Hello. Can someone tell me a little bit about the benefits of overclocking? And also how to do it? I have an amd athlon xp 2800+, 512 ddr ram, and a 120gb hard drive. Thanks in advance for any help.
OK, step 1- don't do it. Seriously, I think overclocking is over rated, and most of the people who were doing it aren't doing it any more. The biggest killer of your computer's non-moving components is heat, and by overclocking your CPU by a small amount you can generate so much more heat. Back in the old days it was different. For example, Intel only made one speed of Pentium I with MMX. It was a 200 Mhz chip, and was either left alone, underclocked for 166, or overclocked to 233. So if you were smart you'd buy a 166, get a better heat sink, and overclock it to 233. All of a sudden you had a 40% increase in speed. Your AMD already runs hotter than an Intel chip. Overclocking is just going to add to that extra heat. Have you considered how you are going to get rid of that heat? What about in the summer? How hot does it get in your house? I'm sure there are some people who are overclocking their computers. But in my opinion there are many more practical ways to get an increase in performance from your PC than overclocking.
Ok, thanks. Guess I wont do it. What are your ideas on how to improve performance? I know about adding memory, and shutting down programs Im not using. Any other ideas that might help me?
I would suggest the following ways to speed up performance: - Run Ad Aware once a week. http://download.com.com/3000-2094-10045910.html?legacy=cnet It will get rid of any spyware that's on your machine. - Use Reg Cleaner to get rid of programs in your startup routine. http://www.docsdownloads.com/regclean.htm Every program you install wants to be running as soon as you start your computer. Most items don't need to be running unless you need them. - What is your Virtual Memory set to? I recommend setting both upper and lower limits to the same amount; double your RAM + 32 MB. (So if you have 512 set it to 1056.) - Do you have any optical drives on the same IDE channel as your hard drive? If so, move them off. Even if you have to buy a PCI IDE adapter. Most optical drives communicate with the motherboard at 33 Mhz. Your hard drive should communicate at 100 or 133, but if it's on the same channel as an optical drive it will be forced down to 33. - Disconnect your floppy drive if you rarely or never use it. You can buy an inexpensive USB drive for about $30 (for a 32 MB one) and that will give you 20 times the storage of a floppy. Keep in mind your floppy drive was designed to work with 386 computers from 12 or so years ago. Every time you open "My Computer" or Windows Explorer or do a "save as..." your computer has to try and talk with the slow floppy drive. - Fan(s).... how many do you have and how do they blow? Generally you want more air being blow out of your computer than in. The slight vacuum created by exhausting your air will automatically suck in cooler air to replace it. AMD's generally run hotter than Intel's, and any CPU will run better if it is properly cooled. - Also related is placement of your PC. Is it in a place where it can get air, or is it in an enclosure in a desk? Also is it near a heat register? That's about all I can think of right now.
I would have to disagree. I have gained over 1000 3dmarks 2003 by overclocking and tweaking individual system components. My 9800 pro went from 380mhz core to 435 with no artifacting whatsoever. I simply changed to fan and heatsink. My processor went from 1.8ghz to 2.4 without any instability problems. I think your 2800 will overclock quite nicely
Ken, couple of questions related to your tips. 1. how do i access my virtual memory settings? 2.how can i find out about how my fans blow? what should they be doing? Thanks for all of your help.
(1) Virtual memory is accessed by: -Right click on "My Computer." (If running XP, and it isn't on the desktop, select <Start> then right click on "My computer" and select "Show on desktop." - Select "properties" then Advanced. - On XP select "Settings" then the "Advanced" tab, then "Change" - On W2K select "Performance Options" then "Change" (2) Fans- either simply use your hand, or open the case and use a piece of paper to tell direction. I would think you should have one on your processor, and at least one blowing out of the case. There will also be one on your power supply blowing outwards as well. The rule of thumb is to have more blowing out than in. So if you have 1 blowing out and you want to add a second fan, it must be blowing out as well. A lot of that will depend on what brand of computer you have; and therefore what kind of case you have. If it's an ATX case (most likely a standard clone computer) then there should be a few places for mounting fans. If it is a brand name PC like Dell or HP then you may be limited by how much space there is. (I already know you don't have a Dell; they only use Intel processors.) Cooling isn't quite as critical as the other things I mentioned, though. Make sure you have the right amount of virtual memory, and make sure you run Ad Aware and Reg Cleaner first. One tip I always use for people who are intermediate computer users and want to use Reg Cleaner; remove things [bold]one at a time[/bold]; re-booting between each one. There are things in there that your computer needs to start up correctly. If you do it one at a time you can see if what you removed buggered up the PC. Also, if you aren't sure about what something is, do a search on Google.com before removing it.
Ken, ran adaware (got rid of 97 items!!!), used regcleaner and upped the virtual memory. i couldnt belive how much crap kazaa left in my registry. Wildtangent left almost as much. Thanks for all the help. As for fans, I have two vents on the back of the pc (which is an HP a320n) so I will assume all is in order.
97 items isn't very many, I've cleaned computers with over 1,000 items removed by adaware! But spyware is one of the biggest performance killers, for sure. I know that OC'ing is looked down upon by some people, but i gained 1k+ extra points in 3dmark 2003 by bumping my p4 2.8 up to 3.06 ghz, and then bumping my Radeon 9700 up by about 30 mhz core and ram. I say go for it, and if your system gets too hot, you can always change it back. Your system has built in protection against burning up the CPU, but don't clock too high. Also, you will probably need to "unlock" your AMD chip, do a google on unlocking a Athlon XP.
That also reminds me, I've seen so much spyware on machines that use Kazaa. I would recommend using Winmx instead. It may not have as many versions of each song, but I've never seen an instance of Spyware. And thanks for your input, ganz. I guess the Overclock/Don't Overclock debate will continue to go on the same way as the Intel/AMD debate has.
with shareaza you can also use bit torrent links with sites like supernova,isohunt ,speeds are slow to start with but if you configure your firewall it should be fine
I almost forgot.... if you removed 93 items with ad aware, odds are there's probably more spy ware that it missed. runn spy bot search and destroy to clean up whatever is left. I work in the IT tech support office on campus and we strongly reccommend that everyone runs these two programs at least once a week to clean unwanted ad ware. Spy bot also protects against infection of ad ware, just make sure you regulary update both! And see if you can find Kazaa Lite or K++, they both are adware free, but I don't know if they are still around or not. Another program to try is Ares, very similiar to Kazaa, no adware.
Shareaza is great but it does not connect to fasttrack. That is what kazaa uses. Shareaza can connect to edonkey, gnutella 1 and 2, bittorents and I think I might have missed one. It's not as fast as kazaa but it's made for large files.
Oh, and I wouldn't recommend OCing unless you need it. If your running apps that start giving you problems or the dreaded hourglass for too long, then by all means, OCing kicks butt. If you don't need it right now and your a nOob, don't temp fate.
NuckNFuts, edit your sig to conform to forum specs ASAP. 1. Text-only signatures should have at most 5 lines of text.
