I ovreclock the gp2x with the tweaker utility, not just to get games up to speed but to get rid of the slight diagonal lines that are sometimes visible.

Can tweaking the processor speed damage the unit?

Nope. Worst thing that will happen, is a crash (I get this a lot trying to OC to 170+ in MAME )

Yep

the processor used in the gp2x crashes when it gets too hot, way before any damage can occur from further overheating, apparantly. at least thats what the general consensus is around here.

i put dreamcast thermal pads on my processor to get more oc out of it, got me about 30 more mhz. have fun

Anyway you could address this subject some more? Where DC pads the closest you could find to the 920T's size? Is it terribly difficult to do? Are there any other known things you can do to increase OC ability?

THANKS!

I guess it's also a matter of batteries. If the cpu speed is too high, the battery might just not be able to provide enough power at once! Maybe not even the AC can provide enough to a certain extent but I don't know if that is relevant since I am not really an expert on this in any way ;-)

Maybe you could attach a small and flat heatsink. That would eventually give more cooling than pads ??? Of course a bigger one then the one already inside!

Overclocking can reduce the life of the processor, but I wouldn't worry about it. If it lasts 13 years instead of 15, whos going to notice?

I would I still own my 486dx4 PC...let me think...over 18 years old?

And you have assembly humour in your sig.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we've just found the biggest nerd on the forums!

*bows down with respect*

I still have a DX2

A clock speed of 66MHz O_O

Although I don't know how to write funny assembly.... er or any assembly. >_>

hm ... i have a P1 133mhz running at 166mhz ... and it does fine.

It's interesting, that you can use Win2K on this 48mb RAM beast

overclocking can over time cause something called "electromigration" which to the uneducated, means that the CPU will basically start to rot from the inside out, its caused by too much heat/juice going through the CPU

if anyone says it cant damage the CPU they are talking carp ... it can, and over enough time ... it will

I had win2k (I have 32Mb ram and 400Mhz)
Now I use linux but still gp2x is better than my computer....

I was told dreamcast thermal pads where /very/ good, so I just ripped open my DC, took two pads out, 1 was a bit bigger than the other. I placed the big pad over both processors and the smaller one on top of that so it would touch the back of the LCD (using LCD as heatsink) pretty easy to do.

Erm, wouldn't dumping all that heat onto the LCD damage it?
Perhaps you should have one heatsink and one rubber thingy?

Umm, wow, it would take some serious overclocking to cause electromigration to occur any faster than it does anyway. As I understand it that is how processors eventually die, but as mentioned earlier it isn't going to seriously speed anything up.

Don't worry about it. I run my MegaDrive/Genesis' normally 7.6 Mhz 68000 at 25.4 MHz, and my NES' normally 1.79 MHz 6502 at 4.2 MHz .. not a bit of damage yet. If you aren't cranking up the VCore (Core voltage) to very high levels, there is little to worry about. You may decrease the lifespan of the chip, but it probably outlives us all anyway.



The ARM9 uses very, very little power (IIRC, fractions of a milliwatt per MHz clockrate) and dissipates very little heat. It's unlikely it will develop any real dangerous heat levels even overclocked heavily, and when crashed, it likely cools down further.

If you wanted the ultimate overclock and didn't mind the horrible power drain (or use a higher current wall brick?) you might use some thermal epoxy to join the MMSP2 chip with the metal with a weak (or very low-voltage fed) TEC, or Thermo Electric Cooler (peltier unit.) It'd suck heat out of the chip itself, and dump it into the metal on the other side (adding waste heat on its own.) It'd get rather warm, but chilling the MMSP2 could net you significant overclocking gains.

Or if you wanted to just disassemble the unit, get a high-delta value TEC attached to the MMSP2 and crank it up all the way with a high-current brick and watch the frost accumulate ... you'd likely reach well past 350 MHz that way.

When I've got a decent soldering iron and multimeter with me, I'll have to poke around to see about cranking the MMSP2's voltage a bit and see where it gets me..

now this sounds like some serious fun! Is there a way to achieve nice cooling without having to drain power (except for heat waste that is...)?

Epicenter, if you can break 350MHz, you're going to have to put a how-to up so the rest of us can follow suit. I'd buy a second 2X just to get that kind of speed.

er, thats exactly what i was thinking... could someone possibly post images/link of the dreamcast pads? or maybe there is another cooling solution (i work in a PC service shop so i have a few tools )

It could in theory... but the ARM9 produces so little heat...it would be the equivalent of going outisde on a mild day (70 degrees farenheit) and playing your 2X in the sunlight... sure, the sunlight could theoretically damage it... but it would take hours of constant exposure to do that sort of damage. So, unless you play your 2X for 15 hours striaght at that frequency...don't expect too much damage

My GP32 has been modded (Pencil tricked) to go 204mhz (166mhz stock), I use it mostly @ 200mhz for silky smooth full speed DrMD. I also did a continuous test for 48 hours and posted the on going results here on the forums and she (my GP32) didn`t even break into a sweat, Or crash and shes still going strong at that speed.

I love my GP32.

Trooper