Fundamentals of Overclocking

Lowyat.NET Lowyat.NET Rules and Regulations

FAQ Help Search Members Calendar

Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+

Fundamentals of Overclocking, NEWBIES PLS READ THIS BEFORE POSTING

Share on

| Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

iBorg

Nov 20 2003, 12:10 AM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #1

呵呵

Group: VIP
Posts: 1,021
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Hang Zhou, China

( Thread hijacked by PCcrazy for sorting out purpose)

This thread will be updated/cleaned as necessary. PM me to report any dead links

General posting guidelines:-

* Try to keep this thread clean, refrain from posting messages such as "How to overclock?", "thanks", "This ram sucks" etc... Unconstructive posts will be deleted without notice
* Avoid posting long description of the guides, link us to the page instead.

Index

* Lowyat.NET 3DMARKS/AQUAMARK DATABASE, (LowEnd,MidRange,TopEnd)
* Lowyat.NET Super PI Scaling/Ranking, A64/AXP/Prescott/Northwood
* XTREME COOLING: Phase Change, Introduction and How to's
* XTREME COOLING: Pelt + Watercooling, Lots of pics and step by step
* XTREME COOLING : Dry Ice Party
* Q&A As Well As Guides For Graphic Benchmarks
* Tips and tricks for watercooling users, Come share with us your workable tips
* AMD 64/SEMPRON ---- OC DATABASE
* SANDRA 2005 MEMORY OVERCLOCKING CHALLENGE, OVERCLOCKED MEMORY COLLECTION

AMD 64 Related

* Study of Athlon 64 Overclocking Techniques
* Overclocking AMD Athlon64 101
* Jarad's Guide to Overclocking
* A64 940, 754, 939 CPU Models, OPN code, rating

Theories Related to Overclocking

* Upping Vcore and Overvolting Explained.(My Favourite)
* HyperThreading On Desktop.
* SMP (dually setup) , Is It Really worth it?
* BIOS for beginners

Stability Test Program

* Prime95
* Folding@Home
* SiSoft Sandra (Benchmark and burn-in)
* memtest86
* 3DMark

-------------------------------------Still Under Construction--------------------------------------

This post has been edited by soulfly: May 21 2007, 09:25 AM

kucingfight

Nov 21 2003, 05:55 AM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #2

I Want My B00bs back!!
Group Icon

Group: Elite
Posts: 3,836
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Sitiawan / Shah Alam / Putra Heights /

AMD Optimal BIOS settings + Overclocking Guide

To those who ain't sure bout memory timings and getting the max out from ur AMD setup, have a read, it will help a lot

vbNooB

Jan 6 2004, 10:45 AM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #3

61 45 52 4F 7A
Group Icon

Group: Elite
Posts: 1,150
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Folding@Home

QUOTE(daze @ Jan 6 2004, 10:27 AM)

I'm a newbie here...

the question might be silly..
HOW to clock RAM??
i got 1Gb Twin Corsair XMS pc3200 400mhz

Definition: -Clock- : An object that tells time.
Definition: -Clocked- : "Something" that is running at a specified speed.
Definition: -Overclock- : Forcing "something" to run higher than specified speed.

From you post I notice you dont have any knowledge of overclocking at all. Do check out THE LINK provided by kucingfight in the first page to learn about the basics of overclocking on AMDs.

Basically, check out every links about overclocking in this thread.
HERE is a site where you can get your basic overclocking knowledge and advance lessons as well.

Have fun

ikanayam

Feb 6 2004, 06:32 AM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #4

there are no pacts between fish and men

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 10,533
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: GMT +8:00

Overclocking/RAM tweaking guide for newbies:

[24 feb 2004] Recently moved my guides to a new server. Here is the link:

MY OVERCLOCKING AND RAM TWEAKING GUIDES

EDIT: DON'T ASK ME ANYTHING AFTER READING THIS REALLY. I DON'T DO ANY HANDHOLDING.

This post has been edited by ikanayam: Dec 9 2008, 06:42 PM

XTREME

Apr 3 2004, 09:45 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 1-) | Post #5

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 4,534
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Penang

This post has been edited by XTREME: Apr 19 2009, 02:15 PM

enCORe

Apr 27 2004, 06:05 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #6

-Radical Audiofreak & PDAophiles-

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 4,454
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Ampang - Putrajaya

EDITED

How to unlock AMD Tbred 2400+ (Wiring Trick)
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/amd/unlock...locktbredp1.htm

This post has been edited by enCORe: Apr 27 2004, 06:31 PM

xtorm

May 26 2004, 03:00 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #7

^O....OO.....ooo^

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 2,858
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: KLANG!

http://www.bleedinedge.com/guides/psu_3.3v...3v_mod_pg5.html

some comparison b4 n after voltmoting ur psu

dragonajie

Jul 16 2004, 12:09 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #8

dragonpapa, father of a cute little dragonbaby

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 1,340
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Dragonmount, Island of Tar Valon

What I understood from studying and reading this past few weeks, some summary and facts:

1) Processor speed is Multiplier x FSB.
2) First, leave memory setting at auto and overclock the processor to the highest FSB it can achieve.
3) Then, tweak RAM. In very lucky ideal cases (and if you are bloody rich and have uber expensive RAMS), we can get 1:1 ratio (synchronious) of FSB:RAM at tight timings. If not, look for the most stable setting between higher FSB and tight timings, running the RAM asynchroniously with dividers.
4) More often than not tight timings prevails over higher FSB for RAM.
5) Vcore limit is around 1.8V.
6) Vdimm limit is dependant on your motherboard and RAM. Usually RAM can eat up a whole lot of voltage.
7) Processor temperature should not exceed 60 C, keep it between 55 C and 60 C.
8) The best RAM timings for nForce2 boards are arguably 2-2-2-5 and 2-2-2-11. Experiment yourself.
9) Barton 2500+ is unlocked up to multiplier 12.5. Edit: Confused on how to access higher multiplier though... humm...
10) Always test for stability. Use SiSoft Sandra, 3Dmark03, 3Dmark01SE, Prime95, memtest86, CPU-Z, wcpuid.
11) Overclock your graphic card with RIVA Tuner.
12) Artifacts (picture quality defects) in your 3Dmark tests means the graphic card OC is not stable.

There. Hope it will be easier for newbies like me to understand. So, am I ready to OC yet or what?

Please correct me if I'm wrong ok senpai? Thanks.

This post has been edited by dragonajie: Jul 17 2004, 07:32 AM

nVidiaFX

Oct 24 2004, 12:54 AM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #9

s0hailord WEI YUE MENG!

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 4,613
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: KL/PJ

Umm dude, u shouldnt just copy and paste or at least state the author or link...

btw here's a nice newbie guide too http://www.thetechzone.com/articles/how_to...ing/index.shtml

kucingfight

Nov 23 2004, 03:06 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #10

I Want My B00bs back!!
Group Icon

Group: Elite
Posts: 3,836
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Sitiawan / Shah Alam / Putra Heights /

Newbies read>>>>> HERE

datto

Jan 28 2005, 05:31 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #11

a.k.a. datsun turbo

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 1,063
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: s'ban | KL

cpu overclocking utilities
cpufsb
clockgen

i need more. this is only what i can find. crappy chip magazine also review this.
pls add more if u know any that supports more chipset. but not the one that created by mobo manufacturers eg: uGURU, asus AI Overclocking, etc

arj

Feb 9 2005, 05:01 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #12

RED DEVIL

Group: Staff
Posts: 4,639
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Kg Sg Penchala, KL

A64 Overclocking

Overclocking AMD Athlon64 101

Jarad's Guide to Overclocking

The Ultimate CPU GUIDE (Overclocking & Cooling) (free registration required)

wenloong78

Mar 5 2005, 05:16 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #13

Enthusiast

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 773
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003

Some Overclocking Faq

hopes that help

HMMaster

Apr 3 2005, 10:57 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #14

^ My expression after browsing /k/
Group Icon

Group: Moderator
Posts: 8,378
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Seri Kembangan, Selangor

Study of Athlon 64 Overclocking Techniques

KeonG118

May 18 2005, 03:46 AM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #15

- Do as Infinity -

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 1,132
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Mar 2005
From: * Care-L *

[ Guide ]

1.) Intel Pentium 4 Overclocking 101

2.) Step by Step OC Athlon 64 - by dave164

QUOTE

1.) This guide is a general guide mostly based on Athlon 64's, overclocking is basically the same for the rest of the Athlon series.
2.) We cannot predict what your chip can do, it depends on quality of the core, the hardware and the cooling that you have.
3.) What temperatures are dangerous? Well for A64's, 60c load is the absolute most, my old 3000+ Clawhammer once spiked to 60c and I couldn't get past post and my BIOS said bad cpu temperature, etc.. 30-40c is normal idle for it, I've seen many 25c - 30c and personally if its any higher than that idle, get some airflow or better cooling!!!!

Its helpful to start off with decent hardware and cooling to overclock with, I don't mind threads being made on this as it changes a lot.

Main

Well with all that said and done, and providing you have what you need heres the primary information to overclock your cpu:

1. To start off with you need to get into the BIOS, this is where you control everything your computer does more or less. You do this usually by pressing the Del key when you've restarted / started up. Usually your prompted at start-up saying which key to press to get in.
2. Turn off Cool n' Quiet and any cooling methods you have set in your BIOS such as this and Q'fan control.
3. With the majority of s754 boards especially the ASUS dont have pci/agp locks so you cant go as far as you would like. The DFI s754 boards do i believe. All s939 boards do as far as i know. Set the AGP / pci locks at 33(pci)/66(agp). I have heard that when people have increased there CPU Frequency there agp has auto moved from 66 to a differnt number, so they set it to 67 and it stayed there.
4. Go to the section which is named either Jumper free settings, advanced chipset features, or sometimes can be completely different, that's what I can remember.
5. In that section there should be a bit called CPU Frequency that is set to 200Mhz. This is what you raise when you want to increase the clock speed of the CPU.
6. I recommend raising this by 5Mhz at a time, this is infact about 50Mhz for the actual clock speed (to find out what it is for you times the CPU Frequency by the multiplier of the CPU.
7. Exit and save, see if you can get into Windows, if so run a benchmarking program such as 3DMark03/05 or SiSoft Pro 2005. If the computer doesn't crash or you don't get any artefacts then you can class it as stable.
8. Keep repeating processes 5-6 untill the computer crashes, you cant get into windows, doesn't go past post, or games randomly freeze. At this point you can play with the RAM timings and voltages.

Timings

To take your CPU further it helps to have RAM with the timings 2-2-2-5 or RAM that can take big voltages.

1. Go to Advanced options again; there should be some options to change your memory settings. If there isn't any try pressing ctrl + f1.
2. Change the timings to 2.5-3-3-7 at the lowest if you have timings default at 2-2-2-5. If you don't have 2-2-2-5 or close you may as well stop reading this and go to the next section on upping the voltage
3. When this is changed up the CPU Frequency bit by bit more like in steps 5-6

This should get you further as there is less strain on the RAM.

Voltage

To get the RAM & CPU further it's sometimes ok to raise the voltage on the chips. For RAM otherwise stated I wouldn't go over 2.7. I know my OCZ Platinum Rev2 can do 2.8 and it says on the OCZ site it can do 2.9, so check out what other people have been able to do. Also for the Athlon 64s I wouldn't go over 1.6 / 1.65v, My Clawhammer could do 1.7 on air, but I wouldn't advise anyone to do that.

RAM

To raise the voltages of the RAM it could be called RAM Voltage, DDR Voltage or vdimm, I haven't seen anything else yet. You should be able to set it to 2.6/2.7/2.8 or even higher on the DFI motherboards.

CPU

To raise the voltage of the CPU is could be called vcore or CPU voltage. It goes up by .025 so 1.4, 1.425, 1.45, 1.475, etc.. Like I said above don't go over 1.6/1.65 with the A64's unless you have proper cooling! But even then it can fry your chip.

HT

Sometimes the CPU can have to much strain on the HT so lower it from 5x (1000Mhz for s939) or 4x (800mhz for s754) to the step below (800Mhz for s939, 600Mhz for s754)

Credits for Mr. dave164

[ Software ]

1.) PC Wizard - Download link

Description

CODE

PC WIZARD 2005 is a powerful utility designed especially for detection of hardware, but also some more analysis. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards. This tool is periodically updated (usually once per month) in order to provide most accurate results. Besides, It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, Cache performance, RAM performance, Hard Disk performance, CD/DVD-ROM performance, Removable/FLASH Media performance, Video performance, MP3 compression performance.

2.) ClockGen - Download Link

Description

CODE

ClockGen: Make sure your get the version for your Chipset. This program allows you to Overclock from within windows. Not always as reliable as physically changing BIOS settings, but gives you an easy way to play with your settings without dozens of reboots.

This post has been edited by KeonG118: Jul 21 2005, 05:24 PM

PCcrazy

May 18 2005, 06:36 AM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #16

Milanista

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 3,224
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: B.B.Bangi

PLS note, if you are already a pro, don't bother to read okay.

Overclocking common problems
Things to consider before or when stuck on your way achieving the limit.

Since countless of overclocking problems were replied time after time, I'm going to write down basics steps overclockers need to address before proceeding with overclocking.

1. My motherboard has overclocking functions on the fly setting utilities in Windows, but using it causes a lot of restart to occur, why is this happening?
Most of time, motherboard manufacturers such as Abit or Asus did come with overclocking on the fly utilities. A lot of times these don't actually set correct values at the higher end and you won't be able to boot. But overclocking is actually best done through BIOS due to many features that can be tweaked to ensure stability.

2. It should be noted that CPU: DRAM is the standard typically set in Intel system. This means if you apply the ratio system other than 1:1, your RAM will not be running synchronously with the CPU.

3.Iincreasing the FSB corrupts my HDD data and causes graphics card instability, why?
This has always being mentioned in all overclocking guides. And I quoted them back, in order to achieve high overclock without corrupting any data or getting artifacts one must lock the frequency of AGP and PCI. Typically 66 Mhz is for AGP and 33 Mhz for PCI.
Don't bother overclocking PCI and AGP frequency; you will not get any performance advantage but only harms the stability.

4. Increasing vcore will not help, is there anything I can do?
Monitor the voltage fluctuation on the vcore, if the values fluctuates too much that would be probably because of low amp supplied to 12v rails. Typically in Malaysia, on a basic system without the SLI most of the people achieve decent overclock with Enlight 420W which have 12v rails of 18amp, more is always better. If u want to know if the stability of overclocking is affected by insufficient power, you can always unplug everything such as CD-ROM drive, extra HDD, fans (please leave the proc fan and NB fan running though). If this result in a little increment in stability, it may tell that your system is actually crying for more juices.

5. I have Intel board, can I overclock?
Unfortunately Intel board doesn't allow overclocking since they restrict anyone from modifying the BIOS options. In other words BIOS don't have the tools needed to perform overclocking functions. I did not mention it was impossible though, how? Google dude.

6. When I set the proc and ram to run over specification the rig wouldn't boot no matter what I do, how to fired it up again?
As usual, every motherboard has a jumper to set clear the CMOS, it has 3 prongs, and a jumper is connecting two of the prongs. Get rid of the jumper and connect the middle prong with the other prong that wasn't used. Let the jumper there about couple of seconds, and then put the jumper back to where it was before. Provided you can't find the manual, just plug the battery off. When clearing CMOS please make sure to unplug power cable to prevent any shorting to occur.

7. What configuration is considered tight timing and which RAM is capable of pulling that?
Typical KVR has loose timing at stock (3-3-3-8), increasing the FSB even by small margin need to loose the timing to (3-4-4-8). Configuring the timing to 3-5-5-11 wouldn't help scaling the value higher. This applies to Btd43 and some Dtd43 as well as normal KVR. The only difference is that normal KVR can only do not more than 225 fsb/htt typically while d43's manage to pull out 250++ at loose timing of (3-4-4-8). Please note that if you are lucky you might as well bump into 250++ capable d43 at respectable timing of (3-3-3-8). Back to the question, tight timing is actually a configuration of no less than 2-2-2-5. Most chipset needs high vdimm in order to scale the timing at higher fsb/htt. OCZ VX and most of the BH5, CH5 is capable of doing something similar.

8. What is the safe temperature for my proc?
Anything around 60 degrees at full load priming for AMD64 and possibly around 70 degrees for P4 Prescott is considered safe. Please noted that the cooler your proc run, the higher the potential of getting more speed. (I'm not going to explain this as it will be too long).

9. Heard there is some bug about AMD64 memory controller, what is it?
Memory running on AMD64 system is quite fussy unlike those of Intel. Running all four DIMMS is no good as the on die memory controller might downclock your RAM frequency and command rate resulting in loss of huge bandwidth.

10. When you overclock, the settings in the BIOS all should manually set to prevent unnecessary CMOS clearing. For example most of the problem occurred when ram timing is set to turbo, it means that raising FSB normally result in no boot up.

11. If all matters raising the HTT/FSB fail, updating BIOS may resolve the issues. I had one Neo2 unable to boot even from 2.0 GHz to 2.1 GHz, updating BIOS solve the issue.

12. FX-55 multi is unlocked while other AMD64 is locked upwards. When overclocking make sure you dont exceed the board HTT specification of 1000. LDT (5) x HTT (200) is equivalent = 1000 (at stock). Unless you're using an 8x multiplier, there shouldn't be much reason to go far above 300MHz in many cases.

Welcome into the world of overclocking, (problems can be a nuisance and sucess is definitely a cure)
At this particular time, above is all I can remember.
I will keep coming back for more newbie's tips. I hope by making this would attract more forumers being interested in overclocking, anything wrong please mention it okay.
Actually I got more coming in, but since this is already too long, maybe later on will appear with the shorter revision. Guys if you encounter any sort of problems with the solution please share.

Enjoy,
PCcrazy

I did noticed many of broken links. So I cleared it up to make things easy for newbies to refer.

ceo684

May 24 2005, 12:42 AM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #17

Component Burner

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 7,119
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: Klang/Subang

Bit-Tech AMD Processor Stepping Guide

http://vb3.forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.ph...224&postcount=7

tachlio

Jun 25 2005, 01:44 AM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #18

de~sign "ing"

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 2,210
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: May 2005
From: Penang *̡͌l̡*̡̡

still noob about OCz ,and when seaching the way about OC finding this side
hope got help to those OCz...
it got so many link here~~

This post has been edited by tachlio: Feb 4 2006, 10:19 AM

Westley

Aug 3 2005, 02:07 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #19

Night Crawler...

Group: Store Representative
Posts: 655
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: PG/KL/CYBERJAYA

OCCT, another cpu stability testing and burn-in software

http://www.ocbase.com/downocct.html

PCcrazy

Aug 9 2005, 01:57 PM

Show posts by this member only |This post's rating (0+, 0-) | Post #20

Milanista

Group: Senior Member
Posts: 3,224
Ratings earned: 0+, 0-
Ratings given: 0+, 0-

Joined: Jan 2003
From: B.B.Bangi

QUOTE(joylay83 @ Aug 9 2005, 03:05 AM)

is there any software to measure ram temperature? coz last time when my fren oc his abit the ram temp go up also even if he oc his proc. i using asus board. thanks

No software can measure the temperature if there is no hardware/external sensor temperatures via optional probes installed. Some motherboards either do not show exact figures or do not support RAM temperature monitoring at all. So,we make use of lay a hand on technique most of the time and formulate educated estimation about it. Btw, before touching the RAM please make sure to ground yourself first as to avoid static charge.

« Next Oldest · Overclockers United · Next Newest »