100 newb questions and counting

[smokafatty]

I've been reading stuff all over the net and theres a few things I don't quite understand about overclocking. This is my first attempt so this stuff is pretty new to me. I already downloaded 3DMark and SiSoft Sandra though I didn't play around with them much.

First off I'm running a p4 2.6C Abit IC7 and Pmi turbo 256x2 pc3200
(Planning on getting 1gb corsair this summer but this memory had some good reviews for overclocking and is dirt cheap :) )

Now I'm a little confused about the relationship to cpu and ram fsb. As I understand it if you are running 1:1 then both fsb's always stay equal to each other?

I locked my agp/pci then bumped up the fsb of the cpu to 210hz (just to try things out) and it seemed to work fine, so what does this do to the memory?

Whats up with the memory #'s and is there a formula to translate memory timings into fsb speed?

My bios I think says my ram timings are 2.5-3-2-6 .
But the memory I bought was advertised to be 2-3-2-6.
Should I change it to the advertised timings?

Also what should I set the game accelerator to?
I read that it is similar to tweaking the memory so if I'm already planning to tweak the memory should I disable it or leave it on auto?

Also how accurate are the Abit motherboard temp sensors?
(I'm using MBM to monitor them)

How do you guys find the load temps?
(I ran the 3DMark test but I couldn't read any temps while the test was running)

What are the max safe idle/load temps for a overclocked pc?

Any advice/guides on overclocking my ATI all-in-wonder 9600?

Any help would be much appreciated. I know alot of this overclocking comes down to good cooling but I put alot of time and effort to make sure the pc stays cool so that part shouldn't be a problem as far as air cooling is concerned. As soon as I get a digicam I'll post some pics. :D

[DIABLO]

If you running your memory bus and frontside bus at 1:1 ratio then yes they will both be running at the same speed. So if your running your FSB at 210MHz you are overclocking the CPU by dictated by whatever the multiplier is and you will also be overclocking your RAM by 10MHz.

If thats the timings they quoted try them the worst that can happen is the system won't boot and you will have to reset the bios or the system will be come unstable. In a perfect world you could have the lowest timings and the RAM will overclock the same but in reality it won't the lower the timings the lesser the overclock the RAM will take before it get's unstable and viceversa. So most of the time you have to play a balancing game between lowest timing's and greatest overclock for example you had timings of 2-3-2-6 and with those timings you could get your RAM to 220MHz but with slacker timings such as 2.5-3-3-7 you could get your RAM to 240MHz. With the RAM running at 240MHz it might not have better performance then if the RAM was running at 220MHz because timings play a big part in the performance of RAM so you will have to experiment with differerent timings and different overclocks and test with sandra to see combination give the best result. Also upping the voltage to the RAM will improve timings/MHz RAM can easily take up 2.8v but anything over that may shorten the lifespan. You can also up the voltage to your cpu if need be but you want to make sure your tempare under control before thinking of that.

Im not sure about the game accelerator as i'm not a Intel man but as you said it proberly lowers some timings some where and will proberly have a similar effect as described above.

The accuracy of a temp sensor is only as accurate as the as the bios programed to use it each board is different but i would expect the temps to within 5c.

To test my loaded temps i use Prime95.

To have stable a machine you want to stay under 60c but the cpu can endure arround 80c-85c before any damage is done.

Overclocking your graphics is even easyer because you can do it with in windows and you can change the speed of the RAM and GPU independly of each over which you get the maximum overclock. Use a program called Rivatuner to overclock your card and use 3DMark to test the stability of your overclock making sure to look out for defects i the picture such as tearing and speckles.

Hope i helped.

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[smokafatty]

Nice, lots of good info there. Will be having some fun tonight. Thanks Diablo :t_up:

[smokafatty]

Ok, just bumped it up to 230mhz fsb running the cpu at 2.99ghz and bumped my timings up to 2.5-3-3-7.

I ran a few tests and everything seems ok but not sure exactly how to tell if its stable. Whats the fastest way? I've seen where you are supposed to loop some tests overnight but I need something quicker while I play around with different settings. I got that prime95 but for some reason I can't connect to the network?

Also by running sandra burn in test does that count as a load temp? Cause my cpu only went up to 45 degrees which seems to good to be true. :)


EDIT: Ok now I'm at 240 fsb and 3.13 cpu it passed the sandra burn in test with a max at 47 degrees. Should I keep going? Should I bump the voltages up a notch as I haven't messed with them at all?

This seems way too easy, but then I guess I can't be sure its a 100% stable yet.

[Neo]

The most definite way to tell if its stable enough for you is to run prime95 in a loop. But even then, it may error out but you will still have no problems if you attempt to play a game or other CPU intensive activitys. Some signs of going too far are restarts and windows not loading.

Don't raise the voltages too much. You only need to raise the voltage when your comp starts getting unstable.

BTW, your abit mobo will automatically reset the settings if you can't boot due to a high overclock.

[DIABLO]

As ps2wiz said you only need to bump the voltage up you instability. And here's (http://atitool.ocfaq.com/) a tool for overclocking your Graphics card it will automatically overclock your card and find the maximum overclock your card can handle stabely.
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