writing an OC FAQ - looking for additional help

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rogue_jedi

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 6, 2002
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as the title says, i'm going to undertake the writing of an OC FAQ. i'm gonna need help, especially in the p4/a64 area, as i have experience mainly with AMD systems (my own) i've worked with p4 systems (and my brother has an overclocked one too which i helped him build) but i've never used an a64/afx - i've only dreamed about it (and what wonderful dreams they are :eek: ) but anyway. submissions are requested on the topic of intel/amd/video card(possibly, but probably not right away - i don't have THAT much free time on my hands) overclocking. if i use your submission i'll mention you. questions (general or specific) would also be useful.

thanks, and i'll post updates on how it's coming here (i'm working on the FSB explanation right now - it is the first thing) the actual FAQ will get it's own thread when i get enough done to post it.

later.
 
bump cause i still need questions. i don't have a very good imagination for coming up with questions, i need some to be submitted to me!

/help me please/
/i might give gmail invites when i get some or cookies to those who submit worthy questions/
/please help/
/please/


and yes, i'm trying to bribe you. i want this done right. and if i need to bribe you, so be it.
 
Questions ? hmm
How hot is too hot ?
Do I need better cooling ?
Is this voltage safe ?
Do I need a new PSU ?
Is my Ram holding me back ?
Is my personal hygene limiting my overclock ?

Sorry less than helpfull
 
what u really need to talk about is the very very basics of overclocking, what u should have to start, such as psu, what are good ones for overclocking and such then move onto ram, and what is pc2100, 2700,3200,3500,4000 how one or the other is good, then move to the board itself what are some good features for a board to have, also state about pci/agp lock on a64, then talk about multipliers, what fsb is, what cpu really is, how a basic operation of a computer works and why u can overclock something and how ram effects your total overclock. then talk about voltages will more increase heat, well yes then go into detail about cooling setups and ram voltages. what are the do's and do nots in overclocks. stuff about post screens, and cpu errors. then place links for downloads like prime and memtest, cpuz, mbm5. if u have that anyone can begin to overclock. also put in what are signs that you've gone to far and how to fix it. that should be good. can i get a medal now?
 
Good input qwert
I think alot of people new to overclocking like the performance increase and the elicit feeling of getting something for free but really ( I can relate) don't want to fry their gear .

1. Good Cooling ( Case, CPU , GPU , NB )
2. Sane Voltage increases
3. Stability testing

Also it might be worth pointing out that high-end procs usually don't overclock as well ( as a percentage of original clockspeed ) than low-end procs (you know the reason) , and that PC 4400 is not going to garrantee the fatest performance ( latency vs clockspeed ) if your stuck at say 230 with a 3.2 c ( just a random example ) . Lastly consider any overclocking a bonus and you wont be sad if you can't reach what Jo overclocker could .

Don't what any free stuff - good luck m8
 
Qwertyman: you're first on my list. as soon as i get more invites... i've only had one and i used it already. heck, i didn't know most of the ram timings things before you posted them there.

thanks for the questions. i'll probably get back to writing it tomorrow - er, later today - i just got ut2004 working on my linux install, and it doesn't have random temporary lockups like in windows, so i haven't been doing much with it... but i'll try and re-prioritize. hopefully i'll have something decent by the end of the week before i go away for a week. (a whole week without the internet... i don't know how i'll make it... the internet is my form of crack - i needs ma fix)

so yeah. later.
 
Cool, sounds like you've got some material to work with here.
Aside from the basic operations of overclocking, after that you might want to delve into cooling solutions to aid in overclocking. High end aircooling, watercooling, phase change are all good options, steer clear of prebuilt compact WC units, passive cooling units, etc. Add heatsinks to MOSFETS, northbridge, watercool the powersupply, videocard, etc. This might reduce the number of people who come in here with "new & radical ideas" like the ones I just mentioned, wondering if they're possible.
 
heh... was wondering when you were going to reply. i've got some reading to do for school before i can get going, but it shouldn't be too long. i'm kinda tired now, cause i was a bit stupid and went to bed at 4am. but whatever. i'll get to work on it this afternoon, and probably have something up tomorrow or so.

later.
 
got the alpha 1 version up... go here and click the link.

lemme know what you think. input is important, unless you want this to suck.

Qwertyman: still no invites to give away:( you'll get the next one i get to give away i swear. really.

later.

edited cuz the host doesn't like direct linking.
 
I have a problem with this line:
" A reservoir is helpful because it adds to the volume of the water in the loop and thus increases performance and also makes filling and bleeding (getting the air bubbles out of the loop) and maintenance easier. "
Increased volume only serves to prolong the time taken to reach thermal equilibrium, unless the reservoir itself is acting as a heat transfer device (which in most cases is NOT the case). I'd say the only benefit to a res is for filling/bleeding ease, and for aesthetics.

Also, mention that peltiers are more formally called Thermo-Electric Coolers.

Perhaps a word or two about BIOS overclocking vs software options.

Common apps that people use to determine stability.

Consequences of overclocking (fried equipment, corrupt data, unstable system)

Looking good in general, keep up the excellent work!
 
there's a reason i said alpha 1. hehe... that stuff all comes later. this is just the beginning... but i'll make sure i cover all that stuff.

i should have an update tomorrow afternoon or so and it should start getting into overclocking limitations (ie how ram/psu/mobo limits performance)

i'm willing to accept suggestions on how to structure this, though. i'll probably cover all the basic stuff first (how will this oc/is this a good oc/is this too hot) then the cooling section then the explanations of what stuff is (fsb/multi/all that) then how actual overclocking works then the risks, and finally how to determine if it is stable, and fixes for how to make it stable. so basically a thing you can follow from start to finish and know how to overclock. lemme know if this seems like a logical progression.
 
alpha 2 is up, visit my site and click the linky.

all comments are welcome, even the abusive ones (but i won't promise i'll like them)

later.

oh and sorry for making those of you who have already read the alpha1 read it again in alpha2... but i thought i'd better keep them integrated into a single file so you can see how it all goes together.

and i fixed that line, zero.
 
anyone else going to comment?

i wanna see how this version is before i keep going and i need outside input. thx.
 
i'm not gonna keep going until i find out how people like this one... so i need to know. really. i don't wanna keep going and get all done just to find out everyone hates what i've done. so i'm taking it in steps to make it easier to take a close look at everything.

later

/end afternoon bump/
 
It's looking good, very thorough too. I don't know if you plan to change this, but the FSB section seems a little out of place at the end there.
Maybe a bit of overclocking history, if you have the background info. Beginning back in the days of oscillator crystal overclocking, to the days of putting fans on passively-cooled processors and fooling around with mobo jumpers, the more recent overclocking beasts (1600+ palomino, 1700+ tbred)...
And again, you might mention common methods of testing stability.

I also noticed a few grammatical and spelling errors that Word could easily pick out and fix for you, but that's a matter of whether or not you, the author, actually care.

Great job overall, it looks like you've put tons of effort into this! It's good to have people around that actually take the time to do things for other peoples' sake.
 
i think you should gather info on specific processors and give worst,average, and best overclocks from this processor on air, water, and phase change cooling. for instance, the best i've seen from my a mobile 2500+ barton is AT LEAST 2.2, average 2.4-2.5, and best 2.6 on air. and probably the same for water and air cooling except they can probably get up to 2.8 relatively easy.
 
misfitsfiend said:
i think you should gather info on specific processors and give worst,average, and best overclocks from this processor on air, water, and phase change cooling. for instance, the best i've seen from my a mobile 2500+ barton is AT LEAST 2.2, average 2.4-2.5, and best 2.6 on air. and probably the same for water and air cooling except they can probably get up to 2.8 relatively easy.
Click to expand...


That would be a very daunting task, and similar results can be obtained by searching on overclockers.com. They have a large database of overclocks categorized by processor.
 
zer0signal667 said:
It's looking good, very thorough too. I don't know if you plan to change this, but the FSB section seems a little out of place at the end there.
Maybe a bit of overclocking history, if you have the background info. Beginning back in the days of oscillator crystal overclocking, to the days of putting fans on passively-cooled processors and fooling around with mobo jumpers, the more recent overclocking beasts (1600+ palomino, 1700+ tbred)...
And again, you might mention common methods of testing stability.

I also noticed a few grammatical and spelling errors that Word could easily pick out and fix for you, but that's a matter of whether or not you, the author, actually care.

Great job overall, it looks like you've put tons of effort into this! It's good to have people around that actually take the time to do things for other peoples' sake.
Click to expand...

i figured there would be grammatical/spelling errors. i am, afterall, writing this in notepad/kwrite. don't feel like dealing with starting office to work on it, i just want to open it, get some done, and then save and quit. shaving 5 minutes (not really, but still) off the open time is good. anywho.

if anyone'd care to submit a 'history of overclocking' it'd be greatly appreciated. i've known about overclocking since i was using a pentium 1 (and everyone else was using a pentium 3 - but i've since caught up... AXP mobile @ ~2.5:)) but i didn't really get into overclocking until i bought a gf2. i screwed around with multiplier/fsb on a k6-2 before that, but that was just trying to get a 475mhz chip to run closer to that then the 366mhz it started at. so anyway, a history section would most likely have to be a submission by someone else.

the fsb section (actually the first thing i did) is going to be part of a more in depth look at how overclocking works and what it is. i'm going to (try to) explain fsb, multipliers, memory dividers, memory timings, pci/agp lock, and probably some other stuff and what it all means for your overclock there. i could probably post up to there now, and then add the rest in at a later date, but i'd rather get it up in one big chunk so more people get more knowledge. and i'll have a seperate comments thread, too, to keep it clean.

and a database of overclocks isn't happening in this FAQ, but one would get linked (or at least i'd link a google search)

progress over the next week and a half is going to be a bit slow, as i want to start on the shroud for my heatercore, and i also have to pack for a trip that'll take all next week (and i won't have internet access) my dremel also burned out today while i was cutting a heatsink for my southbridge:( and i don't have a hacksaw anymore:(
but enough about me and my troubles. i'll try to get one more update up before i leave (and maybe in HTML so it can be a direct link - but it'd just be a copy/paste into a WYSIWYG editor) but i'm not promising anything (yet)

later.
 
well, there will be no update for about a week and a half. it's 12:15AM, and i haven't gotten a chance to work on the FAQ today (i was out most of the day) and i need to get packed for my vacation later today (about 10 hours later probably)

so anyway, nothing new coming for a while. couldn't really be helped (i'm also trying to finish the single player ut2004, and the fact that i'm getting a bit bored with 2k4/everything else so i play a match, then quit, then come back in 15 minutes and do another one doesn't really help)

so until next week then.

Same [H] time, same [H] channel!
 
......aaaand i'm back! and this thread is up top again! i'll try to get something up tomorrow, but i'm really tired so it wouldn't be much good probably. i should have an update by monday.
 
I have some questions regarding the FSB section of your FAQ.

For example, running the memory clock faster than the FSB does not really help at all.
Click to expand...

Does this mean that I should not be using a ratio of 2:1?

Basically I am trying to get OCZ PC3700EB memory to run at 466mhz on an ASUS A8V Delux and FX-53 processor. I THOUGHT that the proper way to do this was to set my FSB to 233mhz and then set my ratio to 2:1. I haven't been able to get my system running stable at those speeds.

Is this all wrong?

Thanks for any help,
Ryan Brucks
Level Designer
Epic Games
 
RyanBrucks said:
Does this mean that I should not be using a ratio of 2:1?

Basically I am trying to get OCZ PC3700EB memory to run at 466mhz on an ASUS A8V Delux and FX-53 processor. I THOUGHT that the proper way to do this was to set my FSB to 233mhz and then set my ratio to 2:1. I haven't been able to get my system running stable at those speeds.

Is this all wrong?

Thanks for any help,
Ryan Brucks
Level Designer
Epic Games
Click to expand...

yeah, it is pretty much all wrong. you want a 1:1 ratio to get the 466mhz out of the memory at 233fsb. keep in mind that the 466mhz is really a DDR rating, and not an actual clock. the actual clock is 233mhz. however, running out of sync is less of a problem on a64 systems because of how the memory is accessed and how the memory controller is set up.

but put it at 1:1 and you should be alright.
 
ok I just tried changing my Memclock to CPU ratio to 1:1, setting FSB to 233 and CPU multiplier to 10.5.

It crashed on the first boot. Simply lockup up during XP load. I pumped up the cpu voltage to 1.6 and tried again. I got into windows fine, but my wifi card wasn't working at all. I loaded up CPU-Z and found that my memory speed was 116.5mhz, which is one half of 233mhz.

How on earth does that make sense? This is only confusing me more lol.
 
what memory speed is reported when the fsb is set to default with a 1:1 ratio? is the cpu speed 2450 or 1225 (close to either) with the fsb at 233 according to CPU-Z? i think you're reporting your fsb as the doubled fsb and not the actual clock, but if not then i don't know what's going on and you should start a thread seperately to ask about that. it may just be your motherboard isn't supported correctly by CPU-Z or something like that.

good luck though.

back to the FAQ, i should be able to get some work done tonight on it. i'll see (and upload it as soon as i get done with the next revision)
 
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