Please help me use EasyTune4 to overclock!

[mcurphy]

I've had this sytem running for two months now and I'm ready to try some OCing!

Here's what I have:

Gigabyte SINXP1394 board
P4 2.53Ghz 533 FSB
Antec True Blue 480W psu
Zalman CNPS7000-Cu Heatsink
Cheiftec X-Pider Server case with 5 80mm fans
1GB PNY PC2100 CL 2.5 (4x256)

I think I have everything I need, and I should be able to overclock pretty well....right?
So how do I do it using EasyTune4?

Do I just bump the FSB up to 150 or 160?? (is currently at 133)
Do I need to adjust the voltage? (is at 1.575)
And then do I just click GO button, and I'm all set?
Is it that easy? Do I even need to mess with the BIOS?

Thanks for replies!!

Mcurphy

 

[BlueWeasel]

What is EasyTune4?

 

[screw3d]

I'm not sure how EasyTune4 works, but I can tell you now that most probably you would not be able to hit 150FSB as your RAM would be a huge limiting factor. Try getting at least PC2700 RAM and from a reputable manufacturer (Corsair, TwinMOS, Kingston HyperX etc).

All you could do now is try upping the FSB and lower the multiplier as you go to find out what is the max FSB you could go, and remember to monitor temps and voltages. After you have determined the max FSB you could go, up the multiplier to a level where you are comfortable with the voltages and temps. Always test stabilty first by running prime95 for at least 6 hrs.

Even though prime95 might not tell the whole story of your system's stability, it's a pretty good indication!

Good luck.

 

[mcurphy]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
What is EasyTune4?

I didn't realize this, but it must be a program that is only distributed with Gigabyte boards?? It is a nice GUI type interface that allows overclocking form your windows desktop.

]Originally posted by: marvie
All you could do now is try upping the FSB and lower the multiplier as you go to find out what is the max FSB you could go, and remember to monitor temps and voltages. After you have determined the max FSB you could go, up the multiplier to a level where you are comfortable with the voltages and temps. Always test stabilty first by running prime95 for at least 6 hrs.

Will I be able to change the multiplier on a pentium chip? I thought that was disabled? SO maybe I could just bump up the FSB a bit and see what results I get?

And when do I need to worry about increasing voltage?

 

[touchmyichi]

I would just stick w/ overclocking from the bios.

 

[mcurphy]

Originally posted by: touchmyichi
I would just stick w/ overclocking from the bios.

Whats the difference in using something like EasyTune vs the BIOS?

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: touchmyichi
I would just stick w/ overclocking from the bios.

Why??? EasyTune works great.

To overclock, just up the fsb. I wouldn't just jump up to 150 fsb, though. Go in smaller increments.

 

[snowwie]

I hate easytune

I use the BIOS
easytune doesn't change your BIOS settings, but it changes them when you open the program. You have to set it so it runs in the background and changes your settings from default when you start windows

Personally, I think it's a pain in the ass
I can't figure out how to change things
It tries to make things user-friendly and free of user-error
making things harder to do in the process
the BIOS is much more straight-forward
and you don't have another program running in the background

 

[screw3d]

I didn't know you can't change multipliers in P4s.. I have only been dabbling with athlons so far ... but the o/c process should be about the same?

You should only up your Vcore when you encounter instability as you increase your clock speed. Do it slowly !

 

[orion7144]

It works great for figuring out were your max FSB is. Then you can go and set your BIOS manually. As for the memory speed you can always adjust the divder if you have slower memory. An make sure you lock the PCI freq.

Originally posted by: snowwie
I hate easytune

I use the BIOS
easytune doesn't change your BIOS settings, but it changes them when you open the program. You have to set it so it runs in the background and changes your settings from default when you start windows

Personally, I think it's a pain in the ass
I can't figure out how to change things
It tries to make things user-friendly and free of user-error
making things harder to do in the process
the BIOS is much more straight-forward
and you don't have another program running in the background

 

[mcurphy]

Thanks for the advice guys. I have the FSB up to 140 right now, which puts my 2.53 around 2.66 and Prime95 running in the background. Temp is at 41-42C and voltage is steady at 1.580.

A couple questions:
Is it OK to run other apps, surf the net, and whatever when Prime is running??
Do I need to adjust the AGP or PCI frequency if I only want to OC the CPU??
The only PCI card I have is my SB Live, and my AGP card is old--GForce2 MX200 32MB :disgust:

I also took the advice to use the BIOS, as I didn't realize that you had to constantly have EasyTune4 running to keep your system overclocked.

And about setting the multiplier on pentiums....I think they used to allow it around the time of PII's, but then Intel decided to disable it so people weren't buying slower chips at the lower price and getting the higher performance out of them....or something like that. I can't remember exactly because I read it a long time ago.

Thanks again, now I'm excited to see how much I can push it! Maybe I'll try to push it a little bit more tomorrow if everything is still running well.

 

[orion7144]

It would be wise to lock the PCI/AGP clock. If not as you increase the FSB the 33/66mhz for the PCI/AGP also increase resulting in less stability

 

[mcurphy]

Thanks, I wasn't exactly sure what you had meant in your first post.

One more question, how does these voltages look? And when do I need to worry?

VCoreA = 1.58 to 1.60
+3.3V = 3.23 - 3.26
+5 = 4.970 - 4.99
+12 = 11.84 - 11.9