Another newbie overclocking question. . . .

[mustard010]

Yeah, you might hate me for this but here it goes:

What exactly is overclocking, and how do you overclock your CPU to reach higher speeds?

Does the life on your CPU decrease because of overclocking?

Is it possible to overclock in a server?

Thanks, and please don't kill me, I'm just a little noobie that needs help.

 

[MDE]

Overclocking is basically making the CPU go faster than it's guaranteed to run stably by Intel\AMD (or whoever else made it). On an Intel chip, the only way to overclock is to raise the bus speed. On Athlons, you can change multipliers and bus speeds. The total CPU speed is basically the bus speed times the multiplier. Say you have a CPU with a 166 MHz bus and an 11 multiplier, the CPU's speed is 1833 MHz or 1.83 GHz. If you raise the bus speed to 200, the speed becomes 200x11=2200 MHz \ 2.2 GHz.

The CPU's life only really decreases if you need to increase the voltage going to the CPU. That said, most overclockers upgrade at least once a year, so that isn't really much of an issue to most.

Servers can overclock rarely, but it's really stupid to overclock a server in my opinion. You need relibility and stability in a server, and overclocking compromises that.

Whew, that was a mouthful. Welcome to the forums and do us all a favor and don't post ATI vs Nvidia or AMD vs Intel threads!

 

[mustard010]

So let's say I have a quad pumped 2.4 GHZ 800 FSB . . . will it automatically overclock the CPU ? or do I have to tweak something in the BIOS or something?

 

[INemtsev]

At default a processor is never overclocked by itself.....use bios multiplier and fsb adjustments to overclock

 

[mustard010]

Is there a link for those programs?

 

[Kharlia]

Those are not programs; a BIOS's multiplier and FSB can be found in certain motehrboards; ntoe that only some motherboards allow you to overclock your CPU. I'm sure some larger companies have recently provided programs allowing you to alter your FSB within windows or an OS.

Intel systems are limited to altering it's FSB, while AMD systems may alter both the multiplier and the FSB.

 

[beyoku]

when you turn on your comp. they will tell you "press DEL" or F2 to enter "bios" or "setup" - i would say dont do it (change things )without supervision as your can screw some stuff up when you enter the bios. - look through your manual that came with the mother board if you have it.

 

[Jeff7181]

I agree with beyoku... don't jump into overclocking blindly cause you're more likely to screw something up than make it faster if you don't know what you're doing. If you want some better suggestions on how to proceed, post what hardware you have, and someone can make suggestions or tell you how to go about it based on that because the abilities and sometimes methods differ between hardware.
There is no step by step procedure to overclocking... it's not an exact science... it is based heavily on luck, as well as knowing what to do and what not to do, what hardware to buy to get the highest overclock possible, what settings should be set at, and what cooling is necessary.

 

[PanzerIV]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
...and what cooling is necessary.

Was waiting for someone to say that. Exactly. Although not as much a problem with Intel, AMD CPUs love good cooling. If you don't ensure proper cooling you can affect the outcome of your OC. In other words if you have very high temps you can forget about getting an impressive OC and could cause damage if you overvolt for instance without proper cooling. It doesn't take much to get the temps sky high if you tweak them enough.

This along with the many other factors the posters mentioned can influence your OC. It truly can be luck of the draw in a lot of cases. You are NEVER guaranteed anything. We all try our best and keep our fingers crossed.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: PanzerIV

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
...and what cooling is necessary.

Was waiting for someone to say that. Exactly. Although not as much a problem with Intel, AMD CPUs love good cooling. If you don't ensure proper cooling you can affect the outcome of your OC. In other words if you have very high temps you can forget about getting an impressive OC and could cause damage if you overvolt for instance without proper cooling. It doesn't take much to get the temps sky high if you tweak them enough.

This along with the many other factors the posters mentioned can influence your OC. It truly can be luck of the draw in a lot of cases. You are NEVER guaranteed anything. We all try our best and keep our fingers crossed.

That is not to say the retail heatsinks/fans from AMD are no good... the most recent ones with the "copper chunk" screwed to the bottom actually work VERY well, even with the PCM (thermal pad) that comes on them... almost as well as my SK-7 before I put an 80mm Panaflo fan on it. Airflow through the case is more important I'd say... you need a constant supply of fresh air to keep everything cool... especially with the video cards of today. They get as hot or hotter than the CPU.