1900+ on a MSI Turbo 2 overclocking? [Archive]

Tweaked!

04-18-2003, 02:21 AM

Originally posted by jwoicik
Has anyone overclocked a 1900+ on a MSI Turbo 2? I'd love to overclock my computer but I'm too lazy to figure out how fast it'll go before losing stablility. If anyone has an overclocked 1900+, please post the settings. I'd appriciate it!

Welcome to Xtreme! I would suggest before you attempt to try o/cing your hardware that you spend a little time here reading up on all the information available on how to o/c, what to expect as far as results and expected outcomes of individual setups, etc... There are many different aspect of o/cing you need to be aware of before you start to push your hardware. You'll need to make sure your cooling is to par, which means you'll need a temperature monitoring proggie. You'll need to learn how to control your voltages, fsb (front side bus), Multipliers, how to keep your agp/pci close to specs while raising the rest of the system past its specs, etc... Once you start to learn the basics of o/cing, you'll be bit by the bug, and I guarantee you that you'll get addicted and within the next year or so afterwards you'll become fairly knowlegeable at least about the working aspects and howw to build computers. Enjoy yourself, and we're here to help you with anything you're in question of, but we can't do it all for you. You'll need to be the guinee pig;) :cool:

CCW

04-18-2003, 04:47 AM

This should give you a bit of an idea...its no where near finished, jsu ta little guide ive been writing

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Please note that this is currently a WORK IN PROGRESS.

Well, first of all I'd better get the definitions out of the way. Overclocking is running a piece of computer hardware at a speed faster than it is designed to run at. Usually, Processors, Graphics Cards and memory are Overclocked. You may also occasionally here Overclocking referred to as Speed Margining. There are many Pro's and Con's of Overclocking.

Pro's -
Hardware runs faster
You get more for your money

Con's -
Component doesn't last as long
More heat created
No Warranty on Overclocked Components
Can reduce system stability

As you can see, the Con's heavily outweigh the Pro's, despite this, many Overclockers have 100% stable systems or as near as you get to this.

Processors are usually Overclocked from the BIOS whereas Graphics Cards can not be Overclocked from the BIOS and have to be Overclocked by a piece of software from the Operating System.

There are two ways you can Overclock a Processor. Either by raising the Front Side Bus (FSB) or by raising the Processors Multiplier (which will be referred to as Multi from now on.)

Processors Core Clock Speed = FSB x Multi

So, I have a Processor that has a FSB of 100 and a Multiplier of 5. It is a 500MHz Processor, simple! It is better to Overclock via the FSB because as you increase the FSB, you increase the memory bandwidth. However, Overlcoknig by raising the FSB can cause problems. As you raise the FSB, you increase the speed of the AGP slot and PCI slot. This can cause these to fial or not work properly. It can also cause Hard-Disk Drive corruption. The range of nForce 2 boards currently out all have a PCI and AGP lock so you can raise the FSB with out worrying about the FSB too much. However, at really high FSBs, the motherboard requires better North Bridge, South Bridge and Mosfet cooling (these will be expalined later on.)

What is the Front Side Bus?
The Front Side Bus (FSB) is the link on the motherboard between the Processor and Memory. So, the higher the FSB, the more bandwidth the Processor has and the faster your system will run.

What is a Multiplier lock?
Processor manufacturers lock the multiplier on the processor so that it can not be increased. This can be changed by physically modifing the Processor in a process known as unlocking. Again, this will be discussed later on.

Now that you know the basics of Overclocking I wil lintroduce a few new ideas. Lets say for example that you have a Processor that is clocked at 133 x 12.5 = 1666MHz. Also, lets say that this chip will only overclock to 1800MHz at 144 x 12.5. OK, so the Processor is faster but the memory bandwidth has not increased significantly and therefore not much difference will be noticed. To gain more memory bandwidth we could lower the Multi and then raise the FSB i.e. 166 x 10.5 = 1743. Although the Processor is 57MHz slower, the memory bandwidth providing you have PC2700 memory has increased by 600Mbps from the chips stock Core speed of 133 x 12.5. On boards that do not have a AGP/PCI lock, this would not be recommended as Hard-Disk Drive corruption can occur and damage to PCI cards which can cause severe system instability. Thus, on motherboards without a AGP/PCi lock it is better to Overclock via the Multi.

The Dangers of FSB Overclocking:
Eveon on nForce 2 board which have the advantage of an AGP/PCI lock high FSBs can still cause problems. These are mainly resultant of lack of motherboard cooling. There are two major chips on a motherboard, these are the North Bridge (NB) and South Bridge (SB) and without adequate coolnig these can overheat at high FSBs. The NB controls the processor, Memory and AGP slot and thus links the most major parts of the system that are vital to the way a computer runs. This means it does a lot of work. Nearly all modern motherboards either have a passive or active cooling on the NB but none have either on the SB as of yet. Passive cooling is simply a heatsink and some thermal paste. The thermal paste conducts heat and the heatsink draws the heat up and away from the chip. Active cooling would be using a fan as well to then blow the heat away from the heatsink. All modern processors need a heatsink anf fan attached and with the power of todays PCs, so do most NBs and even some SBs. At high FSBs, it is recommended you have active cooling cooling your NB and at least passive cooling on the motherobards SB. Another part of a computers motherboard that needs adequate cooling are the mosfets. These are the voltage regulators on the motherboard and as you Overclock higher the more voltage the Processor needs so these inevitably get hotter. Passive cooling is more than enough for mosfets although some do use passive cooling.

Cooling:
Without sufficient adequate cooling, the Processors life span will be shortened. With no heatsink and fan attached, an Athlon XP 1800+ will die in 3.5 seconds within you have pressing the power button. Thus, cooling is important and there are many factors that affect how well your cooling works from simple things like the qualtiy of the thermal paste used to the type of metal the heatsink uses and the power of its fan. I suggest before you buy a cooler for your Processor you look around at sites such as AnandTech or Toms Hardware Guide who occasionally do reviews of coolers. A cooler rated to an Athlon XP 2000+ will work on a higher chip to a certain extent because this is only recommend it, I strongly do not suggest you try it!

WORK IN PROGRESS

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Also, this is handy:
http://www.benchtest.com/calc.html

allows you to work out the wattage of heat your processor is dissipating :D handy

Also, WELCOME TO THE XTREME!

Craig