confused about overclocking

[xander5000]

i have an athlon xp 1900 on an abit kr7a non-raid. i understand i should start oc'in by uppin the fsb. but i don't know how much to do and what to do when it gets unstable. i hear about multipliers and voltage but don't understand it.
is there one place i can learn all this or can someone explain it for me.

thanks,
x

 

[microAmp]

For stability do a google seach for Prime95, that'll stress the computer too see if it's stable or not, when o/c go slowly on your FSB increments and run Prime95 to see if it's ok, then proceed again.

If you do it too much then the computer won't boot into Windows (if run it) or might not get into BIOS.

 

[xander5000]

bump

 

[Duvie]

unless you have an mp chip or you unlocked the chip with a rather tricky method don't worry about multipliers cause you wont be able to change it....The fsb will likely be your only true mode of ocing...


voltage mods can be done on agp, ram, and vcore

vcore is likely necessary if you plan on more then a 10 percent oc on xp's IMO....

ram adjustments are often need when fsb gets so high the ram is too far out of spec...for example crucial pc2100 is rated for cas2.5 at 133mhz fsb for 266mhz overall, but when you start getting over 150fsb or 300 overall you start getting into pc2400 specs and may require a slight boost in ram voltage to gain stability...Crucial ram has been known to clock very well, almost to pc2700 specs....

 

[Yossarian]

Multiplier = number the FSB is multiplied by to give you your CPU clock speed. For example, 133 MHz x 10 = 1.33 GHz. It's set in the BIOS, exact method depends on your motherboard/BIOS.

Voltage refers to core voltage, the voltage the mobo supplies to the CPU. I think the default voltage for an Athlon is around 1.75 volts, motherboards that are overclocking-friendly let you adjust this in 0.05 V increments. Gotta be careful with this one though because it's a quick way to increase the heat load on your CPU. Higher voltage can give better stability. Once you get your FSB/multiplier as high as stability allows, you can up the voltage a little and try to squeeze a little more performance out by raising the FSB and/or multiplier a bit higher.