JUMPER-LESS
OVERCLOCKING
Up until 1996, overclocking was
done exclusively through physical
adjustment on the motherboard,
be it by changing a crystal, moving
a ju
jumper or flicking a switch. In
ea
early 1996, ABIT introduced BIOS
ove
overclocking in the form of the
So
SoftMenu overclocking page.
S
SoftMenu allowed both basic and
ad
advanced overclocking, as well as
au
automatically applying the settings
req
required for the installed CPU. In its
mo
most basic form, you could select
a C speed one-up from that of
CPU
the chip installed. For the more
ad
advanced users and the brave alike,
the "User Define" setting offered
eve
everything you could ask for from
the bus speed and multipliers to core
vo
voltages. This removed the need to
op
open the computer box to change
se
settings, making overclocking a lot
mo
more accessible and slightly more
ma
mainstream.
A
Almost three years later, ABIT
wo
would introduce SoftMenu III first seen
on the BF6 and BE6-II motherboards,
us
ushering in FSB overclocking in
1M
1MHz increments. Prior to this, FSB
ove
overclocking was done using one of
several fixed ratios offered by the
manufacturer. As one can imagine,
these increments were fairly far
apart. It was common to se H ] \????X?\?
??
?K ?MK L R ?[? ????H ???\??? ]X^H]?H?Y[??\??X? H ?X?H]
?SR ??]?\?Y?] ?R ? ?\?[[???\?Z[? H???]] ?[Z]]
?SR ??H[Z] ?\???Y]?\?H?] ?Y[?
?SR ?[?? ?R ??]]?[?Y?] ?\?] ?R ???H ??[?H ? X?? \?[?? H
?SR ??? [??\??[??H[?HXYB?SR ?[??[Y[? ??H? H?Y??\??Y ?[??\?[??\?????[??] H [YK????S?S?Q????\?H \?[???Y?Y[? YX\?? ?I?B???H???H?[?? ?YZ??? ?\?X\?????\?[ ?\X?[Y[?\?HYX[??[??X\?H H \???X[??H[???X?[] H?[?[?\?HXX?[?H ??[??[???X??[? H?S??[??X\?[?H?? SR ?]H [YH [?[ H?B?Y??[??[?H ??]?K?H?^ ??Y?Y[? YX\?? ??Y ??H?\?\?^?][?? ?]X[?Y?X? \?\???[??[???\?????[??[???[??[??]?? HX\??\???[? \??^ [YB??\?H ?H ?[ X??H H?^ ??Y?Y[? YX\?????][???WB??\??YH ? ? L?H?\?????\? ?B??