# General Overclocking



## khellandros66 (Jun 7, 2006)

Here are some great tips on Overclocking your PC to maximize its performance.

First the termanology:

Front Side Bus (FSB) - This is the speed in which data traveling throught the North Bridge and CPU. The AGP, PCI, and PCI-E buses are run asyncronis to the Bus. Typically 66Mhz, 33Mhz, and 100MHz for the different connections.

Multiplier - The CPU's speed is determined by how many times the speed of the FSB it is stable at.

RAM Dividers - These are what determain the speed in which the ram will run, for example the FSB of an AMD 64bit CPU is 200Mhz if you are using PC2700 ram you will nees an 5:4 Divder to run the ram at its rated speed. (200*5/4=166Mhz or DDR333) This goes in reverse if the ram is capable of 233MHz you would choose the 4:5 Divider. Ram that is rated higher will overclock better and makes the process of overclocking the CPU easier.

RAM Latencies - The lower the number the greater performance. 2-2-2-5 is the highest performance. 3-4-4-8 is more stable in some circumstances but is much lower performance wise. To push the speed of RAM faster "loosening" the latencies and increasing the voltage will allow ram to work faster.

Voltages - There are three that you can typically change. CPU, RAM, and North Bridge. Increasing the voltage allows you to push the speed of these components faster but drastically increases the temperatures. Extra cooling is needed to ensure safety and stability.

Cooling - There are several methods available depending on user experience, budget, and goals.

Air Cooling uses fans and heatsinks to pull heat away from a part (CPU, NB, GPU) and disipate it and exhaust it from the PC case. This is the easiest and very low cost method but also the noisiest. Temperatures are usually 40-60 deg Celcius

Water Cooling is for most intermediate users with a level and underestanding on both the benefits and dangers of what they are doing. This is a quiet and very sufficient method of cooling with little to in some istances now no fans. Typical temperatures never go above 30-40 deg Celcius with chilled H2O at -10 to 5 deg Celcius.

Phase Change or Sub-Zero cooling is done with a mixture in a compressor or using special cooling blocks filled with liquid nitrogen or dry ice. This is by far the more complex method that is very pricey and will take time and patience to methodically piece together. Typical temperature is -160 to -20 deg celcius.


Now to my best knowledge through my experience the following is the safest way to overclock your PC.

NOTICE: IF YOU BREAK OR DAMAGE YOUR PC OR ANY OF THE PARTS WITHIN IT NEITHER HOME THEATER SHACK AND ITS AFFILIATES NOR I WILL NOT BE HELD ACOUNTABLE. DO SO AT YOUR RISK AND EXPENSE!!!!

I typically start by researching what settings the motherboard offers and what cooling is used. A fanless motherboard will be limited in speed and the more you push the cooler it needs to be. The stock CPU cooling is good for 10-15% overclock or 1.10-1.15x the normal speed of the CPU. Better more suffiecient air cooling will give you an extra 2-3 percent. A heavy duty cooling solution like watercooling can result in 20-40% increase in speed and Sub-Zero about 50-100+ percent more.

You should always buy a Power supply that is 450-550w+ and that has 12v rails of 25-35amps and up. This will provide stable power during an overclock.

Selecting RAM isn't hard if you know what pin type will fit in the motherboard. Now a days I would suggest PC4400-4800 or PC2- 6700-8000 depending on DDR or DDR2.

An example is as follows

AMD 64bit 3500+ (2.0Ghz 200Mhz FSB)
1GB PC4800
Capable Motherboard and sufficient watercooling can do

288Mhz FSB 1:1 x 9 = 2600Mhz or 2.6Ghz CPU speed. This is something my PC was easily able to achieve.

To test the stablity I use the following;

Prime95 - this runs the TMUs and lots of complex math through the CPU and ram and will push your PC till it runs out of room to perform. I run this for about 30 min and then try pushing the speed of my system faster. If I loose stability in Prime 95 I back down the overclock and retest for 10-12 hours (overnight is best time and check in the morning).

3DMark05 this is a well rounded 3d benchmark utility that is a real world app. This is actually a fun way to put you system through the paces.

Sisoft SANDRA allows you to see the benefits of your overvclock compared to other systems and puts a number to it to make it understandable.


This artivle should give you the starting grounds to get your feet wet and as you become more curious or find new idead post em here to share with all our member.,



~Bob


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## Jack Gilvey (May 8, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*

When I was building my own PC's I used to overclock a bit, just fer fun. Last one was a Celeron 500 in a slot adapter (replaced a P2-233) o/c'd to 566 (don't really remember the numbers, honestly) and my Voodoo3 2000 AGP oc'd to 184 from 133 with an extra heasink on top. That ought to show you how long ago this was.  Been so long since I gamed on a PC (GL Quake, baby!) I can't even tell you what card is in this Dell...


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*



Jack Gilvey said:


> When I was building my own PC's I used to overclock a bit, just fer fun. Last one was a Celeron 500 in a slot adapter (replaced a P2-233) o/c'd to 566 (don't really remember the numbers, honestly) and my Voodoo3 2000 AGP oc'd to 184 from 133 with an extra heasink on top. That ought to show you how long ago this was.  Been so long since I gamed on a PC (GL Quake, baby!) I can't even tell you what card is in this Dell...


AAAhhhh yes...the old Celerons where one of the best overclockers of all time. I had two 366's in an Abit BP-6 running at 550 all day long. The new AMD's seem to be promessing though!


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## Phil M (Apr 19, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*

Well I've run Prime95 for fun - what next?


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*



Jack Gilvey said:


> Celeron 500 in a slot adapter (replaced a P2-233) o/c'd to 566 (don't really remember the numbers, honestly) and my Voodoo3 2000 AGP oc'd to 184 from 133 with an extra heasink on top. That ought to show you how long ago this was.



You mean you don't still use this rig? :scratch: 

I'm still running an OC'd K6-2/500 @ 550 (limited by the dip switches on the MB), the VooDoo3 card is in a box (I used to use it 'cause Linux seemed to have a fit over ATI cards for a while but Ubuntu handles ATI fine) and will get used if the ATI Radeon 32mb SDR dies.

This is a dedicated Seti rig,... nothing but Ubuntu and BOINC have been installed.


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*



Phil M said:


> Well I've run Prime95 for fun - what next?


Well, if you'd like to check the stability of your system try:

3dMark2001SE this is arguably the best all around stress/performance test.
MemTest86 is arguably the best test for your memory.
Everest or Sandra to see how your machine compares to others. Both of these programs have lots of other goodies and will show you all sorts of info about your computer.
Super Pi is a good, short test for stability (CPU).
OCCT is also a good, short test (CPU).
3dMark2005 is a good test of your Video card's abilities (GPU).
PCMark04 & '05 are good all around tests.

and there are lots of others if the above are not enough


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## Jack Gilvey (May 8, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*



> You mean you don't still use this rig?


 Nahh, gave it away years ago. Fun rig to experiment with, though. Couldn't fit the cover back on with all those blower fans attached.


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## Phil M (Apr 19, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*



nova said:


> Well, if you'd like to check the stability of your system try:
> 
> 3dMark2001SE this is arguably the best all around stress/performance test.
> MemTest86 is arguably the best test for your memory.
> ...


Thanks Mark, but I need help in the mechanics of overclocking - where do I find the gas peddle, and how do I press it? Is their software or a utility to do this?
I gave up on PC's after Dos5 :blush:


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*

Oh,... well what do you have? Hopefully it is not a Dell, Compaq, HP, IBM or similar computer. The BIOS for these computers are usually very limited and makes OCing pretty difficult, it can sometimes be done, but not worth the hassle. Hopefully you have a self built/buddy built/momandpopshop built/boutique built, with some good BIOS options. AMD or Intel? Any other info you have.


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## Phil M (Apr 19, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*

OK - family computer is a Dell, guess we forget this one.
The one I've been playing with is a Medion.


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## Guest (Nov 11, 2006)

*Re: Gerneal Overclocking*

The best overclocking capable CPUs today are the Intel Core2Duo, the cheaper Allendale 2mb cache editions, with proper cooling, the 1.86GHz CPUs are now being clocked at almost 3GHz by people with water cooling etc. Best part is, that even a mild 15% overclock needs no special cooling or any other fans, and they work day in day out without any hitch. They currently have lower consumption of any CPUs on the market so their heat generation is significantly less making them an overclocker's dream.


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