the test systems spec, as they should becoming easily recognizable to most of you:
| CPU | AMD Thunderbird 1.4 GHz (133 MHz Bus) |
| Memory |
2 x 128MB Corsair XMS2400 DDR DRAM |
| Hard Drive | 20.5GB 7200 RPM Western Digital EIDE |
| Video Card | Visiontek GeForce 3 |
| Video Drivers | Detonator 12.90 |
| Operating System | Windows 98 SE |
Tests:
Quake III: Arena
3DMark 2001
SiSoft Sandra Memory Bench
SiSoft Sandra CPU Bench
Content Creation Winstone 2001
Business Winstone 2001
4 different SPEC view perf tests
Cachemem
ScienceMark
