Tweeking Device 2

Distributor: HighSpeedPC
Product: Tweeking Device 2
Street Price: $45 including shipping
Date Reviewed: October 21, 2000
Reviewed By: TySoft

Specifications:

Size: 1 1/4" L X 1 3/8" W Switches 8 Switches / 1 Bank
Power: None Required
Warranty: Lifetime Warranty

Introduction:

Have you ever wanted a GFD that requires no external power connector? Have you ever wanted a GFD that is very compact? Have you ever wanted a GFD that works great for your AMD SlotA Athlon or Thunderbird CPUs? I did, and I didn't think such a gold finger device existed until I found the Tweeking Device 2. I sat down with this golden finger device for a few days, and quickly learned that I'll never go back to any other gold fingers.

Installation:

The Tweeking Device 2 GFD was extremely easy to install. All you have to do is open the case of your SlotA CPU and located AMD's debug port. Once located, the GFD easily mounts on it. Innovatek (the smart mofos who created the TD2) included a handy dandy installation paper that included instructions on one of the methods of opening the Athlon's case as well as a table with switch settings. 

 
(Click on the images to see close-ups)

There are 8 switches on the TD2. Four of those control the voltage of the CPU, the other four manage the multiplier. The adjustment of the CPU frequency is from 300 to 1050 MHz in 50 MHz steps. Adjustment of the core voltage is from 1.3v to 2.05v in 0.05v steps. The switches themselves are easy to change, each switch has positive (+), neutral (o), and negative (-) settings. The TD2 does not have L2 cache control, but this isn't a an issue to most power users (with newer KX133 motherboards.) These boards allow for L2 cache control in the board's BIOS. Also, if you leave the four voltage switches in their centered (disabled) position, it will allow your board to control the voltage in the BIOS, if it supports it.

Performance:

I have a SlotA Athlon Thunderbird 700 with a 900 core. I expected to be able to push about 1ghz out of this chip. My initial boot up target was 950mhz. It booted at 950mhz with 1.7 volts, however failed to complete the post. I went in my BIOS and upped the voltage to 1.75. The computer booted into Windows and was 100% stable! Now just like any greedy over clocker, the first words that come to my mind were "More! I want more! Faster... faster!!" I then upped the multiplier via the switches to 10.0 multiplier. I also upped my voltage to 1.80 as well. Boom! Stable, my target speed. The Tweeking Device 2 handles multipliers of 3.0 - 10.5 in .5 multiplier increments. It also supports voltage adjustments of 1.3v to 2.05 volts in .5 volt increments!

Final Score and Comments:

Rating: 9.5/10

Pro's:
 Requires no external power connection
 Decent price ($45 including shipping)
 Smallest GFD on today's market

Con's:
 No L2 cache control for older boards

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