Newbie needs overclocking help!

[Xanthguy]

I'm trying my first attempt at building a system, and I was planning to buy a 950MHz Athlon and overclock it (to save money). I have some of the parts already, and will be buying the rest in about a week, but I thought I'd post first and ask for advice so I don't fry my motherboard or something else.

My system is:

MAXTOP 147KG2F-USB BLUE (the one with 2 external fans on newegg)
EPOX 8k7a mobo
Kingston Value Ram 256 Mb DDR
950 MHz Athlon T-Bird
Abit Siluro GeForce2 64 Mb SDRAM t400 Graphics card w/ TV out
MAXTOR 40 Gb 7200 Rpm HD
Liteon DVD-ROM
Soundblaster 5.1

I was planning on using the pencil trick to unlock the Athlon, but I'd like some advice about how to set FSB and voltage. Also, if anyone sees any hardware incompatibilities, please let me know. Thanks in advance to anyone who responds.

 

[rogue1979]

You picked a good solid overclocking board, it will easily hit a 150-160MHz fsb if the other devices are willing, and can hit 170MHz+ with some hand picked components. I would think your Ram will hold you back a little though. Pump the DDR voltage to 2.9v and try with the memory timings set at 8,8,8,3,8,2,3 to start. Remember, if you have to lower the timings too much to hit a higher fsb speed it will actually give you slower performance. The 950MHz Athlon is only good for about 1130MHz according to overclockers.com. It is extremely rare for a sub 1GHz thunderbird to have the desired steppings of AXIA or AYJHA, but there have been a very few. Make sure you have a good cpu cooler and good case cooling and you can take advantage of the 8K7A's cpu core voltage adjustments and try 2.0v to gain an extra 100MHz or so over a more standard 1.85v overclock. Caution, don't go over 2.0v without water cooling and make sure at 1.85v+ your cpu load temps stay under control. I would suggest 23.12 detonator for the video card, and use NVmax to overclock it.

 

[Xanthguy]

Thanks!

 

[InverseOfNeo]

<< You picked a good solid overclocking board, it will easily hit a 150-160MHz fsb if the other devices are willing, and can hit 170MHz+ with some hand picked components. I would think your Ram will hold you back a little though. Pump the DDR voltage to 2.9v and try with the memory timings set at 8,8,8,3,8,2,3 to start. Remember, if you have to lower the timings too much to hit a higher fsb speed it will actually give you slower performance. The 950MHz Athlon is only good for about 1130MHz according to overclockers.com. It is extremely rare for a sub 1GHz thunderbird to have the desired steppings of AXIA or AYJHA, but there have been a very few. Make sure you have a good cpu cooler and good case cooling and you can take advantage of the 8K7A's cpu core voltage adjustments and try 2.0v to gain an extra 100MHz or so over a more standard 1.85v overclock. Caution, don't go over 2.0v without water cooling and make sure at 1.85v+ your cpu load temps stay under control. I would suggest 23.12 detonator for the video card, and use NVmax to overclock it. >>



Yeah, what he said. lol