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Using the same techniques discussed for a Slotket converter card, a true Slot 1 processor can be modified by altering the electrical states of various pins along the printed circuit board interface's connection to the motherboard. Blocking electrical inputs on certain pins can facilitate overclocking for motherboards with limited configuration support.
Many methods have been developed for the isolation of pins from an electrical connector. The most extreme process involves actually severing the pin with a sharp razor blade. This action is irreversible without intricate knowledge of advanced soldering techniques. The simplest process is to use dielectric paint to insulate the pin. The risk is that these paints can be abrasive to the motherboard connector and may decompose under extended thermal load.
The best solution comes in the form of Teflon electrical tape. The basic idea is to prevent the pin from making an electrical connection to the motherboard by covering it with the Teflon tape. A standard 2-millimeter-thick tape possesses dielectric properties upwards of 8000 volts, thus ensuring no electron migration across the insulating material. Teflon is also extremely resilient. It can withstand great temperatures and stress loads. The tape can easily be cut with a razor blade to fit across the desired pin(s). Take care to ensure that the tape covers the entire lower region of the pin, with no overlapping onto surrounding pin or circuit junctions.
The most popular hardware hack is found with pin B21. When you isolate this pin, a Slot 1 processor designed for 66-MHz front-side bus operation can be forced to identify itself to the motherboard as a 100-MHz bus chip. Remember that locked chips will implement the same multiplier, regardless of the front-side bus rate; thus any bus speed increases will overclock the core processing unit. Systems featuring unlocked chips can implement a lower multiplier, if overclocking the processor core is not desired, while retaining the performance advantage of the 100-MHz bus speed.
Pin B21 can be located by placing the processor on its side, with the longest row of connecting pins oriented to the right-hand side. The position of pin B21 can now be found by counting 21 pins from the right-hand side of the processor.
Core voltage modifications are also possible for most Slot 1 models. Again, this assumes that the system's motherboard actually supports the values assigned after the pins are modified. A motherboard without proper voltage support might give erroneous voltage values, thus damaging the processor core circuitry. Any voltage hacking techniques require extreme care and patience.
Covering pins A121, A119, and B119 will set the core voltage to 2.2 volts for .25-micron processor models. Be careful to examine all connection points closely with a magnifying glass before proceeding to install the processor. If the junction point at A119 allows any connection, the chip will be autodetected as requiring a core voltage of 2.6 volts, a level that will destroy nearly all .25-micron Intel processors.
Newer .18-micron Slot 1 models can be modified to 1.85 volts using a similar technique. Only pin A119 needs to be covered to force the autodetection of 1.85 volts for the core processor voltage. Any increases in core voltage values can lead to processor failure due to increased thermal loads, so be sure to install a cooling system capable of dissipating the increased temperatures caused by these techniques.
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