Read Before Asking "How Do I Overclock?"

[Vehementi]

If you come to this board asking this question, read this first...

This is mostly targeted at the newbies here, who are looking at trying to overclock. In all shortness, if you can't answer these questions and demonstrate basic knowledge of a CPU, chipset, memory, etc. then you have no business overclocking.
[8:33pm] <@StormBringer> in which case, they should leave the cover on the case and go back to looking at pr0n



1.) Shawn is running an Athlon XP with an FSB of 266MHz and a multiplier of 13. What is it's clock speed?

2.) What two components of your system board does the Frontside Bus connect?

3.) Every communication, every process (including the storage of data and instructions) in a computer is a series of _____ and ____?

4.) What should you always do before touching any component inside a computer?

5.) Why would your PCI devices interfere with raising your FSB?


Of course, you could still overclock without knowing these questions. This only serves as a baseline for rudimentary knowledge that you should have before tweaking out your computer. If you want to, go ahead. [cliche] Just don't come crying back to me when you fry your new XP 3200+ because it got too hot. Or you tried unlocking it :haha: :giddy:
Check out that "Guru" thread from a while back...the more you learn, the less you think you know. So if you think you know almost everything about computers, or even if you think you know enough to overclock, then you really don't.


As a general rule of thumb (anyone see the deleted scenes from Boondock Saints?)...If you don't know how to overclock, don't bother trying to ask us how. If you need someone to tell you exactly what options in the BIOS to change to overclock, no way, you're not there yet. Not even close.



Answers...(you shouldn't need them) 1.) 1729MHz (Which would be an Athlon XP 2100+) 2.) CPU & Memory, plus just about every other component in your computer rolleyes: MrG) 3.) zeroes and ones (Binary) 4.) Always properly ground yourself and unplug the power cable 5.) The PCI bus is linked to the FSB in speed, and raises with it. Thus, your PCI devices may fail under the higher speed.

 

[StormBringer]

Very good advice, especially the quote, heh
This should prolly be made a READ.

 

[Krugger]

excellent thought!
(maybe you want to add a subsection for 'how do i flash my bios' and 'how do i reformat my computer'

 

[LNCPapa]

I love you and this thread Veh

 

[SubKamran]

What about Memory timings? When you overclock do you have to be careful about the memory?

 

[Vehementi]

Originally posted by SubKamran
What about Memory timings? When you overclock do you have to be careful about the memory?

Well, when I was tweaking around with my memory timings, I changed "Act to Precharge Delay" from 4 to 3, booted up, and ASUS' automatic BIOS recovery tool launched and insert my ASUS CD to flash the BIOS. Happened again if I lowered any of the other timings, so at least I got my Memory timings are pretty easy to handle if you just set it to SPD.

And LOL Papa...

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Originally posted by Vehementi
If you come to this board asking this question, read this first...

Nice post! Especially referencing the other threads & such..

But one thing...

Originally posted by Vehementi
Answers...2.) CPU & Memory 5.) The PCI bus is linked to the FSB in speed, and raises with it. Thus, your PCI devices may fail under the higher speed.

The FSB includes, as you said cpu & Ram, along with PCI, IDE etc... In fact, it interacts with more or less every controller on your motherboard...

But aside from that, very good

 

[lowman]

Overclocking

It's the same thing as hot rodding your car or anything else technical - you ought to know what you are doing if you go ahead and do it - if not, you have yourself to blame. Additionally, you should have a REASON for overclocking, and have a definite threshold you are trying to get to or pass - rather that becoming enamored with the idea of overclocking and just having to do it so you can say you did it and use cool buzz words and all. Of course, if you have the money to burn, go ahead and learn by trial and error - me, I don't really have the need to do it, but like I said, that's just me.

 

[StormBringer]

This thread is now locked.

 

[Vehementi]

Well since the hostilities have ceased for over 4 months I didn't see any point of it being locked anymore. And I got it unlocked with my efficacious skills of persuasion

 

[Yangxi]

the more you learn, the less you think you know
i like this sentense!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bwchato]

if you don't know how to overclock don't ask.If you want it to run faster buy a faster computer instaed of wreaking havok on the 1 you have.

 

[plousey]

overclocking

soooo how do u overclock then???

 

[bwchato]

Overclocking

soooo how do u overclock then???

Wait for somebody else to answer you.I don't recomend it.I have an AMD 3200+
THAT RUNS AT 2205 WITH 1 GIG OF DUEL CHANNEL MEMORY,I don't need to overclock.I don't play games online.

 

[craisin]

Well there must be a quite a few overclock failures out there and that is the reason a Uwave2 Mobo clocked to 2gigs has been given to me. And Thanks as it has come apparent by reading this that I need to unclock the the Mobo. My previous attempts at unclocking hasnt been total recovery. And the cover on my Dell will remain on till its paid off have just over two years to go

 

[bwchato]

Overclocking

I'm 52 years old,which is why games don't mean much to me.I have an ASUS A7N8X mother board.The only setting i made in the bios was to set it at aggressive.I built the computer 5 months ago with an AMD 2400+ and just 6 days ago updated to the AMD 3200+.The only thing i am doing to speed it up a little is i just bouight 512mb of PC3200 at 400Mhz duel channel ram which will give me 1 gig of ram.That's as far as i intend to go for a very long time.

 

[plousey]

Wat the hell is overclocking

I was only interested i weren't gonna do it, well i might have he he. i just wondered how it was done because it sounds really good. plz tell me.

 

[craisin]

what the hell is overclocking. Well its running your computer above the manufacturers specs. But as someone above indicates your better off with more ram

 

[craisin]

My 2gig chip was 900mhz

My 2gig chip by simply taking out the cmos battery reverted to 900mhz but hey its getting better at finding software that been loaded. I guess 2gigs is too much. I may overclock it later when Im read up on it.THX :wave:

 

[Spike]

what the hell is overclocking. Well its running your computer above the manufacturers specs. But as someone above indicates your better off with more ram

That's pretty good advice.

I'll say first that I'm not some great overclocking guru, but I have a basic knowledge of how a pc works. Just so nobody get's the wrong end of the stick

My own advice....

DON'T overclock something if you can't afford to replace it or something related to it. You shouldn't touch it anyway if you don't know what is related. (A long time ago, I blew a perfectly good graphics card. I didn't set out to over clock the graphics card particularly, I only upped the FSB on the processor by a reasonably small amount.)

As for beginners not doing it, well how did the veterans learn in the first place? The trick is to have some firm idea of what you're doing, why, and how.

Also, OC'ing is fun, if you're that way inclined. Manufacturers create, lets say, a processor not in seperate batches, but in one batch. They then set limits on the processors. Part of overclocking is removing those limits, to get the full performance out of the harware. There's nothing wrong with that if you know what your doing. Sometimes the chips are limited because they are bad, other times, they're perfectly fine. No two processors, for example, will overclock exactly the same.

The rest of over clocking comprises of going above and beyond what the chips were ever expected to experience. Beyond even the expected peak performance. This really is an artform for those who can afford it, and unless I start making one heck of a lot of money to spend on hardware, I doubt I'll ever be a member of this group.

With recent chips now being locked far more securely though, I have a feeling that Overclocking will be very much a niche thing once the athlonXP becomes redundant. Time, and manufacturers, will tell.

 

[bwchato]

Over Clocking

glad to see that somebody payed attention to what i said.My computer is as fast as it can go and i'm satisfied with it.To add any more memory would be negligible.It probably would'nt even be noticed.

 

[mokaboy]

tbh, speaking from (not too much but quite a bit of exsperiance)

System tweaking can do just as much performance increasing than overclocking, people overclock normally to just sit and look at "cpuz" (a small cpu detail program) and smile or to brag to mates or because they play cpu hogging games online.

They rarely overclock for playing games/running apps that dont meet there computers requirements. Most overclockers already have v.good systems and not really ne need to overclock! some people do it for the exsperiance (like me) because it will teach them a great deal.

Like said a couple of times in this forum memory upgrading is more worth it for the newbie overclockerers (like me) because it can save blowing up your computer etc. if u run newer games like cod, hl2, doom3, etc and have 256mb ram, slap urself , theres no point overclocking until u upgrade especially if u have XP. :haha:

but then again u shouldnt really take advise from some1 who cant spell exsperiance :monkey:

 

[MellyJC]

Any chance you could go into a bit of detail on #5? I bought a used 1.33 from someone but can only get it to run at 1 ghz. If I swap the FSB to 133 and save, the screen just goes blank and sits there...then it's set back to 100 when I power up again. Everything else is old though so could it be something with one of my PCI? My old Soundblaster Live maybe?

 

[bwchato]

Fsb

What is the FSB of the chip you have,the 1.33?

 

[Spike]

If it's an AMD duron 1.3, the FSB is 100. If it's something else, I don't know.