overclocking question

[TravisWPB]

I've just spent 2hrs reading different overclocking forums, and have come to the conclusion, that either my age ( 65 ), or my limited knowledge on this fact, has left me totally confused.

I have just built a system that i feel is fairly good, and am now wanting to give overclocking a try... but to be truthfull, i am a little overwhelmed by some of the posts. I have read and re-read some of the basic posts on overclocking, and after a while i am completely lost. That is the reason for this post. I am not looking to overclock my system to the max, because i would surely need to know exactly what overclocking is all about. But what i would like to see is a basic how to for the novice. And more to the point, what my system could be set to.

I have a 500 watt power supply, with a Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro-G motherboard, with a Pentium 4 3.0EG cpu, and 1gb of Kingston DDR400 (512mb x2) of ram. I am running a A6200TD video card that i have sucessfully unlocked the extra 4 pipes on, and have bumped up the speed of the video card, just a bit. I am running Windows XP Home.

Is someone out there interested in telling me what would be some safe settings in my bios for this board, to say maybe bring it up to 3.3 or 3.5gigs speed? If someone is kind enough to do this for me, i would appreciate it if your response can be understood by a novice ..... hi hi.

[Aleman]

Well first of all i would (or the whole community ;)) like to know what exact Brand and model is your PSU (Power Supply Unit).

I´d say that you could just upper the FSB until you get 3.4gigs and test for stability using Prime95. Thats how you could give it a try.

[TravisWPB]

My appologies, i did not realize that i needed to be that specific.... It is an Emerex EG495AX-VE SFMA 2.0 psu. As i type this response, i have just downloaded prime95 and it is running in the background. Not knowing what prime95 is, i'm going strictly on what your telling me to do :) By the way, my cpu temp has usually been at around 40c. I have 1 ( 80 mm ) fan in the front blowing IN over my hard drives, 1 ( 92 mm ) fan in the left hand panel blowing IN on my cpu and memory chips, 1 ( 120 mm ) blowing IN on my cpu and memory chips, the fans in my PSU sucking the air away from the cpu, 1 ( 92 mm ) fan in the top, blowing air OUT of the case, and finally a pci card that has 2 fans on it blowing onto my A6200TD video card.

[Aleman]

Well any rear fan should be taking air OUT of the case ;-). Prime95 stesses mostly the CPU and a bit the Memories. You should´ve chosen the Stess Test. When an error shows up either your CPU or your memories are not stable. 4hours of priming should be in order.

ps. The PSU u got is perfect :D.

[TravisWPB]

The prime95 test says it should take about an hour. It has been running for about 30 minutes now, and my temp seems to be around 54 c. But my original question is.... what do i change in my bios to get the speed up to say a 3.3 or 3.5 gig setting? Or is this all dependent on what the prime95 tells me at the end of the test?

[TravisWPB]

My appologies for not reading your 1st response better. I take it i should have bumped up the settings in my bios and THEN used the prime95 to see if it would take it. But if that is the case, then i really need to know what in my bios i should be changing ( as i have never done this before ). So i need to know exactly what in my bios has to be changed, and approximately how much should i change it....

[TravisWPB]

After making the post, i decided to take a closer look at the Award bios, in hopes of enticing some help. The following were in my CMOS FREQUENCY/VOLTAGE CONTROL settings:

cpu host clock control: set to ENABLED

cpu host frequency: set to 200 and adjustable from 100 to 355

agp/pci/src fixed: set to 66/33/100 and is adjustable to a variety of settings

memory frequency for: set to AUTO and is adjustable to 1.33, 1.66, 2.0, and auto

memory frequency is set at 400

agp/pci/src frequency is set at 66/33/100

dimm overvoltage control: set to NORMAL and adjustable from +0.1v, +0.2v, +0.3v, and NORMAL

agp overvoltage control: set to NORMAL and adjustable from +0.1v, +0.2v, +0.3v, and NORMAL

cpu voltage control: set to NORMAL and a range of settings are available from 1.7600v to 0.8375v

normal cpu vcore is set at 1.3875v and it must be controlled by one of the above settings, cause i can not arrow down to it.

By the way.... i have 1 ( 80mm ) fan in the front blowing IN over the hard drives, 1 ( 92mm ) fan on the left side cover blowing IN on the cpu, 1 ( 120mm ) fan on the rear of the case blowing IN on the cpu and memory chips, 1 ( 92mm ) fan sitting infront of the Enermax 495 watt power supply, and blowing the hot air OUT of the case, and ofcourse the fans in the Enermax power supply blowing OUT. Also in a pci slot, i have an Aventec dual fan card that has 2 fans blowing directly onto my A6200 TD video card. The cpu at idle is around 39c.

[EMC2]

Ygpm ;)

[TravisWPB]

EMC2... not being on the "in" with what "Ygpm" means, i guess i cant reply to your post.

[Spanners]

Ygpm = You've got private message . Click the link in the top right of your screen under your name. Good luck on you overclock :p:
Also I think you should download memtest ( do a google serch for it and test you overclocked settings with it (you can make a bootable CD) before you boot to windows ). Try something conservative like 210 cpu host frequency
and test it with memtest and prime then move it up slowly . Up to 2,8v ddr voltage is very safe .

[TravisWPB]

EMC2 --- a BIG thank you for your pm! I guess there are pro's out there that don't mind helping a newbie. I also posted my question on another forum, and left some results there, which i will now paste below:

"I went into the bios and started bumping up the CPU HOST FREQUENCY. It was initially set at 200, and i bumped it up at +5 each time, and then saving the setting, and rebooting and then checking my temp and my CPU-Z settings ( a good little program to use ). I went from 200 up to 235 and experienced no problems so far. Below are some of the readings i took with CPU-Z:

cpu host freq. = 215
core speed = 3243
fsb = 216.2
bus = 864.8
memory freq. = 173.0
temp = 41c

I will skip the reading between 215 and 235

cpu host freq. = 235
core speed = 3543.8
fsb = 236.2
bus = 945.0
memory freq. = 189.0
temp = 43c

I have not gone any higher than this cause i want to run some tests on it. I have run the 3DMark2001 on it with no problems, and will now run prime95 for an hour or so. I'm think i could go higher with my cpu host frequency, but with not getting any feedback, i think it's best to be happy with going from a 3.0 speed to a 3.5 speed."

So EMC2, i now have a question. As you can see, i don't want to push my cpu to it's limits, for the obvious reasons. I figure having a cpu that runs at 3.5gigs having bought it at a 3.0gig price, makes me very happy. so the question becomes... Having just bumped up the CPU HOST FREQUENCY

[TravisWPB]

EMC2 --- a BIG thank you for your pm! I guess there are pro's out there that don't mind helping a newbie. I also posted my question on another forum, and left some results there, which i will now paste below:

"I went into the bios and started bumping up the CPU HOST FREQUENCY. It was initially set at 200, and i bumped it up at +5 each time, and then saving the setting, and rebooting and then checking my temp and my CPU-Z settings ( a good little program to use ). I went from 200 up to 235 and experienced no problems so far. Below are some of the readings i took with CPU-Z:

cpu host freq. = 215
core speed = 3243
fsb = 216.2
bus = 864.8
memory freq. = 173.0
temp = 41c

I will skip the reading between 215 and 235

cpu host freq. = 235
core speed = 3543.8
fsb = 236.2
bus = 945.0
memory freq. = 189.0
temp = 43c

I have not gone any higher than this cause i want to run some tests on it. I have run the 3DMark2001 on it with no problems, and will now run prime95 for an hour or so. I'm think i could go higher with my cpu host frequency, but with not getting any feedback, i think it's best to be happy with going from a 3.0 speed to a 3.5 speed."

So EMC2, i now have a question. As you can see, i don't want to push my cpu to it's limits, for the obvious reasons. I figure having a cpu that runs at 3.5gigs having bought it at a 3.0gig price, makes me very happy. so the question becomes... Having just bumped up the CPU HOST FREQUENCY, was i wrong in doing it that way, or do i also have to mess with the voltage like you recommended?

[EMC2]

No, not the wrong way... go back and read what I wrote you ;)


For now we'll leave the voltages alone....With the stock cooling you are using, I wouldn't suggest changing it for now.

BTW (by the way)... you can reply to PMs (private messages) by hitting the "QUOTE" button in the bottom right of the message ;)

Peace :toast: