HARDWARE MODIFY: CPU MOD

Intel Core 2 Duo Voltage Boost

The Core 2 Duos bring the joy back for the Intel Overclockers with their easy to handle heat and ample of overclock head-room. However, the overclocking capacity depends as much on the motherboards paired with them. Some of the enthusiasts on a tight budget are stuck with a limiting motherboard , particularly in the voltage department. (ASRock Motherboard Users come to mind ;) ) Well now here's a way out for you!

You can basically over-ride the default voltage of 1.325v inherent on many of the Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs, E6300 to X6800, with a simple "pin-mod". Well yes, there are no longer pins on these LGA packaged processors... in fact that makes them easier to modify! All you need is some electrical insulation tape and some conductive ink!

**Take Note that such Voltage Modifications would void the warranty for your Processors!!**

**As some CPUs come with a different default voltages such as 1.2875v, etc, using these mods will get you different results so I will be updating with more info for CPUs with different default voltages. For now, this is for 1.325v default.**

To get a slight bump to 1.4v, simply connect the 'pins' shown below with conductive ink. This is a direct representation of your Processor and not your motherboard socket, do take note!

To facilitate precision, tape over the surrounding 'pins' except the ones you are trying to connect.

Pins conductive-inked

To get to 1.45v, you not just have to conductive ink, you will need to tape over a pin as well. However, this is not tough at all and just need some patience. Cut a really small piece of tape the size of an LGA 'pin' Land. Then tape this over the pin marked in the green square tightly. Also, connect the 'pins' shown below with conductive ink, the ones marked in red.

This is how it should look like

More Voltage Please!

To get to 1.5v, similar thing. Cut a really small piece of tape the size of an LGA 'pin' Land. Then tape this over the pin marked in the green square tightly. Also, connect the 'pins' shown below with conductive ink, the ones marked in red.

To get to 1.55v, simply connect the 'pins' shown below with conductive ink, the ones marked in red.

To get to 1.6v, simply connect the 'pins' shown below with conductive ink, the ones marked in red.

If you want to clean off the mods or any mistakes, simply use nail varnish remover or Zippo lighter fluid and clean off easily!

For those who want to check CPU Core Voltages to verify the increase, just in case your motherboard does not support voltage read outs, you can check with a multimeter on the MOSFET legs right beside the LGA socket, such as this:

Vcore Measurement on ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 Motherboard

*For those with 1.2875v Default voltage, head on to the next page for the mods. The Default Voltage is usually listed on the Retail CPU Package Box.

For 1.2875v Default CPU

The following applies if your CPU default voltage is 1.2875v. This is usually listed on your retail box package itself. Same thing like what I've explained in the early part of this article, connect or tape up the following pins accordingly for voltage wanted.

For 1.35v Default

For CPUs with default 1.35v!

To facilitate precision, tape over the surrounding 'pins' except the ones you are trying to connect.

To get 1.5v:

To get 1.55v:

To get 1.6v:

Really Simple right?? Now you don't have to feel lousy running a budget motherboard. The mods should give you enough juice to keep up with the overclockers on premium boards!

As for FSB mods, for those who need it, we'll share this goodie soon! Stay tuned!

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SUMMARY: Possible frequency mods to Intel Multi-Core LGA775 CPUs.

NOTE: The following data is from Intel Data Sheets and is summarized for information purposes only. There is no guarantee that any modification to a CPU will be successful in changing the CPU's frequency. Overclockers.com will not be held responsible for any direct or consequential damages should these modifications be implemented.

I received a lot of email on FSB modding LGA775 CPUs and thought a guide on this would be valuable - there are numerous threads in forums on this mod, so there is nothing new here but it summarizes what's possible.

Intel's LGA775 series CPUs are some of the most overclockable CPUs we have seen since the early Celeron days. Many users are achieving substantial overclocks on these CPUs by physically connecting pads on the CPU to change its frequency. The following table shows what combinations are used by Intel to set the CPU's frequency signals to the motherboard. The "H" and "L" refer to voltages on the CPU pads, with "H" a positive value and "L" negative:

Intel Multi-Core LGA775 CPU Series Frequency Tables

CPU Series	BSEL2	BSEL1	BSEL0	FSB Frequency
Intel ® Core ™2 Extreme Processor QX9000 Series and Intel ® Core ™2 Quad Processor Q9000 Series	H	H	L	400
	H	L	L	333
Intel ® Core ™2 Extreme Processor X6800 and Intel ® Core ™2 Duo Desktop Processor E6000 and E4000 Series	H	L	L	333
	L	L	L	266
	L	H	L	200
Intel ® Pentium ® Dual-Core Desktop Processor E2000 Series	L	H	L	200
Intel ® Celeron ® Dual-Core Processor E1000 Series	L	H	L	200

Note that these series use the same BSEL combinations to achieve frequencies - collapsing all the combinations to one table gives the following:

Intel Multi-Core LGA775 CPU Series Frequency Tables

CPU Frequency	BSEL2	BSEL1	BSEL0
400	H	H	L
333	H	L	L
266	L	L	L
200	L	H	L

All the LGA775 Multi-Core series have their BSEL pads in the same location:

CPU view from the top

The basic methodology for FSB changes involves the following:

Connecting an "H" BSEL pad to a VSS pad changes a High value to Low
Connecting an "L" BSEL pad to a VCC pad changes a Low value to High

VCC are the power pins for the processor and carry a positive charge and VSS are the ground pins for the processor and carry a negative charge.

To connect the pads you can use a conductive paint such as this:

Permatex Conductive Paint

It is essential that you do not paint the wrong pads and critical that you do not get any paint on other pads. I have used a mask to keep the paint from flowing onto other pads:

The basic strategy to FSB modding is to take a low frequency CPU and mod it to a higher frequency - if you have a 333 or 400 MHz CPU operating at a high speed already, there is not a lot of headroom for a jump to a higher speed with pad mods.

Summary of Theoretical Combinations

Based on the above data, there following mods are possible, although whether any of these will be successful is an open question:

Intel Multi-Core LGA775 CPU Series Frequency Tables

CPU Frequency	BSEL2	BSEL1	BSEL0
400	H	H	L
333	H	L	L
266	L	L	L
200	L	H	L

Connecting an "H" BSEL pad to a VSS pad changes a High value to Low
Connecting an "L" BSEL pad to a VCC pad changes a Low value to High

The following mods are possible - these are top views of the left bottom of the CPU, where EF is the indexing notch (actual CPU pics on page 2):

The following strapping will change a 200 MHz CPU to a 333 MHz CPU:

In some instances just covering BSEL2 with a small piece of tape will change BSEL2 to high - this worked with my E2160 on a Dell Vostro 200. Whether this will work with other CPU/mobo combinatons is open to experimentation. It might be possible to change a 200 MHz CPU to run at 400 MHz, but most likely this will not work as the jump from 200 to 400 MHz is probably too far.

One other possible mod is to change a 266 MHz CPU to 400 MHz:

I have not seen this done so I can't attest to its viability - however, the E6300 is a good candidate for this mod - 2.8 GHz is probably attainable without extreme cooling, but whether the motherboard supports 400 MHz is a determining factor.

Detailed Pictures CONTINUED page 2...

The following pictures show the mods on an actual CPU; first, the CPU's back where the BSEL pad area is located: