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Overclocking a eMac?
- Thread starter 68kPlus
- Start date
CircuitBored
Well-known member
eMacs are hit or miss when it comes to overclocking. The CPUs in a lot of them were essentially under-clocked from the factory in order to the meet the demand for lower-spec education machines. The frequency you can push your G4 to depends entirely on random chance. You might be able to almost double the frequency (supposedly there are 1.8GHz G4s out there) or you might simply add a few MHz and find that your system becomes unstable. It's a process of trial and error that requires hours with a micro-soldering iron.
I was able to push my 1GHz model all the way to 1.3GHz with no voltage change required and performance simply increased linearly as I upped the frequency. There was no temperature change - probably, in part, due to my replacement of the thermal paste. That machine now has the fastest single-thread performance of any G4 I own, even beating out my dual 1.25 G4 MDD quite handily.
In short: no one can tell you exactly how much you can overclock your eMac - you just have to take it apart and start experimenting.
I was able to push my 1GHz model all the way to 1.3GHz with no voltage change required and performance simply increased linearly as I upped the frequency. There was no temperature change - probably, in part, due to my replacement of the thermal paste. That machine now has the fastest single-thread performance of any G4 I own, even beating out my dual 1.25 G4 MDD quite handily.
In short: no one can tell you exactly how much you can overclock your eMac - you just have to take it apart and start experimenting.
