Noobie Overclocking Help

A

at_viper

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 21, 2008
Messages
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I am new to building computers however, i know a think or two about them. I am building my first computer and am very curious about over clocking. I have read through numerous over clocking threads but im still not sure what to do. Any help would be great and much appreciated. My specs are as follows.

Motherboard - ECS GeForce6100SM-M (V1.0/1.0A)
On Board Graphics - GeForce 6100/ nforce405 chipset
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3800+ x2
Ram - 2gb (2 x 1gb) Dual Channel OCZ GOLD DDR2 PC2 5400

Any other needed information I can provide.
Thanks for any help.
 
Well the first thing i'd do is run a stress test and find out the temps for your CPU, Motherboard, ect.

Use Orthos or Prime95 to run the stress test, i'd keep it running until it looks like the temps won't go up anymore, that might be like 5 minutes or so, it all depends.


Seeing your temps will see how much overclocking headroom you have.

CPU max temp should be under 60c probably, if it starts getting up to 65c or 75c you should let it cool down.
 
I was curious and downloaded the manual for that board.

I regret to tell you that your overclocking options are limited to raising the cpu clock speed only. There are no memory timing adjustments or Voltage adjustments on that board unless they very very recently changed the bios to include them and that would be unlikely.

That said you should be able to raise the CPU speed some and get a bit more out of the board but you probably will not see the difference in games as the on-board video is what is killing you.

If you play games the very best thing you could do is to get off the on-board graphics. The performance increase would be incredible. Disable the on-board graphics and slap in a real video card. Even a basic inexpensive card would be better than the on-board which, frankly, is awful even for on-board graphics.

Google "GeForce6100SM-M overclock"

If lucky someone out there has modded the bios to allow more adjustments. But the video is really your problem.
 
I am not into the high demanding graphics games. I am a big fan of the C and C games as well as Age of Empires 3. Which graphics card would you recommend to run Age 3 well?
Obviously the new Geforce 9000 series just came out and the 8000 series was amazing. Im not looking to spend a whole lot.
 
I would recomend 9600GT which can run around $150 or a 8800GT which is a little more. If thats not your price range then i would go for a 8600GT. just realy depends on your resolution.

I've got the same processor as you and im looking into overclocking it but voltages changes are scary.
 
at_viper said:
I am not into the high demanding graphics games. I am a big fan of the C and C games as well as Age of Empires 3. Which graphics card would you recommend to run Age 3 well?
Obviously the new Geforce 9000 series just came out and the 8000 series was amazing. Im not looking to spend a whole lot.
Click to expand...


Frankly (hmm overusing that word lately) ANYTHING even a $50 card would be a huge improvement and will just floor you on how much better your games run.

To my thinking (and you are not me so do what suits your situation)

1) you can buy a card with the thought of upgrading the rest of the machine later which is very risky as new better stuff is always coming out, in that case an Nvidia 8600 ATI 3750 8800GTS but I dont think you need all that, if your games are playable now an inexpensive card makes more sense (to me). I would put another stick(s) of ram in instead of spending more on a high performace card and your video slot only runs at 8x instead of the high performance 16x. That really does not hurt performance all that much but still argues in favor of not going out and spending a ton on a card.


or

2) something inexpensive but with a noticable performance boost and worry about building a killer machine later, if at all. As I mentioned ANY video card, even the cheapest one, will give a performance increase you should be able to imedately "feel" in games.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130316
(least expensive DX10 card and with a $10 rebate)

or just list out the video cards by price
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&N=2010380048+1069609641&name=PCI+Express+x16

and go up until you hit your budget and pick one that is DX10 or DX9 PCI-e. Check the warranty too, I like EVGA, if you register on their web site it is a lifetime warranty, and they honor it.





Just make sure it supports DX10 (not that you really need it but it ensures you are getting a fairly recent card that will perform well, run cool and be fine with any newer games coming out in the next year or so). A really good deal on a DX9 card would be worth considering if the price is right. DX7 and 8 are older cards, pass.
 
Ok thanks for you help, it is much appreciated. I have seen the performance difference between what i currently have and the 8600 GT and it was HUGE. I know that the 9000 series just came out and that the 8000 series will drop in price as it has started to already. I am going to try to find a new MoBo and will try to find an 8600 for around 50 bucks. Any recommendations on MoBo's (I realize this is the brain but I have a hard time shelling out hundreds of dollars on a piece of a computer. I would be willing to spend between $30 and $75 if its an amazing deal.) Once again Bill thanks for all your help.
 
Unfortunatley I am not up on AMD boards, sorry. But I will say that I dont see any need to upgrade the CPU unless you do hit a game that wont run well. I would post in the AMD motherboard section asking for opinions on best bang for buck budget AMD gamer board. Make sure you say you want it to be able to use your current cpu and ram (should not be a problem) . Remeber you might need a new power supply if yours is rated under 300W if you go for a higher end video card like an 8800GT. Usually they have a sticker on the side and you are looking at the +12V wattage mainly. So careful it could "snowball" on you in that one upgrade needs another until it starts getting expensive.
 
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