Simple overclocking FAQ

Nice guide. Thanks. However, after reading it, I'm less inclined to overclock, since for me the life of the hardware is more important than maximum performance.
 
lol sounds like something that i need to stay away from :p but i seen vids of extreme over clockers with liquid nitrogen or w/e to cool of their machine, i mean wow.. hardcore ! :p
 
very helpful thread, i think ill stick to stock settings and keep my "nubbie" title for a bit longer ;) i spent 3 hours the other night on a problem as small as me not seeing my cd driver was jumped as a slave and not a master.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. I do still check this thread once in a while to see if there are any changes to be done.

If anyone notices anything which may be out of date, or may be clarified, anything at all, don't hesitate to post.
 
I don't think im seeing the big picture

is it just me or is it seemingly impossible to overclock in a Phenoix BIOS? or am I missing the big picture......thanks in advance
 
I'm sorry, I can't really answer that question, as all different BIOSes, as well as the different builds of the same BIOS would have different overclocking settings.

This isn't really a How-to as you can see, just addressing many different questions on overclocking, hopefully to help you reach an informed decision on whether you should, or shouldn't overclock your computer.
 
basic overclocking question

OK i have a fic k7mnf-64 mother board with a( sempron 3000+ SDA3000DUT4D
Front Side Bus Speed: 333 MHz )
the mobo is supposed to run at 266/333/400 MHz Front Side Bus
my bios choices were 100/166/200
when i got it i had to do a little research and found on this board there is a bios jumper that stops you from changing the FSB, so i removed it and was able
to move it up to 166 which with the sempron dual something or another effectively
clocks my cpu at 332 right???
that raised me from 1.2ghz to like 1992 say 2 ghz.
hurray for the newbee :) thank you master google.
so it seems to me that in a sense I've overclocked it up to specs.
i have phoenix 6v bios and i don't seem to have the option to raise the vcore.
its some thing like 1.53v now and i believe its rated at 1.6v.
as for the memory freq. i had to set it to auto for it to boot.
if i raise the FSB to 200 no go.
so i guess my real question is where do i go from here? i don't feel that
i have accomplished much as to overclocking it.after all i'm just getting exactly what the chip was supposed to do in the first place.
how do i get past the 333mhz barrier? the mobo is supposed to go to 400mhz.
as i said mine only goes to 200mhz and wont boot at that speed.
i have two sticks of 512 ram @ 400 mhz that should be ok right?
as for the multiplier it 12 and cant seem to change it either.
have i reached my limit or am i missing something?as i said before mobo FSB
is supposed to have the choices of 266/333/400 but i have 100/166/200.
or do i need new bios version.
any help would be great
thanks again
 
Not too sure about the overclockability of your chip.

Try increasing the fsb a little at a time from 166 (in 5mhz blocks usually).

Your RAM should be fine, seeing that its rated for 400, and you're only doing 333. Same goes for your motherboard.

Also check the voltage for your RAM, although I don't think it should be a problem.


About your multipliers, they usually are locked, although with some chips you can reduce the multiplier, which can help, but from there, you're looking at very minimal improvements by getting the best fsb:multiplier ratios; I don't know too many people who would reduce multipliers...
 
Ghazi is a Guru

must-read site for over-clockers: www.tweakguides.com

Many thanks for all the great info in this FAQ. Thought I'd throw in a site I've found just a wealth of knowledge as well.

Thx.
 
hello everybody,i m a new member here and i don't know much about overclocking,but all these days i'm trying to do it.maybe you think why?because,i would like to see where my pc can go and of caurse to avoid bying a new cpu without having tried this before.i have an intel core 2 duo e6300 1.86 ghz,when i got into bios and changed my fsb from 266mhz to 300mhz i saw that the speed raised to 2.1mhz without having any problems.after that i raised it to 310 but my pc didn't boot.i got again into bios and left it to 300 witch means 2.1ghz.what can i do to go higher?any ideas?
 
ok i have a asus a7v8x-x mother board with a amd 1800mhz cpu i am trying to overclock it i have looked everywhere and they tell me i need to set my board to jumper free mode i looked and looked i can not find out how to do it does some one know how????
 
"Troubleshooting:
If by some luck you increased your FSFB so much that your computer wouldn't even go to BIOS after resetting it, you will have to clear your CMOS. To do this, open up the left cover of your computer (assuming a basic tower style case). On the motherboard (you know what that is right?) there should be a flat-type battery (usually a CR-2032). Remove the battery, and wait for a minute. Replace the battery. Your CMOS should be cleared. Inserting a similar sized coin to the battery into the battery holder helps (and you won't need to wait that minute). "

Is there a walk-thru help if you OC your CPU on your laptop and it doesnt let you return to the BIOs?

I was/am debating on trying it on my laptop but not sure of the process god forbid I run into this issue with my laptop.
 
Hey. I am running a DualCore 3.2Ghz Stock, Corsair 1 Gb ValueSelect, Intel D946 series mobo, and a Inno3D 8500GT. Lemme get my facts straight.
Overclocking works by modding three essential elements. V-Core volt, FSB Multiplier, and the CPU clock multiplier. These in their different combination are called OC'ing.
Then, you have the stability. All components have a max over which they start malfunctioning or overheating ( i.e.faster heat generation not minding what ever cooling material you are running ). To handle this you have different cooling such as air, water, phaze which is something completely different and another thing on its own.
Finally you have two types of CPUs. Those with the multipliers unlocked and those with don't. This is what I am interested in. How do you OC a CPU which has its multipliers locked?
 
Haven;'t checked in here for ages.

Anyway, took a look at some replies.

First, thank you for taking some time to read it (for those who did anyway). And thanks for all the support.


Now, the other reason I'm replying:

jasonbernal said:
i tried it on my amd and it caught on fire!

That would be utterly impossible unless you tried it on an AMD built in 1990. Or thereabouts. I didn't mention it (or at least at a quick glance of the "article" written about 2 YEARS ago I couldn't see it) but there IS a safety switch in every computer made today to automatically shutdown at a certain temperature. The only way to burn your computer these days would be to increase the Voltage enough that this safety just isn't fast enough, and the article did mention against raising Voltages. And of course, the famous disclaimer. All of which point to the fact that its your fault.



And for the other post:

blackroseblade said:
How do you OC a CPU which has its multipliers locked?

A little late to reply to this, and the original writer probably will never see this reply, but here it is anyway. READ THE GODDAM F'KING THING FIRST!!

ORIGINAL ARTICLE said:
Each CPU has its own multiplier, and this value is multiplied by the FSB speed, to give you your CPU speed. So the formula for your CPU speed would be: CPU multiplier x FSB. No matter what multiplier your CPU is at, or the FSB for your system is, if these come up to the same value, it'll perform roughly the same. I'm oversimplifying this, because there are differences, but given that most users wouldn't be able to change the multiplier, these differences wouldn't matter. This guide assumes the inability to change this multiplier, and therefore focuses on changing the FSB.

Right there in V1.0 of this article. In fact, I'm sure its even in the beta (which was never made public). Most overclocking how-to's would just assume you already know this fact.


And another post:

syde said:
I was/am debating on trying it on my laptop but not sure of the process god forbid I run into this issue with my laptop.

I made a quick update to the article, adding a whole new section on who shouldn't overclock, and right now, laptops being the only one in it :D.
Reasons are there now.

I think there should be the same CR2032 battery in a laptop. I've not opened up anywhere near as many laptops as desktops (IMO, they're just very-very-very-squeezed desktops) so if you just hunt around in there you should see it.

Of course, if you don't, then the way to do it is much simpler: unplug all connections to your laptop and remove the battery. This should also reset the BIOS.
 
Amazing job, i'm looking forward to buying a Cooler master vortex 752 just to make a small overclock. I've read that some MB automatically changes voltage when you overclock the CPU frequency, how do I check if my MB do this? Thanks a lot!
 
Usually if it will automatically change voltage, on the voltage section it would tell you that voltage is set to be optimized, or something similar.

My last comp's motherboard does that, and it had to be disabled for me to change any voltage settings.

If you are unsure, just google your CPU, motherboard and RAM and set your voltages to spec. Make sure to check for stock voltage, and not max voltage...
 
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