So what is it, and can a non-serious PC user do it? I built my own machine, and can do a bit in the BIOS setting, but never attempted overclocking.
So, would it be worth me giving a go, or should I get in my local teccie guy to do it for me.
And I've had CPU overheating problems down to no new paste when I replaced the MB (got some paste today), is it worth getting a new CPU
heatsink/fan? If so, any recommendations?
Dont know anything about overclocking (other than i could do with a bit more performance on the laptop), but i wouldnt bother with a new heatsink or
fan.
Just plenty of thermal paste. Its surprising how much of a difference it makes. You can see the CPU temperature from the BIOS screen.
use decent paste. i got some paste from a local shop, couple of quid. It made my cpu run around 28C, after switching to artic silver it came down to 14C.
Ahhh - just spent £4 in PC world for probably poo paste, I'll get some Artic Silver then!
I'd give it a go. But you'll want to sort out the over-heating problem first... if it's over-heating as it is just wait until you crank
up the clock speed.
Get the cooling sorted first then use a program like Speedfan to keep an eye on the CPU temperature whilst running Prime95 on torture test.
If Prime95 gets readings it's not expecting it will warn you (suggestive of your rig becoming unstable due to excessive over-clocking). Slowly
increase the speed and job's a good 'un.
You might need to have a look at your memory speeds as well to make sure they can handle the increase.
It does get quite complicated 
Well it depends how much increase you want? I used to have water cooled rig running around + 25% and it was stinking hot. Your going to wreck
something using a oem heatsink and fan. But 1st off, what mobo, gpu and cpu are you using?
Thermal paste is there to fill in any small gaps between the heatsink and core, to remove air. Its there to assist the heatsink and only the minimum
amount should be used.
I would have thought a 5% increase could be achieved with stock parts, then 10% aftermarket coolers. anything over 20% your into water cooling. Of
course its all academic if your mobo has crap overclocking options.
Mobo is a new EVGA 780i SLi 775:
http://www.evga.com/articles/385.asp
CPU is a Quad Core Intel - can't remember which one, memory is new Corsair sticks with heat sinks - 6Gb. Running 64bit Windows 7.
Gpu is a new NVidia 896MB XFX GTX 260 Black 55nm, 2000MHz GDDR3, GPU 680MHz, Shader 1440 MHz, 216 Cores,
[Edited on 29/12/09 by Jasper]
For a boggo machine £4 pcswerl paste is proberbly fine to be honest.
- Overclocking potential depends a lot of CPU and Mobo options.
Im running a 1800+ athlon chip (default clock speed 1400mhz ish at a 2200mhz but its a JIUHB chip (certain batch or type of althon chip from around
that time) and there infamous for overclocking.
This is on an oem spec heatsink and fan, with the fan running on 7v not 12, stock vcore voltage. Running a stable 40deg idle 55deg at full load. Maybe
60 on a hotday.
But yeah, in short, significate overlclocks are possable. But more than 5% or so is rair without a lot of work. Fot more info head to somehwere like
hexus forums or even a dedicated overclocking forum (anyhwere but OcUK)
Daniel
For the record I went from 2.66Ghz to 3.02Ghz on a standard heatsink and fan with just some CPU goo
Stable as a rock. And that's a P4 which are pretty toasty warm to begin with...
You got to be carefull. People will say that it runs fine but if the psu fails or parts of the psu fails you have no motherboard and processor.
If you want to overclock please add a better fan. Alot of the fans out there tell you what speed they are designed for so know what you want to go up
to or there abouts and then buy a better fan. Then move in slow amounts, so go about 10mbs first and then test and keep on moving up till it crashies
then go back one step and test again if it works fine then i wouldnt go futher.
I did write a walkthrough about it once but i'm not at home to post it up. Ill have a look for it later and post it up.
Dusty
I used to have an old PIII 500 that clocked up to over 700 and still ran but it did get hot. With quad core the price they are now I can't see any point in it. Your best option nowadays is to upgrade your graphics card which is where the big improvements will be but it is also the most expensive part to change.
quad cores are good overclockers. mine is a q6600 and is running at 3Ghz from a stock 2.4Ghz(25% increase) without having to up the voltage. it was
stable at 3.4Ghz but the temps got a little high.
i'm using a arctic cooling freezer 7 which is a cheap option, much better ones are available.
best thing to do is have a search on the net for overclocking guides and have a read of a few.
first thing i do with a new CPU is overclock it, might as well have it running as fast as it can
A really decent PSU (compared to the utter crap you get with cheap cases) is a very worthy investment, but ultimately over-clocking ability comes down to motherboard, CPU and RAM performance. Note that power consumption rises with clock rate, so decent cooling is mandatory
your GTX 260 will run like a toaster when you put a decent 3d game through it. It's a big card so will break up the airflow around your case.
If you're going to overclock then get a decent heatsink/fan combo and look at your case fans or the location of your case (think of it like a
radiator).
You might also look at the power supply that you have. Not so much for the massive wattages that you read about (a bit like BHP pub chat) but the
fact that cabling is modular - I use the predecessor to this in a
gaming rig and had two nvidia cards in Sli on it.
Have a look here for all of the info that you need.
Steve
Back in the day I had a PIII 650MHz running at 975MHz solid as a rock with just a better heatsink and fan! Those CPUs were famous overclockers. It
would go higher - up to 1GHz but, if I recall, that required non standard settings for memory and PCI/AGP etc that my other bits complained about and
the system was unstable.
Stuff I've had after that - AMDs mostly hasn't responded to even slight overclocking at all so I've not bothered. Am now considering
upgrading to an i5 and hear they are great overclockers with the standard 2.6GHz taken all the way up to 4 in some extreme cases!
My knowledge is out of date now as it was from the PIII days. Anyone know how much things have changed? Your overclocking options were CPU
multiplier and/or FSB. Some CPUs were multiplier locked so you could only increase FSB. Increasing FSB meant memory/AGP/PCI etc all were overclocked
too leading to instability even if the CPU was willing. If I recall, my PIII mobo allowed the FSB to memory/PCI ratio to be altered so that you could
effectively change the FSB without affecting memory/PCI. So I upped the FSB from 100MHz standard to 150MHz (650 becomes 975) but was able to choose a
2/3 FSB/memory ratio so the rest of the system was back down at the standard 100MHz.
Is this still the state of play nowadays, or do all mobos generally offer full independant CPU overclocking options without effecting memory/PCI? Or
are multipliers unlocked nowadays? Pointers to an idiots guide but with up to date info would be handy.
Cheers,
Liam
Ive been running a 2.6ghz quad core at 4.02ghz for about 2 years now and ive had the old crash but nothing major.
It is supposed to shorten the life of the stressed components but mines been fine so far..
[Edited on 1/1/10 by prawnabie]
quote:
Originally posted by prawnabie
Ive been running a 2.6ghz quad core at 4.02ghz for about 2 years now and ive had the old crash but nothing major.
It is supposed to shorten the life of the stressed components but mines been fine so far..
[Edited on 1/1/10 by prawnabie]
yeah its watercooled. The FSB and memory speed is unlinked and the memorys running a 800mhz iirc
[Edited on 2/1/10 by prawnabie]
FSB and memory speed are linked(at least my quad is) but if the memory ratio is set to auto in bios memory will be run at SPD speed.
i think the i5/i7 chips are different though
Been looking at a few overclocking vids on youtube - looks similar to what I remember with a few more settings to take into account (QPI clock??).
Probably wont take too long to get up to speed. Having said that, I'm considering an overclocked i5 mobo bundle from overclockers.co.uk now.
Barely any more than the cost of the individual standard parts, and includes a water cooler, but already set up and tested with the i5 overclocked
from 2.66 to 4GHz!! Seems like a good deal to give somebody else the hassle!
Don't help Jasper though . But if you just google overclocking i5 (or whatever CPU you have) there's loads of guides and videos out
there. Good luck.
Liam
[Edited on 2/1/10 by Liam]
I will warn you though, I did that to my Athlon xp2800+, ran it at just under 3ghz for about 2 years until I had to reinstall windows. Then it refused
to go past 1150mhz, the next time it c**ked up it didn't make 1050mhz and now it's just dead.
I had an artic cooler cpu fan, another in the back and a 5.25" drive bay fan. Ran about 50deg at cpu and 30deg in the case so it wasn't
really hot either.
quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Ran about 50deg at cpu and 30deg in the case so it wasn't really hot either.
The talk of plenty of heat sink paste is not good, the idea of the goo is to transfer heat to the heatsink with minimal resistance, you need a spot
about the size of a grain of rice between the processor and heatsink for the most efficient transfer. A good heatsink and fan are a good idea, look at
thermaltake stuff. If you're going mad, then water cooling is effective if a little expensive. ( i don't believe water and electrics go
together!! but that's just me )
quote:
Originally posted by Marcus
The talk of plenty of heat sink paste is not good, the idea of the goo is to transfer heat to the heatsink with minimal resistance, you need a spot about the size of a grain of rice between the processor and heatsink for the most efficient transfer.
quote:
Originally posted by Liam
Don't help Jasper though