I've had my computer up and running for about two weeks now. My biggest accomplishment so far was not blowing anything up during the building process. This is my first "home-built" machine and I'm still learning how to set everything up. I don't know too much about overclocking so I am to say the least a little woried about tweaking her up. I mainly just want to play games on it so I don't really need it to run Apps all that much. I have a motherboard and a graphics card overclocking utility but I just don't know which settings to use. Some people have said to just adjust a little at a time, but what ones do I adjust and what ones should I leave alone. I don't want to push the limits to wher ei will make my system unstable, but I do want to make it run the best it can without going overboard.
My system info:
Antec SOHO 1080 AWG Case with 4 80mm case fans / True Power 550 Watt PS / Gigabyte 8INXP Mobo with DVRS removed / P4 2.8 Ghz with thermaltake 7 adjustable cooler / 4 sticks Crucial 512mb DDr 333 RAM (= 2 gigs) / Gigabyte 9700 PRO VGU / Audigy 2 Sound / WD 80 Gig 7200 RPM 8mb buffer Hard drive, antec duel 40mm hard drive cooler / Sony 52X CD-ROM / Sony 52x24x52x CD-RW / Tiger direct 1.44 Floppy drive / All IDE cables are round AT133 compatible / Windows XP Pro.
If anyone has experience with a setup like this and has some valid tips I would appreciate the help. I don't know how to run bench marks or how to tell what good numbers are. I tried to run the evaluation version of the 2003 3d benchmark but it finished in about 10 minutes. I have heard people running continuous benchmarks for hours on end to check system stability, but I couldn't make it do that. The marks I got were around 3300, but when I went to compare them on the web site, I couldn't find anone with marks that low. that is why I am here asking all these questions. I think the average marks on their site was around 5000 and up to 12000, so I am thinking mine could do better. I don't know what the best frequency would be to run any of the components besides the default way it is setup now. I have played the UT2003 demo online and I don't seem to have any lag whatsoever. The graphics look good and I can live with it the way it is, but if I could make some minor adjustments with the utilities without sacrificing stability then I would like to try it. I definately don't want to go to extreme as to shorten the life of my components, but I would like some better performance. Thanks for the help.
-Ryan
My system info:
Antec SOHO 1080 AWG Case with 4 80mm case fans / True Power 550 Watt PS / Gigabyte 8INXP Mobo with DVRS removed / P4 2.8 Ghz with thermaltake 7 adjustable cooler / 4 sticks Crucial 512mb DDr 333 RAM (= 2 gigs) / Gigabyte 9700 PRO VGU / Audigy 2 Sound / WD 80 Gig 7200 RPM 8mb buffer Hard drive, antec duel 40mm hard drive cooler / Sony 52X CD-ROM / Sony 52x24x52x CD-RW / Tiger direct 1.44 Floppy drive / All IDE cables are round AT133 compatible / Windows XP Pro.
If anyone has experience with a setup like this and has some valid tips I would appreciate the help. I don't know how to run bench marks or how to tell what good numbers are. I tried to run the evaluation version of the 2003 3d benchmark but it finished in about 10 minutes. I have heard people running continuous benchmarks for hours on end to check system stability, but I couldn't make it do that. The marks I got were around 3300, but when I went to compare them on the web site, I couldn't find anone with marks that low. that is why I am here asking all these questions. I think the average marks on their site was around 5000 and up to 12000, so I am thinking mine could do better. I don't know what the best frequency would be to run any of the components besides the default way it is setup now. I have played the UT2003 demo online and I don't seem to have any lag whatsoever. The graphics look good and I can live with it the way it is, but if I could make some minor adjustments with the utilities without sacrificing stability then I would like to try it. I definately don't want to go to extreme as to shorten the life of my components, but I would like some better performance. Thanks for the help.
-Ryan
