Tons of questions about overclocking (never did it before)

[Arkitech]

I have what I think is an Athlon XP 2800 that was given to me (I should have looked closer at the CPU when installing everything). So I go into the bios (Phoenix) and under advanced chipset features I have an option to adjust the CPU external frequency. Its currently set to 100mhz but it can be set to 133, 166 or 200. Can I choose 200mhz without burning anything up?

I'm kind of a newb when it comes to playing with the BIOS and overclocking componets so I really don't know what the rule of thumbs is when it comes to these things. If you guys don't mind I'd like to list out some of the options in my BIOS and maybe you can tell me what they mean and what they should be adjusted to.

ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES
CPU External Freq
100 mhz (current setting)
133 mhz
166 mhz
200 mhz

CPU Frequency Multiple Settings
Auto (current setting)
Menu

System Performance
Optimal (current setting)
Aggresive
User Defined

Memory Frequency
By SPD (current setting)
Auto

FSB Spread Spectrum
Disabled
0.50 % (current setting)
1.00 %

AGP Spread Spectrum
Disabled (current setting)
0.50%

CPU Vcore Setting
Auto (current setting)
Menu

Graphics Aperture Size
32mb
64mb (current setting)
128mb
256mb
512mb

AGP Frequency
Auto (current setting)
50 Mhz
66 Mhz
(67-100 Mhz) all cycles in between

System BIOS Cacheable
Disabled (current setting)
Enabled

Video RAM Cacheable
Disabled (current setting)
Enabled

DDR Reference Voltage
2.6v (current setting)
2.7v
2.8v

AGP VDDQ Voltage
1.5v (current setting)
1.6v
1.7v

THanks for any advice on the best way to configure these settings

EDIT:

Additional info: SiSoft Sandra gives me the following on this system

CPU - AMD Athlon (model not given) 1.24 ghz
Mainboard - ASUSTek - A7N8X-X
Video Card - Radeon X850X
Memory - 2.3GB DDR-SDRam

 

[Pederv]

If it is a 2800 (Barton) then you can take your CPU External Freq to at least 166MHz, providing you have at least 333MHz DDR memory. If you have 400MHz memory then you can probably take the CPU External Freq to 200MHz and drop the CPU Frequency Multiple Settings to 10.5 and work your way up.

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: Pederv
If it is a 2800 (Barton) then you can take your CPU External Freq to at least 166MHz, providing you have at least 333MHz DDR memory. If you have 400MHz memory then you can probably take the CPU External Freq to 200MHz and drop the CPU Frequency Multiple Settings to 10.5 and work your way up.

Not quite sure what the memory speed is but there are the details I have

Memory Module 1
Manufacturer - Kingston
Technology - 16x(64Mx8)
Speed - PC2700U
Type - 1GB DDR-SDRAM


Memory Module 2
Manfuacturer - Manufacturer not given
Technology - 8x(32mx8)
Speed - PC3200U
Type - 256MB DDR-SDRAM


Memory Module 3
Manufacturer - Kingston
Technology - 16x(64Mx8)
Speed - PC2700U
Type - 1GB DDR-SDRAM

 

[theteamaqua]

important thing to know that in order to icnrease fsb clock, u need :

mch voltage, vmch
fsb voltage, vfsb
vcore
memory voltage, vdimm

try increase those by 1 or 2 of BIOS' increment, without icnrease those ur OCing is very limited, u can prolly get 10 - 2% with everything default on BIOS but chagne fsb,

 

[lenjack]

You meant "bear with me", not "bare with me"...I hope.

 

[tcG]

Originally posted by: theteamaqua
important thing to know that in order to icnrease fsb clock, u need :

mch voltage, vmch
fsb voltage, vfsb
vcore
memory voltage, vdimm

try increase those by 1 or 2 of BIOS' increment, without icnrease those ur OCing is very limited, u can prolly get 10 - 2% with everything default on BIOS but chagne fsb,

Man- stop BS'ing people.

...whether it's this forum or XS all I see you do is throw up garbage- Socket A CPU's don't even have a Northbridge, genius.

 

[Arkitech]

to anyone who cares I bumped up the cpu ext frequency to 166 and I set the mem frequency to auto and now XP sees my Athlon as a 2800 running at 2.08 ghz.


I'm still curious about those AGP settings, anyone familiar with tweaking those? In particular the settings under Grapics Aperture Size and AGP frequency.

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: lenjack
You meant "bear with me", not "bare with me"...I hope.

doh, good catch

 

[Pederv]

Looks like your memory is 333MHz(PC2700), your memory is only as fast as your slowest piece.
If I remember correctly the Graphics Aperture Size is the amount of system memory set aside for your video card. I thought that Anandtech had done a comparison between 128MB and 256MB Graphics Aperture Size. Whoever did the comparison basically said that a Graphics Aperture Size of 256MB would benifit only a few games, 128MB was sufficient for most things. By changing the AGP Frequency you change at what frequency the video card communicates with the system. When it comes to running at a non-standard system bus (100, 133, 166, 200 are standard), the AGP Frequency provides your AGP lock(in most cases).

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Pederv
Looks like your memory is 333MHz(PC2700), your memory is only as fast as your slowest piece.
If I remember correctly the Graphics Aperture Size is the amount of system memory set aside for your video card. I thought that Anandtech had done a comparison between 128MB and 256MB Graphics Aperture Size. Whoever did the comparison basically said that a Graphics Aperture Size of 256MB would benifit only a few games, 128MB was sufficient for most things. By changing the AGP Frequency you change at what frequency the video card communicates with the system. When it comes to running at a non-standard system bus (100, 133, 166, 200 are standard), the AGP Frequency provides your AGP lock(in most cases).

The first thing you do, if you're wanting to overclock a Socket A processor, is raise your cpu voltage (called vcore in the BIOS). Just don't raise it past 1.75-1.80v. You won't need to raise your chipset voltage any at all. If you've got an nVidia nForce2 chipset, to lock the AGP frequency, you have to change the frequency to 67. To lock the PCI bus frequency, just set it to 33 Mhz.

If you don't have an nForce2 chipset, you'll have to boot to Windows at stock speed, then use this: ClockGen Raise your RAM's timings to 3-3-3-11, and raise your vdimm (RAM voltage) to 2.8v. That should get you to at least 177-185 Mhz fsb, which is 2.2-2.3 Ghz with your processor.