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LCD iMac OC w/o solder

Has anyone given the solder-less overclocking a shot on the G4 iMacs?. Is there anything that can be used as a jumper rather than soldering?

Also, does anyone have a good link for changing the FSB on these machines? The ones I've found in this thread are all fscked.

Great thread. I'll keep watching. I'd love to do a little overclocking but my soldering skills aren't good enough to try on my main machine.

TIA,
BFL
 
bigfatlamer said:
Has anyone given the solder-less overclocking a shot on the G4 iMacs?. Is there anything that can be used as a jumper rather than soldering?

Also, does anyone have a good link for changing the FSB on these machines? The ones I've found in this thread are all fscked.

Great thread. I'll keep watching. I'd love to do a little overclocking but my soldering skills aren't good enough to try on my main machine.

TIA,
BFL

Electronic stores might sell something called a Conductive pen/pencil, which allows you to bridge 2 connections easily without having to use solder. There are people that even used to use the 'pencil trick' (basically an ordinary lead pencil) on Athlon CPUs to connect the bridges to allow for overclocking, but I attempted that on my eMac and it didn't work - I was forced to use solder. Using solder isn't as dangerous as it sounds, since you can easily remove it using solder wick. The tricky part is removing those microscopic jumpers that they use to set the CPU speed!
 
There are silver trace pens, and now that you mention it, that's a perfect solution.

In theory.

You'd better be sure that's what you want though, because I have no clue as to how you 'undo' a silver trace pen. With solder, you use desoldering braid.

No, the right way to do this really is to get ahold of a jumper bank or a set of dip switches from DigiKey and solder that on. Then play to your heart's content.

Ideally you do this to a ribbon cable and run it to the outside of the machine so you don't have to tear down for each change. Ideally.
 
I missed ya :D

Numbski said:
Hey guys, I'm back!

Did you miss me? I know you did. :p

I didn't get a chance to clock up the bus speed on the imac 800 yet. I got evicted, then started to buy the house, then got evicted again, bought another house (3 weeks till closing), moved out of state, and after closing I'm moving back!

I just got my hands on a 233 Bondi, and I'm going to be overclocking it as well . :) It's going to my sister and her kids, so the soldering iron is back on the prowl again, and after seeing the CPU daughter card for the Bondi, I think I finally understand what I need to do to finishing clocking up to 1.33Ghz on the 800, but I get the sinking suspicion that a peltier cooler and possibly an external power supply will be required. I think I'd just be thrilled with ~900mHz@133mHz frontside bus.

Anyway, I'm back on the case. :) Also considering upgrading to a G4 433 in the bondi, and then trying to overclock from there. Who knows?



Hey Numbski,
I've been tracking your progress on your 800 mhz imac (same model as mine) and I'm really curious to hear your latest progress. Also, what do you have in mind in regards to the use of a peltier? I have a peltier lying around and I'm curious about the heat dissipation possibilities. I wonder if the coper pipe can carry enough heat away. Or, perhaps I can route a different heat pipe/sink in addition to the peltier. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this :D
 
I'd love to try to bump by 1 Ghz eMac up to 1.33Ghz when the applecare runs out, but I've done very little soldering, and I'd probably screw something up. Also, the whole - + - thing is confusing the crap outta me.
 
neoelectronaut said:
I'd love to try to bump by 1 Ghz eMac up to 1.33Ghz when the applecare runs out, but I've done very little soldering, and I'd probably screw something up. Also, the whole - + - thing is confusing the crap outta me.

I did this mod to my 1ghz eMac (Bought in September 2003).. At 1st I went to 1.33ghz, and it worked, but quite consistently it would freeze after about an hour's heavy use. With minimal loading, it was fine however. But of course the freezing bugged me and it was almost certainly caused by me modding it.
So recently I took it down a bit to 1.2ghz and also used some costly silver based heat transfer compound for the cpu-heatsink.
And now it's working 100% perfectly (Or should that be 120%? :D ). Of course I do now wonder if the new silver based heat transfer compound might have let it work at 1.33ghz after all!? But for now I'm perfectly happy with a 1.2ghz eMac. Still a virtually free 20% speed boost. So can't grumble :)
Also, didn't I read somewhere that lbodnar now runs his eMac at 1.46ghz?? Thats amazing considering it was an 800Mhz eMac to start with! So a bit strange that my 1ghz is reluctant to go past 1.2ghz then, but no matter..
Oh, and I also did the screen spanning hack on mine. I did this the same day I bought it, and this also works perfectly :)
Good luck guys!
 
Oh, and while i'm here.. Really, you do need some good soldering experience to do this mod. Regular soldering can be tricky enough, But this surface mount stuff really is fiddly! My heart sank when I 1st saw how tiny the jumpers were. Not far off the size of a grain of sand or 2! :eek:
But still, I went ahead and got the job done.
lbodnars site was an excellent help!

Personally, I'd not recommend using a lead pencil! Or even the conductive paint stuff..
 
Big huge freaking *BUMP* :)

Okay, okay. I'm horribly unrelliable. Who knew? :p

Anyway, I'm been moving a lot. Like twice in 3 months. My iMac is sitting at my data center since it acts as my e-mail and web server, not just my desktop. Terrible infrastructure, working to fix it, but for the moment, that's how it is.

Anyway, could anyone who's a bit more familiar with <a href="http://www.digikey.com">DigiKey</a> give me a hand with nailing down a pair of dip switch banks that are pretty smallish? I'd like to set up one to handle the multiplier, and the other to handle the FSB, and then either tape or hot glue them next to the ram upgrade socket for easy adjustment.

Initially I may even outboard them. The plan is to do this when I'm ready to move hte mac into the new house, which will be after my carpet is instålled, which is a week from monday. :)
 
Hello all, i just took my 133 fsb 1ghz eMac up to 1.6 by popping all but the second jumper off... jumped to 1.6ghz as the datasheet says for 12x, and it's been running under 100% load since then, compiling fink binaries, itunes ripping, and photoshop filters on a 2gb file. I'd say it's worth it, even tho i almost choked when i saw how small the resistors are :eek: . Thanks again lbodner for writing the how-to!
 
wernerru said:
Hello all, i just took my 133 fsb 1ghz eMac up to 1.6 by popping all but the second jumper off... jumped to 1.6ghz as the datasheet says for 12x, and it's been running under 100% load since then, compiling fink binaries, itunes ripping, and photoshop filters on a 2gb file. I'd say it's worth it, even tho i almost choked when i saw how small the resistors are :eek: . Thanks again lbodner for writing the how-to!

was that a 1.0 or a 1.25 from the factory?
 
wernerru said:
Hello all, i just took my 133 fsb 1ghz eMac up to 1.6 by popping all but the second jumper off... jumped to 1.6ghz as the datasheet says for 12x, and it's been running under 100% load since then, compiling fink binaries, itunes ripping, and photoshop filters on a 2gb file. I'd say it's worth it, even tho i almost choked when i saw how small the resistors are :eek: . Thanks again lbodner for writing the how-to!



wow

im still waiting to OC my 800mhz eMac and have been wanting to since this thread opened
 
mkaake said:
was that a 1.0 or a 1.25 from the factory?

1.0 stock. It's been running since midnight at 100% load like i said, hasn't hit a hiccup yet compiling. Apple-made apps open almost instantly, terminal's up before you can even let go of the button. i could do the 2ghz route by going to the 15x multiplier by bridging two more... but i don't feel like having to take them off if it doesn't work... or worse yet, turning it into a pile of slag. but, this working supports everyones' thoughts that the emacs are just underpowered to limit them from hurting the top-end lines. i'd say the 1.25 factory new models (with the 167 bus) could easily break the 2ghz, since it's the fsb that moved it from 1.0ghz to 1.25 at the 7.5x. going to the 12x like mine on the 1.25 would make a 2.0ghz machine.
 
I am the same - want to do this, but don't have any soldering experience. Any suggestions on ways to get experience doing this? I have a few old decommissioned computers lying around to practice on but no real idea how to get started...
 
neoelectronaut said:
I'd love to try to bump by 1 Ghz eMac up to 1.33Ghz when the applecare runs out, but I've done very little soldering, and I'd probably screw something up. Also, the whole - + - thing is confusing the crap outta me.
haha, oops... just realized i had a 3 year applecare. if you've got any questions, you can email me if you want. As for the soldering, it's not supremely hard, but going to the 1.33 means having to solder onto the dry pad in the number 4 spot. i just took an exacto knife, and pressed into the solder on the bottom connection of the jumpers, and then pushed a little and twisted, and they come right off, leaving the solder on the pads, meaning if it needs to go back, you just hit it real quick with a soldering iron, and it's back to 1.0. any questions, from anyone, about most anything, welcome to email at wernerru at msu.edu
 
OziMac said:
I am the same - want to do this, but don't have any soldering experience. Any suggestions on ways to get experience doing this? I have a few old decommissioned computers lying around to practice on but no real idea how to get started...
if you want to go to 1.6ghz, do what i just posted above, about using the xacto knife to pop off the top, 3rd, and bottom jumper, leaving the number two spot shorted. it's really easy too, because all you have to do is take the case off, the faraday plate, and then the optical drive (cd, dvdrw, whichever), and it's right under there

as for testing it out, find an old board in your pile, and just try removing a surface mounted component, like a flat capacitor or a bigger resistor, till you can do it without ruining the board, and then work down in size. keep in mind these things are absurdly tiny!
 
mikeyredk said:
wernerru what is your heat output? use thermograph if you can i don't know if your cpu is supported
doesn't report it, says there's no sensor found. i don't think the TAU on the chips work in the eMacs. didn't work before i did the OC either. but by the hand-behind-fan judgement, it's not too much warmer, and using a digital thermo, it's only a few degrees warmer.

Russ
 
OziMac said:
Yeah, do you have heat issues with your CPU running at that speed werneru?
the only issue i have, and have ever had with it, even stock, is the fan being single-speed LOUD. i was going to put either a pot in there or a fan controller to make it quieter, but now that i'm pushing the 1.6, i don't think it'd be prudent :D
 
this is way to tempting. i have a nice 1.0 sitting right in front of me, with the possibility of a 60-100% increase in clock speed. too bad its the only computer we have right now (save my growing collection of older macs), and I can't' really afford to screw it up :(

but someday, this emac will fly....

someday.
 
mkaake said:
this is way to tempting. i have a nice 1.0 sitting right in front of me, with the possibility of a 60-100% increase in clock speed. too bad its the only computer we have right now (save my growing collection of older macs), and I can't' really afford to screw it up :(

but someday, this emac will fly....

someday.

i still want to try to take it to 2.0ghz... but with my luck it'd boot and slag, and then i'd have A LOT of explaining to do about why the computer they just bought for me to replace the other 3 that have died over the years (all powerbooks). i think 1.6 is about as far as i'm willing to risk it. on the other hand, if the chips in the 1.25ghz stock machines are the same, just with the resistors set at 167 fsb instead of 133, i'd change it to 167 in a heartbeat.
Russ
 
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