Overclock your Dreamcast...

[RobIvy64]

HOLA!

Im sure you have seen the japanese site explaining how to overclock your dreamcast.
Well I have performed the mod and have a full write-up HERE.

-R

[dj898]

cheers mate

I also have OC DC I got from a chap in UK..
what did you have in mind for cooling as mine gets quite warm after a while...??

cheers

[RobIvy64]

what do you have yours running at?

I ran a 40 MHz oscillator to mine, so the CPU speed is 240 MHz.

As for cooling, I am working on that, I am leaning towards a LARGE fan .

-R

[dj898]

same here... 40

I've been thinking of a way to put bigger cooling fan there...
since I have spare empty DC shell I will see what I can come up with over this x-mas holiday...

[kendrick]

If I read the original Japanese page right (or more honestly, interpret the pretty pictures right) it looks like guy who created that monster used the liquid cooling mechanism from the very first generation Dreamcast. That's actually pretty sharp, since one of the cost-cutting measures in later revisions was to improve airflow and reduce the heat output of the chips so that the liquid cooling wasn't necessary.

-KKC, hacking custom batteries for his Nomad. Because nothing says Christmas like lithium-ion cells.

[dj898]

umm... isn't improving airflow and reducing the heat output of the chip good thing cost cutting measure or not?

[phreak97]

i think he was saying he put liquid cooling in one of the new heat officient models, meaning heat efficiency + cooling system to overcome low efficiency = happy dreamcast.

[dj898]

i thought the Japanese guy used early DC with heat pipe coz the metal shield looked different from later revision and I don't think you can put the heat pipe into later DC unless you swapped the metal shield as well as the plastic shell...

[ilesj]

I assume, thet the Japanese site you are talking about is this: http://www.echna.ne.jp/~kim/Kim4/Link5.html. Does anyone have it translated? I tried with babelfish, but for some reason it didn't work. And also, what's the racing game in the pictures?

[Darkman]

And also, what's the racing game in the pictures?

I'm guessing its Shutokou Battle 2, a.k.a. Tokyo Extreme Racer 2. Surely looks familiar.

[dj898]

I thought that was the original web site every one was talking about???
anyway the different would be that guy used old heat pipe DC and put the switch to toggle between normal and overclock which is nice. I'm not fond of his idea of bigger fan and cut out the side of case...
like he said the motivation was he wants to play Shutokou Battle 2 without frame rate fluctuating...

I might down the track put the switch and upgrade the cooling system without altering the case too much...

cheers

[qatmix]

You cannot add pipes to anything other than the original motherboard DCs. the plate is a different size, and there is also more importantly a connection missing of the motherboard which powers the cooling.

Btw mate, its easy to add a switch to you dc, ive already added teh wire, you just need to add the switch.

cheers
Q

[smartass]

I am leaning towards a LARGE fan .

-R

Don't lean too close!

[NFG]

and there is also more importantly a connection missing of the motherboard which powers the cooling.

There's no more active cooling on any DC than just the fan.  Newer units had a 3-wire fan, one wire being the speed sensor to indicate the fan was in fact still going.  The older models had a 2-wire fan, but no extra connectors for the cooling system.

[atom]

I have a Dreamcast coming in the mail. When I get it I will put all your cooling problems to shame

Is anyone using a replacement shell? Maybe the airflow is better or worse in those.

Edit:

here is my current plan, but like I said i dont have the actual dreamcast yet, so I have yet to see how efficient the cooling is. I want to use a top of the line GPU cooler. If it can keep an overclocked NVIDIA card cool I imagine it should do well with the dreamcast. You cant get a much better conductor then copper, and its fanned off. The blue LED's are of course a plus too.  I might even dremel a vent into the case, depending on where the CPU is located.

EDIT AGAIN:
I just dont want to double post. I think before purchasing a fan like the above mentioned I will do my mod, stick the DC in the freezer and give it a nice cold boot. That way I can see what limits that CPU really can handle. Yes, I said "in the freezer".

[atom]

Holy crap dude, that chip is too small for me to deal with. I gave up before I did too much damage. The thing crashes a few seconds after boot, hopefully its just the heat plate not aligned correctly.

I am now very dissapointed. I bought my Dreamcast just for GoodSNES, and I wanted to overclock it as much as I could. I wont do this crap to my xbox, I dont want to risk being banned from live...

BAH! I feel like such a modding failure.

[TJ_Kat]

The ucm site mentions that you can overclock the graphics chip, but only for VGA. Well, my TV has VGA inputs, and my VGA cable should be ready to go shortly.

Any info on overclocking the graphics chip? What would the real benefits be? Is there a multiplier? What would be an optimal chip speed to aim for? And any of the other important things I may have forgotten.