Newbie question....how do I actually overclock my system?

[smithy5]

I have an AMD thunderbird running 1333 on an epox ep-8k7a MB w/ 256 pc 2100 ram.

When I assembled my system, I think I adjusted the ram +.1 from the "stock" setting. To overclock the cpu, do I simply adjust the multiplier rate on the MB or is there something in the bios?

Motherboard Monitor gives me the following.

CPU speed 1332
Temp 43 C
Core 0 voltage 1.78V
Core 1 voltage 1.55V
Fan speed 5032rpm (volcano 6)

Other hardware includes SB live 5.1 and MSI GF3 ti200 overclocked to: Memory - 445 and Core - 206

I also have 2 cheap case fans.

I would appreciate it if someone could tell what switches or BIOS changes I need to make to actually affect system performance.

Thanks

 

[SSXeon5]

Originally posted by: smithy5
I have an AMD thunderbird running 1333 on an epox ep-8k7a MB w/ 256 pc 2100 ram.

When I assembled my system, I think I adjusted the ram +.1 from the "stock" setting. To overclock the cpu, do I simply adjust the multiplier rate on the MB or is there something in the bios?

Motherboard Monitor gives me the following.

CPU speed 1332
Temp 43 C
Core 0 voltage 1.78V
Core 1 voltage 1.55V
Fan speed 5032rpm (volcano 6)

Other hardware includes SB live 5.1 and MSI GF3 ti200 overclocked to: Memory - 445 and Core - 206

I also have 2 cheap case fans.

I would appreciate it if someone could tell what switches or BIOS changes I need to make to actually affect system performance.

Thanks

I dont know everything bout amd mobos, but there should be a fsb adjustment option in the bios for easy overclocking. You can prob get 1.5GHz out of that baby, and for multipliers you will need to do some bridge connecting, amd guys will link you to help you bridge the Bridge gaps. Hope that helps

SSXeon

 

[KingofFah]

Nah, very few tbirds hit 1.5ghz

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: KingofFah
Nah, very few tbirds hit 1.5ghz

See sig, posts at 1.6Ghz.

 

[DivideBYZero]

3rd time in two days I have posted this:

This sort of info is Motherboard specific, but in most cases the menu's and settings are common. It breaks down like this:

- You CPU has a frequency
- Your Memory has a frequency
- Your PCI bus and all other sundry busses have a frequency

They are all related as (usually) one single clock genrator is used to get the original clock speed. The relationship is often like this, although there are ALWAYS exceptions:

CPU speed = Memory speed(before DDR or QDR) x Multiplier value.
PCI speed = Memory speed(before DDR or QDR) / 3 (or 4 or even 5, the goal speed is 33Mhz as PCI devices often hate high PCI bus speeds, such as hard discs=data coruption!!!)
AGP Speed = PCI speed x data rate(2x, 4x, 8x), so 2x = 66Mhz if the PCI is 33Mhz and so on

Multipliers are locked on P4 and can be changed on Athlons. Some motherboards allow the PCI clock to be locked into 33Mhz, this is good.

So, original speed of memory on a 400Mhz P4 is 100Mhz(400Mhz QDR) and the multiplier is 20, giving 2Ghz. To overclock, set the fsb to 110 and the CPU speed upon next boot will be 2.2Ghz (110x20).

Et Viola, your first overclock. Now I have simplified the process by a great margin and to answer your question about BIOS menu's, this will be clear if you get an Overclocking friendly Motherboard( ASUS, Abit, Epox), by way of the manual. They usually have a menu with the main overclocking features in one place.

Hope that helps!