Overview

At the time of writing this, the e6600 ($225) Core 2 Duo processor has become a very popular chip for it's performance/price ratio, finally edging AMD's offerings even without overclocking. Adding to the buzz on these chips is that they are clocked rather low and overclock beautifully. The mod in this tutorial uses a cheaper e4300 ($125) and makes it work by default at the same speed as the e6600. It's a modification that requires a little patience, a tube of defogger paint or a conductive silver pen, and a complete disregard for your hardware warrany(not true). The bsel strap method just tricks the motherboard into thinking it is working with an 1066 MHz fsb(266MHz) processor instead of it's actual 800MHz (200MHz), effectively upping the timing from 1.8GHz to 2.4GHz. This has been very effective in my case, because I'm using a cheap ECS motherboard that came essentially free with the processor. My combo was the e4300 with an ECS P4M800Pro-M v2.0 for $99. Six weeks later that still kills any current deals, but not for long once the new generation of core 2's come out. This strap method makes overclocking efforts begin at 2.4GHz instead of at 1.8 so you can bring it much higher. Without this mod, on this board I couldn't get any higher than 220MHz (a 10% overclock). Now I'm starting out with a 33% overclock and it's very stable, but a little on the warm side.

Credit Where it's due

Once again, I'm regurgitating others' hard work in combination with my success at using their advice.
Thanks to extremesystems.org and some random ebayer who linked to info on this mod when I was looking to instead make a quick buck on my e4300. I notice now that there are dozens of forums on this topic now, including information on a 1333 stap. More on that later if I try it.

More disclaimers

I am NOT an electrical engineer. Taking my advice may very well destroy your cpu, ram, motherboard, manhood, etc. It may even ultimately result in getting George Bush re-elected for a third and final term, thus ending humanity as we know it. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Here's How

Roll up a piece of electrical tape and affix the processor to your working surface for stability. Carefully tape off a line connecting the following pins on your processor.



Note: to prevent bleeding under your taped off region, It's best to overdo it a little bit and cover all but the tiniest line where you want to draw your connecton. Then firmly press the tape in place. As long as you can see any of the pins and a line between them you should be okay.

Draw the connection with the your conductive pen and allow it at least 30 minutes to dry. This step is very important. It will almost certainly fail if it hasn't been given the proper time to set. Repeat--add another layer to be sure and wait again for at least 30 minutes. Peel off the tape and see your work:

Notice on mine it looks like the bottom end is edging onto the pin above it. I just used a push-pin to chip off enough of it that there was no contact. What you see in the image was my third attempt at this. This is why I urge PATIENCE and carefully following the steps because my early attempts were a mess. To start over just use nail polish remover or Goo Gone and a Q-Tip. It comes off easily and completely. Remove all solvent before starting your next attempt.

My Results

My system: P4M800Pro-M v2 | 2x1GB DDR2 PC5300 | C2D e4300 | Stock Intel Cooler | GeForce 5600 (I'm not benchmarking, just showing functionality and temps...)
I used 4 (usually) great tools to see what was going on in my system:
CPU-Z
Intel's Thermal Analysis Tool
Core Temp
Speedfan

Temperature Discrepancies: 3 programs show very different temps!

Idle

One Core at 100%

Other Core at 100%

Both Cores st 60%

If those higher temps are correct, I don't want to try both cores at 100% until I install a better cooling solution.

CPU-Z shows my current settings. Note: I've not set any overclocking parameters in the bios. This is entirely do to the hardware hack.

Responses

Please respond to my questions posed here: on my blog entry for this tutorial and ask your own. Thanks!