Overclocking guide for newbies here...

specofdust · 10 Jun 2004 at 16:04

Mmk, I'm thinking of getting an Abit NF7 Mobo, and some Adata or Twinmos PC3200 when those prices come down. Gonna make a frankensteins monster of my brothers machine when it comes home

NF7-S · 10 Jun 2004 at 17:00

nice choices - and you could probably go for DUAL CHANNEL sticks mate - if you're going to buy new stuff

BHpugwash · 10 Jun 2004 at 17:42

P4 2.8 E Whats possible?

Hey all im new to this forum.
(P4 2.8E Prescott)
After some deliberation i decided 2.8Ghz just was not enough so i set about fiddling in the bios (ASUS P4P800 Delux AI) and so far have got 3361.01 with FSB of 960.28. This is using original cooling plus zorro case and extra 4 8in asaka case fans. i have 2x256 geil pc3200 mem (jacketed). the settings are Vcore 1.3875, RAM 2.75, AGP 2.8. Ext frequency = 240.07 x 14. Unfortunatley i have GFX5200 but am waitin for x800 XT platinum . Can anyone help me get this stable at 3.5G's? or am i gonna need new cooling? atm it peaks at 51. which aint bad for basic pentium 4 cooler. also (incedentally) anyone know when the x800 XT is out in UK?? Cheers And such. AZ

specofdust · 10 Jun 2004 at 18:49

Originally posted by NF7-S
nice choices - and you could probably go for DUAL CHANNEL sticks mate - if you're going to buy new stuff

Dual channel as in get two sticks? That's what I was planning

fiShBoNe · 10 Jun 2004 at 23:45

they need to be single sided sticks mind u...
and matched sticks are more likely to work better together.

BHpugwash · 10 Jun 2004 at 23:48

Originally posted by specofdust
Dual channel as in get two sticks? That's what I was planning

Yup but try to get two exact stick preferably branded. Geil do a good set with heat spreaders but £70 for 2x256 PC3200 but have cloked mine to 533

you could always get corsair (not Corsair value) they r supposedly excellent but r expensive. Most of the branded stuff can be bought in dual channel packs but i aint sure how much if any you save.

specofdust · 10 Jun 2004 at 23:51

Single sided? Explain please.

Is it really worth getting matched sticks? I mean, they cost a fair bit more, and Dual DDR only get a 5-10% increase in performance from what I hear.

BHpugwash · 11 Jun 2004 at 00:26

Matched is def better example
First up one stick of corsair value 512 pc 3200 in my P4 [email protected] in Sandra bench shifted about 1500/1550 with an extra kingston stick it managed 3200/3350 then with 2 geil 3200 sets with heat spreaders it hit nearly 5k a peice hold on ill check it.....4960/5010!!! that up to 5Gb/sec shifting but perhaps the OC helped cos the geil had heatspreaders and i did have a play with ram voltages

SexyGreyFox · 11 Jun 2004 at 07:16

I will never Overclock again - ever. The first processor I overclocked was an AMD 486DX100 and so through the years. Last year I bought a NF7s mobo and AMD Barton 2.8 ghz and clocked it to 3.2 ghz. This last two weeks I've had real problems with my PC getting a lot of Blue Screens Of Death on XP and sunday I decided to put my processor at the right speed. I haven't had a problem since. Also I did speed tests on different programs (Photoshop, TMPGEnc etc) and there is no difference clocked on the lower speed. Somewhere down the line if you make things go faster than they were meant to go then you're going to break them or perhaps I've just been very unlucky over the last ten years.

mrthingyx · 11 Jun 2004 at 08:41

That's true, I guess - I know exactly what you're talking about, dmpoole... I had a lot of the trouble myself a couple of months back.

But in my case, I just reduced the overclock to 200MHz within the chips limit.

But then my CPU really would be a bit slow for playing games (XP1700) without a bit of persuasion.

mrthingyx · 16 Jun 2004 at 08:59

Wow - I was the last person to post in this thread...

mrthingyx · 16 Jun 2004 at 08:59

Wow - I was the last person to post in this thread...

NickK · 16 Jun 2004 at 12:00

Originally posted by dmpoole
I will never Overclock again - ever. The first processor I overclocked was an AMD 486DX100 and so through the years. Last year I bought a NF7s mobo and AMD Barton 2.8 ghz and clocked it to 3.2 ghz. This last two weeks I've had real problems with my PC getting a lot of Blue Screens Of Death on XP and sunday I decided to put my processor at the right speed. I haven't had a problem since. Also I did speed tests on different programs (Photoshop, TMPGEnc etc) and there is no difference clocked on the lower speed. Somewhere down the line if you make things go faster than they were meant to go then you're going to break them or perhaps I've just been very unlucky over the last ten years.

Hmmm Heat. Sounds like your photoshop etc are disc limited.

NF7-S · 16 Jun 2004 at 12:11

the key is to be patient and try to OC SLOWLY, 5MHz at a time, then when the PC falls over BACK OFF AT LEAST 1 STEP - MAYBE 2!?

You have to keep checking and running tests - it takes time, but it's well worth it IMHO

Dunk · 17 Jun 2004 at 20:15

figured this could use a well deserved BUMP because if people were sensible to use the search feature then they'd be sensible enough to use google or similar too, pity they don't, the gems that lie within!

SexyGreyFox · 17 Jun 2004 at 20:58

Originally posted by NickK
Hmmm Heat. Sounds like your photoshop etc are disc limited.

What do you mean by disc limited?

fiShBoNe · 18 Jun 2004 at 01:06

you probably won't see much different in small overclocks on the cpu for those applications. i think it might depend a lot on how much the memory is overclocked as well, seeing as they are pretty memory hungry programs.

SexyGreyFox · 18 Jun 2004 at 07:16

For a year I've been running my CPU at 3.2 ghz and my memory at 400fsb. A month ago I had a lot of BSOD's in XP and decided to downclock my CPU to its rightful speed of 2.8 ghz and all is well. My main applications are Corel Draw, Photoshop, DVD Shrink, TMPGEnc, Ulead DVD Moviefactory etc and I can't see any major difference in speed. OK, perhaps a film that took 51 mins to convert now takes 53 mins - not significant in my book. However, two weeks ago I installed a part which has increased my loading speeds a great deal - a Western Digital Raptor.

specofdust · 18 Jun 2004 at 08:07

You can overclock your PSU!??!?

Wow, a whole new avenue of Overclocking I'd never even heard off. Just thinking of the possibilites get's my heart going. If I managed to get a PSU going at 4Ghz then I could run Farcry in 20480x 173098 AMAZING!

SexyGreyFox · 18 Jun 2004 at 13:08

Originally posted by specofdust
You can overclock your PSU!??!?

Wow, a whole new avenue of Overclocking I'd never even heard off. Just thinking of the possibilites get's my heart going. If I managed to get a PSU going at 4Ghz then I could run Farcry in 20480x 173098 AMAZING!

LOL, it was 7 am in the morning