My first overclock =]

[Rahminator]

I overclocked an unlocked XP 1600 to 1612 MHz (140x11.5) and running prime95 for over 6 hours now. It feels good to turn a $125 chip into a $270 one. I saved up cash for some other goodies . I'm using SK-6 with 30 CFM delta (NOT the 38cfm hairdryer) and Shuttle AK31A.

 

[AkumaBao]

Right on!!! Congrats!!! Glad to see positive posts for once!

 

[CStroman]

That's a nice overclock. I see you measure your overclock in dollars, too. I took my $30 duron and made it run at $90 speed.

 

[Rafael]

Nice OC Rahminator! Congrats!

Raf

 

[IAMC4N4DIAN]

This might sound stupid but where do u go in the bios to Overclock cpu ?
and what is prime95..
i was always Scared to overclock the word gives me chillz hehe.. but the more i read about it the more it sounds good.
Im buying a AMD Atlon 1.8Ghz
and Wish to overclock it but im still paranoied!!
thanks.

 

[Rahminator]

Yes, I overclocked through BIOS. You can find info on Prime95 here. Besides it's normal use, prime is a great program for testing how stable your system is as it puts a real strain on the CPU (causin temp raise as much as 9*C), memory and chipset. If prime errors out it means something is wrong with your hardware, or if you're overclocking it means you have to step down otherwise you run the risk of slowly corrupting your hard drive data. I can OC my system to ~1640 fine, but prime errors out within a few minutes. Yesterday I let Prime95 run for 18 hours straight and then I had a power spike in my house and all devices shut down for a fraction of a second, including my comp grrr . Then I used SiSoft Sandra burn-in wizard and set it for 50 cycles and it finished without any problems. My system is rock stable. Overclocking is really easy, IAMC4N4DIAN. First requirement is good cooling (SK-6 with 30cfm delta gives me temps of 37*C idle/46*C prime95 full load). Then you need good Power supply, minimum 300W. Go to overclocker's website to learn more. Good luck, it's worth it.

 

[IAMC4N4DIAN]

Thanks Alot man.. but tell me this, Why is it Worth it.
what do u get out of it ?
Is it reely a bigg difrence, is it worth to try and taking the risk to fry something ?

thanks again

 

[IAMC4N4DIAN]

Oh and 1 more thing.
What's the best cooling Prog.
Or what's the best cooling softwear.

 

[IAMC4N4DIAN]

Opps the last phrase i ment what's the best cooling Hardwear.. blah

 

[Rahminator]

Why is it worth it you ask? It's pure economy - I buy something for $125 and after some tweaking it runs like a chip for $270 (actually a few MHz more, but that's negligible). With the money I saved up I could have bought a GeForce 3 Ti 200 from bestbuy yesterday, and still have some $ left over to buy a nice optical mouse cause my ball mouse is pissin' me off . The last thing you get out of it is pure satisfaction and some bragging rights. The risk of frying the chip is very very small if you're being cautious and have some common sense to know that a 1.4 GHz comp won't run at 2 GHz . Stick around this forum because people here have very useful advice, and read some articles on overclocking.

[Edit] The best cooling hardware is Alpha PAL8045 heatsink (which I had, but due to its size it didn't fit on my mobo) with a good >30CFM fan. Right now I'm using ThermalRight SK-6 (right behind Alpha in terms of performance) with a 30cfm delta fan which isn't anywhere as noisy as the 38cfm delta "hair dryer" fan. I get very good temps of around 36*C idle-45*C full load.

 

[Egrimm]

Just got my 1600+ running 1600 stable too: 153x10,5 (didn't bother to unlock it). I use a PAL8045 with a Papst 46cfm fan, temps range from 38C to 40C. the vcore is 1,85 though, but I just maxed it to be sure it'd work, will see if I can lower it later.

IAMC4N4DIAN, you ask if it's worth it, well, you can get a really fast system cheap and of course there's the bragging!
And the difference, you can hardly notice the higher speed in normal use (Word, surfing the Net, etc.) but in games there can be a difference, I can tell the difference in Max Payne between 1,4 and 1,533 Ghz at least.
And as Rahminator said, if you are careful there's no risk of frying anything, it might shorten the lifespan of your cpu from 15 to 5 years, but who here in this forum will use the same cpu in 5 years?<FONT face=Verdana size=1>
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[Jen]

you might want to try a program called TOAST to test stability and also Stability Tester in hardcore mode........


looping 3dmark2001 helps as well


Jen