Since the days of the Slot A Athlon, out-of-the-box multiplier control has been practically non existant, save for a few lucky Socket A 1200Mhz chips. With the Slot A processors you could hook up a device, called a Golden Finger (or GFD for short), to allow changes to the multipliers. With the Thunderbird the pencil trick became popular - keeping the American (and the rest of the world's) economy strong with the purchase of magnifying glasses by the truckload.
The biggest advantage to the GFD's was that no motherboard multiplier support was needed. The processor would act exactly how you told it to. With today's Socket A motherboard options this is not a problem for most of us. Some people are however still stuck without those options, and today we will take a look at a possible solution. Enter the Golden Socket...
A Closer Look
The Golden Socket (GS) works by manually overriding the stock multiplier settings of the chip via 2 sets of DIP switches located inside the socket. The GS is a standard ZIF socket mounted on a PCB. It is held in place only by the pins. While attaching a heavy HSF on this may not seem like a very good idea, this product can keep you from having to buy a new motherboard if you break the cleats off the original ZIF socket. I would have liked to see a better mounting method, either by a clip to the motherboard's socket or using the 4 mounting holes on the motherboard.
The package as bought from Plycon contained no instructions on setting the switches. This is apparently how it is when it comes from overseas! Plycon supplies a list of DIP switch settings on their web site, although it would have been nice to have a hard copy sent along with the package.
The most tedious part of changing AMD's multipliers has always been properly connecting the L1 bridges. While the pencil trick worked will with the Thunderbirds, many people have shorted out their new XP's trying to fill in the pits. The Golden Socket includes 3 pieces of 5-conductor Trace Tape to ease this issue. The tape will work on all current AMD processors except for the new XP's. That is however an issue that is currently being worked on.
The trace tape was applied to the L1 bridges and the system was booted to confirm that the multiplier lock was gone. Everything was then pulled out and the Golden Socket was installed.
The Golden Socket allows for multipliers from 5x to 12.5x. The DIP switches are covered with a protective tape during shipping. Removing the tape and setting the switches to 10x for our tests was easily accomplished.
A note about the pins. To say they bend easily is an understatement! One of the pins became bent while only removing it from the bubble wrap it came in. Another bent while inserting the product onto the motherboard. 5 minutes and a pair of tweezers later, everything is in solidly. I reinstalled the OCZ Gladiator heatsink, plugged everything in and booted up... Nothing. No video signal, no beeps, no nothing! The system was shut down, and all parts of the installation checked but everything seemed fine. I set everything back in, this time setting the multiplier to 9.5. Still nothing. Hmm... Removed the Golden Socket, installed the CPU directly on the motherboard, and everything booted up fine.
Testing, take 2!
In order to see if it was the Golden Socket causing the non-boots, a second more basic system was tested:
The bare system was put together, trace tape applied to the processor, and the multipliers tested to ensure the L1 bridges were connected. The system booted fine without the Golden Socket at both 9.0x100 and 9.5x100.
When attempting to mount the Golden Socket at this point, it at first popped out of the socket when bringing the arm down prompting a reseat. Firm pressure was required to the item to give a good seating. To test the hold, I put the system through the same torture test all clip-on parts get.... I gripped the Socket firmly and shook it, bringing the motherboard and video card along for the ride. (Hey, if it can't take this, how do you expect it to survive a Lan Party?!?!)
Power was reconnected, fingers were crossed, and the switch was thrown.... No POST. Unplug and reseat everything, cross toes this time for good measure, close my eyes and hit the button. Beep!
Even though the BIOS was manually set to 9.0x100 and the L1 bridges were unlocked, the Golden Socket finally worked! The system booted up at the preset 9.5x multiplier. A quick check was made in the BIOS to confirm the internal settings were overriden and a warm boot followed. No POST. *sigh* Ok, let's try the reset switch. No dice. I flipped the switch at the power supply, and finally got another boot. This time I let the system into Windows, then hit the 3-fingered-salute. (And people wonder why reviewers have to reload their OS every 4-6 weeks!) The system restarted with no trouble. Go back into the BIOS, check the system temps, and restart. No POST.
Since the days of the Slot A Athlon, out-of-the-box multiplier control has been practically non existant, save for a few lucky Socket A 1200Mhz chips. With the Slot A processors you could hook up a device, called a Golden Finger (or GFD for short), to allow changes to the multipliers. With the Thunderbird the pencil trick became popular - keeping the American (and the rest of the world's) economy strong with the purchase of magnifying glasses by the truckload.
