Need some simple advice

[starrkiller]

some months ago my nvidia motherboard went down, and as i didnt have (and still dont) mutch money all i could buy was a pcchips m863g with a atlon xp 2800 (all for less than 75€).

other than that i have:

2gb ram (i use photoshop, autocad, 3d studio)
geforce 6200 512mb

my problem is that my cpu speed is too low for the games i play, and to render with 3d studio, so i would like to overclock it ( i have some experience with it, since i have done it to my nvidia), but i am afraid that with this MB i will fry my system. what do u guys think?
and can u recomend a diagnostics program where i can see my cpu temp? cause now i have no nvidia probe.

 

[zephead]

pcchips is a notoriously low-quality brand. most of their products don't work at all or repeatedly crash. as i understand it, your chipset uses clock dividers to run various subsystems. increasing your FSB would increase with it your IDE controllers, pci bus, and agp bus. while most pci and agp cards can operate at higher frequencies, your hard drive probably won't. even if the system appears to start and run fine, data can be irreparably corrupted and eventually the system won't work at all.

your best bet is to try your luck with the CPU multiplier. increase it in small increments, checking that the CPU doesn't get too hot and that the system functions properly before increasing it to the next value.

also, your bios will show you your cpu temp, usually under "hardware monitor"
when in the bios, your processor is at full load, so you can just let it sit on the hardware monitor screen and see how hot your processor gets after a minute or so.

 

[starrkiller]

that means i can only see my cpu temp on the bios?
that sucks..

 

[tifc8lraz]

that means i can only see my cpu temp on the bios?
that sucks..

Not neccesarrily, although it is the most accurate area to check. A lot (if not most) motherboards today are made with sensors so certain software (like SpeedFan) can detect your temps as well.