Outside Loop Afterburner!

Ok, another Athlon overclocker. Is it any different from the others? Well, it definitely LOOKS different to the other ones I've seen. The rest I've used have dip switches, this one has dials. It uses a small 3-pin power connector instead of the standard 4 pin molex ones, and comes with a passthrough power connector. The others also sat in parallel with the CPU's PCB, this one sits perpendicular, flat along the top of the CPU. I have heard that this can interfere with some heat sinks, but it seems just fine with my VOS32. The worst thing about this flat-along-the-top design though is whenever I pushed the thing onto the CPU after changing the settings I got spiky solder tags jabbing into my thumb, which was quite annoying. This is something that has to be done repeatedly if you're in the experimental stage of overclocking, and pushing down on bits other than the soldered parts is difficult. Maybe some leather gloves are in order for installing this thing. The dials are something I kind of like though, except for the fact that the default settings on this item (maybe it's different for others) were for 1.85 volts and 800MHz. I don't think there are too many people out there capable of removing an Athlon's case and installing a GFD who wouldn't check the settings before doing so, but it's something to be aware of.

The reason I "kind of" like the dials is because you really need a correct-sized screwdriver to use them. With dipswitches (good ones anyway) you can use your fingernail and don't have to hunt around a cluttered desk for a jeweler's flat blade to move them. I think the tradeoff is fairly good though (simplicity in the settings, yet needing a screwdriver), but it would have been better if they were larger, so that I could use my fingernail. The dials are numbered from 0 to F (ie hexadecimal, if anyone's questioning my literacy :) and they were all defaulted to "A". I booted up at 650 and (sort of) default voltage. I say "sort of", because even though I set the dial to 1.60, my bios and MBM reported the voltage as being 1.53-1.57 (averaging 1.54), sometimes even dipping to 1.51. This was actually out by enough at the lower end to set my MBM's alarm off with a 3% tolerance. Right now I have it set to 1.75, and it's fluctuated between 1.71 and 1.74 (1.72 average). It's not a major problem, simply putting it to the next setting up gives you a voltage slightly higher than what you wanted, but closer to the desired setting on the average. And it's far better that it's under voltage than over for obvious reasons. I guess it would be a problem for the sticklers who want a more precise voltage setting, because this thing seems to have an "in between" voltage no matter what you set the dial to. The main thing I like about the dials though is the frequency dials are always the same as each other, which greatly simplifies settings as compared to other boards with dip switches. You can also set the CPU to 300MHz, though I'm not sure why you'd want to do that. Just to see how it compares to your friend's P2-300 maybe :) The dials increase the speed from there up to 1050, in 50Mhz increments. Once you remember that the number one position on the dials represent 300MHz and 1.35 volts, you won't even need to look at the manual again. This is even better than the boards which print their dip switch settings on the board itself.

I've got mixed feelings about this board, it has more bad points than good ones, but the good points outweigh the bad. Definitely the best thing about it is not needing the manual once you've memorised the lowest (or highest) settings and work your way up (or down) from there in 50Mhz or 0.05 volt increments. If you're like me who loses something after it's been out of his sight for 2 seconds this is a godsend.

Pros:
No brainer dial setup, only 3 things to change (and two are the same as each other)
Low profile due to being flat along the top of the CPU
Passthrough power connector

Cons:
Dials hard to set without the right sized screwdriver
Voltage settings not correct (under-voltage)
Solder-tags-into-thumb
Default settings inappropriate