How far can I go

[bretty]

I'm thinking about eoverclocking my old 1.33 Athlon.

At the moment the heatsink is warm, so I think I can get a few more megaherzige (what else could I have said?) out of it.

What are the steps? I have ssen in BIOS that I can adjust voltage and clockspeeds.

Which one do you play with?

 

[Rick]

I see you have an MSI Pro DDR board. Would it happen to be the MSI K7T266 Pro2? That's what I currently have.

The easiest and neatest way to overclock is to use the utility that MSI provides called FuzzyLogic. You can download the XP compatible version from their website. This lets you overclock your system in Windows without having to restart etc..

Download it from MSI here
http://download.msi.com.tw/support/swr_exe/fl43f.exe

I suggest you give that a try. It will even find the fastest speed that offers the best tradeoff for stability, although I would totally trust it. You might want to knock it down a few notches from the top speed it selects to make up for an inefficient heatsink, higher ambient temps / poor case cooling.. etc..


You can also do it via the BIOS in "Hardware Monitor Setup". Overclocking requires you change your FSB speed. If you are using a 266Mhz bus, then you will overclock your FSB from 133MHz to a higher value.. For example. If you using a 200Mhz bus, then you will be overclocking your FSB from 100Mhz to something higher.

When you overclock your FSB, this number is multiplied by the clock multiplier (which you cannot change short of physically modifying your CPU). So a 133Mhz FSB paired with a 10x multiplier would give you 1333Mhz CPU speed. If you increase the FSB 1Mhz, then you will get 1343MHz. If you increase your FSB 10Mhz to 143Mhz, then your processor speed will be set to 1430Mhz.. and so on.

 

[bretty]

Ok.

I do have that MOBO you do. I tried that fuzzy logic thingy although it didnt work.
I suppose I will havetop get the XP version...

How much do you think I could get the chip to? The heatsink is only slightly warm now....so I think I could put a bit through it.
In the BIOS though, I have the option tpo run the FSB at 100, or 133. it is set to 133. What is the option called to over clock the FSB? From memory though...I think hey were the only options.

 

[Rick]

I also have a 1.33GHz Athlon, but mine is an Athlon XP which probably means mine will overclock better than yours. I can get up around 1600Mhz with poor stability, and 1550Mhz without much fuss.

How much you can overclock depends on how lucky you are and what stepping you have. The older the original manufacture date of processor, usually the worse it overclocks. Then there's just the luck factor.. Not all CPUs are the same. Some batches are great.. Some are not...

For that reason, I can't say what numbers are safe, ideal or expected as far as overclocking goes. Just move it up slowly and if you have stability problems, then that means you've hit the limit.

There are also other things you can adjust such as voltages etc.. I recommend you read an overclocking guide somewhere about these tips though, because you'll probably get a better explantion.

In Hardware Monitor, you should be able to set your FSB speed to "User Defined" or something like that. I can't remeber what it is called, but you can definitely change it in there.

You may want to flash your BIOS to the newest version as well, because I had some strange restarting problems when I overclocked sometimes. The newer BIOSes resolved that problem though.

 

[JAV]

This is a pretty good guide for BIOS optimizing. It should help give you some ideas as to what can be done, how to do it & what the hazards are. :grinthumb http://www.itcp.net/~awsh/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm

I'd like to suggest CPUCool. Even if you don't use it for ocing the FSB, it monitors temps & CPU usage & such & is very handy to have for reference. www.podien.de

Have fun & keep it cool.

 

[bretty]

Thanks.

I got it to 1545Mhz using the fuzzylogic thing..

Then it would just go to blue screen. Then reboot.
Do I need to put more power through it to hit higher speeds? I also noticed that while I was playing around in there, the CPU temperature never got higher than 50c!!!
I think the default voltage is 1.79, I put it at 2.7, and theres when she dies. Do I need to do this? or just clock the FSB to a increment below 1545.....
I going to buy a new CPU and Vid card soon anyway, So I could afford to kill it.

 

[Rick]

Originally posted by bretty
Thanks.

I got it to 1545Mhz using the fuzzylogic thing..

Then it would just go to blue screen. Then reboot.
Do I need to put more power through it to hit higher speeds? I also noticed that while I was playing around in there, the CPU temperature never got higher than 50c!!!
I think the default voltage is 1.79, I put it at 2.7, and theres when she dies. Do I need to do this? or just clock the FSB to a increment below 1545.....
I going to buy a new CPU and Vid card soon anyway, So I could afford to kill it.

WHOA, hold up! The default voltage should be something like 1.8v, so that's right. DO NOT GO OVER 2.0v core voltage or you risk toasting your processor. Rule of thumb is no more than 0.2v of the normal operating voltages. You might be able to go higher, but there is no reason to.

Yes, raising your voltage can help overclocking, but it can also hurt it too. Raising voltages also increases temperatures, so use this feature sparingly. Raising the voltage is sometimes necessary to maintain stability at higher speeds. Usually though, the "casual" overclocker doesn't have to worry about this too much since raising the voltage usually doesn't matter until you overclock the processor by a large margin... Empahsis on large.

In your case, I'd recommend bumping up the voltage to somewhere around 1.82-1.85v. This number will vary from processor to processor though.

Your temperature read out was wrong most definitely. That kind of boost would raise the temperatures no matter what kind of cooling you have. You may want to try the BIOS instead. Make sure you are hitting the "Apply" button after each change you make. FuzzyLogic might not be telling the whole truth about what is going on. Temperatures shouldn't be too important as long as it is stable though. As long as it runs, that means temperatures at least acceptable... The cooler the better though.


If it crashes at 1545MHz, then I'd knock the FSB down a notch or two. Play some games or do something else demanding and see if it acts "abnormally". If it doesn't, then you should be fine. Raising the voltage a couple of 0.01v should help out as well.

 

[bretty]

Ok.
So I am at default voltage....raise it 2 notches, and then raise the FSB.

That sounds good. I can never actually test it though. See I reach a given value, and then I put it up another, it doesnt crash then I put it up more.

I continue this patter untill the pooter reboots.
Then I remember what I got to before it rebooted and start there with more voltage. Then try again. Is there a more effective way?
In the end I want to have a CPU that is overclocked to its limit and remaining playable at that speed. I think a measly 300mhz is crap because the heatsick is so cool at default. So natually I am going to push it further.

 

[Rick]

In the end I want to have a CPU that is overclocked to its limit and remaining playable at that speed. I think a measly 300mhz is crap because the heatsick is so cool at default.

I can tell you are new to overclocking. Because 300 Mhz out of that T-bird is exceptional with air cooling. And just because your heat sink might "feel cool" doesn't mean the processor is to. Infact, a cool heatsink might mean your heatsink is conducting heat poorly. Somehow I doubt your processor is even remotely as cool as your heatsink might seem.. Athlon's are too hot to touch even withough overclocking.


You can click on the "Auto" button and it will do the same thing you are doing for you pretty much. It will gradually increment your FSB while making your CPU under heavy usage to ensure stability. When it crashes, your system will reboot and it will have set the the last good MHz it found. The maximum number it finds usually isn't very stable however. So you mght want to cut back just a tiny bit.

300Mhz is really good though. Especially if you don't have a great heatsink/fan on it. The Athlons just don't overclock like the Pentium 4's do... So if that is what you were expecting, you'll be disappointed.

 

[DOA]

Just a thought on the method to get the best clock.
1) cut back on the multiplier YES , back to like 3/4 of stock.
Hopefully you can still boot.
2) Bring up the fsb as high as you can, one step at a time.
this gives you a base line you know about. An absolute max for your FSB.
3) set it back to stock fsb and multiplier -1
4) up the fsb until you are close to your fsb max, if still stable,
5) up the multiplier by .5 and start the fsb at stock again, step it up slowly

This should find your absolute MAX stable overclock. FSB is more important than the multiplier for performance, so max it first.