OVERCLOCKING!!!!

[Smokey J]

Now that I have my puter in good working order I have Questions about overclocking!

Being a person of mechanical inclination I have tendency to “fix” almost everything I touch. I don’t have a vehicle that isn’t modified in someway shape or form! (Insert Tim Allen grunt here ) Therefore it just doesn’t seem right to not do the same to my puter.

After messing around with my bios a little I have managed to push my Athlon 2400+ to 2.16Mhz (BIOS now recognizes my processor as a 2600+, I have my FSB overclocked to 144 MHz and my system performance set to “TURBO”. 145Mhz makes windows crash shortly after the desktop comes on!) Does this seem acceptable or can I push it further? With my MB I can change almost any setting regarding voltage, DRAM timing ect. I have not changed anything except my FSB freq and system performance.

I really want to push the envelope but I am scared about frying my processor and/or RAM. I know (have a good hunch) that I should prolly increase voltages where acceptable to aid with the increased FSB freq or to get more out of my RAM but this is way new ground for me so again I have hesitations as not to induce permanent electrical dysfunction.

Is there a guide to overclocking that would talk in detail about all the crap my MB can do with so many adjustments available or do I have to fly by the seat of my pants? I have read all of the info givin in my MB owners manual but it is very vague and non descript.

I’m really hoping that ya’ll like to be bothered because I really value the opinions that I have received thus far and don’t think I’ll be going away anytime soon! So once again I will ask… HELP please!

[Cobracon]

I have 2 suggestions:

1) Come off the 'Turbo' and go back to the default setting.

2) Locate sites that explain Overclocking in detail, such as Overclockers.com

Bonus - Wait for one of the experts on this forum; and be ready, willing, and able to replace whatever you overclock.

[Mixeur]

First : change your heatsink. Choose a model fully in Copper with 92 or 120 mm fan (Thermalright for example)

Then, there are lot of steps in overclocking :

First increase FSB
Find limit of crash
Then increase Voltage slightly
Find limit of crash
Change colling method : air -> water
Do again from the beginning. Limit of crash should increase...
Always monitor temperatures.
And so on.

But big question will be what for ? Athlon XP are not the best candidates for overclocking. And are too old now to see big improve at maximum overclocking level.
Overclocking is very interesting when you buy a cpu. You buy a cheap cpu and overclock it to the level of an expensive cpu. But once the cpu is too old, the gain becomes too little.

[Wizzard1]

If you can, upgrade to an Athlon XP Mobile. They are significantly better overclockers. I have my XPm 3000+ at 2.6GHz on a no-name board, no extra voltage (besides the 10% or so given to it automatically being a mobile chip in a desktop board).

[Smokey J]

[Cobracon]

I have no idea exactly what the Turbo setting for your BIOS does as I have never used a board like yours. My Gigabyte board has 2 places where Turbo can be selected. One increases clock speed by 15% - 17%, the other is actually a 'default level' setting, but increases overall system performance (unspecified). According to my motherboard manual, selecting Turbo can cause system instability while overclocking.

[Mixeur]

[Smokey J]

[Cobracon]

Have you burned it up yet??

[Smokey J]

Negative. I had some friends come in from out of town and another friend that just moved to Kansas the other day so I've been kinda busy. I'll prolly mess with it this week sometime! I did take it off the turbo setting and actually noticed no difference in performance at all! I'll prolly start messing with it as Mixure suggested in the previous post unless anybody has any other suggestions. With MB tech being what it is today I will have a problem with the system locking up before it torches...right?!

[Cobracon]

Since I'm not familiar with your board, I have absolutely no idea what it will do once you exceed it's stable operating conditions. If you want to experiment with your Overclocking parameters without going into BIOS you can try ClockGen if it supports your motherboard:

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=189

I use it on my #2 computer which runs an old nForce3-A motherboard and a Socket 754 Athlon 64 3200+ with 2GB of DDR400 OCZ RAM. I had to slightly underclock the RAM to acheive this, but I gain back most of the RAM underclock after overclocking the CPU. Stock CPU clock speed is 2.2GHZ, and right now it's @ 2.73GHz which is a 24% increase (and very stable). If I overdo the clock, the computer locks up and I hit 'reset' to start over. Did you get all of that??

[Cobracon]

----------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalCPUID 4.14.2.404 (C) 2002-2007 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------

OS : Windows XP Professional SP2 [ 5.1 Build 2600 ]
Date : 2008/05/07 11:48:27

CPU Name : AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Venice)
Vendor String : AuthenticAMD
Name String : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
Architecture : x86
Process Rule : 90 nm
Platform : Socket 754
CPU Type : Original OEM processor [0]
Number (Total) : 1
Physical Core : 1
Family : Fh
Ext. Family : Fh
Model : Ch
Ext. Model : 2Ch
Stepping : 2h
Ext. Stepping : 2h
APIC : 00h
Brand ID : 04h
Feature : MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 MMX+ 3DNow! 3DNow!+ NX AMD64
PowerManagement : PowerNow!/Cool'n'Quiet

Current (Original)
Clock : 2730.02 MHz (2200.00 MHz)
System Clock : 248.18 MHz (200.00 MHz)
HT Link : 992.74 MHz (800.00 MHz)
Multiplier : 11.00 (11.00)
Data Rate : HT
Over Clock : 24.09 %


L1 I-Cache : 64 KB
L1 D-Cache : 64 KB
L2 Cache : 512 KB [Full:2730.02 MHz]
Memory : 2048 MB


----------------------------------------------------------------
BIOS Information by WMI (Windows Management Interface)
----------------------------------------------------------------
BIOS Vendor : Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BIOS Caption : Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version : Nvidia - 42302e31
BIOS Date : 09/16/2005
SM BIOS Caption : 6.00 PG
SM BIOS Version : 2.3
Mother Vendor : ECS
Mother Product : nForce3-A
Mother Version :
System Vendor : ECS
System Model : nForce3-A

[Marcin]

shortly ... most desktop 2400+ were crappy for overcloking. And same can say about KT333

[Smokey J]

Ok! I have started to look at Athlon XP Mobile processors but I see that they use the Barton core rather then the Thoroughbred core. What's the difference? I know by checking Soyo homepage that my MB supports Thoroughbred but not Barton; however, there is no mention of XP mobile (for obvious reasons.) Is the Barton different from a Thoroughbred because it has a higher FSB and if so is a desktop Barton different from a mobile Barton and if so can I underclock the FSB on a mobile Barton to work with a Thoroughbred MB. Looking at adds on ebay there are XP-M Barton core processors for sale and they state the FSB starts at 266. Listings for reg XP Barton core processors state FSB starts at 333. Does this answer my question about the difference in the cores? This leads me back to what is different? I've been lookin all over the net but there is so much info to skim and I have be unable to find the info related to the questions I have just asked! Did ya get all of that!!!

[Smokey J]

Oooh! I did learn this from checking out the AMD forums... The letter at the end of the AMD P/N denotes FSB....C=266, D=333, E=400...ect. Just FYI.