Help me oc: cooling and tech questions, im a n00b!

[xSauronx]

Ok, Im looking at getting the xp1600 agoia (1.4ghz) and an epox 8k5a2+ motherboard as Ive read this will oc fairly well.

But Ive never done it before, only read about it here and there some. Technically what way is the best to oc this cpu with this mobo? How far can I push it?

And what should I cool it with? Nothing too high priced, kinda building a box on a budget and if its gonna take a heatsink combo thats too expensive i just wont bother to oc it.

Anyway, Id appreciate some help from people who have tried this combo or have experience oc'ing in general. Or even links to reviews for something like what I have in mind.

Thanks Alot

xSauronx

gah.

 

[Mardeth]

Yes, both AGOIA 1600+ and an Epox mobo are good for OCing. You OC by going to bios (usually have to press Del when the comp. starts). There you can change the FSB (Front Side Bus). You should try at how high FSB your comp. can handle without problems by setting the FSB higher with small steps (use some program that puts your CPU really to the test for example Prime95). Then after you found the speed change it to a bit slower just to be sure it wont crack. Also remember to change the Vcore as the FSB rises about 0.05 volt at a time I dont know how much vcore is necassary for some FSB but never go over 1.90!! Remember the higher vcore the higher temprature!! If your computer doesnt start for some reason hold down Insert (it changes to default setting or something ) when you reboot. <-- Saved me once! Hope that cleared things a bit. Also Volcano 7+ is a good bang for the buck HSF.

 

[xSauronx]

sounds good to me, the volcano 7+ goes around $25 or so, any second opinions? and is it worth paying extra for a special thermal paste or will any kind be sufficient? or will it even be necessary with this particular heatsink (thought i just as well to be safe)

 

[Mardeth]

AS 3 takes a few degrees of from the temp. normally. You decide if its necessary and by the way its actually fsb = front side bus, sorry about that.

 

[mechBgon]

Actually, you might try simply doinking the FSB directly to 166MHz as a starting point. My 1600+ runs just great at that point (I boosted the voltage by 0.025V, not sure if I needed to however), and it has some advantages:

• At 166MHz, the PCI bus resets to 33MHz like it's supposed to be, reducing the likelihood of hard-drive corruption due to an out-of-spec PCI bus
• At 166MHz, your CPU and RAM can run synchronously at PC2700 speed, so the northbridge doesn't have to juggle data between a CPU and RAM that are talking at two different speeds

I figure 1750MHz @ 166MHz bus is roughly 2100+ by AMD's PR rating scheme. From there, you can edge the FSB higher as described. I would feel best about keeping the PCI bus within 10% of its rated 33MHz, since I've seen HDD corruption from some of my overclocking experiments in the past.

 

[xSauronx]

1750? hell of a jump, sounds good to me, ill get this and set it to 166, more than i expected really, but sounds great.

Thanks alot people.

 

[randomboy]

Thats what I did with my AGOIA 1500xp, went from 10x133 right to 10x166 and I havent looked back since

 

[BZeto]

Sorry to butt in... but, you recommend just setting the fsb to 166 from the get go? Or would it be safer to bump it up to 166 slowly, going in increments? Btw, I'm going to be using the same setup as xSauronx, well, mobo and cpu anyway.

I heard something about a 1/5 divider not kicking in until it reaches a 166 fsb?

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: BZeto
Sorry to butt in... but, you recommend just setting the fsb to 166 from the get go? Or would it be safer to bump it up to 166 slowly, going in increments? Btw, I'm going to be using the same setup as xSauronx, well, mobo and cpu anyway.

I heard something about a 1/5 divider not kicking in until it reaches a 166 fsb?

Right, the 1/5 divider won't kick in until you reach 166FSB, this means that if you ease up to 166MHz FSB slowly, then you will also be slowly increasing your PCI/AGP busses, thus increasing overall instability until you reach 166MHz. In fact, its quite possible (in fact, its not uncommon) for a computer to be unstable at 150MHz FSB but rock solid at 166MHz. I would also strongly recommend that you get AS3 instead of the thermal pad or whatever comes with the HSF.

 

[Mardeth]

Could my AROIA 1800+ handle 166 FSB? Sounds kind of a lot.

 

[rogue1979]

Maybe if you unlock it, 10.5 x166 seems to be relatively easy for AGOIA or AROIA. 11.5 is the default multiplier for the XP1800, not likely to hit 11.5 x 166 for 1909MHz without some real good cooling and alot of extra core voltage. It has been done though...

If you are gonna stick to a 1750MHz overclock or so, you should be able to hit this at stock core voltage or just a little extra. The Speeze SuperRock at newegg for $14 will handle this no problem, and it can actually be considered quiet.