It's simple economics.
They were maybe 10% of all motherboard sales for the roughly 1 year period they existed as the only AMD option.
~August 1999 slot A
~June 2000 socket A
Only 10% of those people are the kind who are inclined to tinker/upgrade.

1% of 1 year's sales might want to buy one.

myne wrote on Yesterday, 07:52:

It's simple economics. They were maybe 10% of all motherboard sales for the roughly 1 year period they existed as the only AMD o […]
Show full quote

It's simple economics.
They were maybe 10% of all motherboard sales for the roughly 1 year period they existed as the only AMD option.
~August 1999 slot A
~June 2000 socket A
Only 10% of those people are the kind who are inclined to tinker/upgrade.

1% of 1 year's sales might want to buy one.

My uncle bought a Slot-A system, K7-500, because it was cheaper than Intel. His idea was to upgrade when prices for cpus would have come down.
But he ended up going for P-4 for his wife and he got a socket A 1.4GHz + SDR.

Trashbytes wrote on Yesterday, 07:19:

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 05:46:

As I recall (and understand), more or less, yes. Maybe some pull-up or pull-down resistors. […]
Show full quote

myne wrote on Yesterday, 04:09:

Isn't goldfinger essentially just a jumper block? I don't recall anything particularly special about it […]
Show full quote

Isn't goldfinger essentially just a jumper block?
I don't recall anything particularly special about it

Ghetto version = 2xN jumper, squish together onto fingers, and jump wires.
No?

As I recall (and understand), more or less, yes. Maybe some pull-up or pull-down resistors.

Honestly, I don't think AMD locked down overclocking of the Slot-A Athlon - on the contrary, there was an option, as opposed to Intel's cpus.

The lack of a kind of slotket for Slot-A is probably more due to the short-livedness of the platform compared to Slot-1 and thus no BIOS or VRM support etc. After all, Intel had like 4 or 5 chipsets released with Slor-1 boards?

Edit: https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php … ight=goldfinger it seems that indeed it is a very simple device ..

Locked down in the sense that you needed the extra stuff to make it happen on Slot A which really did stop casual overclocking from people who had no clue unlike say the Socket 370 and Socket 7 boards where you could do it right out of the box with nothing gatekeeping it.

I agree that Slot A was rather short lived and that was likely the biggest reason for no slotkets.

Wouldn't FSB overclocking be just as easy as it was on Slot-1 and BX chipset, if the board supported it?

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 10:11:

Trashbytes wrote on Yesterday, 07:19:

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 05:46:

As I recall (and understand), more or less, yes. Maybe some pull-up or pull-down resistors. […]
Show full quote

As I recall (and understand), more or less, yes. Maybe some pull-up or pull-down resistors.

Honestly, I don't think AMD locked down overclocking of the Slot-A Athlon - on the contrary, there was an option, as opposed to Intel's cpus.

The lack of a kind of slotket for Slot-A is probably more due to the short-livedness of the platform compared to Slot-1 and thus no BIOS or VRM support etc. After all, Intel had like 4 or 5 chipsets released with Slor-1 boards?

Edit: https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php … ight=goldfinger it seems that indeed it is a very simple device ..

Locked down in the sense that you needed the extra stuff to make it happen on Slot A which really did stop casual overclocking from people who had no clue unlike say the Socket 370 and Socket 7 boards where you could do it right out of the box with nothing gatekeeping it.

I agree that Slot A was rather short lived and that was likely the biggest reason for no slotkets.

Wouldn't FSB overclocking be just as easy as it was on Slot-1 and BX chipset, if the board supported it?

If the board and bios supported changing FSB then I doubt it would be any more difficult than Intel, I seem to remember that not all Slot A boards allowed changing FSB but I'm likely wrong about that.

I do know that changing FSB on Slot A impacted the Cache which was either half or full FSB so changing the FSB could lead to instability due to the cache even if the CPU could handle the change.

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 10:11:

Trashbytes wrote on Yesterday, 07:19:

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 05:46:

As I recall (and understand), more or less, yes. Maybe some pull-up or pull-down resistors. […]
Show full quote

As I recall (and understand), more or less, yes. Maybe some pull-up or pull-down resistors.

Honestly, I don't think AMD locked down overclocking of the Slot-A Athlon - on the contrary, there was an option, as opposed to Intel's cpus.

The lack of a kind of slotket for Slot-A is probably more due to the short-livedness of the platform compared to Slot-1 and thus no BIOS or VRM support etc. After all, Intel had like 4 or 5 chipsets released with Slor-1 boards?

Edit: https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php … ight=goldfinger it seems that indeed it is a very simple device ..

Locked down in the sense that you needed the extra stuff to make it happen on Slot A which really did stop casual overclocking from people who had no clue unlike say the Socket 370 and Socket 7 boards where you could do it right out of the box with nothing gatekeeping it.

I agree that Slot A was rather short lived and that was likely the biggest reason for no slotkets.

Wouldn't FSB overclocking be just as easy as it was on Slot-1 and BX chipset, if the board supported it?

Someone here recreated a better version of the goldfinger, sporting all fancy stuff that wasn't present on the 1st ver of that tool.

AMD K7 "goldfinger" cloning thread

Nexxen wrote on Yesterday, 10:45:

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 10:11:

Trashbytes wrote on Yesterday, 07:19:

Locked down in the sense that you needed the extra stuff to make it happen on Slot A which really did stop casual overclocking from people who had no clue unlike say the Socket 370 and Socket 7 boards where you could do it right out of the box with nothing gatekeeping it.

I agree that Slot A was rather short lived and that was likely the biggest reason for no slotkets.

Wouldn't FSB overclocking be just as easy as it was on Slot-1 and BX chipset, if the board supported it?

Someone here recreated a better version of the goldfinger, sporting all fancy stuff that wasn't present on the 1st ver of that tool.

AMD K7 "goldfinger" cloning thread

Not seen that thread before, looks like all the design files are there ..might look into making a couple if I can get the parts locally at a reasonable cost.

Trashbytes wrote on Yesterday, 10:57:

Nexxen wrote on Yesterday, 10:45:

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 10:11:

Wouldn't FSB overclocking be just as easy as it was on Slot-1 and BX chipset, if the board supported it?

Someone here recreated a better version of the goldfinger, sporting all fancy stuff that wasn't present on the 1st ver of that tool.

AMD K7 "goldfinger" cloning thread

Not seen that thread before, looks like all the design files are there ..might look into making a couple if I can get the parts locally at a reasonable cost.

Beware, opening the cartridges isn't an easy task. If you use metal tools you'll damage the plastic case.
There are YT videos for how-to, watch those beforehand. It involves some serious cursing 😀
Been there, "wept" that. 🤣

I wanna think that a quarter century ago, you'd think it the most devious and difficult plastic case ever. But in 2026 if you've used the intervening years to crack open tablets, phones, laptop battery packs, recent laptops, etc etc it would seem like cake. Though the plastic ain't getting any younger, so make sure you're not doing it very cold.

oldGPU wrote on 2026-10-23, 14:10:

A few more this week! 😀

VideoLogic Apocalypse 3Dx (PowerVR PCX2)

The attachment VideoLogic_VideoLogic_Apocalypse_3Dx_4MB_PCI.jpg is no longer available

Where did you find the VideoLogic Apocalypse ????

Linoleum wrote on 2026-10-23, 19:53:

I scored a very nice haul totally for free. Got a few drives and a very clean beige box with an Asus Slot A K7M motherboard and Athlon 800. After changing the faulty PSU and reflashing the BIOS, everything was working perfectly... It's crazy how much they go for on eBay!! I just had to slap in a nice Creative TNT2, Creative 52x and SB Live! I had laying around and I now have a perfect 1999 system.

Tested the 2 5.25"?

Nexxen wrote on Yesterday, 13:47:

Linoleum wrote on 2026-10-23, 19:53:

I scored a very nice haul totally for free. Got a few drives and a very clean beige box with an Asus Slot A K7M motherboard and Athlon 800. After changing the faulty PSU and reflashing the BIOS, everything was working perfectly... It's crazy how much they go for on eBay!! I just had to slap in a nice Creative TNT2, Creative 52x and SB Live! I had laying around and I now have a perfect 1999 system.

Tested the 2 5.25"?

Yup, both working! But one of them was weirdly set as D0 and D2 at the same time with 2 jumpers... When I first plugged it I could feel something warm and smell something burning... No harms were done after removing one of the jumper.

The only things non-working were that PSU that might need to repair to a burned trace close to cap that leaked and the 40x cdrom that had a seized motor.

*** Edit: I managed to fix the PSU... It was the leaky cap and a cold solder joint.

myne wrote on Yesterday, 00:08:

IPA doesn't dry cloudy. Methylated spirits do though. They smell very different but you could have been ripped off. […]
Show full quote

IPA doesn't dry cloudy. Methylated spirits do though. They smell very different but you could have been ripped off.

You don't need to stress too much about water. You're not soaking it for a week, or washing it every week for 20 years.
I've washed modern GPUs up to... 10 series/rx580 without issue.
Of all the things I've washed, NOTHING got worse, several got better.

Drying is far more important.

Got the IPA from a pharmacy so i'm pretty sure it was legit. Smell is like any other IPA i had and still use it to this day for cleaning flux/thermal compound/degreasing stuff.

I agree it doesn't dry cloudy but like i said it loosened something on the board creating that hazy/white layer ... some kind of flux from factory or something? In any case from now on i'm going with demineralised water and drying. Thanks for reassuring that water and drying as final step is fine.

G-X wrote on Yesterday, 17:23:

myne wrote on Yesterday, 00:08:

IPA doesn't dry cloudy. Methylated spirits do though. They smell very different but you could have been ripped off. […]
Show full quote

IPA doesn't dry cloudy. Methylated spirits do though. They smell very different but you could have been ripped off.

You don't need to stress too much about water. You're not soaking it for a week, or washing it every week for 20 years.
I've washed modern GPUs up to... 10 series/rx580 without issue.
Of all the things I've washed, NOTHING got worse, several got better.

Drying is far more important.

Got the IPA from a pharmacy so i'm pretty sure it was legit. Smell is like any other IPA i had and still use it to this day for cleaning flux/thermal compound/degreasing stuff.

I agree it doesn't dry cloudy but like i said it loosened something on the board creating that hazy/white layer ... some kind of flux from factory or something? In any case from now on i'm going with demineralised water and drying. Thanks for reassuring that water and drying as final step is fine.

Might have been a conformal coating protecting the board itself ...they tend to degrade over time and the IPA may have dissolved it in that area. or might have been the ink printing on the PCB ..Ive had that get dissolved by IPA before.

Trashbytes wrote on Yesterday, 10:40:

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 10:11:

Trashbytes wrote on Yesterday, 07:19:

Locked down in the sense that you needed the extra stuff to make it happen on Slot A which really did stop casual overclocking from people who had no clue unlike say the Socket 370 and Socket 7 boards where you could do it right out of the box with nothing gatekeeping it.

I agree that Slot A was rather short lived and that was likely the biggest reason for no slotkets.

Wouldn't FSB overclocking be just as easy as it was on Slot-1 and BX chipset, if the board supported it?

If the board and bios supported changing FSB then I doubt it would be any more difficult than Intel, I seem to remember that not all Slot A boards allowed changing FSB but I'm likely wrong about that.

I do know that changing FSB on Slot A impacted the Cache which was either half or full FSB so changing the FSB could lead to instability due to the cache even if the CPU could handle the change.

Pretty sure that cache on slot-A was derived from CPU clock and not dependent on FSB. IIRC the first Athlons had a 1/2 cache divider whereas the top spec were 2/5 out maybe when 1/3. This could also be set on certain goldfinger devices.

G-X wrote on Yesterday, 17:23:

myne wrote on Yesterday, 00:08:

IPA doesn't dry cloudy. Methylated spirits do though. They smell very different but you could have been ripped off. […]
Show full quote

IPA doesn't dry cloudy. Methylated spirits do though. They smell very different but you could have been ripped off.

You don't need to stress too much about water. You're not soaking it for a week, or washing it every week for 20 years.
I've washed modern GPUs up to... 10 series/rx580 without issue.
Of all the things I've washed, NOTHING got worse, several got better.

Drying is far more important.

Got the IPA from a pharmacy so i'm pretty sure it was legit. Smell is like any other IPA i had and still use it to this day for cleaning flux/thermal compound/degreasing stuff.

I agree it doesn't dry cloudy but like i said it loosened something on the board creating that hazy/white layer ... some kind of flux from factory or something? In any case from now on i'm going with demineralised water and drying. Thanks for reassuring that water and drying as final step is fine.

Fair enough.
If you want to be cautious, water wash, flick dry as much as you can (arm swings. You'll figure it out), then IPA rinse to displace the water in the tight spots, then full sun 4 hours or 3 days inside somewhere on its edge, ports down. Unless it's fog humid the air will dry most things in 3 days.

H3nrik V! wrote on Today, 07:00:

Trashbytes wrote on Yesterday, 10:40:

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 10:11:

Wouldn't FSB overclocking be just as easy as it was on Slot-1 and BX chipset, if the board supported it?

If the board and bios supported changing FSB then I doubt it would be any more difficult than Intel, I seem to remember that not all Slot A boards allowed changing FSB but I'm likely wrong about that.

I do know that changing FSB on Slot A impacted the Cache which was either half or full FSB so changing the FSB could lead to instability due to the cache even if the CPU could handle the change.

Pretty sure that cache on slot-A was derived from CPU clock and not dependent on FSB. IIRC the first Athlons had a 1/2 cache divider whereas the top spec were 2/5 out maybe when 1/3. This could also be set on certain goldfinger devices.

I've done a bit of digging and all three are tied together, since core speed is derived from FSB, cache is tied to that 2/5 or 1/3 as you said, but Thunderbirds like mine are just full speed. Its honestly been a bit since I have messed around with any Slot A OCing. Its both fun and interesting to force google to spit out relevant information, it does not like to give up its year 2000 secrets.

2999 pages!!! My mom just bought a 3gb hard drive but it arrived with only 2861 MB available.

.96 is the rough "constant" you want.

3*.96 = 2.88

Dothan Burger wrote on Yesterday, 03:57:

I can't wait to see your collection on display.

Thank you! I’m trying to figure out what would be best for displaying them (while still getting the Wife Approval Factor) 🤣

supercordo wrote on Yesterday, 12:36:

Where did you find the VideoLogic Apocalypse ????

Japan 😀