Overclocking for the first time

[Owskie]

COOLER MASTER RC-690
Radeon HD 4890
Seagate Barracuda 7200 500 GB
Antec EarthWatts EA650
G.Skill Ripjaw 1.5v 4gbs ram
Phenom 2 x3
Gigabyte mobo
Cooler Master 212 Hyper +

Let's get this ball rollin. Which programs should I get, and where should I start?

 

[BillParrish]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1169366

 

[Owskie]

not my mobo, but i downloaded the programs.

 

[Owskie]

GA-MA790GPT-UD3H

how can I tell if I should update the bios?

 

[BillParrish]

oops AMD cpu my bad, lol yea well the stress and reporting progs are the same. Sorry bout that.


When the computer first starts it should be at the bottom of the screen. It is sometimes a problem as your monitor may not "come alive" fast enough to see. Also check the main bios screen to see if a version number is listed. You will most likely have to disable "show logo screen" or something to that effect in the bios so you see the more informational startup screens which on intel boards display the bios version number on the bottom left on start up. Sometimes you can hit ctrl-alt-del before windows starts up to quckly reset the machine so you can catch the version number on that first screen.

If all else fails I am sure that somewhere on gigabytes web site there is a page that tells you how to find it, look under support or go to your motherboards product page, select bios updates and look around for a link on how to find the current bios version.

Not postive about AMD mbs but on the Intel ones the easiest way to update is to download the bios file, execute it, (which will explode/unzip the installer program and the actual bios file), all you need is the actual bios file (usually something.bin) but just the bios file on a memory stick formatted as a floppy or on a floppy if you have one and use the bios update F key from the main bios screen. Look along the bottom of the main bios screen for the bios update key.