| Clip On Volt Mod for Abit |
aka Bob is assimilated by his Borg Cube... |
To really get to some serious overclocking, you have to voltmod the card. This typically involves messing with the inputs to the voltage regulator on the motherboard. Usually, some relatively simply jumpers are all that's needed to make it happen. In fact, if you're worried about the potential to have to RMA the board (and by the way kids, volt modding the mobo is VERY likely to blow it up and ruin it, proceed at your own risk!), you can create this little mod which is removable.
Basically, you make a little jumper that has a clip at one end, a 47K ohm potentiometer in the middle, and a spade at the other that can be grounded. It looks something like this when you're done:
When you get this cable and clip made, put the spade under a case screw or mobo mounting screw so that it is well grounded. Now we have to locate the right spot to clip it. You're looking for an IC chip near the AGP slot and located between two large capacitors on the KG7, KR7A, and KX7:
Clip on to pin 7. Just start counting 1 through 7, from left to right on the bottom row. Now, get into the BIOS and call for max voltage: 1.85V. Shut down. Hook up the volt mod, and turn the pot all the way down (counterclockwise). Boot up again. Now, watching a voltage monitor carefully (I like MBM 5), slowly increase voltage. Eventually, you will hit overvoltage protection, which shuts down the system. This usually happens at about 2.1V. If it kicks in, just back off the pot a tad and reboot. When you've found the max setting for the pot, you needn't adjust it again. Just go into the BIOS and you can dial back down from there.