Athlon processors can be bus overclocked same as Pentiums. Though, it’s likely to unlock the multiplier on certain AMD processors. This includes bridging a set of 4 small contacts. They’re known as the L1 bridges, and they can be seen on the top of the processor.

The simplest method to hook them up is to use conductive paint, and draw a line from every contact to its opposite mate. It’s important that hook only the opposite pins to each other, and restrict connecting nearby pins to each other. If wrong pins are hooked up, a part of the processor can burst out.

Latest Athlons processors are harder to hook up in the L1 bridges. By using a laser beam, they’ve cut a divot in the motherboard between the contacts, and it can’t be filled with conductive ink or paint. Several overclocking web sites recommend different methods of doing this like bridging the divots with a nonconductive heat sink compound and then bridging the gaps.

Generally, a lot of successful overclocking sees a maximum of 10% performance hike. One can even overclock the video card to improve 3-D gaming performance.