What's The Real Deal On O/Cing Durons?

[DentyCracker]

Bought myself an ABIT KT7 and Duron 700. Haven't arrived yet but apparently it isn't going to be as easy to overclock as I thought. HardOCP says the pencil thing is quite difficult, yada yada. Also they pooh-poohed the KT7. What do you think? anyone tried the pencil thing or the conductive pen?
Greebe how overclockable are the durons you've tested? Recommended cooling fans etc.
Any info welcome. THanks.

[Alfie]

Duron 600@945mhz
Asus A7V mobo.
The overclocking of the Tbirds and Durons are relatively easy.
The key words here are patience and care.
First make sure the cpu you get has all the pins on the bottom.(apparently AMD has taken another step in stopping overclocking by removing the pins that connect to the L1 bridges.)Week 32 and under are reported to be intact.
In my case I used a conductive pen(micro tip)
I first cleaned the bridges (isapropal alcohol)and then carefully put a tiny drop on each bridge(20 attempts)
The problem being is there tiny and you want no conductive material touching another bridge.
The pencil trick came up after the fact.
The concept is simple,any conductive material will work,the graphite in pencils conducts electricity.
Once again, if this method is used,care and patience remember you want each bridge closed independantly,no conductive material bridging 2 bridges!
Another good solution is using a rear window defroster grid repair kit(available at any auto supply store.
This is a conductive paint that lends itself well to this application.
A tiny drop on each bridge and use a pin or other such thing to draw the two points together.
If conductive pen or paint is used,it's adviseable to let it dry overnight.
In my case the silver paint looks like perfect little solder points,I was so proud,and then the pencil trick appeared.
Regarding your mobo,it's a good choice,but after using the Asus A7V,I'm a little prejudice.
The knock against the Abit board is best pointed towards the Via chipset,it's rare anyone can get over 110 fsb with the kt133,so whats the sense of having all the fsb increases if they dont work!
By closing the L1 bridges I'm currently using 9x multiplier 1.75v 105fsb.
With the 700 Duron you could hit 950+.
As far as cooling,I'm currently using the TiaSol heatsink and fan(AMD approved)which is a well designed heatsink(1 gig model)
http://www.store.yahoo.com/taisol/cpucoolers.html
Cooler guys also has a good selection of Socket A coolers,unfortuneatley most of them are sold out http://www.coolerguys.com/CPUCOOL/Duron.htm

Avoid the Golden orb like the plague,however their new Chrome Orb built specifically for Socket A,is well designed and deserves consideration.
The TiaSol I'm currently using holds the cpu in the 42.6-49.9c range,which is considered quite good.
I have the Alpha(new one for Socket A)on order,so I'll see what differences there are.
The bottom line is get a heatsink designed for Socket A and avoid the problems so many have encountered(myself included).
Good luck and I hope this info helps.
Here is a site that has alot of info regarding the structure and overclocking of Tbirds and Durons,these guys were among the first to discover the hidden truths and deserve all the credit in the world!
Well worth studying.
http://members.xoom.com/candjac/index.htm

[DentyCracker]

Sadly it seems I either got a bad mobo or processor. My travails are chronicled in Brian's Dead Computer thread. Got an AMD approved HS (for t-bird up to 1GHz). I do not like installing or removing the heatsink at all.