The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

I expect so. if everything else works the OC is fine, EA games are a real pain to get to run on anything bar a bog standard system, but of course then they run slowly! Grr

 

ya EA games do run slower actually...

 

i had the same probs with carbon. any thing more than 110% and strange things happened. my personal fave was the road dissapearing when it rained, it looked like your driving on water.

thing is bf2 and bf2142 both work fine with cpu/ram oced but realy hate my gpu oced.

 

GTR35,

Check and see if the PCI and PCIe buss is locked at 66/100. if they are not locked it can affect the video card's performance where it will actually run slower even though the computer is running faster!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

oh i forgot to mention my friends graphics card is 7800GS (AGP) not PCI-E...

 

GTR35,

OK, that makes it even easier. Look in the setup menu for the AGP/PCI frequency and lock it at 66/33. Lock the Dram frequency at 400.. That should stabilize the AGP card and your memory should be linear with the FSB (assuming DDR400)!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

Hi to all, I've got an Intel 3.2 cpu, 200gig hard drive, 2gig of ram and an Ati Radeon X800 pro vid card. Can someone please point me in the right direction (o/c) as how to get the MOST out of this setup.Please be kind, I'm new at this stuff.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

Best place to start is with a little more detail.

What motherboard do you have, Make and model number?
What CPU is it? P4, Celeron? Any added info will help.
What RAM do you have make and speed, and if known timings it is capable of?

Download CPUZ and run it, it will help when overclocking anyway.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

 

Hi BIGDK, here's the info,

P4 cpu (180D)

Mother board Elitegroup ECS 865PE-A

Memory sticks(4 X 512) have the following printed on them
TEAM 0433K
TG2560328BT5

Hope this helps

 

Overclocking an ECS board? Ouch. It's definitely worth a try but I wouldn't expect great things from it.

 

Sammorris,

I've had 2 ECS socket 478 motherboards and they both were DOA. The second one was a replacement for the first DOA! I had 2 others that belonged to customers of mine that went belly-up shortly after the warranty expired!

onya,

I sure wouldn't try overclocking one that manages to at least run! As far as the memory goes, I can't even turn up anything with a Google search, so I would doubt that it is very good memory to begin with.

The big problem with socket 478 MBs is that the good ones command a high price. Higher than thier retail was just a few months ago. An Asus P4P800-SE would be the best bet for overclocking a P-4. If it is a 180D, then it's not even a P4, it's a Celeron! Intel's marketing refers to it as a P4 Celeron, but that's just mostly hype!

Personally I wouldn't even bother as there are not any real good socket 478 MBs around anymore. If you are on a tight budget I would go with a Biostar TForce 6100 939 MB. You could save a few bucks and go with the GForce 6100 M9, but you give up a lot of overclocking adjustments the the TForce has.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138264
and an Athlon 64 4000+ OEM CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103528
and an Arctic Freezer 64:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835185125

I would get the OEM CPU because the boxed retail is $139.99 and the OEM is $94.99. Add $16.99 for the Freezer 64 and you come away with the same CPU as the boxed unit with a much better cooler and at $111.98 it's $28.01 cheaper! You can use all your old stuff, memory, hard drive and video card. It has PCIe 16x for future as well as way better than average on board graphics and very good overclocking abilities and will run rings around just about any P4. I'm building one right now for my roomate to replace his 3.0/800 P4 Prescott.

I know you don't want to spend money, but you don't really have very much to work with. For about $200 you would come away with a computer that will blow away any P4 and run cooler in the process. Hey, you got to start somewhere, but you also have to start with good stuff! It's a bit like buying Oats. You want good quality oats you have to pay the price. If you want them after they go through the horse! You do the math!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

Thanks to all who responded. It just goes to show that when you save a few bucks, and believe the salesman, you can get stung a little.
I'll certainly take the advice about the m/b etc, it may take a short while but sounds like it's gonna be worth it

Thanks guys

 

onya,

I'll let you know after this weekend what the benches look like as I'm installing the TForce, the CPU and the arctic Freezer 64 tomorrow. The last AMD I built for a customer was a 3700+ and it blew my 3.0/800 running at 3.94 totally away, and it was running at stock speed! The 4000+ at $95 is a bargain. I've heard nothing but good things about the TForce 6100 939 motherboard! Arctic coolers are my cooler of choice. I replaced a Zalman 9500LED with a Freezer 7 Pro on my D-940 and my temps dropped an average of 5C. The fact that they are on sale for $17 right now, so if you can, buy it now, even if you can't get the other stuff right away. It's a very quiet CPU cooler too! The Zalman roars! I'll post the benches as soon as I get it up and running.

Happy Computering,
theone

 

Hi theone, looking forward to those results. I've got a subscription to this thread so i won't miss out. Those prices you talked about make the whole proposition of an upgrade alot closer than i realised. I'll check out a few places when i know what brand(s) and what models of m/b and memory chips that'll perform to a much higher level.
There's one question i'd still like to ask though, can my graphics card be "enhanced" in any way? (ati radeon X800 pro 256mb)

cheers for now

 

onya,

Yes! I used ATi Tool and you can overclock the GPU and the memory. I have a Sapphire X800 GTO AGP 8x. There are several other programs as well that pretty much do the same thing! Sam would know what they are!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

Team memory is actually OK, but with an ECS board it may as well be Elixir. With regard to the OEM and retail CPU, you don't get the long warranty with OEM, but as long as you don't go mad you shouldn't need it, faults are rarely the processor. ATiTool and Catalyst Overdrive can both OC the graphics card. I'd prefer to use Overdrive personally, since ATiTool handles the 2D/3D clock change in a bit of a strange way.

 

onya,
Here we go! I got the TForce 6100 939 and the Athlon 64 4000+ going and here's some benches! First one is the processor arithmatic!

This is with a 10% OC as it runs so cool that I decided to OC it a bit! As you can see, you should be able to pass an FX-57 with it as it's close now at 10%! It destroys the P-4s all the way up to the 3.8GHz.

Here's the memory bandwidth:


I am impressed as all of this is with Sandra 2007 which gives lower numbers than 2005. Good memory, CPU and MB do make a difference!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

You know, it's interesting. When I saw that Xclio case, I thought it was a joke! The reviews say otherwise with all of them being very positive! They make it in black as well! Mean looking with the blue lights. I would have to add a red one at the back just to screw with everyone's eyes though!


Here it is with the lights out!


aabbccdd,
You might want to reconsider the 900! Almost every review on it had some serious complaints. Even taking into consideration the idiot factor there seemed to be a lot of the same complaints over and over so it's not just the brain dead ones! The more I look at the XCLIO A380BK Fully Black High Gloss Finish case the more I like it!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

russ what are the complaints

 

aabbccdd,

Things like the front panel cables being too short. It's a pain to mount the hard drives as you have to work through a very small hole to get at the hole the hard drive mounts on. A magnetic screwdriver or a philips screw starter is necessary. Some video cards won't work in the first slot because when it's there you can't plug in the power. 12V molex plug wire not long enough, needs an extension to reach the MB connector. Can't install a single GPU in the top PCI-E slot with SLI because the case wont allow enough room to access the DVI ports. That means SLI is out! Complaints of being noisey as well.

In all there were 64 reviews and most of them had complaints. Speaking of complaints I've got one for you that maybe you can answer. Why do the majority of cases with doors make them to open from right to left? Mine sits on the top right side of my desk and opens from left to right. If it sat on the other side, no one would see the window so why bother with one at all?

I really like the layout of the Xclio case I posted, and it looks awsome all lit up (see pic). I may even save my pennies and get one!

Did you see the benches I posted for the TForce/64 4000+ I just put together? All it took was raising the CPU speed from 200 to 220. It could easily pass an FX-57 with a little tweaking as it's only about 500 MIPS short now at a 10% OC. The FX-57 is AMD's fastest 939 single core! It runs so cold that it didn't even break 40C during a 10 pass burn in with Sandra. Those numbers are 2007 by the way. I'm impressed. Now if I could only figure out why it won't shut off! I tried every adjustment in there and it just comes up with a screen telling you it's safe to shut off your computer. Strange!!! I'll have to ask Neph about that as he built one with a TForce MB for his folks.

I can't wait to see your 185 benches! Should be awsome!

Happy Computering,
theone