PDA

View Full Version : Help on Motherboards Overclocking FAQs


Byte Burner
12-14-2005, 09:47 AM
Hi everyone, for three months, I've been searching and reading about overclocking. And I've liked the idea very much. After almost everyday of two hours of searching through that period, I found myself confused with no answers about particular things.
So I thought that my last chance is to ask you. And I hope find some answers.

All I've found about overclocking are some beginners' tutorials, which say that overclocking is about increasing the frequency until such a device become unstable then increasing the voltage a little bit then increasing the frequency then ….. so on ( and of course you need good cooling)………. Now, if that was for the beginners so that is for experts, in other words, what can it go farther than that??!!.
Another point, is it true that as long as I can increase the frequencies and voltages and have a good cooling system, I will still gain speed and performance??!!.

While reading other guys overclocking results, I surprised that all the results were similar. I mean 2000 GHz CPU overcloked to 2800 or 2007, 2400 to 3100 or 3200, 3200 to 3900 or 4000. so why it's always the same values that can be gained despite of the differences between specs or coolers and whether it is Intel or AMD.!!!???

In fact, I get much interested in overclocking my GPU than CPU cause of games. But there are no much discussions about that over there. And if there are, so they don't talk about voltages raising , just about frequency, and no one of them reached my results (of course considering that they have the same card like mine). I have Asus Radeon 9550 128 Gamer edition I'm using Ati tools and get up to 460 MHz core , 280 MHz memory. And it's stable like rocks. Scored 4000 3dmark 03.

My motherboard doesn't support voltage value changing and only 4 X AGP. So do you think that I'll gain more performance for my AGP card if I get a new one? I'm planning about 800 MHz core, 600 MHz memory.

When I decided to buy a new overclocker MOBO I get back to Google and searched.
But no good news, a lot of MOBO and a lot of features and none of them tell how far the CPU, memory or AGP voltage can goes? A lot of choices but don't know what to buy. I thought you can help out.

My specs are (I got this machine three years ago): Intel P4 2.4B full cache, GA-8IR 533, Radeon 9550 128, 256 x2 DDR SpecTEC ram 333, PSU discovery 250 W (I've tolled that it's not enough for overclocking??????).

I know I've written a lot but I need to get a clear view about the topic.
I depend on you guys.
All responds will be much appreciated

Byte Burner
12-21-2005, 09:22 AM
Helloooooooo. anybody there.
Oh that's disappointment

nn_step
12-21-2005, 11:24 AM
Your system is :banana::banana::banana::banana:ed... Make a new one...

Major_A
12-21-2005, 11:56 AM
Overclocking isn't hard. It's all about finding the sweet spot. The hardest part is finding a clock that is stable.

In your case go to www.cpuid.org and get CPU-Z. Install it and look at the stepping. If it says B0 your overclock will be mediocre, if you see C0 you should have better results.

Open your manual, if you don't have it download it from Gigabyte's website. I'm looking at your motherboard's .pdf and will refer to it.

Before I get started get yourself aquanted with page 22. This is the clear CMOS procedure. If you push things too far you can get a no boot or a lot of beeps. If this is the case follow the instructions on page 22. TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE YOU DO THIS

Page 41 is where the fun stuff begins.
CPU Clock Ratio: You can't change it so ignore it.
CPU host Clock Control: Don't mess with it.
CPU Host Frequency: Yours should say 133. From there make 2 Mhz increases and test. So your first clock should be 135, 137, 139, etc...
Host/DRAM clock ratio: I can only assume, since the manual doesn't show it but this is where you control your memory timings. Ingnore it for right now.
Memory Frequency: Since you have PC2700 RAM, let's take it out of the overclock equation. Set it to 266. This way your RAM is running at PC2100 speeds, while we overclock the CPU. When you overclock your CPU, your RAM overclocks. So in theory you could end up back at PC2700 RAM.
PCI/AGP Frequency: Make sure this says 33/66. If it is set to anything else change it to 33/66. This locks your PCI and AGP slots so they don't overclock with the CPU and RAM.

Since you don't have any voltage controls your overclock is only going to be as good as what you can get with the stock voltage. In your case this is probably a good thing.

Things to check for stability.
Super Pi (http://www.xtremesystems.com/pi/super_pi_mod-1.4.zip)
Prime95 (http://mersenne.org/gimps/p95v2414.exe)
OCCT (ftp://ftp2.ocbase.com/ocbase3/OpenBeta/OCCTv0.91.exe)
S&M 1.7.6 (http://www.overclockers.ru/cgi-bin/files/download.cgi?file=436)

Temperature Monitoring:
Motherboard Monitor (http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=311&file=11&evp=c230ac3b359a1981f1b0a9ee8fa4a983)