I've been asked countless times why I bother to overclock such fast systems and the reason is that I can . I do it for the same reason people tweak their cars... It's a hobby.

For a long time now, AMD has offered users 'the more fun' alternative. Overclocking Intel processors is still enjoyable but unless you're one of the lucky few to get an engineering sample processor, you can forget about multiplier adjustments.

AMD allows all Athlon64 users to select lower multipliers and if you have the cash, the Athlon64 FX chips offer complete multiplier adjustment! Team that up with some good low latency memory and an overclockers motherboard like the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR and you've got yourself a machine that will be a lot of fun to play with.

There's little doubt that the AMD Athlon64 3500+ is the processor that most enthusiasts will go with as it offers a higher multiplier than lower end models but does not break the bank either. The particular chip used here is a retail unit, based on the CBAXC stepping and was built in week 37 of 2004. The core was built on 0.13 micron manufacturing which means it's using a Newcastle core. I probably would have had better results if I was using a 0.09 micron Winchester.

In terms of overclocking, the air-cooled setup which was using a Thermalright XP-90 teamed up with an 80mm Vantec Tornado hit a very nice 2.66 GHz using just 1.7V. Temperatures were a bit on the high side though, with a maximum temperature reading of 55 degrees Celsius.

When the Athlon64 3500+ was put under the freezer of the Prometeia we were just able to crack the 3 GHz mark with a top speed of 3.05 GHz. CPU voltage was relatively high at 1.85V but temperatures were still well below freezing.

While the Athlon64 3500+ at stock speed is already pretty darn fast, with the chip clocked at 2.66 GHz it produced a very healthy speed boost in every benchmark application I ran. The Prometeia cooled Athlon64 3500+ at 3.05 GHz was blazingly fast, and it simply flies through benchmarks! 28 seconds in Super Pi's 1 million digit test is excellent and we also broke the 30k barrier in 3DMark2001 with the videocard at stock speed! If you're looking to overclock, these are the kinds of results you can get with the Athlon64 3500+ a little system tweaking, and air or phase change cooling. Cool huh!?

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