o/c for newbs

[Nab]

Can someone please give me a step by step on how to o/c? I know you're suppose to increase the fbs. Then do something with the jumper and voltage, but is there any particular order that you have to do them in? I'm a newb, so extra info is okay. Thanks a lot.

 

[Shooters]

Do you have an AMD or Intel chip? With an AMD chip it's possible to overclock either with the FSB or the multiplier; with Intel chips your only option is with the FSB. Give us some info on your setup (e.g. cpu, motherboard, etc.) and we can get more specific about how to overclock it.

 

[human2k]

why dont u repost this thread in the overclocking forum?

 

[Nab]

1.6a intel ghz cpu
epox ep -42da+ motherboard
thermaltake p4 volcano
2 80mm fans
radeon 7000 videocard
Cmedia soundcard
300W enermex ps
256mb pc2100


is that all the info you need? how high do you think i can get it?

 

[Nab]

Originally posted by: human2k
why dont u repost this thread in the overclocking forum?

i'll do that if i don't find any answers here

 

[Shooters]

Okay, so your only option is to overclock with the FSB. The best way to do it is to up the FSB speed little by little (something like 5MHz increments) and see if you can boot into the OS. Eventually you'll get to the point where you can't boot into the OS without getting weird errors, or your computer may not even POST. When this happens, you've hit the limit and can either back the FSB down a bit or up the cpu core voltage and try to go higher. Once you're happy with the overclock, boot into the OS and run some benchmarks and stress tests; Prime95, 3DMark2001, and SiSoft Sandra are popular ones. If the programs crash then your system isn't stable and you need to back the overclock down a bit.

That's a brief summary, but there are many other things to consider when you overclock, e.g. PCI/AGP bus speeds, I/O voltages, Memory bus/FSB ratios, etc. I suggest you read through some of the threads in the overclocking forum until you're more comfortable with this stuff.

Most people have been able to get their 1.6A's to somewhere around 2.3-2.4GHz. Good luck and don't forget to keep an eye on those temps.

 

[Bovinicus]

I find "burning-in" improves overclocking results. This is where you let the system do work at the desired speed for an extended period of time. For example, before you begin overclocking, you may want to use your computer for a day or two at the default speeds. After a day, up the FSB 1-2MHz. Keep repeating this until you experience stability problems. Once you hit your max FSB, trying raising the multiplier. Move it up by .5x after a day or two of burning in, just like with the FSB. This is not only the most effective way of overclocking, it is also the safest. Good luck.

 

[Shooters]

It's an Intel chip, so changing the multiplier is a no go.

 

[microAmp]

On a side note from what Shooters said, if you get to that point of where it won't even post, you'll have to find a way to get back into the BIOS, check your manual to see how or you might have to clear the BIOS to get back in to change to the 'stable' FSB setting.

 

[Nab]

Originally posted by: Shooters
Okay, so your only option is to overclock with the FSB. The best way to do it is to up the FSB speed little by little (something like 5MHz increments) and see if you can boot into the OS. Eventually you'll get to the point where you can't boot into the OS without getting weird errors, or your computer may not even POST. When this happens, you've hit the limit and can either back the FSB down a bit or up the cpu core voltage and try to go higher. Once you're happy with the overclock, boot into the OS and run some benchmarks and stress tests; Prime95, 3DMark2001, and SiSoft Sandra are popular ones. If the programs crash then your system isn't stable and you need to back the overclock down a bit.

That's a brief summary, but there are many other things to consider when you overclock, e.g. PCI/AGP bus speeds, I/O voltages, Memory bus/FSB ratios, etc. I suggest you read through some of the threads in the overclocking forum until you're more comfortable with this stuff.

Most people have been able to get their 1.6A's to somewhere around 2.3-2.4GHz. Good luck and don't forget to keep an eye on those temps.

thanks a lot for the info!

 

[Nab]

what're FSB Ratio's? I was looking in some of the threads, and someone was talking about a " 3 / 4 mem ratio ".. what does that mean?

 

[Shooters]

Yeah, the memory ratio is what I'm talking about. A lot of motherboards will let you run the FSB and memory at different speeds, and sometimes you may need to play with the FSB/memory ratio to get a good, stable overclock. For example, let's say you have the FSB/memory ratio set at 3:4. This means that if your FSB is 100MHz, then your memory is running at 100MHz x 4/3 = 133MHz. Of course this is fine if you have PC2100 RAM, but if you raise the FSB to 133MHz, then your memory must now run at 133MHz x 4/3 = 177MHz. It's quite possible that the RAM can't run that fast, and hence your overclock will be limited by your RAM, not your CPU. This can be remedied by changing the FSB/memory ratio to something like 1:1 or you could try increasing the I/O voltage in hopes of getting the RAM to run stable at a higher speed. Some of the recent motherboards I've seen have a wide variety of FSB/memory ratios, and a lot of overclockers will try to run their RAM as fast as possible while still letting the CPU be the limiting factor.

 

[Nab]

i don't know what i'd do without anand *sniffle :*)

 

[Nab]

do you know where i can get the programs : Prime95, 3DMark2001, and SiSoft Sandra ? will I have to buy them (hope not)? or can i d/l somewhere..warez maybe?

 

[Shooters]

All free

Prime95 - start the torture test and just let it run for a couple of hours. If no errors are reported, then you're probably okay
3DMark2001 and PCMark2002
SiSoft Sandra

 

[Nab]

Originally posted by: Shooters
All free

Prime95 - start the torture test and just let it run for a couple of hours. If no errors are reported, then you're probably okay
3DMark2001 and PCMark2002
SiSoft Sandra

I downloaded Prime95...i started running it, and it's starts doing a self test, It says it'll take about an hour. Is "self test" the same thing as a torture test? If not, how do i get to "torture test"?

It's saying :
Test 1, 400 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M1785793 using 896K FFT length.

Does that mean anything to you? (it doesn't to me)

I'm running this in my old 400 mhz comptuer because my 1.6a isn't hoooked up to internet yet. I also wanted to try it out on my 400 to get afeel for the program before using it on my new computer.

 

[Shooters]

Open Prime95 and click on Test and then stop to halt any tests that are running. Then just go to the options menu and select torture test. Honestly I never really payed much attention to what the program was doing. I would just run it for a couple of hours when I overclocked a new chip. If the program halts itself and gives you some sort of error, then you have some instability.