Overclocking OEM systems: Dell HP Compaq etc. (work in progress)

Overclocking in a nutshell
To put it simply overclocking is making hardware run faster then its stock "normal" speed, usually to get more performance for your money. Overclocking is normally very safe as long as you don't over volt, voltage kills. Most OEM systems have only basic bios settings (no voltage or ram timing adjust) and normally can only be overclocked in software. This makes OEM systems very simple and safe to overclock. Unfortunately OEM systems don't come with cooling geared for overclocking, so watch your temps. For more info on overclocking in general see the overclocking guide.


Disclaimer!
WARNING: overclocking voids your warranty, stresses your hardware, can damage components and flat out kill your computer. That being said if you attempt to overclock Majorgeeks.com and its inhabitants are not responsible for anything broken or damaged when using this guide.


Overclocking via software
Overclocking in software is one of the safest ways to overclock. If you have set your CPU to a frequency which is far too high, the system will hang, right at the moment you press the "set speed" button. Normally all you have to do to recover is switch off the power and reboot your system. A soft reboot is not recommended as the set speed normally stays in effect until you hard reboot the system. Unfortunately software overclocking has disadvantages. For one you can't change ram timings or overclock your CPU alone with out overclocking the ram and the rest of the system along with it. So if you have weak ram you will be unable to reach your CPUs maximum overclock with out changing the ram speed in the bios or performing hard mods.


Finding your PLL chip
First you need to know the vendor and the version number of the PLL IC that is responsible for the FSB frequency. There are only eight major companies that sell these IC's.
ICS, Cypress, ICW, Winbond, IMI, Plllabs, Cmedia, Realtek, and Pericom. (cypress bought icw so it is the same internet address). Basically it will be a rectangular IC next to a clock crystal, normally with a value of 14.3 MHz. The PLL of NVidia Chipsets is included in the south bridge. I believe that nTune supports all nForce motherboards.

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm248/ACE_256/clockgen-2.jpg?t=1209351571


Overclocking Programs
There are several programs to chose from, namely clockgen, SoftFSB, CPUFSB and Nvidia's nTune:

Clockgen
Works on various motherboard/PLLs and was recently take down from CPUID's site for an unknown reason. Luckily it can still be found on Techpowerup Here.
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm248/ACE_256/Clockgen1.jpg?t=1209352218

Soft FSB
Best for older systems (slot 1 socket 7 era).
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm248/ACE_256/pc_spe10-3.jpg?t=1209352425

CPU FSB
Supports a broad range of motherboards/PLLs and aside from nTune for nForce users is probably your best bet.

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm248/ACE_256/cpufsb-1.png?t=1209352779

nTune
This is the best solution out of the software overclocking utilities. You can overclock much more then just the FSB with it and It even supports ram timing changes!

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm248/ACE_256/Ntune2-1.jpg?t=1209352890

AMD Pin mods

Socket A
Socket 754
Socket 939
Socket AM2

More pinmods to come...

 

If any one sees something I have missed or think something should be added please feel free to PM me or post comments on the guide here.
If you have a question about overclocking make a new thread dont post your questions here. Posts not relevant to the guide will be moved to thare own thread or deleted.

 

Hello ACE256,

Could you add to this programs such as Prime95 and orthos, which both give your processor a full stress test and find even the slightest instabilities for a perfect, stable overclock!

You should also backup all important data before hand. You could use Norton Ghost, as that does a complete image disk of your boot partion. Many problems can happen during overclocking, your O/S may not be able boot due to file corruption which is caused by an unstable processor.

Regards Jason

 

All of that is covered in the main overclocking guide. Also CPU instability is very unlikely to cause data corruption. Ram instability on the other hand easily can, as can a overclocked PCI bus. Though it may be a bit of a gray area when you get into CPUs with memory controllers on board.

 

Oh, I see. Nice Overclocking guide as well.

I'm just getting into overclocking and I can sure learn a lot off you.

Regards Jason

 

excellent guide