Motherboard, Memory, & CPU Overclocking Guide

D

deeppow

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 29, 2003
Messages
423
Hope it is of use to a few of you. Suggestions for improvement and corrections are very welcome. Particularly improvements related to Intel systems are needed. :D


Motherboard, Memory, and CPU Overclocking Guide. If you find broken links please let me know.


Table of Content
Preface
Where to Begin
Overview - Some Basics
....Overclocking - A Simple Perspective
....The Clock, FSB or HTT, etc.
....BIOS
....Memory
........Predominant RAM Types
........Mob-RAM Coupling and Their Effect on Overclocking
The Mechanics - Overclocking the Motherboard, FSB, and CPU
....Determining the Maximum FSB for nForce2
....Determining the Maximum Memory Speed
....Determining the Maximum CPU Speed
....Locked CPU
....PCI and AGP Buses
Testing
Results - A Couple Initial Overclock
....A nForce2 Motherboard
........How Well Does Dual DDR Work in Asynchronous Mode?
........How Well Does Dual DDR Work in Synchronous Mode?
........Memory Settings - Effect on Overclocking for Dual Channel
........Final Overclock of My nForce2
....A KT333 Motherboard
........Overclocking the KT333 FSB
........Memory Settings and Their Effect on Overclocking
Summary
Caution
Contributors
Useful Links
Known Links to this Guide
:D
 
Currently working on a cooling section due to the importance of cooling in achieving a higher overclock. Following the general philosophy of the guide, the cooling section will be basic in nature aimed at providing the users with the framework that should allow them to undertake more detailed investigation.
 
first off, BIOS is singular, so instead of "What are BIOS" it should read "What is BIOS"

second off, in the The Mechanics - Overclocking the Motherboard, FSB, and CPU section, it reads "Thus the first question to be answered is whether the CPU is lock or unlock" it shold read "Thus the first question to be answered is whether the CPU is locked or unlocked"

third off, i disagree with your philosophy. you say in the Locked CPU (Overclocking with one) section that one should: "Go into your BIOS and set the most aggressive memory timings" , i however, think differently:
this is from another question asking about how to OC
Carnival Forces said:
EDIT: WAIT, before anything, do this:
Prime95[TortureTest] your computer overnight tonight, to make sure it's stable, if it's not, then you have to find out what's wrong and fix that before going on.


here's a basic method:

1. set your RAM timings to the most relaxed they can go.
2. set all your other settings to the most lax (least aggressive) possible (make sure your AGP/PCI is locked)
3. OC your Proc by ~10 MHz
4. Boot into Windows and Prime95 Torture Test for 4 hours
5. While(No Errors)
GOTO 3
6. Repeat steps 3-5 , replacing "Proc" w/ "Vid. Card"
7. Start tightening your RAM settings, Prime95'ing to make sure no errors.
8. Once RAM is as tight as possible, let the computer Prime95 Torture Test over-night; if no errors, you are successful XD

note: the entire process should take about 3-5 days, it's slow, but it allows your hardware to gradually burn-in; lowering the chance of failure; and upping you max OC.

gl/hf :D
Click to expand...
my philosophy, is go in the order of greatest performance gain. you get the most kick out of OCing the CPU, then the GPU, THEN the RAM, last. So you should OC that way.

that's the farthest i've read, hopefully i'll have the time to digest the rest of it, it looks like an excellent guide, and thanks a BUNCH for writing it :D
 
Carnival Forces said:
first off, BIOS is singular, so instead of "What are BIOS" it should read "What is BIOS"

second off, in the The Mechanics - Overclocking the Motherboard, FSB, and CPU section, it reads "Thus the first question to be answered is whether the CPU is lock or unlock" it shold read "Thus the first question to be answered is whether the CPU is locked or unlocked"

third off, i disagree with your philosophy. you say in the Locked CPU (Overclocking with one) section that one should: "Go into your BIOS and set the most aggressive memory timings" , i however, think differently:
this is from another question asking about how to OC

my philosophy, is go in the order of greatest performance gain. you get the most kick out of OCing the CPU, then the GPU, THEN the RAM, last. So you should OC that way.

that's the farthest i've read, hopefully i'll have the time to digest the rest of it, it looks like an excellent guide, and thanks a BUNCH for writing it :D
Click to expand...

I agree.. you should always start with laxed timings and go for max CPU. Then work from there.
 
Thanks for the feedback Carnival Forces. Disagreement is good as long as it is constructive. It gets everyone to a better end point. :D
 
This is constructive. You keep bumping it up forcing us to read and dissect it! :p

Next time proof read and do a little survey first on methods before "publishing" a method the majority is going to disagree with. :)
 
deeppow said:
Thanks for the feedback Carnival Forces. Disagreement is good as long as it is constructive. It gets everyone to a better end point. :D
Click to expand...

Well, what are your reasons for your philosophy? I've given mine, now tell me why I'm wrong :p That way, we can get to the better end point :)
 
Carnival Forces said:
Well, what are your reasons for your philosophy? I've given mine, now tell me why I'm wrong :p That way, we can get to the better end point :)
Click to expand...

First, I didn't agree nor disagree. An opinion is just that and you have your right to one. And yes I think your approach is one possible approach.

I understand your point and it has merit however the race to the fastest overclock was not one of my objectives. Newbies could learn with starting along the approach you suggest or the one I suggest. After learning and understanding the basics, the newbie is free (and expected) to adapt, modify, improve or change the process to fit their needs. I certainly don't walk through the same process each time I change either the memory, cpu or motherboard of my system.

I do really apprecriate your feedback. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond. Goodness knows I don't consider myself much of a writer and need all the help I can get. :)
 
all right, i was just wondering where you stood on that, so (i haven't yet finished reading the guide, it's a long one :p) do you have a section for other philosophies? or are you just planning to leave it the way it is? It seems to me like any OC should be the best OC possible, isn't that the point of OCing?

Regardless, great guide, and keep up the work, i really like how you have hardware specific portions on how to find the max FSB and stuff, that really is quite a nice piece of work. Hopefully, this guide will help [H]'ers get the max OC out (and the max WU/day out :D)

Thanks a bunch! :)
 
deeppow said:
First, I didn't agree nor disagree. An opinion is just that and you have your right to one. And yes I think your approach is one possible approach.

I understand your point and it has merit however the race to the fastest overclock was not one of my objectives. Newbies could learn with starting along the approach you suggest or the one I suggest. After learning and understanding the basics, the newbie is free (and expected) to adapt, modify, improve or change the process to fit their needs. I certainly don't walk through the same process each time I change either the memory, cpu or motherboard of my system.

I do really apprecriate your feedback. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond. Goodness knows I don't consider myself much of a writer and need all the help I can get. :)
Click to expand...


I thought this guide was targeted for newbies??
 
Carnival Forces said:
do you have a section for other philosophies? or are you just planning to leave it the way it is? It seems to me like any OC should be the best OC possible, isn't that the point of OCing?
Click to expand...

No section on other philosophies. But the philosphy I was trying to communicate to the newbie was to learn the basics then adapt. Clearly that isn't what you've read and that realization is very important to the guide and those reading it, i.e to realize that the process isn't cast in granite.

There would appear to be at least a couple options along the lines you suggest but there are down sides to adding other philosophies, such as
- approaches are hardware depend,
- other (or optimal) philosophies can require more frequent updating as new hardware becomes available,
- discussion of more hardware variations and I have no hardware sources that would allow me to test at the level I think is needed. Other than buy it myself which I ain't gona!

I'm very willing to consider variations and change. The guide has been a living document since starting about 1.5 years ago from a page slightly bigger than your original message paste. The variations and changes are of course limited by the resources I have and am willing to bring to bear on the subject. :)
 
all right, i'm still going to (intellectually) disagree with you, i really feel that the way i layed out is the best way to go, regardless of hardware (unless you've got some pII and an x800 in a box together :p)...but okay...

good work really though! I'm glad that there is such a comprehensive (if not strictly in accordance w/ my philosophies) guide out there. Thanks a bunch :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top