To achieve a higher clock multiplier and/or a greater core voltage, the Gold Finger devices feature controls, via switch boxes or other means, which allow the end user to freely manipulate the settings on their Athlon. The Gold Finger device also requires an external power source to supply the 3.3V and 5V requirements, which usually are accessed through an internal case power cable. One or more voltage regulators are also required to transform a portion of the 5V case cable power to the 3.3V feed required by the Athlon. I bring this up only because there have been numerous online complaints of the regulators becoming very hot during use, depending on the model and overall power use.
The Afterburner!! from Outside Loop and the K7OC Card from TS Electronics provide very similar Athlon overclocking functionality. Each allows manipulation of the Athlon's clock multiplier and core voltage, while foregoing the option for changing the L2 cache divider. The clock multiplier selection is exactly the same for each card, with a range of 3.0 to 10.5, in .5 increments. The core voltage is much the same, with some slight differences in range. The Afterburner!! has a voltage range of 1.35V to 2.10V while the K7OC Card starts lower at 1.30 but at the high end, progresses to only 2.05V. Since most of the Athlon overclocking action will occur in the 1.60V to 1.80V range, the two Gold Finger boards effectively offer the same voltage options. Both the Afterburner! and K7OC Card include a physical user interface, though the K7OC uses a basic jumper switchbox, and the Afterburner! features its innovative switch dials. When increasing the core voltage of the Athlon, the overclocking card must receive external power from the system itself. Both the Afterburner! and the K7OC boards employ standard 4-pin case power connectors, along with a split-out line if your PC is low on free power cables.
The Afterburner! and K7OC Card designs could not be more different if they tried. The K7OC Card follows a standard Gold Finger card design, featuring a very small PCB with three sets of jumpers. The K7OC is a vertical card, designed to attach directly parallel to the Athlon CPU itself. Add in the case power connector and split-out cable, and you've got the perfect example of a non-descript Athlon overclocking board.
Afterburner!
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K7OC Card
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Conversely, the Afterburner! has the look of a professional device, with numbered dials in place of jumpers and a board that sits horizontally on top of the AMD CPU. Instead of a standard board with jumpers, Outside Loop has set three switch dials on the top of the Afterburner!, complete with alphanumeric characters displayed with each turn of the dial. Like the K7OC Card, the Afterburner! also features a case connector for power and a split-out cable.
