166 Overclock Voltage Mods? Dangerous?

[DaveC]

I am planning to get a BLU and GBAX says that they will mod the systems to all overclock to 166 by increasing the voltage to the CPU. Can't this burn out the CPU prematurely? If this was safe wouldn't Gamepark just put a different resistor in to increase voltage and get the highest speed?

More voltage means more heat, heat is a destroyer of chips. Kind of like if you put 9v battery on a flashlight that only uses 6v it will be brighter but the bulb will burn out much faster.

Also won't this suck batteries quicker?

I am thinking to request to not have the mod done.

 

[Azure]

The batteries will be drained faster when you're playing at 166; I don't know if it'll affect the life at the normal mhz. I never really thought of the OC mod this way; I already sent my GP32 in to mashmods for this and other mods. But I guess if my GP32 does mess up down the rode from the OC mod, I'll have a reason to buy a BLU

 

[spongebue]

My guess about the heat problem is that there is a regulator inside, not a resistor. This would give a much stabler current. Batteries will lose a bit of their power as the device is used, and the regulator will still give the same amount, but a resistor would produce a smaller, more unstable voltage. Unfortunately, the regulators really do give a lot of heat since that is what they convert excess voltage to.

Not sure about damaging the CPU, however. I guess that if gbax.com, a reliable site within the gamepark community, will do it, then there must be a bit of certainty within the mod.

 

[DaveC]

The batteries will be drained faster when you're playing at 166; I don't know if it'll affect the life at the normal mhz. I never really thought of the OC mod this way; I already sent my GP32 in to mashmods for this and other mods. But I guess if my GP32 does mess up down the rode from the OC mod, I'll have a reason to buy a BLU

I would imagine that since the voltage is increased electronically, it is ALWAYS using more voltage. This would mean decreased battery life at all times I would guess. Maybe it is not that much of a difference though: 7hrs vs 6hrs 58min or something like that.

Have them do the glass screen mod too if you already didn't. It looks so much better than the blue streaky plastic one.

 

[Azure]

The batteries will be drained faster when you're playing at 166; I don't know if it'll affect the life at the normal mhz. I never really thought of the OC mod this way; I already sent my GP32 in to mashmods for this and other mods. But I guess if my GP32 does mess up down the rode from the OC mod, I'll have a reason to buy a BLU

I would imagine that since the voltage is increased electronically, it is ALWAYS using more voltage. This would mean decreased battery life at all times I would guess. Maybe it is not that much of a difference though: 7hrs vs 6hrs 58min or something like that.

Have them do the glass screen mod too if you already didn't. It looks so much better than the blue streaky plastic one.

Yeah, I had them do the glass mod too (Although I really didn't see much that was wrong with the original screen, I still got the mod because everybody raves about glass screens for some reason), along with the button mod.

 

[TelcoLou]

So it runs @166mhz all the time? I like being able to run @ slower speeds, like for LittleJohn, where 166 is overkill.

 

[PinkSpider]

So it runs @166mhz all the time? I like being able to run @ slower speeds, like for LittleJohn, where 166 is overkill.

Im pretty sure it doesent; it just allows it to be overclocked that much.

 

[TelcoLou]

So it runs @166mhz all the time? I like being able to run @ slower speeds, like for LittleJohn, where 166 is overkill.

Im pretty sure it doesent; it just allows it to be overclocked that much.

AH, well, that would make more sense :lol:

 

[Robster]

DaveC, first off: there is no lifetime problem with the increased voltage. Samsung specifies that any voltage from 1.65 to 1.95 is OK for the CPU. Their "normal" rating is 1.8V, but they guarantee that anything below 1.95 will not damage the chip.

Next, there is no heat issue with the mod. Sure, more voltage means more heat, but the heat generated by that CPU is negligible (I think you'd struggle to measure any heating effect from it at all, let alone a 100deg. C rise that would be needed to damage it).

Increasing the voltage will drain the batteries faster... very slightly. I'd go with the 6h58m vs. 7h estimate personally

The reason that Gamepark have not used 1.95V is that they do not intend the unit to be set to 166MHz. They have used Samsung's conservative estimate of 133MHz as their intended speed. WE want them to run faster, and increasing the CPU voltage lets them run faster, so we do the mod. No reason for Gamepark to do it.

So, all up, there's absolutely no danger as long as the mod is done correctly. And you know that through GBax, if they fry a GP32, they're not going to then sell it to you!

 

[maltloaf]

When I do a voltage mod, with Robs excellent information, I always measure the cpu core voltage after the mod. It is the first job that I do. If the core voltage is above the samsung spec, then i change the ratio of the resistors to bring it down. I also usually inform the customer of what the new core voltage is.

Thats all I mod for, to allow the maximum possible software overclock with no danger.

malty

 

[Azure]

When I do a voltage mod, with Robs excellent information, I always measure the cpu core voltage after the mod. It is the first job that I do. If the core voltage is above the samsung spec, then i change the ratio of the resistors to bring it down. I also usually inform the customer of what the new core voltage is.

Thats all I mod for, to allow the maximum possible software overclock with no danger.

malty

That's very considerate of you. Does mash also do this?

 

[thejuggler]

Interestingly, not all machines require any mods to run at 166. I got my standard gp32 from lik-sang and it runs at 166 with no issues right out of the box.

If people likt mash are guaranteeing that your machine will run at 166 (and they're doing it for free) then fair enough ... just be aware that you may not have to mod it at all (hence not invalidating any warranty yada...yada...yada

 

[Azure]

Interestingly, not all machines require any mods to run at 166. I got my standard gp32 from lik-sang and it runs at 166 with no issues right out of the box.

If people likt mash are guaranteeing that your machine will run at 166 (and they're doing it for free) then fair enough ... just be aware that you may not have to mod it at all (hence not invalidating any warranty yada...yada...yada

I think we call know that the GP32 doesn't need to be modded to run at 166, that some GP32s can handle that clock speed. But the fact is, some can't, like mine can only go to 160. And Mash (Mashmods.com) is offering a mod service, so it isn't free. I think we have all tried and checked to see how high our GP32s can OC before we looked at this mod. So they "just be aware" was kind of pointless.

 

[maltloaf]

i would estimate judging by ppl i have spoken to that about 40% - 50% can do 166 without modification. Its definately worth checking, but im sure everyone here will have done, like azure says.


Why should people like mashmods do it for free, thejuggler ? that point is lost on me.

Process is test, open, mod, measure, close, plus testing time at higher clock frequencies, all takes time, which is not free.

malty

 

[Axeman]

Yep - if you can do it for free, why pay