I'm a newbie to overclocking, advice needed.

Gyrene

Banned
Jun 6, 2002
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Ok, I just started overclocking, or at least atempting to, and I want to be safe about this.
I have a P4 2.66Ghz (retail heatsink and fan...using arctic silver III for thermal compound) with a Gigabyte GA-8SQ800, and a gig of DDR400. What would be an approx. max clockspeed from your experience. I'm testing out clockspeeds 1Mhz at a time just to be safe, but I want to know your opinion. TIA.
 

xenos500

Senior member
Jul 22, 2003
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you have the right idea....just keep moving it up a couple mhz at a time (fsb) and boot all the way into windows and if there are no problems, keep stepping it up a few more mhz.

eventually you will get to a point where windows will bluescreen on boot, or it will hang or restart in the bios. Once that happens, go back down one mhz at a time untill its good to go again. Get into windows and run alot of stressful applications for a long time....3dmark 2001 is great for this. If the computer doesnt crash, its successfully overclocked. To be really sure, run memory testing applications to make sure the cpu isnt pumping corupted files all over the place.

If you want to overclock further, you need to increase the voltage to the CPU. You can use up to 1.6 volts (my comfort level) with your s478 P4. Set your new voltage, and repeat the above steps. You should notice your now able to go even higher.

I have a P4 2.53, and I can run it at 2.8 with 1.55 volts. not a good overclocker
I also have a Celeron 2.0 that runs at 2.86 with 1.55 volts excelent overclocker

all cpus overclock differently. experiment with yours.

PM me your results, im curious
 

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
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Xenos set you off in the right direction, however...

Don't stop with 3dmark2k1 for stress.. Run Prime 95 tourture test for at least 8hr to consider it stable. Memtest 86 along side is also a good idea...

Don't be afraid to bump your memory voltage ( Vdimm ) 2.8v

:D

G/L
 

Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
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I agree with prime95 though as you are moving up and determining the limit of the cpu don't test for 8hours...Test for 1 hour with 3dmark2k1se looped at same time...Then run at least 1 passof memtest with all test on (cache on as well)...Then go up some more...

When you hit your limit or the highest vcore and/or temp you feel is safe then run prime95 for 8-12 hours. If it passes it is likely as stable as your needs may ever need. If a server I would run for at least 2 days...