Overclocking guide for newbies here...

Originally posted by specofdust
Cool, do all you want once you get it, but for my parents(dad really) he wants a totaly stable system and gets scared(read angry) if he even sees BIOS.

Ah right..yeah, as soon as i need to reboot, i'll try and find the way to the BIOS, lol. As i said before, it'll only be overclocked maximum by .02Ghz so..surely that shouldn't make too much of a difference?-but is a pre-built so..hmm..alright
 
Life of the Overclocked CPU

For those interested....

I overclocked my AXIA 1Ghz CPU in 2001 to run at 1.33Ghz - a 33% boost. During the years the max temps from heavy gaming have been between 50 and 55 degrees.

It is now 2004 and I still have the system running on the same old I-Will KK266-R board... but I started seeing BSOD. I thought it was other stuff I had been messing with, but after swapping everything else out (new OS, PSU, SCSI Card, Drives, Video Card, etc.) I decided to back down my overclock to the standard 1Ghz. This stopped the BSOD's.

So... it is true that you will eventually reduce the lifespam of your overclocked CPU, but three solid years of a warm overclock is pretty nice. :)

Then the good news... I looked in one of the scrapped PC's I inherited from a customer, and there was a AXHA 1.2Ghz CPU... which is currently running at 1.45Ghz (139x10.5) and I can see more speed in this yet. :)

(And I don't know why I always do my Overclocking experiments on the hottest day of the year.... must be mad or summit.... remember ambient tempatures will make a difference to your overclocking success. The cooler the better.)
 
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Thanks for this thread, really helps with a lot of questions i was having about overclocking.

The CMOS reset was especially helpful, since my pc wasnt booting and i had no idea what was wrong :D
 
NF7 Multiplier

Hi I've just got my new nf7 motherboard.

I thought that it automatically unlocked the multipliers. If I try to use a lower multiplier I get an error message saying, "CPU is unworkable or has been changed. Please recheck - CPU soft menu." If I use a higher multiplier it boots with the default 12. The CPU is a duron 1.6 12X133Mhz. Do I need to hard mod it or is there something simple I have missed.
 
I'm afraid you must have got the wrong end of the stick, or someones been telling you stuff thats not true :(

Multipliers being locked or unlocked depends entirely on the CPU, it's nothing to do with the motherboard. I'm sorry about that mate, still you do have a good motherboard, which is no bad thing :)
 
sorry, I must edit the guide.

when it was written the CPUs were unlocked by the N Force motherboard.

Since then (like everything else) things have moved on :(

The new breed of CPU cannot be unlocked so easily, I'm sorry the information is 'out of date - I will try my best to 'iron it out', if people want to email me about errors in the future PLEASE do so :)

Thanks
Gary (NF7-S)
 
NF7 Multiplier

That's alright NF7-S no harm done, still got a good board:D

No you misunderstand Speco:o

I wanted to down the multi. I've got 3200 ram, cheap generic i'm afraid, but then i wasn't expecting to get the duron up to never mind over 200 FSB.

I have managed 12X170 before running into stability problems, upped the VCore and the memory voltage, wasn't sure which it needed, that seemed to help haven't fully tested it yet. Just wanted to lower the multi to find the FSB limit as per guide.

Nice thread by the way very useful:cool:
 
So your in a similar situationt to me(I think). I've got a multiplier locked barton 2800. That's stock is 166x12.5, but since i've got some pc3200, I just upped the FSB and then Vcore in turn untill I got to the highest stable OC, 190x12.5.

IIRC, Durons run at 133, so forget finding the limits of your ram, because you probably wont get to 200FSB, just keep upping the FSB and Vcore, and keep an eye on your temps, and you'll be sorted :)
 
another newbie

Good tips, a little deep for now though..........
I have tried to overclock my xp2800+ which runs at 2.09Ghz.
On a MSI k7n2delta
The fsb is 166 and the 512 ddr pc3200 ram defaults to 200(i have reduced the ram to 166 to run with the chip).
I tried upping the fsb and got to 170 then it didn't like it !!
I dropped the multiplier and never really got too far.
Never upped any voltages. Any help would be nice !

I'll keep at it
Mick
 
to go at 170 you'll probably need a little more voltage. With a good cooler though you should be able to go up to or just below 1.8, so dont worry too much about that. Also make sure your mobo can lock the AGP/PCI freqencies.
 
I'm not a total nooooooooob, but how do you find your stepping and what CPU you have without rippin the HSF off?

I got the mobile 2500-M IQYHA i think, how do i check?

Thanks.
 
Open case> take HSF off>read

Sorry, but that's basicly the only way I know off, and the easiest way IIRC.

It doesn't really matter unless you want to sell it and know whether its a poor one or a beast of a CPU though.
 
I doubt the processor can permanently hold that information. I know very little about CPU architecture etc, but from the little I know, I'm pretty sure they dont hold anything other then their multiplier.

Sorry mate, but look on the bright side...once you do it you may find your CPU is a downgraded athlon fx53!(not really possible but just pretend!)
 
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