WHAT IS A MOBILE BARTON?
The Mobile Barton processor has recently become the Socket A overclocking chip of choice. Why?
There are several reasons. The first, is the unlocked multiplier of all Mobile Barton processors. As many of us know, all Desktop Barton processors produced after week 39 of 2003 were produced with a hard multiplier lock, effectively disabling multiplier changes to the processors.
This hinders overclockability of the chips, as a greater FSB overclock is required, due to the locked and unchangeable multiplier. A FSB overclock is often hard, and expensive, to achieve, as it requires high-quality RAM, and a good, or lucky, motherboard chipset. The unlocked multiplier of the Mobile Bartons is a loophole of sorts in AMD's processor locking policy.
All Mobile AMD processors support a feature called PowerNow! (an integral part of AMD's Mobile processor marketing plan - it isn't going anywhere soon), which alters a mobile processor's speed based on the CPU load. So, if the laptop machine a Mobile chip is installed in is simply idling, or being used to write up a word document, the PowerNow! feature will manipulate the multiplier of the processor on-the-fly to underclock the chip, making it use less battery power. If the laptop is being used for some CPU intensive work, such as running Prime95, PowerNow! will manipulate the multiplier of the processor on-the-fly to raise the speed of the CPU; to accomodate the intensive program being run, also increasing the power useage of the processor. This boils down to all Mobile Barton processors being multiplier unlocked, no exceptions.
The second reason these chips are such popular overclockers is the low stock voltage that Mobile processors use. A low stock voltage means a high overclocking potential - if a processor (in this case, Mobile Bartons) can handle its stock speed stably with a lower voltage than other's of its kind (in this case, Desktop Bartons), then it is very likely it will be able to handle higher (overclocked) speeds at a lower voltage than other's of its kind, as well. The Mobile Barton processor uses a stock Vcore voltage of 1.45V - an incredible 0.2V lower than the 1.65V stock Vcore voltage of the Desktop Barton 2500+. As you can see below, stable results exceeding 2600 MHz on moderate air cooling are not rare with these processors, while using relatively low Vcore voltages.
Why do these chips use such a low stock voltage? They are intended for use in laptop computers, where power consumption and battery life is a major marketing concern.
To sum the Mobile Barton up, it could be said that AMD has essentially picked the cream of the Barton crop, the chips which can run stably with a sub-stock Vcore voltage, and then unlocked them for us through the laptop PowerNow! feature - unintentioanlly creating the ideal overclockers chip. The overclocking results are what you see before, and below, you.
WHAT'S THIS THREAD ALL ABOUT?
The purpose of this thread is to list, and organize, Mobile Barton results by stepping, and batch week, as well as educate and make easily-available the known information about these particularly fascinating processors.
If you have a Mobile Barton processor of any of the stock speed ratings, feel free to share your results with us. I'll also add them to the below database, and update as often as I can.
Please don't forget to post the voltages you used to get your overclock, as well as your full stepping, and stepping batch week.
BASIC MOBILE BARTON FACTS
~ All Mobile Barton chips are multiplier unlocked, and you can change the multiplier in your BIOS, or via external means.
~ Mobile Barton processors will work in any motherboard with support for Desktop Bartons.
~ Most Mobile Barton Processors use a stock Vcore of 1.45V, and all have a stock FSB of 133 MHz (266 MHz DDR). See below "Which chip do I have?" for more information on the different voltage chips.
~ Mobile Bartons have the full Barton L2 cache enabled, all 512K of it.
~ Pricing is roughly $20 more than a Desktop Barton from most retailers
~ Mobile Bartons are essentially normal Bartons, except that they are multiplier unlocked, have a very low stock Vcore, and are PowerNow! ready by default.
~ Mobile Bartons have been found to be able to handle high FSB speeds, with good RAM and a good FSB overclocking motherboard. They do not seem to differ in this respect from normal Desktop Bartons.
~ Mobile Bartons can be socket pin-modded, and do not seem to differ from normal Desktop Bartons in this respect.
~ The L12 bridge/pin modification has helped some ABIT NF7-S users with their overclocking, and done nothing for others. Keep in mind that these mobile chips are 133 MHz FSB processors at stock, and should theoretically react the same way 133 MHz FSB Thoroughbreds do to the L12 mod. If you L12 mod your chip, please share your results with us.
~ The chips are currently known to exist in five speeds, 2400+, 2500+, and 2600+, 2800+, and 3000+. The 2800+, and 3000+ rated Mobile Barton chips are available only in Europe right now. They also use higher voltages, and are more expensive then the 2400+ through 2600+ models we have here.
~ The 2800+, and 3000+ PR speed Mobile processors can be purchased HERE, a European overclocking site that ships internationally. Be warned that the 2800+, and 3000+ chips use a higher Vcore voltage, and that no detailed overclocking results have been presented to us yet.
~ Most of the results below are from chips which were purchased from newegg.com , and which are FQQ4C OPN chips. Se below, "Which chip do I have?" for more information on the different OPN chips.
MOBILE BARTON STEPPING BREAKDOWN
HERE is a handy guide to AMD's Processor Specification (OPN) steppings.
FQQ4C is the Processor Specification stepping (OPN) of most Mobile Barton processors. They also are confirmed to be available as FJQ4C OPN (1.35V) chips, confirmed to exist in the 2400+ PR, and available in Europe. See below "Which chip do I have?" for more information.
F - OPGA packaging type (Organic Pin Array)
Q - 1.45V stock Vcore voltage
Q - 100 Degree Celcius Maximum recommended operating temperature
4 - 512 Kb L2 cache size
C - 133 Mhz (266 MHz DDR) stock FSB speed
~ The Mobile Barton 2400+ runs at a stock speed of (13.5 X 133) 1795.5 MHz
~ The Mobile Barton 2500+ runs at a stock speed of (14 X 133) 1862 MHz
~ The Mobile Barton 2600+ runs at a stock speed of (15 X 133) 1995 MHz
WHICH CHIP DO I HAVE?
As of now there are several different Mobile Barton OPN (Short for AMDs Ordering Part Number, which designates some of the processors major specifications) steppings in circulation. If you live in North America, and are ordering from www.newegg.com , you will be getting an FQQ4C (1.45 volt) processor, which will work fine in your desktop motherboard, and probably perform well for you. However, in Europe different OPN models exist.
A FJQ4C OPN processor is confirmed to be available in Europe in the 2400+ PR speed, and works in all desktop motherboards, just like the FQQ4C processors, as it shares the OPGA packaging (Organic Pin Array) that most recently produced desktop AMD Athlon XP Athlon processors use. However, a 1.35V Mobile 2400+ is also confirmed to exist in a uPGA packaging type, which will not funtion in a desktop motherboard.
If you are buying a mobile processor and are unsure whether it will work or not in your desktop system, check the OPN stepping. If the OPN stepping starts with F then the processor will be recognized, and work.
The OPN is also the key to quickly seeing what your processor's stock Vcore voltage is, and which PR rating it is. Please refer to this article: HERE for a very easy to use guide on deciphering your Processor's OPN.
RELATED ARTICLES
~ A thread here on our forums about Optimizations in Windows XP for AMD Athlon XP processors, and whether or not we might be loosing them by using a Mobile processor - click HERE
~ March 2003 news report from informationweek.com - click HERE
~ February 2004 review from techreport.com - click HERE
~ A very informative, and interesting article about PowerNow!, desktop to mobile conversion, and much more. A must read - click HERE
If you know of a good Mobile Athlon information article, feel free to post a link - I'll add them here.
THE MOBILE BARTON STEPPINGS AND RESULTS LIST
The results part of the post has become too large, and there was no room for further results to be added in this post. After discussion of this problem with the forums administration, we decided that our best bet was to create a new thread solely for the massive results listing.
The thread with the complete, more easily navigatable, results list, can be found by clicking:
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FULL MOBILE BARTON RESULTS LISTS
As before, this listing is being updated as frequently as possible by myself, adding in the results which are being posted in this thread.
This takes time, which I'm short of, although I'm doing my best. Please be patient, it may take a little while for the most recent results to get in there.
If anyone has any suggestions for this post, and the Mobile Barton guide above, please feel free to drop me a PM!
The Mobile Barton processor has recently become the Socket A overclocking chip of choice. Why?
There are several reasons. The first, is the unlocked multiplier of all Mobile Barton processors. As many of us know, all Desktop Barton processors produced after week 39 of 2003 were produced with a hard multiplier lock, effectively disabling multiplier changes to the processors.
This hinders overclockability of the chips, as a greater FSB overclock is required, due to the locked and unchangeable multiplier. A FSB overclock is often hard, and expensive, to achieve, as it requires high-quality RAM, and a good, or lucky, motherboard chipset. The unlocked multiplier of the Mobile Bartons is a loophole of sorts in AMD's processor locking policy.
All Mobile AMD processors support a feature called PowerNow! (an integral part of AMD's Mobile processor marketing plan - it isn't going anywhere soon), which alters a mobile processor's speed based on the CPU load. So, if the laptop machine a Mobile chip is installed in is simply idling, or being used to write up a word document, the PowerNow! feature will manipulate the multiplier of the processor on-the-fly to underclock the chip, making it use less battery power. If the laptop is being used for some CPU intensive work, such as running Prime95, PowerNow! will manipulate the multiplier of the processor on-the-fly to raise the speed of the CPU; to accomodate the intensive program being run, also increasing the power useage of the processor. This boils down to all Mobile Barton processors being multiplier unlocked, no exceptions.
The second reason these chips are such popular overclockers is the low stock voltage that Mobile processors use. A low stock voltage means a high overclocking potential - if a processor (in this case, Mobile Bartons) can handle its stock speed stably with a lower voltage than other's of its kind (in this case, Desktop Bartons), then it is very likely it will be able to handle higher (overclocked) speeds at a lower voltage than other's of its kind, as well. The Mobile Barton processor uses a stock Vcore voltage of 1.45V - an incredible 0.2V lower than the 1.65V stock Vcore voltage of the Desktop Barton 2500+. As you can see below, stable results exceeding 2600 MHz on moderate air cooling are not rare with these processors, while using relatively low Vcore voltages.
Why do these chips use such a low stock voltage? They are intended for use in laptop computers, where power consumption and battery life is a major marketing concern.
To sum the Mobile Barton up, it could be said that AMD has essentially picked the cream of the Barton crop, the chips which can run stably with a sub-stock Vcore voltage, and then unlocked them for us through the laptop PowerNow! feature - unintentioanlly creating the ideal overclockers chip. The overclocking results are what you see before, and below, you.
WHAT'S THIS THREAD ALL ABOUT?
The purpose of this thread is to list, and organize, Mobile Barton results by stepping, and batch week, as well as educate and make easily-available the known information about these particularly fascinating processors.
If you have a Mobile Barton processor of any of the stock speed ratings, feel free to share your results with us. I'll also add them to the below database, and update as often as I can.
Please don't forget to post the voltages you used to get your overclock, as well as your full stepping, and stepping batch week.
BASIC MOBILE BARTON FACTS
~ All Mobile Barton chips are multiplier unlocked, and you can change the multiplier in your BIOS, or via external means.
~ Mobile Barton processors will work in any motherboard with support for Desktop Bartons.
~ Most Mobile Barton Processors use a stock Vcore of 1.45V, and all have a stock FSB of 133 MHz (266 MHz DDR). See below "Which chip do I have?" for more information on the different voltage chips.
~ Mobile Bartons have the full Barton L2 cache enabled, all 512K of it.
~ Pricing is roughly $20 more than a Desktop Barton from most retailers
~ Mobile Bartons are essentially normal Bartons, except that they are multiplier unlocked, have a very low stock Vcore, and are PowerNow! ready by default.
~ Mobile Bartons have been found to be able to handle high FSB speeds, with good RAM and a good FSB overclocking motherboard. They do not seem to differ in this respect from normal Desktop Bartons.
~ Mobile Bartons can be socket pin-modded, and do not seem to differ from normal Desktop Bartons in this respect.
~ The L12 bridge/pin modification has helped some ABIT NF7-S users with their overclocking, and done nothing for others. Keep in mind that these mobile chips are 133 MHz FSB processors at stock, and should theoretically react the same way 133 MHz FSB Thoroughbreds do to the L12 mod. If you L12 mod your chip, please share your results with us.
~ The chips are currently known to exist in five speeds, 2400+, 2500+, and 2600+, 2800+, and 3000+. The 2800+, and 3000+ rated Mobile Barton chips are available only in Europe right now. They also use higher voltages, and are more expensive then the 2400+ through 2600+ models we have here.
~ The 2800+, and 3000+ PR speed Mobile processors can be purchased HERE, a European overclocking site that ships internationally. Be warned that the 2800+, and 3000+ chips use a higher Vcore voltage, and that no detailed overclocking results have been presented to us yet.
~ Most of the results below are from chips which were purchased from newegg.com , and which are FQQ4C OPN chips. Se below, "Which chip do I have?" for more information on the different OPN chips.
MOBILE BARTON STEPPING BREAKDOWN
HERE is a handy guide to AMD's Processor Specification (OPN) steppings.
FQQ4C is the Processor Specification stepping (OPN) of most Mobile Barton processors. They also are confirmed to be available as FJQ4C OPN (1.35V) chips, confirmed to exist in the 2400+ PR, and available in Europe. See below "Which chip do I have?" for more information.
F - OPGA packaging type (Organic Pin Array)
Q - 1.45V stock Vcore voltage
Q - 100 Degree Celcius Maximum recommended operating temperature
4 - 512 Kb L2 cache size
C - 133 Mhz (266 MHz DDR) stock FSB speed
~ The Mobile Barton 2400+ runs at a stock speed of (13.5 X 133) 1795.5 MHz
~ The Mobile Barton 2500+ runs at a stock speed of (14 X 133) 1862 MHz
~ The Mobile Barton 2600+ runs at a stock speed of (15 X 133) 1995 MHz
WHICH CHIP DO I HAVE?
As of now there are several different Mobile Barton OPN (Short for AMDs Ordering Part Number, which designates some of the processors major specifications) steppings in circulation. If you live in North America, and are ordering from www.newegg.com , you will be getting an FQQ4C (1.45 volt) processor, which will work fine in your desktop motherboard, and probably perform well for you. However, in Europe different OPN models exist.
A FJQ4C OPN processor is confirmed to be available in Europe in the 2400+ PR speed, and works in all desktop motherboards, just like the FQQ4C processors, as it shares the OPGA packaging (Organic Pin Array) that most recently produced desktop AMD Athlon XP Athlon processors use. However, a 1.35V Mobile 2400+ is also confirmed to exist in a uPGA packaging type, which will not funtion in a desktop motherboard.
If you are buying a mobile processor and are unsure whether it will work or not in your desktop system, check the OPN stepping. If the OPN stepping starts with F then the processor will be recognized, and work.
The OPN is also the key to quickly seeing what your processor's stock Vcore voltage is, and which PR rating it is. Please refer to this article: HERE for a very easy to use guide on deciphering your Processor's OPN.
RELATED ARTICLES
~ A thread here on our forums about Optimizations in Windows XP for AMD Athlon XP processors, and whether or not we might be loosing them by using a Mobile processor - click HERE
~ March 2003 news report from informationweek.com - click HERE
~ February 2004 review from techreport.com - click HERE
~ A very informative, and interesting article about PowerNow!, desktop to mobile conversion, and much more. A must read - click HERE
If you know of a good Mobile Athlon information article, feel free to post a link - I'll add them here.
THE MOBILE BARTON STEPPINGS AND RESULTS LIST
The results part of the post has become too large, and there was no room for further results to be added in this post. After discussion of this problem with the forums administration, we decided that our best bet was to create a new thread solely for the massive results listing.
The thread with the complete, more easily navigatable, results list, can be found by clicking:
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FULL MOBILE BARTON RESULTS LISTS
As before, this listing is being updated as frequently as possible by myself, adding in the results which are being posted in this thread.
This takes time, which I'm short of, although I'm doing my best. Please be patient, it may take a little while for the most recent results to get in there.
If anyone has any suggestions for this post, and the Mobile Barton guide above, please feel free to drop me a PM!
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