Help With overclocking

I have read posting on overclocking. I understand it all but this is really my first time doing it. I need alittle bit more direction though because I dont want to mess anything up...Maybe you can help me more if I tell you my system. It is my first custom Comp.

I have a
AMD 3700+San Diego 1Ghz Socket 939...Operating Frequency is 2.2ghz...L1 is 64kb+64Kb...L2 is 1mb
Process Type is 90nm....Volts is 1.35/1.4...and it is an Amd 64

The mobo is an Asus a8n sli premium board

My Ram is (2x512mb)pc3200 ...One is Kingston the other is MSI

And the Graphics card which probebly doesnt matter is a geforce 6600

If you could help me at all, it would be greatly appreciated...

Thank you,
Newman
newman180@gmail.com

 

The BSOD warning is only relevant if overclocking is not done right and testet properly. Many skip this step and then ask for problems. Also many get too happy with high benchmarking numbers (no real world difference of course) and get into a more, more, more situation Ive done that many times, result is allways the same. Really no magic and not much personal effort required. Has never been easier on NF4 motherboard and newer AMD64. Asus even supply you with overclocking software besides those allready build in chipset/bios. These will be fairly limited because they do not want customers to cry about instable or "broken" computers. Asus do not bother you with these TEST! advices, wants you to be happy and have ultimate ease of use.

Testing is keyword, you should have done that allready with 2 different memory modules, MSI ram?. Can you pass just memtest86? Dont matter what runs or what you are guessing, follow known to work test tools and you wont get hurt. The most pedantic tools are the best not the worst Moving those sliders and punching in numbers you soon find out, probably allready know - dont make Halo say I told you....

 

Halo, I understand what your saying, but I am coming from a really bad computer at the moment and building this one that I am talking about...I just want this new one to be the best I can get it....Thats why I want to overclock.

But a question? Should I just not overclock and let the mobo do "AI Nos" which overclocks as it sees the computer under stress? I can tell it to overclock 10% max which would turn out to be something like 2.4ghz, and that would be equal to a 3800 or 4000.

Thanks for all of the help so far


Also obviously I have not completly put together the computer because I want to do research first...But you are saying that my cpu is good enough to not even over clock...Are you saying that it will burn dvds, run counter strike and everything with out lagging/freezing up....(I am not talking about doing it at once)again like I said I am coming from such a bad comp that I cant even run half life 2

 

Breaking parts is not that easy, I wouldnt worry about that. But especially ram can be difficult. If you use wrong timings or just overclock them too much you can kill XP registry files in a flash. Why memtest86 should be run before you load. Best is to forget about ram, separate from cpu by locking them at 200fsb and their rated timings, SPD/Auto. When done with cpu you can go back to ram and see what is possible. One of the big improvement on NF4 is the little loss of performance you see by running ram at slower speeds = you dont need super expensive ram to overclock. Improving timings and other bios settings like 1T vs. 2T. will be better than increasing fsb. For every major change back to testing. The more you know of hardware, like expected range of overclocking, the less testing you have to do, can get close to final setting very fast.

Ram can be painful but cpu much more forgiving. Increase cpu fsb is not that hard. Remember to lower HTT frequency to 3 or 4 though. At some point you will need to add more voltage but cpu test program will tell you - unless you can guess based on your research. You can also oc by letting max. temp decide. Give as much voltage as possible, what is temp during 100% load? Add min. 5 for summer temps, ambient temp, open case or not must be accounted for. Too much heat? Lower voltage, and so you continue. Once you find acceptable max temp that will decide how many mhz you get out of cpu. Not so interesting 200mhz more is possible if it means possible critical high temperatures. Must get better cooler then. If power supply is very weak it might not like more cpu voltage, also keep eye on voltage levels during full load, more so if not sure of psu quality.

Prime95 is very good for cpu testing, you must have read about it. Very picky and it has killed many a wet dream Some use it for 1 hour, others 2 days. Author says min. 6 hours. Go download it and read included "stress.txt" file. All you need to know and much info Asus will never tell you. The memory test is also more picky than memtest86 which can be fooled. They have different tasks. P95 is worse in a good way.

With so fast computer your video card will be weak link and you gain most by overclocking there. Some games use much cpu but most really like fast video card. If you use computer mostly for games video card matters, may be you wont notice much difference between 2600mhz vs. 2200mhz. Overclocking video card up next then. Also easy but more difficult to test. Get some idea of what to expect - so you dont do something stupid. Be careful about heat and stay clear from levels where pixels starts to look funny, or it simply locks up. If index 100 is maximum go for 75, less problems and often last procentages dont matter one bit = you need new hardware, perhaps "only" extreme cooling, to get much faster performance. Boring but true and I dont like saying it cause going to the limit is also part of overclocking - take a look at any oc-forum. You might run into terms like "screenshot-stable" "benchmark-stable" Dont get too inspired if you want computer to run stable every day of the year as you never touched anything.

Perhaps you should forget about overclocking until you know all about bios versions and have edited bios per recommended settings. Any Asus forum will have such a guide - at least a seach box. Once setup is perfect, ram is passing memtest86 at 200fsb, you overclock. I dont know Asus bios at all but I think all NF4 motherboards have received many updates - to keep up with AMD flow of cpus but also many bugfixes. You should known bios history. Also be on top of things with drivers of course. If you look at Asus download page for bios they warn against bios flashing if you use old chipset drivers - or is it the other way around. Prepare and research all things concerned your exact model. Eventually I think you will conclude you are more in control of computer than before you startet overclocking, so something good except higher numbers come out of it.

Yes you can use AI this or that but believe me you can easily do better than Asus max. I dont like software tools to do this. Just not right or getting most out of hardware. My MSI bios have same procentages as options in bios, op to 11 I think. Definitely better than nothing but I think you will end up doing it yourself - the old way, through bios. Get familiar with bios, Asus tools before you break anything

 

Thanks Bambo....I am now in a pickle...I think I wont do anytyhing until I know exactly what I am doing...Maybe I will find someone with the same mobo and processor and just basically copy some of the oc they have done...

 

Copy and paste overclocking is not a good thing. Skips important part about details of your hardware. Just wait until you know more about computer/bios, have read some more guides - preferably about Asus but bios and AMD64 oc is more or less the same, different wording perhaps. Should also have some idea of benchmark results with stock settings so you can compare. Much easier than you think. Unless Asus manual is poorly translated 1-2 pages in there should give you an idea. Lock memory at 200fsb or close to, set fsb to lets say 230fsb, increase cpu voltage to 1.50 and lower HTT frequency from default 5 to 4. You then get 2530mhz instead of 2200mhz. Must then find out if cpu is stable and if voltage is too high or too low - such a big question you leave to Prime95 cpu test. If you have wonder chip it might not even need an increase. As little as possible of course. Or if temperatures are acceptable or low - move on up with fsb, 235fsb etc. From your researching you will know what to expect. Or you could try to lower multiplier and use 10 instead of 11. Then 250fsb give 2500mhz. I have not seen much point in higher fsb for cpu, guess there must be a little. Should you use 9 you end up with so high fsb numbers you must lower HTT to 3. Thats about it regarding cpu. Asus tools will show this as well. Monitoring voltage and temp levels they take care of.

http://i4memory.com/showthread.php?t=327 is a guide targeted at AMD64. A bit messy but good links... remember to be careful with ram. I think that is only part you can get into trouble with. If your 2 modules use different chips they might not even work that well at 200fsb, if at all. For example I cant use 2xCrucial with 2xKingston - all black screen. You have not used computer yet, lets hope they work. May be they work in other computer but not in this or only after a bios upgrade. Can be tricky sometimes. If no go at 200fsb try lower to 166fsb and of course use timings both accept. Same with voltage. 2.7v should be enough. Most speed on NF4 comes from cpu so computer is not crippled that much because you have to take it easy with ram.

 

Ok thanks...now one more question...I forget where I read it but is it true that raising fsb will also overclock my graphics card....Someone said to lock the pci express but there is no lock option just a couple of different values that I can set.

 

You should use 100mhz for PCI-E card. Yes, chipset can actually overclock video card but do it yourself through display driver or 3rd party tool. Asus might throw it in one of their software oc-tools, I dont know. You have something called Precision Tweaker, in bios or part of software?

Precision Tweaker
Precision Tweaker is designed for serious overclockers. It offers ways to raise system performance inch-by-inch and step-by-step to achieve maximum performance! This is about getting the most out of your machine, and taking pride in your customized computer. Precision Tweaker provides overclocking options for all major parts of the system: CPU, Memory, PCI-Express, and Front Side Bus.

PCI-Express Frequency
Explore the frequency options of your PCI-Express graphics card

That would be bios I guess but AI NOS is software, I dont have Asus. An early NF4 bios for my motherboard had ATI/Nvidia overclocking enabled by default. You got a menu saying "ATI core/mem" - now it is hidden and disabled. Not much point, chipset makers showing off Someone else will know more but you should know what bios-settings and tools to disable if you want to overclock manually. A good Asus guide should have this, with screenshots etc. Cool&Quiet you wont find recommended but might fit into the dynamic software oc. Means you should not install the special AMD driver you have on install cd. With Asus Q-Fan you dont have to get noisehell but depends on how high you overclock. Possible alternative is RMClock http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml should work with old ways of overclocking. In case you need dynamic fan speed/less noise and not 100% full speed all the time. Dont feel you lose much by not using Asus software and bios features.