Is It Safe To Overclock?

[Troy the Great]

I am really not sure. I have some people telling me that it will fry or damage my Gp2x due power issues, but almost everyone is doing on this forum and have had no complaints. Does anyone know for sure? Thank you.

 

[Ravnos]

In all likelihood, the worst thing that will happen if you overclock too much is your GP2X will crash. Just overclock a little less next time if that happens.

 

[gaterooze]

No danger at all, it works differently to a PC CPU (no extra cooling needed).

Like Ravnos said it will just crash, no harm done.

 

[Troy the Great]

Thanks

 

[banner88]

Can you explain why it works differently? Out of interest. I know quite a bit about PC hardware, but nothing about the GP2X's.

 

[Fishbong]

Well, to put it simple: ARM processors don´t get hot, because they don´t consume enough energy to get hot.

 

[ejoy]

Can anyone confirm what's the safe MHz the arm cpu used in gp2x is designed for? I remember these arms can work on different cpu clocks, 200MHz is only a safe lower bound.

 

[sam fisher]

Well they are rejects from batches rated at 266mhz If I remember. You could overclock it to like 1ghz and it would just crash.

 

[^RaZ]

I know nothing about overclocking really but just to put ur mind at rest ive been overclocking to 255Mhz for the past month or two no problems. Its a MKII and crashes trying to clock at 266Mhz =)

 

[Squidge]

To be honest, PC processors are exactly the same - you can attempt to run them at silly speeds and they'll just crash if they don't like it.

The only reason PC processors get so hot is when people increase the voltage to silly levels. Unlike the GP2X, the voltage control for a PC processor can normally be altered from within the BIOS, and some people try to run 1.2V processors at 1.7V and wonder why they get hot

 

[meltbanana]

i have a First Edition GP2X and i overclock it at 280Mhz and it hasnt crashed yet. i feel quite special

 

[DavidBeoulve]

Well that sure explains a little mystery that has been nagging my brain. :huh:

Thank you, Squidge. I wondered "What the heck makes an ARM so different than a normal CPU?"