Originally Posted by
mikeyakame
The saying goes something like "Only jump in the deep end of a pool if you aren't going to drown!". Best thing to do is start in shallow waters and slowly progress to the deepest of waters as you get better until you master the waters that once mastered you.
Same goes for overclocking if you are a newcomer, those of us who like to help out the new guys all started at the shallow end and gradually learnt to swim and now we are the kings of our pools :D
All boards, cpus and memory behave differently so you need to get a feel for your hardware and more importantly figure out what your baseline voltages and settings should be. What works for one person with similar hardware may not work at all for you, and this is a testament to how small manufacturing flaws give you big headaches!
Your baseline needs to have Vcore, Vnb, Vsb, CPU GTL, NB GTL, Vtt, CPU Clk Skew, NB Clk Skew, DRAM Freq, and Mem Divider.
400Mhz FSB is a perfect frequency to setup your baseline on, after you've of course made sure it all works at 333mhz :)
All voltages should work at either nearly default, or slightly raised at this FSB and should need small adjustments at most to give consistent error free results.
400FSB, I'd use 1066mhz or 1200mhz DDR2 freq (if mem clocks to 1200 else 1066), and if 2GB sticks, 5-5-5-15-6-3-55-3 (i think it is, tRTP = 3, tRFC = 55, tRRD = 3), and default mem voltage on sticks.
CPU GTL should be 0.67x, NB GTL 0.67x, Vtt = ~1.14-1.16v, Vcore = VID (Auto, ~1.24v), Vnb = ~1.30-1.35V, Common PL (perf level) = 9, AI Clock Twister = Auto, Vsb = ~1.10v, Vsb_pll = 1.55V, Vcpu_pll = 1.50v, CPU Clk Skew = Normal, NB Clk Skew = Normal.
From here you work your way up FSB in steps, I'd go at steps from 400 -> 422 -> 438-440 -> 452 -> 466. While setting up FSB frequency and voltage change CPU multiplier to 6 or 7x so Vcore is isolated and CPU will post/work stable at default or slightly higher voltage. Vnb should always be set higher than you are aiming for, a good 0.04-0.06v above Nominal required voltage will give you headroom for Performance Level, and lowers the chance of Vnb being too low or refusing to post / locking during post. After you've got FSB + DRAM freq/timings stable, you can play with Perf. Level, at 400FSB PL = ~7 is a good start point, 420 - 440 FSB PL = ~8 , 450 - 480FSB PL = ~9, and go lower once Vnb is stable and no errops in tests. PL = ~5 is general limit at 400, PL = 6 is general limit for 420-450, PL = 7, 450 - 500. Rest depends on Vnb, NB temps, DRAM stick quality, motherboard manufacturing flaws, etc.