Hi all, I could use some adivce I have never overclocked before but i am quite experienced with computers. I have built 4 or 5 of them and have done a lot of playing just never overclocking. Here is my layout. Motherboard - DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_pr....jsp?PRODUCT_ID=2840&CATEGORY_TYPE=MB&SITE=US Processor - AMD Sempron 3400+ RAM - Corsair matched TwinX 1.0GB Dual Channel PC-3200 CL2 DDR SDRAM http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0208887 HD - 160gb WD SATA Vid Card - ATI Radeon 9550 http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9550/specs.html The main thing i am looking for is to decrease my transcoding time on videos that i obtain in .avi format and want to put on DVD. How long should it take me to transcode a 1 hour .avi movie with this system? Where do i begin with the over clocking process? Thanks in advance.
With the how long question, thats like asking how long is the piece of string in my hand. It all depends on what software you have loaded/using processor capacity, how well the system has been setup to start with from install and then how well maintained it is. It may be useful to post some test results using pcmark05 or sisandra so if can be compared to like PCs. A very good review of your board using a 3400+ with overclocking overview is here. http://www.3dvelocity.com/reviews/lanpartynf3/nf3250gb.htm A good review on setting XP up (presuming thats hwat you are using) is here: http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html
You have some good RAM but a soso CPU for overclocking, so we can't expect great results. Firstly, stop by the overclocking thread to get the measure of things, but the basics involve Front side bus speed (higher means faster CPU, but faster everything else as well, so there's only so far you can go) and memory timings, which need to be adjusted to get optimal performance out of the system. Voltage of the CPU is important, higher voltage means higher stable overclock, but too high can mean the reverse. As long as you run small increments you're not likely to do any harm, assuming you have good cooling. Have a little play in the BIOS and see how far you can get running Windows stable.
So in what order do i want to start bumping up values in my BIOS? also what benchmark software do i want to use to measure my progress?
SiSoft Sandra is a good benchmarking software that we all use. To up your speeds, go into your BIOS and look for "front side bus speed"
Absolutely. Above all, take it slowly in small stages. Don't go too far, or you may get a system that won't POST at all, which means resetting the BIOS.
