Overclocking Question

[jwells777]

I just built an EPOX 8K7A system with a 1000/266 tbird and I am thinking about doing some overclocking. I was wondering what signs I should be looking for to indicate problems with the system. What types of things do permanent damage vs. things that just cause system instability? Is it basically just watching the CPU/System temps?. Also, what type of effect does OCing the FSB have on devices such as the harddrive or cd burner? Any thoughts would be appreciated as I am relatively new at this. Thanks

 

[V]

Once you overclock, you have to check its stabilty using programs like SETI@HOME and RC5. Overclocking will shorten the cpu's life. Don't up the voltage of the cpu too much. Keep the cpu temp under 60c. If you lower your pci bus divider, the hard drive and cd burner will not get damaged. What cooling do you have?

 

[lastig21]

As long as you don't do any drastic voltage mods, you will reach your instability long before you cause any damage. Don't quote me, but I believe Athlons are rated to 1.85v and over 70c so stay with those numbers and you will be fine. Of course, the cooler the better. V's suggestion of under 60c is excellent advice.

I'm sure you know that pci devices are supposed to work at 33mhz. As a safe bet I would try to keep your pci bus to no more than 37mhz. I think you will find that as a conservative number and I have seen pci devices operate normally up to a 41bus. Don't put anything important on your harddrive until you have finished tinkering with overclocking and have your system stable.

I use Prime95 as my stability test. It will point out any potential overclocking problems in your system. If you do very important work or very cpu demanding work (i.e. 3d rendering or video encoding) I would pay alot of attention to Prime95. It is very picky though and for daily use you may never notice any instability even though Prime95 says there might be a problem.

Basically, just have fun with o/c. As long as you do all your overclocking adjustments from the bios, there is a very very very small chance of damaging anything in your system.

 

[jwells777]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone keep them coming. Also, how do I adjust the PCI divider? Is that in the bios somewhere? And is it normal for files to be corrupt on the hard disk if I am only overclocking the FSB. I am currently in the process of reinstalling the entire system due going to high on the FSB and having a bunch of windows files become corrupt.

 

[chinman75]

is 2.1v ok if cpu is still running at 44c?

 

[heavyplayer]

2.1 Volts is probably a little high to be running at Standard Temps- You ought to be doing something like water cooling or using a peltier (yes I know, a really BIG one) if you're pushing that much voltage.

 

[V]

The Bios has an option to lower the PCI divider. Some motherboards lower the PCI divider when the FSB reaches a specific speed.