Couple of basic questions on OCing

[FiveHorizons]

I will be taking on my first real OCing endeavor today. Here are my system specs first:

Chaintech VNF3-250 MB
AMD Athlon 64 2800+ (Stock HSF)
1 GB Corsair Value Select DDR PC-3200
Thermaltake silent purepower 420W power supply
Geforce4 ti4200
120GB Sata Seagate

I'm not looking to take this system to its absolute limits, but I do want a significant speed increase. 1. My first question is what kind of OC should I expect from this system, and will my RAM be a lmiting factor. Also, can this RAM be oc'd and if so by how much?

2. My second question is what should I use to test for stability during the ocing process. I have noticed that Prime95 is a popular utility, but should I rely on anything else?

3. Should I start out raising the HTT speed a few increments at a time and run a full Prime95 test after each increase, because this seems like it would take forever? Or is there a certain starting point that I can jump to so that I will be closer to what I can expect to get?

 

[FiveHorizons]

Oh and one other question. Is there a utility that will monitor the cpu/system termperatures from within windows? Thanks.

 

[rpv]

2. Prime 95 is the best I think..I used it to test stability of the CPU when I OCed...Use memtest to test stability of memory....Folding@home is the other program you can use to test stability.Check this out:
http://www.systemcooling.com/load_proc-01.html
http://www.deep-powder.net/OC_...Overclocking_Guide.htm

3. THe way I did it was to increase the FSB until it would not boot, then lowered it and then ran both memtest and prime....it is easier to do so than test it at every increment of FSB....

3. Download "fanspeed"-google it..I use it to monitor temps from the windows...

 

[FiveHorizons]

Thanks for the help rpv. Does anyone know if I will need to oc this ram to get a decent cpu oc? (Is this ram even oc'able?) Having a higher fsb speed than ram speed isn't very efficient is it?

 

[DeathScytheVT]

Prime 95 is the best I think..I used it to test stability of the CPU when I OCed

I downloaded and installed Prime95, but I'm wondering what you do with it to actually "stress test" it. I found an option for "torture test" but there's a bunch of different choices.. what should I use?

 

[Gamingphreek]

Why in the world didn't you look at the sticky right at the top of the page explaining all of this!?!

Do a torture test and then choose which component you want to stress.

-Kevin

 

[Icepick]

Use Torture test and let it run a few hours. If it doesn't fail then you overclock is stable.

 

[FiveHorizons]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Why in the world didn't you look at the sticky right at the top of the page explaining all of this!?!

Do a torture test and then choose which component you want to stress.

-Kevin

If you are talking to me then yes I did read the sticky and it was very helpful. I just needed some more detailed information more specific to my case.

 

[rpv]

I ran the "torture test" for around 24hrs....Would leave it on for atleast 12hrs