Hi, new to these boards and to overclocking 
Firstly - Just to explain the situation I am looking at a whole new gaming system which I plan to build myself towards the end of this year at the earliest, however I'd like to get a little more from my current machine as I'm starting to struggle with newer stuff at 1280x1024.
My spec:
System ChipSet - Intel 845PE
CPU - Intel P4 2.66GHz
GPU - Connect3D ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
PSU - 345Watt Peak stock Dell unit
Memory - 1GB RAM (PC2700)
Also running 2 Hard Drives and Pioneer DVD-RW
I've already spent just over £200 on a few bits and peices over the 3(+) years I've had it to keep it relitively up to date (getting extra 512MB RAM, DVD-RW, 2nd HDD & replacing the ancient & useless GeForce MX420
) and to a certain extent it's done it's job well, it plays WMV HiDef material on my projector, gameswise it handles BFV, FarCry, HL2, COD, GTR etc fine @ 1280x1024 with high/medium details at reasonable fps, but I'm struggling with BF2, Doom, Q4 etc keeping that resolution oh and I'd like to be able to switch most things on like HDR, AA, AF etc all the bells and whistles if you like.... but that will have to wait ->
This guide/article I've come across shows that overclocking with this CPU can make quite a difference http://www.ocprices.com/index.php?action=reviews&rev_id=119&page=3 but is it really as easy as get a new/better CPU cooler/heatsink then up the core voltage? Not wanting to hit the any limits by the way but if I could oc to say 3.00GHz I'd be happy as long as it will be worthwhile and I won't be sacrificing any reliability as want this computer to last as a second family machine or the posibility to sell in working order in the future.
Secondly - Unfortunately my 9800 Pro has the R350 core not the R360 one as with later version so not able to flash to 9800 XT with no extra pipes there to unlock, is it worth overclocking this as well?
Not expecting a massive difference and I know AMD Athlon's etc are better for games and overclocking it seems but would like to know if it's worth it?
Oh and sorry for the long post
Firstly - Just to explain the situation I am looking at a whole new gaming system which I plan to build myself towards the end of this year at the earliest, however I'd like to get a little more from my current machine as I'm starting to struggle with newer stuff at 1280x1024.
My spec:
System ChipSet - Intel 845PE
CPU - Intel P4 2.66GHz
GPU - Connect3D ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
PSU - 345Watt Peak stock Dell unit
Memory - 1GB RAM (PC2700)
Also running 2 Hard Drives and Pioneer DVD-RW
I've already spent just over £200 on a few bits and peices over the 3(+) years I've had it to keep it relitively up to date (getting extra 512MB RAM, DVD-RW, 2nd HDD & replacing the ancient & useless GeForce MX420
) and to a certain extent it's done it's job well, it plays WMV HiDef material on my projector, gameswise it handles BFV, FarCry, HL2, COD, GTR etc fine @ 1280x1024 with high/medium details at reasonable fps, but I'm struggling with BF2, Doom, Q4 etc keeping that resolution oh and I'd like to be able to switch most things on like HDR, AA, AF etc all the bells and whistles if you like.... but that will have to wait ->This guide/article I've come across shows that overclocking with this CPU can make quite a difference http://www.ocprices.com/index.php?action=reviews&rev_id=119&page=3 but is it really as easy as get a new/better CPU cooler/heatsink then up the core voltage? Not wanting to hit the any limits by the way but if I could oc to say 3.00GHz I'd be happy as long as it will be worthwhile and I won't be sacrificing any reliability as want this computer to last as a second family machine or the posibility to sell in working order in the future.
Secondly - Unfortunately my 9800 Pro has the R350 core not the R360 one as with later version so not able to flash to 9800 XT with no extra pipes there to unlock, is it worth overclocking this as well?
Not expecting a massive difference and I know AMD Athlon's etc are better for games and overclocking it seems but would like to know if it's worth it?
Oh and sorry for the long post
