Overclocking for Dummies?

[beep]

I'm looking for very basic "how to" instructions for a little "polite" overclocking of a new system (Asus P5W DH Deluxe, Intel E6600).

I don't want to push the limits too hard, btw, and the system will have plenty of non-stock air cooling. I'm mostly just interested in a modest performance boost.

Any resources that you can point me to would be very much appreciated.

[Lorian]

Overclocking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Probably contains some good information and external links

[millipede777]

I know my motherboard has quite a few settings in the BIOS that allow overclocking so you may want to check there (just make sure you know what you're doing) or you can try this. I haven't used it but it looks like it might do what you're looking for.

[troublesome4u]

overclocking guide - EXTREME Overclocking Forums
EXTREME Overclocking Forums - Learn To Overclock Your PC Hardware
That forum is where is where I first got started. I suggest you checkout the whole forum and read what other people have asked and written becaues that is a popular question right now.

[Tonk]

hey beep.. try in your Bios (i have asus MB too) and under the 'jumper free configuration' it gives a few diff settings (auto - manual - NOS) when u click manual.. u can 'manually' change your FSB... CPU multiplier... CPU voltage... and a few other things that bump your speed up

[beep]

Originally Posted by Chair

hey beep.. try in your Bios (i have asus MB too) and under the 'jumper free configuration' it gives a few diff settings (auto - manual - NOS) when u click manual.. u can 'manually' change your FSB... CPU multiplier... CPU voltage... and a few other things that bump your speed up

Thanks Chair...I know 'bout that, but was looking for more what settings to change...in what sequence...and to what values. I know the principles of OC'ing but need a step by step "how to" once I'm in the BIOS settings.

[beep]

Originally Posted by troublesome4u

overclocking guide - EXTREME Overclocking Forums
EXTREME Overclocking Forums - Learn To Overclock Your PC Hardware
That forum is where is where I first got started. I suggest you checkout the whole forum and read what other people have asked and written becaues that is a popular question right now.

Thanks...sounds like good advice!

[Scooper]

Definitely start small.
OCing is an exercise in testing limits and finding the sweet spot.
There's a lot lot that you can get into and extreme levels you can go to if you were to really get into it.
If you're like me you'll dabble - with some extreme moments here and there... find a limit or 3, and get scared. lol. Then ya come back after doing some reading and give er another go.

I ended up settling back down (for now) and currently have a simple FSB boost of 10MHz, giving my 2.4GHZ X2 CPU a clock speed of 2.52GHZ. Nothing much to that with good quality equipment.
That, coupled with an SLI'd set of BFG 7900GTX OC factory overclocked video cards, keeps me pretty happy atm.
(factory OC'd cards is kinda like that stuff they give addicts - keeps the jonesin down without voiding the warranty. lol)

Be careful and have your BIOS reset jumper accessible.

[beep]

Well, the easiest thing so far is that the Asus P5WDH mobo allows you to do an "automatic" OC in BIOS...just select the +% (in 5% increments) and save/reboot.
Currently working with a 10% OC with no pain (Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz to 2.64 GHz). I'm not quite sure what specific changes this does to the system though.

What do you recommend to monitor CPU/RAM parameters and temps?

[WhiskeySix]

hey beep, here's the deal - Your pentium's core runs at a locked multiple of your FSB. On mine, for example, it's x14... so with a 200mhz FSB (front side bus), the core runs at 2.8GHz. The FSB clock is also what drives your RAM... it's basically 4x that... so stock (200mhz FSB), my pc runs RAM at 800MHz and the core at 2.8GHz.

So to overclock, you're just going to start bumping up the FSB. You can do this manually really simply on that mobo - it's nearly the same one I have! try something like 5MHz at a time at first...

After each time you increase the FSB speed, you'll need to run this: Primes95 as a stability/heat-sink test.. basically it does a lot of math (trying to find a new prime-number) which makes the CPU heat-up... If you're system runs primes for a few hours without a failure, it's stable... some people like to let it run over night, but from what I've seen, if it's too overclocked, it'll fail in under 15 minutes. (when the CPU/RAM are running too fast, it doesn't explode - it just "makes mistakes" from data getting corrupted as it flows through the chip... and this program catches those "mistakes".)


(If you're currently running a "10%" overclock, then the mobo just increased your stock FSB by 10%.... To 220MHz if it's at 200MHz by default)


Also - your system can fail for two reasons: 1) because your CPU is running too fast or 2) your RAM is running too fast. Either way, junk data is getting generated. To check which is the culprit, use the "no RAM" test in primes. If THAT passes, then you know that your FSB is too fast for your RAM to handle.... there are ways to deal with that case, but let's not cross that bridge yet.

As for monitoring the temperatures, I just use Asus Probe... I try keeping temps <60* C...