help on overclocking

[dani82]

i trying to overclock my Athlon 2200+ but i can't figure out how to change the multiplier or voltage from the bios, the only thing i know is how to change the FSB: 169/133 = 2255mhz

i think i might be doing it wrong, from what i red, the cpu temperature almon other things should increase, but they remain the still according to speedfan

[Angelus]

What motherboard are you using? I know that overclocking depends on several things, and one of those being the type of motherboard. I know on my Asus P4P800 Deluxe, there are settings like Overclock 10%, 20%, 30 % or manual. Currently I have mine set on 20%. You can also check out http://www.overclockers.com/ and go to their forum and find what people have overclocked their CPU's to with ur same motherboard and cooling system as well.

[dani82]

it's a ecs k7vta3

[vinkes]

Originally posted by dani82
it's a ecs k7vta3

Then forget it, ecs makes nice mobo's but they are shitty overclockers. Ecs offers almost no overclocking options on their bios'es or mobo's.

Now, as i see it, you have 3 options:
1) find a beta/hacked bios for your mobo which MIGHT support overclocking
2) Change the bridges on your amd athlon xp to gain higher voltage/multiplier. It is risky, but i think the only option.
Search around with google, there are a lot websites covering the 'painting' of brigdes in order to increase multiplier or voltage.
3) Buy a new mobo ;) (the ecs l7s7a2 overclocks nice with a volt mod and it is cheap, 30 euro's)

Remember, the second option might kill your cpu

[theReal]

The multiplier of your Athlon is hardware locked - to change that you'll need to unlock it (there are different tricks to do that, depending from the exact type of your processor, but they always include fumbling around with your processor bridges or connectors).
As soon as it is unlocked, changing the Bios settings for the multiplier (if there is any option to do so) will actually change the multiplier.

The FSB is only a matter of your MoBo's Bios - either there's an option to change it, or not (my Epox allows to enter any number between 133 and 256 for the FSB, which is very nice - I'm just running a super-moderate "overclock": 136 instead of 133 :) )

The same with Core I/O voltage: either you have this option in the Bios, or not...

btw. on some boards, the voltage/multiplier/FSB can to be changed by jumper settings on the MoBo - check your MoBo manual if you can do something like this.

If you actually changed the FSB/Multiplier/Voltage you can check with CPU-Z (available from http://www.cpuid.com/ )

[dani82]

change my fsb to 169 is still overclocking, right? but, will changing the voltage/multiplier allow me to overclock more or are those just different ways to overclock?

if change my fsb is overclocking, why hasn't the cpu temp increase at all? (not that i'm complaining)

[theReal]

change my fsb to 169 is still overclocking, right? If your processor is made for 133 FSB, it's pretty good overclocking!

You only need to up the core voltage if your processor doesn't run at a certain speed - with more core voltage you can overclock more (but get even more heat).

Changing the multiplier is not necessary - most overclockers want to do it because usually you can overclock your FSB higher when you lower the CPU multiplier (so the CPU is less overclocked than the whole system).
Some people just overclock their processor (=change the multiplier only) but that's not as effective as overclocking the FSB.

If your processor temp is still the same as before, I guess you're running the memory speed at 169 only, the fsb is still something like 135/136.
If you can't find any option to run FSB and mem. speed both at 166 or more, maybe your board automatically sets async FSB to mem speed above a certain number (and async fsb to mem speed is not good, it's often slower, even the memory is running at more MHz).

FSB 169 on a FSB 133 system would be pretty much hardcore overclocking - it's almost impossible with standard cooling (and IMO even with the best cooling you'd be very lucky to have a 133 system running stable at 169)

[avih]

ClockGen (http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php) allows you to modify the fsb (and the agp bus speed) on the fly (without restarting your computer). i tried it and changed my fsb from 167 to about 176 (1.8G to 2G). and it worked nicely.

you'll also find on the link i posted a tool called pc wizard (http://www.cpuid.com/pcw.php) which, among others, benchmark your pc for few items.

also, on the genClock page is a tool called cpu clock (http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpuclock.zip) to show your current fsb and related clock.

all the tools are very nice and free.

make sure the genClock that you download matches your board/chipset.

[dani82]

is my fsb limited to the speed of my memory (ddr333 = 166), if i upgrade to ddr400, will i be able to achieve an higher fsb (maybe all the way up to 199), i'd got up 172 for about an hour when i first started, now it's unstable over 169

[theReal]

is my fsb limited to the speed of my memory (ddr333 = 166) That's right - however most memory can do more if you set the right memory timings in the BIOS and maybe increase the mem voltage. However you're on the safe side when you buy faster memory - that still doesn't mean your system will overclock much more because the fsb involves everything, including PCI bus and IDE channels. Usually the more cards and drives you have, the less you can overclock - the best o/c system is just board, one stick of memory, a graphics card and one HD.

If you want tips on what memory you should get or what exactly your motherboard can do and what not, have a look at the
amdmb.com forums (http://forums.amdmb.com/) - there you'll find a special forum for ecs motherboards and an overclocking forum (lots of people there who spend more time with overclocking than with everything else ;) )