The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

I tried to run it on my gaming rig. It still ran crap. On a laptop with a Sempron 3600+ with 1GB of RAM it takes about 7 minutes to boot up, every time you click the mouse on anything important the sound will stutter, and it takes 15 seconds plus to open firefox. Aero is also disabled, so it's not the memory usage. My old gaming PC was a similar spec as far as CPU and RAM go, and that ran ten times better than that with XP.

 

@rvinkebob-What cpu are you running and at what speed was it unstable? have you tried disabling amd cool and quite. that can cause problems with overclocking.

Linux is much more usable that vista and i would choose it over vista anyday.But ubuntu 7.10 is a little bloated something like debian etch would be better with resources. i also just brought and old pc back to life with opengeu. a its based on ubuntu but cut down and uses enlightenment.

 

Apparently KDE /kUbuntu is supposed to be better than the regular Ubuntu desktop...

 

kde isnt any better than gnome if you want a faster more responsive desktop. you would use enlightenment for that. its light weight and very fast and it has nice looking 2d effects that work great on old machines.

 

Ha, I first thought you were talking about Linux. Though Vista doesn't take that long to load on my PC. A default install with the only one driver needed to install from internet, nVidia GFX, took about 2-3mins to boot from startup to login. The thing I hate most is the stupid Superfetch crap that was new to Vista. It's the feature where it preloads what it thinks is the most used programs at startup and slows the computer down to a halt. I just disabled it in the services manager and things became MUCH smoother after that. It was the worst feature ever. SuSE Linux 10.2 uses it as well in it's own iteration but is impossible to disable. I searched all over the net but found nothing. Luckily SuSE 10.3 fixed it and it doesn't preload anymore.

 

Kubuntu is a very plain looking KDE where openSuSE 10.3 uses a nicely customized KDE desktop that is really neat compared to anything I've seen. Fedora seems like the most difficult one of all to use. It took me 40mins to figure out how to install nVidia driver only to find it was the legacy even though the name said otherwise. I'll never see myself going back.

Oh and I'm using an AMD Athlon 64 2800+ s754 on ASUS K8V-X. Stock speed of 1.8GHz and it was unstable at 2.2GHz. I now have it at 2.01GHZ and not one problem yet and I've had it on for 3hours or so.

 

have you tried increasing any voltages? to get past 2.2? Fedora isnt hard to use but i dont like it that much. the hardest distro to use is probably gentoo. also drivers are usual hard to install in linux unless you are using ubuntu which has a nice restricted driver feature.

 

Oh, well I've installed the default nVidia drivers from their website on Linux so much that it's become second nature to me. I've got it remembered inside out.

Also, does low voltage really cause an unstable CPU? I left the voltage default for the whole time. It's at 1.504V-1.520V when I check CPU-Z. Should I up it to 1.55V for the 400MHz increase, or still a little higher? A while ago, I overclocked to 2.25GHz and I was ignorant about the multiplier and left everything default; memory speed, HT speed... but it wasn't unstable until a week after where it gave me nonstop BSOD due to memory errors. Now it just restarts even the the CPU is really the only thing being OC'ed.

 

You can get awy with stock voltage to a pint, and then you have to increase voltage as the cpu needs extra power to run, thats when it becomes unstable as it just doesn't get fed the juice it needs.

With the extra volts comes the extra heat, so using a decent after market cooler gives the ability to up the speed/voltage without damaging the cpu with less effort, stock coolers can handle a percentage extra to a point.

 

It'll be interesting to run some super-pi tests on the same machines/same settings one run in XP and one in Linux 32 bit (doesn't work on 64 bit Linux).
I'll run it tomorrow and see the exact difference, as last time I did it, there was a massive gain in speed in Linux, but I didn't do a recording of the times.

 

Well I have a fairly good aftermarket cooler, Arctic Freezer 64 Pro. My load temps at stock went from 54C to 40C and OC makes the slightest difference in temps. I can run SuperPI tests in both Linux and Windows in about 20mins since I'm a little busy around the house. Just for reference, here are the speeds:

2.01GHz CPU
182MHz Memory at DDR333 3-3-3-7 timings CAS 2.5
892MHz HT Speed

Windows: 1M digits; 48.324 seconds, 19 iterations

 

Bob: I first dabbled with SuSe, but didn't get into it much, probably because I didn't have my forum buddies to help me out with it at the time!
KDE looks quite plain looking, but that's kind of to my taste anyway. I like pretty stuff, but it has to be elegant, not bloated.

 

In deed, very good cooling. I use these myself now. However, they are more intended for a 4 slot configuration (can be used in sets of 2).

Look into the (origional) HR-07. It is better for serious overclockers who never intend to use more then 2 sticks in dual ch config. The have the seperate heatsink for each side fo a high density double sided RAM module.. They are also cheaper now since more peepz are stying for 4 slot config and are somewhat older.

I use a set of the origional HR-07 on a set of the very Crucial Ballistics Tracers I mentioned above. Save easily $30.00 per set.

 

64 xp is blazing fast, 64bit vista is faster than 32 but still light years behind xp.

tbh i think vista is great, ok its not as fast as xp but did you expect it to be? was xp/2k as fast as 98 or me when it was released?

you do need newish hardware to get the most out of it but i can honeslty say i like it.

the main thing that gets me is gaming, now this is a 2 edged sword. firstly gaming in vista is miles better looking, the eye candy is aaa but it really hits the fps. cod4, i get 160 ish fps in vista but on xp i an hitting 350+, now i know what your thinking, wtf does it matter if your getting more than 30/60 its silky smooth anyway. well yes it is but if your only getting 30/60 in xp you will be getting less than half in vista :?

i use vista as my main desktop for all my main things but i still switch back to xp to run benchs and such.

you should all be running 64bit os tho, i mean amd are about to start pushing there procs on them doing 128bit extensions so....

 

Reason I steared clear of 64 Vista is the drivers issue, there are several items I use that just can't be used on 64 bit.

I may well try it purely as a boot and game OS if there is a difference to be seen, not sure what games would benefit from 64 over 32 bit?

I have BioShock loaded on both XP and Vista, and there is a real difference in the quality if the graphics, enough to mean I just stopped playing it on XP and started all over again in Vista.

 

Why on earth are you getting 350fps? What games are you playing, Commander Keen?
If you can get such a crazy frame rate it's time to up the resolution and LOD!
I avoid 64-bit OS for the same reason BigDK does, drivers, and I avoid Vista because of DX10 - no anti-aliasing... Not yet, anyway. having an HD3870 may potentially prove advantageous there.

 

cod4 sam, i will get some screens hosted later. i know i need a bigger screen but im waiting for a nice 24 incher to drop under £300, hopfully at the end of next month these fps are on my 24/7 setup with my cpu@3.2ghz and my gcard running 800 core 2000 shader 2000 mem.


tbh im not sure if any games benefit from a 64bit os, the only 2 i know of that can run in one nativly are farcry and crysis, but how many benefit from a dual/multi core cpu? 10, 11, 12? these are things that only happen as people use and need them more. we need to be pushing for 64bit software and multi core cpu support or the industry wont bother to code for it.

 

Even so though, 150fps? Is the game detail maxed out?

 

Yeah, 8800ultra couldn't even single handedly get 80FPS. They had to use SLi to make it run like that.

I just used the super pi for Linux and I'm amazed!

"2.01GHz CPU
182MHz Memory at DDR333 3-3-3-7 timings CAS 2.5
892MHz HT Speed

Windows: 1M digits; 48.324 seconds, 19 iterations"

Now in Linux with the exact same digits and iterations I get 39.930 seconds!! That's just nuts! And yes, I used the the Linux version not the Windows version on WINE which I assume would be slower.

And I need a little more help. At what point to you guys raise your CPU voltage at? For example, once you go 400MHz above you're actual speed or even at a lower speed. Is it inevitable for the PC to restart due to low voltage on the CPU?

Thanks.

 

Most people usually on increase voltage if your CPU is unstable. If you get to a point in overclocking when your System is unstable, you just increase voltage just a bit until it passes stress tests.