Supplied by: High Speed Pc $45

Introduction

I am sure many of you have already heard about the TD2. It is an Athlon overclocking device designed by Innovatek and distributed by Highspeed PC. The thing that is so unique about this GFD is that it is extremely small. There is no power connector and NO VOLTAGE REGULATOR on card. How they did this, I do not know. The PCB is double sided so the area of board is cut down a bit.

Installation

What really needs to be said? You plug it into the Athlon golden fingers. If you don't know how to do this by now, then you've been living in a shell for the last 10 months. The dipswitches are the first I have seen which are 3 position. The middle position is not used for any setting. However, there is one trace that leads to a contact on the edge connector. This trace is connected to the sixth switch, which is used in the voltage setup. The first four switches control the frequency and the six through eight control the voltage. The instructions are very complete and easy to understand. You will also notice that the dipswitch positions are correctly marked on the unit and the documentation.

Performance

Up until now, I have been using the Northwind GFD for overclocking. I clock my week 43 (.25 mu) 650 MHz Athlon up to 750. While this may not sound too impressive, this is at the default voltage of 1.6V, at half speed cache, and with the case closed on my computer. Stable as a rock! When I put the TD2 on, I froze when booting to windows with the same settings. I went back to the Northwind and I was fine, then back to the TD2 and it was OK. After running the TD2 for a while, I got a hardlock. I bumped the voltage up .05V and it was stable as a rock again. I am not sure if this was because there is no pull-up resistor on the TD2 or if it was just a matter of wear and tear on my Athlon. If anybody has some info, let me know. Here is a picture of the TD2 next to the Northwind GFD.

(Click for larger view)

Notice the size difference and how clean the TD2 PCB is!

Final Comments

I have to say that this device is a first of its kind in that it has taken simplicity to the maximum. Also, at $45 including shipping, it is a great bargain. For this reason it deserves a 9 out of 10 and an AMDPower seal of approval. (Thanx to Riaan!) Special thanx to High Speed PC for supplying the TD2!

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