Overclocking my X2 4400+

[Markbnj]

Now that I have installed the VGA cooler I ordered, I am pretty much ready to try doing some performance tweaking this weekend. Stories of people running this chip at 2.5 ghz and higher have me salivating. I am an utter n00b at this process. I did read the stickies, and I believe I understand the relationships between the various components, clocks, and mutipliers. I just need a little advice to get me over the last little hump of trepidation about messing with the heart of a perfectly functional computer.

So, should I use Gigabyte's EasyTune 5, or tweak from the BIOS?

Does EasyTune 5 make changes directly, or do you have to save and restart?

Recovery is probably my biggest worry. Let's say I push it too far and the system won't POST? Do I pop the battery, wait 10 secs, then put it back in and restart?

Rig in sig. Thanks for any advice, folks.

 

[Furen]

I'd use the bios. If you mess up your settings you just clear the CMOS with a jumper (it should be in your manual).

 

[Markfw]

Pop the battery works too. Just start off at 1.425v, have good air cooling, 4x LDT, and 230 fsb at 166 divider.

 

[Markbnj]

Thanks for the advice guys. What's LDT? And by divider I assume you mean the memory divider?

 

[seanp789]

i got my 4400 to 2.5 , would probably go a little higher with better cooling. eventually returned it back to stock speed, not seeing a performance boost in anything but benchmarks.

X2's are an expensive way to learn how to overclock. Just keep your load temp down and you should be fine. You will be putting some serious wear on your chip. I believe its max operating temp is 65C.

 

[Markbnj]

It's a pretty snappy system now, but I will try boosting it a little to see what happens. I figure this processor is probably gonna do me for 2 years, and I suppose it will last that long even getting some serious wear.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Thanks for the advice guys. What's LDT? And by divider I assume you mean the memory divider?

I think the corect term is LDT. Is HTTxLDT= total HT speed which can't go over 1000. So if you are running 232 (like I am) x 4 you are under 1000. But default is 5x, and thats too much.

 

[Markbnj]

Ok, thanks very much. That number is just labelled as HTT in my BIOS.

 

[seanp789]

Originally posted by: seanp789
i got my 4400 to 2.5 , would probably go a little higher with better cooling. eventually returned it back to stock speed, not seeing a performance boost in anything but benchmarks.

X2's are an expensive way to learn how to overclock. Just keep your load temp down and you should be fine. You will be putting some serious wear on your chip. I believe its max operating temp is 65C.

good news, I got a new cooler. Thermaltake Big Typhoon now at 2.6Ghz only 52C at load. I'd recommend going all out on the cooler. Stable power is another must.

 

[Markbnj]

I put a Zalman 7000cu on, just because it was what they had at Compusa that I was sure would fit.

At 1.525 volts I was getting up near 67 - 68c running two copies of Prime 95 on max. heat/power tests. Not that great.

Might get better when the as5 finishes curing.

 

[rise]

i never gave my 7000cu with as5 time to cure. i knew it wouldn't cut it.

replaced it with an xp-90 and all is well