The pic shows a Duron 700, borrowed from Anandtech. Note the L1 and L7 bridges on the CPU. The L1 bridges can be connected to disable the multiplier lock, while connecting the L7 bridges would give the maximum voltage of 1.85V to the CPU. Why give the processor maximum voltage?

That's because at default voltage, you can't really push your CPU that high. If you want to try for higher speeds, give your CPU more juice, and it might function as desired at the higher clockspeeds. Be warned that too much voltage can kill your CPU. But if you modify your motherboard to provide more voltage above 1.85 volts, you will have to be careful in increasing the voltage supplied to your CPU. This article will only cover the usage of voltage settings up to 1.85 volts ONLY, as I do not want to involve any modification of any sort to the motherboard either.

Basically, there are only two ways to overclock an AMD processor - through multiplier changes or through FSB tweaking; or a combination of both. Fortunately for us poor PC enthusiasts, AMD has made it possible to easily unlock their Socket A processors by way of using a pencil to bypass the locked multiplier on their CPUs.

Multiplier settings of the CPU can be changed by either modifying the traces/bridges on the processors themselves or by using motherboards that provide the ability to change the multiplier settings of your CPU. The motherboards that can do so are divided into two types.

The first is where multiplier changes are achieved through the motherboard BIOS. The second type is where multiplier settings are changed either by using jumpers on the motherboard or DIP switches. There are motherboards that don't provide multiplier modification abilities where to enable multiplier changes, you have to hack the motherboard itself. Our primary concern is overclocking without physically changing anything on the CPU or motherboard.