Safe OC level for AMD 64 3200+ Clawhammer?

Question

My current computer set up consists of the K8T NEO FIS2R and the AMD 64 3200+ Clawhammer (2.0ghz 1MB L2 cache) core. While I understand that the K8T is not particularly conducive to overclocking because of the lack of an AGP/PCI lock, I'd still like to net a little extra performance and try my hand at overclocking the CPU. However, as I understand it, overclocking the CPU can be potentially more dangerous than overclocking, say, a GPU, so I was wondering what a safe OC level for my A64 3200 Clawhammer on the K8T might be? I plan to follow safe OC procedures (slowly bump up FSB or whatever its called now since its integrated, and then stress test), but I'd like to know what not to try to exceed. I'm thinking maybe 200 mhz boost within safe limits, making it 2.2 instead of 2.0?
Oh btw, I use an SATA HDD, if that should be taken into account. I've heard something about data corruption?

Answer 1

From what I've noticed, the Athlon64's seem to overclock fairly well.  I've got a 3000+ (runs at the same clock speed as yours, just has half the cache) running at 2.15 GHz just fine, even when simultaneously undervolted to 1.4V (conventional wisdom says that when overclocking you're supposed to have to RAISE the voltage to achieve stability, but I was able to lower mine and still be stable, which would seem to say something about how well the CPU handles the overclocking).  So while in general overclocking a CPU may be fairly risky, I'd say that the Athlon64 is an exception...you'll probably hit problems with your memory/PCI and AGP devices/SATA controller long before you're stressing to CPU to a dangerous level (all thanks to that missing PCI/AGP lock, of course).
Anyways, with any luck you should be able to hit a 220 MHz FSB just fine, just don't push it too far past this because as you correctly mentioned, people have reported issues with the SATA controller becoming unreliable above 220 MHz FSB, and this *can* cause your HDD's to become corrupted, which is probably something you don't want.
Other than that, just watch for any drastic changes in your temp readings while overclocking...if the CPU's running temp jumps by like 10 or 15 degrees from its temp at stock speeds, of if you have to raise the vcore voltage in order to keep the system stable, you may want to consider easing off a bit.