New build complete, next steps?

[tumtums]

Hey guys,

I've recently completed my new build. My old rig was running on a P4 2.5 GHz. So yea, it's like a huge upgrade for me.

Everything went surprisingly smooth. I had to shoot off to pcworld to buy an extension 12v cable though which was annoying. (OCZ power supply with Antec 182 case). And I have one little niggle, which may be a Windows(xp) problem. The sound when you open a folder/click a link is pretty much a short crackle, though music sounds awesome. Anyone know what's up with that?

Currently running an E2200 on a DS3R with 4GB OCZ ram and I'm looking to overclock.

I've installed afaik all the latest chipset drivers, regular drivers and Windows updates etc. Just trying to install the large list of programs I frequently used and those dozens of little tweaks which made XP comfortable for me.

Anyway. Seeing as most of you guys do this far often than me. Would any of you mind divulging your routine things to do before Overclocking?

The only thing I intend doing before I jump over to the newbies guide is test all my equipment before hand with something like UBCD.

I feel I'm missing something though.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[semi-pro waster]

The usual thing to do is to test the components for stability - Orthos is useful for the CPU, 3D Mark 2006 for the GPU and HD Tach/HD Tune for the hard drive and Memtest for the Ram. Normally run before and after overclocking just to make shure everything is ok but if you are a bit lazy you could just choose to run them after since your system is stable enough to post here.

Afraid I'm not too sure about the crackling, have you got a spare soundcard that you could test, even a cheap one?