How do you overclock???

[Blurry]

I just purchased another Pentium 4 rig from Newegg last night. I purchased a Pentium 4 1.8GHz A and a MSI 845G MAX-L motherboard. I have never overclocked a processor before. Can somebody tell me how to overclock step by step? Also, which is better for overclocking, DDR 266, or DDR 333.

 

[paralazarguer]

Run the FSB at 133mhz instead of 100. You should be able to hit 2.4ghz doing this easily and it will all be at stock PCI and AGP speeds. That's what I'm doing with me P4S533.

 

[Blurry]

WOW!!! It's that easy? How about the memory? I'm thinking about DDR333.

 

[paralazarguer]

Get the P4S533. You can run DDR33 at DDR400 speeds with no problem at all. I'm doing it with a cheap generic stick and I'm running the FSB at 133 for a huge overclock. ROCK SOLID.

 

[Blurry]

Unfortunately I already purchased a MSI 845G MAX -L motherboard, but I heard good comments on the board's overclockable nature.

 

[Jwyatt]

The best way to overclock and learn about overclocking is to read, read and then read some more. Bumping the fsb up is overclocking, but there are alot of other variables to it like voltage, heat, ventilation in the case, pci/agp speeds, memory timings, powersupplies. Read till you can understand what your doing. Then try a couple things. Overclocking the CPU is only the beginning of actually tweaking your system to maximum performance.

 

[Blurry]

Then do I have to raise the voltage or something like that to overclock?

 

[Duvie]

Hey....Do a search for threads like this...There has been a half dozen or so of these "newbie overclocking" threads....


I am not trying to be rude....There are lots of variables as mentioned above....

My take on it....

Take the chip...run memory at normal timings and with a 1:1 multiplier at first...this takes this out of the equation at first. Good pc2700ddr will likely never have any issues when left on 1:1 cause you most likely won't get to a high enough fsb to cause it problems...

Then run the chip up the fsb...increments??? Whatever...With 1.6's just go straight to 133fsb off the bat....If it fails to boot bump the vcore up .05v...If it boots run prime95 and some apps and see how stable it is...no need to run 8 hour plus test, maybe 2 hours for right now. Then if it passes bump it up more. maybe go 5 mhz of fsb leaps....Each time you have stability or prime errors or boot errors give it more voltage (vcore that is).

MOnitor the temps during this process as well voltage...IMO I would avoid greater than 1.7v actual, and I mean what the board or MBM5 is reporting not what you set it as, as they are often 2 different things...Temps stay under 54c load IMO...

Once you get to a point where it needs more juice then it is safe or you are willing to go (just use my advice of 1.7v or less), where the temps are too high or it won't be stable then quit...back off a notch...run prime95 test overnight...if it fails back off more...

Then and only then do I start tweaking the memory!!!! That is for another thread IMO....Get as much raw cpu power you can get then figure out what the ram will do and then come ask us if you want if it is worth the trade off in performance. many of us have tested this is several apps and have a good idea...


I guess I rambled on a bit more then I wanted to....

 

[paralazarguer]

That's some sound advice if you're running an Athlon, but you're not. The 1.6a and 1.8a can almost always be run on the 133 bus with no increase in core voltage.

 

[Duvie]

That is why I told him if he has he 1.6 to go straight for 133 then work from there....

The above advice I feel is the best to oc the cpu...the memory is a tweaking and should be used to tighten the system up.....Setting memory settings too high may limit your oc and give you false impressions of your cpus ability. I have seen it many times when ppl ask "why can't I go higher" to just tell them the ram is limiting them, back off timings or ratio....

CPU first, Ram second, period....