Overclocking AMD Sempron 2600+ for Socket 754

Now that we’ve made sure the small size of the L2 cache of the Sempron 2600+ processor ?only 128 kilobytes ?doesn’t ruin its performance, we can talk about overclocking. New Semprons for Socket 754 are most appealing objects for an overclocker to experiment with. They are based on the highly promising 90nm Palermo core, which was derived from the overclocker-friendly Winchester core. Moreover, considering the Sempron 2600+ die has a smaller area than the Winchester due to the reduced L2 cache, we can expect this processor to show an even better overclockability.

But we will first mention the obstacles you may encounter when overclocking the Sempron 2600+. Since the default frequency of this processor is 1.6GHz, its frequency multiplier is 8x. You cannot change this multiplier to any side because the Sempron 2600+ doesn’t support Cool’n’Quiet. So, in order to overclock this CPU to high frequencies you must have a mainboard capable of working at clock-gen frequencies about 300MHz.

These 300MHz would give you 2.4GHz of the CPU clock rate, which seem to be plausible since Winchester-core processors can easily speed up to such frequencies, and you may want more to overclock the CPU further.

Unfortunately, not all Socket 754 mainboards are stable at such high frequencies of the clock generator. In fact, these operational modes are only achievable with best mainboards based on the NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb chipset. Such mainboards can clock the AGP and PCI busses asynchronously, i.e. you can fix AGP and PCI frequencies and go on overclocking without bothering about the peripheral devices attached to these busses. More often than not you also have to reduce the frequency multiplier of the HyperTransport bus since at x4 multiplier this bus becomes a barrier to overclocking at clock-gen frequencies much below 300MHz. Then, you shouldn’t forget to increase the memory frequency devisor since the memory frequency is set up relative to the clock rate of the CPU.

The main problem, however, is the choice of the mainboard capable of supporting 300MHz and higher clock-gen frequencies. Unfortunately, even mainboards on the nForce3 250Gb chipset don’t all support such modes. So you should be very careful when selecting a platform for overclocking the new Sempron for Socket 754.

In our earlier overclocking experiments with Socket 754 processors we employed an EPoX EP-8KDA3+ mainboard which could ensure high clock-gen frequencies. But for our overclocking the new Sempron 2600+ we decided to give a try to another mainboard, DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb. This mainboard enjoys high popularity among overclockers who report about its excellent suitability for overclocking Socket 754 processors. A serious advantage of this product is its price ?you can buy it for about $100. Thus, a computer with a DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb mainboard and a Sempron 2600+ processors can be an appealing purchase today due to its low total price.

Let’s now take a closer look at the DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb.

LANPARTY series mainboards from the Taiwan-headquartered DFI have established a good reputation in the last two years. These mainboards are technologically advanced and well rigged out, but without any superfluities. Products of this series are visually appealing as their slots shine in ultraviolet light, a feature modders are likely to appreciate.

The DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb is based on the NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb chipset thanks to which it supports AGP 8x, five PCI slots, eight-channel audio (through the AC?7 ALC850 codec from Realtek), Gigabit Ethernet with a hardware firewall, four Serial ATA ports, eight USB 2.0 ports. Besides that, the mainboard carries an additional FireWire controller from VIA.

The PCB is designed properly, except for the placement of the Serial ATA connectors (but they are placed this way in the reference design, too). The additional 12V ATX power connector is rather too far off, but otherwise we have no complaints about the PCB of this mainboard.

The mainboard allows mounting massive CPU coolers, even including the monstrous Zalman CNPS7700Cu. The two buttons in the bottom left corner of the PCB ?Power On/Off and Reset ?make it easier to work with the mainboard until it’s finally mounted into the system case.