Advice for overclocking

[Super Mario]

I am thinking about overclocking my system. I have a Pentium 4 3.0GHz w/800MHz FSB, 1GB of PC3200 Corsair XMS RAM (2 * 512MB DIMMs) in dual channel configuration, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 8X AGP video card, Gigabyte GA-8IK1100 motherboard with Intel 875P northbridge chipset, and an Antec TruePower 550WATT PSU. Is it worth all the trouble and hassle to overclock everything on my system including the FSB and RAM speed with the CPU speed, or should I just try and overclock the CPU internal clock speed and leave the FSB and RAM speed the same? Would I need faster RAM and a new motherboard fan if I want to overclock the whole system, or can the Corsair XMS PC3200 RAM handle running at a faster speed with the FSB? If I do overclock the FSB, RAM, and CPU speed at the same time, will the PCI bus and AGP bus run at higher speeds too that could casue problems? What kind of fan should I get for my CPU and for my motherboard if I need a new one for the FSB speed overclocking?

Help greatly appreciated.

 

[2Fresh]

You only adjust multiplier and fsb. You raise voltage to get stability.
It is very easy. Your mem should be fine for 200ish fsb. Cooling is needed if temps get to high. Your mobo should have a built in lock on the pci.

Just go into your bios and start raising your fsb little by little. Set your multiplier to around 10...this way you can figure out the limit of your fsb. Once you do that. You can then try the multiplier and voltage.

or

1. Get an Intel chipset
2. Lock pci bus to 33 mhz, and agp bus to 66 mhz
3. Start raising fsb in 5 mhz steps.
4. Repeat as necessary, or until system becomes unstable
5. Raise vcore to a max of 1.7v, but 1.65 is much safer and usually yields almost as high of a clock
6. Run Memtest86 & Prime95 torture test to test for stability at each frequency

 

[rogue_jedi]

what cooler do you have?
if you have the intel stock cooler, don't raise the cpu voltage. try 225 fsb at 5:4 cpu:memory ratio. if that boots, run prime95 to see if it is stable. if it is, you can leave it there if it is fast enough for you (3.375ghz) or you can try bumping it up more. if you go over 250fsb, you should set the cpu:memory ratio to 3:2 or raise the memory voltage.

good luck.

 

[mewannafastpc]

Originally posted by 2Fresh
You only adjust multiplier and fsb. You raise voltage to get stability.
It is very easy. Your mem should be fine for 200ish fsb. Cooling is needed if temps get to high. Your mobo should have a built in lock on the pci.

Just go into your bios and start raising your fsb little by little. Set your multiplier to around 10...this way you can figure out the limit of your fsb.

i thought intel pentiums have locked multipliers

 

[Super Mario]

One question I have is why is the FSB speed said by Intel to be 800MHz, but it is really only 200MHz. I notice that it says 3.00GHz (200*15) on the POST screen when my system is booting up. I typed 200*15 on the calculator, and I got 3000 which is the internal clock speed of my CPU. I tried 200*16 and I got 3200 which would make sense to be a 3.2GHz P4. So does a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 have a clock multiplier of 200*16 and a 3.4GHz P4 has a 200*17 and so on for all Canterwood Pentium 4s with a 200MHz FSB (800MHz???)? I have heard that they say it is 800MHz because it is really 200MHz FSB quad pumped to make it 800MHz FSB effectively? Is that right? Is that is the case, if I increase the FSB to 250MHz, then would my performance be equivelent to a PC with a single pumped 1000MHz FSB? Also I'm pretty sure that if I just increase the clock multiplier from 15 to 16, or higher, I will only be overclocking my CPU internal clock speed and the FSB and RAM speed will remain the same right?

 

[Super Mario]

Another question I have is what type of fan, heat sink, and thermal paste for my CPU and motherboard should I get that is best at keeping things as cool as possible and is reasonably quiet?

 

[mewannafastpc]

Originally posted by Super Mario
One question I have is why is the FSB speed said by Intel to be 800MHz, but it is really only 200MHz. I notice that it says 3.00GHz (200*15) on the POST screen when my system is booting up. I typed 200*15 on the calculator, and I got 3000 which is the internal clock speed of my CPU. I tried 200*16 and I got 3200 which would make sense to be a 3.2GHz P4. So does a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 have a clock multiplier of 200*16 and a 3.4GHz P4 has a 200*17 and so on for all Canterwood Pentium 4s with a 200MHz FSB (800MHz???)? I have heard that they say it is 800MHz because it is really 200MHz FSB quad pumped to make it 800MHz FSB effectively? Is that right? Is that is the case, if I increase the FSB to 250MHz, then would my performance be equivelent to a PC with a single pumped 1000MHz FSB? Also I'm pretty sure that if I just increase the clock multiplier from 15 to 16, or higher, I will only be overclocking my CPU internal clock speed and the FSB and RAM speed will remain the same right?

im pretty sure that you can't adjust the multipiers of intel chips unless they are engineering samples, and yea the bus is quad pumped and if you can get the bus to that high then i think it would perform as fast as a 1000mhz bus if not faster because of your overclocked cpu.

as for the fan i wouldn't know but i know you should use either artic silver 3 or 5, been hearing rave reviews about them, although they do take time to settle in