About overclocking a dell dimension 9200...

Well...
Some days ago I overclocked my E6400 to 2,5 GHz.
I had some problems.
When I started a huge game which needed the full CPU my PC crashed down and rebooted once again.
Sometimes there was a blue screen after that sometimes not.
And the CPU was only overclocked to 312 FSB.

Could it be a problem with the PSU why my PC chrashed down and rebooted again?
Isn´t there enough power? The CPU in the Dimension 9200 has only 375W.
Or a problem of the CPU´s cooling system?
Or only a problem of the Dell RAID BIOS?

Mathes, overclocking is usually done on a computer motherboard that has special features specifically designed for overclocking. Overclocking your Dell is a very chancy thing to do as your motherboard was specifically designed to run at stock speeds. Raising the FSB to 312 is a huge overclock of your front side bus, it didn't make much difference in the speed of the processor because its multiplier is set at eight. 312 X 8 = 2496.

If you can tell me at what speed your memory is actually running at maybe we can sort things out a bit.

My memory?

Well,I have 2x1024 MB RAM 667 MHz

When I will change my CPU (don´t know which it will be...perhaps a qx6800 or a q6700)
I will change my video card and the memory too.
3536 MB RAM 800 MHz and perhaps a GeForce GTX260.

And when I change my CPU I want to overclock it.
It should be over 3 GHz.
So...when I change to a QX6800 I can overclock it (like starless said) to 312*11=3,4 GHz.
When I change to a Q6700 I can overclock it to 3,1 GHz.

But I´m not sure about the performance.
Perhaps my PC will crash down again.

Could it be a problem of the PSU?
I think the crash down-reboot problem is only there if the PC hasn´t got enough power.

I asked if you could tell me the memory speed because the more you ramp up the front side bus the more you ramp up your memory's speed. The speed of your memory is directly connected to the speed of your front side bus.

Example:

I have a E7200 processor in the computer I'm using right now. Normally the processor runs at 2.53GHz while the front side bus runs at 1066MHz. The FSB is quad pumped. What that means is the actual speed of the front side bus is 266MHz (1066 / 4). My memory is rated at 1066 MHz (PC8500) but that too is also quad pumped so the actual running speed is 266MHz (1066 / 4). To overclock my CPU to 3.16GHz I had to raise the FSB from 266MHz to 333MHz (333 X 4 = 1333MHz) and at the same time I had to make sure that my memory didn't raise above 266 MHz (266 X 4 = 1066MHz ) by setting a divider in the BIOS of my motherboard. The divider allows me to overclock the processor and at the same time run the memory at its rated speed. I simply don't want to overclock my memory. My motherboard also makes sure not to overclock my PCI bus. The devices on the PCI bus don't usually respond well to overclocking. My hard drives reside on the PCI bus. To further discourage/encourage you my motherboard allows me to set both the memory and CPU voltage. Normal DDR2 memory runs at 1.85 volts, but my memory has to have 2.2 volts to run stably at its rated speed. At 2.1 volts my memory is unstable, so 1/10 of a volt makes a huge difference in the stability of my computer. I didn't have to overvolt my CPU to get it to go from 2.53GHz to 3.16GHz but many CPUs will need extra voltage to be overclocked.

I asked if you could tell me the memory speed because the more you ramp up the front side bus the more you ramp up your memory's speed. The speed of your memory is directly connected to the speed of your front side bus.

Example:

I have a E7200 processor in the computer I'm using right now. Normally the processor runs at 2.53GHz while the front side bus runs at 1066MHz. The FSB is quad pumped. What that means is the actual speed of the front side bus is 266MHz (1066 / 4). My memory is rated at 1066 MHz (PC8500) but that too is also quad pumped so the actual running speed is 266MHz (1066 / 4). To overclock my CPU to 3.16GHz I had to raise the FSB from 266MHz to 333MHz (333 X 4 = 1333MHz) and at the same time I had to make sure that my memory didn't raise above 266 MHz (266 X 4 = 1066MHz ) by setting a divider in the BIOS of my motherboard. The divider allows me to overclock the processor and at the same time run the memory at its rated speed. I simply don't want to overclock my memory. My motherboard also makes sure not to overclock my PCI bus. The devices on the PCI bus don't usually respond well to overclocking. My hard drives reside on the PCI bus. To further discourage/encourage you my motherboard allows me to set both the memory and CPU voltage. Normal DDR2 memory runs at 1.85 volts, but my memory has to have 2.2 volts to run stably at its rated speed. At 2.1 volts my memory is unstable, so 1/10 of a volt makes a huge difference in the stability of my computer. I didn't have to overvolt my CPU to get it to go from 2.53GHz to 3.16GHz but many CPUs will need extra voltage to be overclocked.


You don't need to change your CPU. You need to change your motherboard, CPU heatsink, powersupply and memory to really overclock. You will also have to do a huge amount of reading.

Sorry I must have post a reply instead editing my last post.