Overclocking help

First of all, I only see 6 threads in the overclocking forum (3 of them stickies), though it says it contains over 800?

Secondly, I've never overclocked before, and would like tons of help so I can get things working properly!

My specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-K8N-SLI

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+

RAM: 3GB DDR SDRAM (2 512MB and 2 1GB sticks, using all four slots)

GPU: MSI Nvidia 9400GT in 1st SLI slot (I'm only using one slot), soon to be replaced by a MSI Nvidia GTX 465

HDD: 3 500GB HDDs

Sound card: HT Omega Claro (PCI slot)


The only thing I want to overclock is my CPU... unless I can overclock my RAM as well. I don't want to mess with overclocking the GPU or anything else.

How, exactly, should I go about it? I read the sticky how-to, but am still confused. My BIOS (Award BIOS) has the following options:

HT Frequency Ratio (ranges 1x - 5x)
CPU Frequency (range is 200 on up, not sure what the max is)
K8 CPU clock ratio (ranges x5 - x10)

It has a whole mess of RAM stuff below that as well.

I'm NOT trying to push my system to the limit, just trying to get extra juice until I upgrade my MB/CPU within the next year or less. I just want to get it overclocked as much as possible without going overboard or close to it.

Can anyone assist me with this please?

 

If you give this a read and afterwards if you have any specific Qs post back.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1804&page=3

 

Thanks for that article. I guess the only thing I'm wondering at this point is, if I overclock the CPU, can I just leave the RAM settings alone, or what?

 

Whatever you do, don't rush things. I still have my old X2 3800+ machine but I couldn't OC it since I had upgraded my CPU from a Venice 3000+ to the X2 3800+ using the same heatsink/fan which is a nono.

One always worries about heat when OC'ing so grab and run a copy of CPU-Z at all times until you get 'the lay of the land'.

 

That reminds me of another question...

When transferring my system to the new case, I took everything apart, including my heatsink/CPU from the motherboard. I had to disconnect the heatsink from the CPU in order to reseat the CPU into the motherboard socket, and then reattach the heatsink. So my question is, should I apply new silver paste between the CPU/heatsink before attempting to OC? I tried not to rub any off, but a minute amount did end up getting on my fingers through the process.

And thank you for that utility link, looks useful!

EDIT: Just installed CPU-Z... VERY nice utility, thank you very much!

 

Well, I'm a stickler for new goop each and every time I pull them apart, of course cleaning the old stuff off first until shiny, especially if I've touched the goop as the grease from hands ain't a good thing.

Since you have CPU-Z up and running, let's have a look then. I still remember my temps.

 

I don't see any temps on it...?

EDIT: However, Everest has temps... I'm attaching a screenshot.

AND... I don't have any thermal paste around, and I'd have to order it online... so I guess I'm just gonna risk it with that for now.

 

Here's a screenshot of CPU-Z

 

Well, your CPU temps are just fine, just don't push 'em past 60C at full load! Find a decent guide that brings you step by step closer by reducing your multiplier to minimum and then see how far you can go on frequency etc.

I always hesitate giving advice on OC'ing as some folks will just burn their chips and I don't really want to be associated with that. Experiment with what you can afford to lose.

OCCT is a good and brutal tester of ones subsystems for stability. If it doesn't pass that then stop right there.

BTW, does Gigabyte have an OC'ing utility?

 

Alright. Trust me, I'm careful before anything with things I don't know much about... and I definitely don't know much about OCing! I appreciate the link for a tester, I was actually wondering what a good one would be.

I'm still trying to figure out if I can leave my RAM settings alone when OCing the CPU?

 

Yes, leave RAM alone, especially voltages as you can easily blow those up! You have to read the guides first, go take a look at Gigabyte's site and I'm sure there's a guide there for your board, just don't go plugging numbers in for voltages please.

 

BTW, get very familiar with your BIOS reset procedures as you might need to clear the BIOS often after passing some limit that stops you from posting or booting. I'm lucky, there's a BIOS reset button on my mobo, no need to play with jumpers etc.

 

There's a jumper reset on my MB, but no jumper for it...? I'm hoping a SATA HDD jumper will work, in that case.