Hi im a big gamer and I have a 800 mhz Athlon Thunderbird with 200fsb. this just wont cut it, and since im only 15 without a disposable income, id like to *safely* overclock it. I have an Asus A7V-E mobo, and I heard they are really easy to use for this sort of thing, but for the life of me I cant figure it out! If anyone has this mobo and has xp in this sort of thing, can you help? I really need it. (Ive tried bios overclocking but i cant get very far, so i need advice on jumperless settings). Thanks soo much...

My specs are...
AMD thunderbird 800mhz (original speed)
Asus A7V-E (wihtout onboard sound)
256 megs ram
TNT2 16 meg vanta
no sound

800MHz just doesn't cut it ? I don't know of ANY game that requires that much processing power. I think what your problem is if you are having low frame rate or choppy play, is that TNT2 video card of yours. Since you say you don't have an income to spend on computers, I would suggest not overclocking. For one, it makes your computer run very hot, and you will need to buy a good fan too cool your CPU, and if you don't do it right, you will be short a CPU, and possibly a mainboard. I would suggest going to www.pricewatch.com and seing if maybe mom or pop would donate some funds to you for a new video card. You can get a Geforce2 or 3 for pretty cheap now that the G4's are out, just don't go near the MX versions.
Everyone would love to have the best setup out there, but if I were you, I would wait until I had some funds comming in before I started overclocking.
And I think you will find that changing your graphics card will help a lot.
Just looked and you can get a GeForce2 Ti 64MB DDr for $75.

dude the problem isn't chip speed, the PROBLEM is that Vanta card, Vanta's are the cheapest of the cheap when talking about nvidia chipsets. replace that card and it'll be fine. also make sure you have updated DX8 and your 4 in 1's !

DRu,

I don't know if you're still checking for an answer to this email or not...

I understand your request. I'm also poor. I have the same motherboard and a 1200Mhz CPU. I have a TNT2 with 32meg --- all of which are over-clockable.

Here's what you will need for each:

Start by going to www.madonion.com and downloading 3DMark 2001 SE. This is the program to benchmark with. With this you can see how each change will affect gaming performance. Skim through the forums and look for articles on NVIDIA's software drivers and find out which one people are raving about (usually a BETA driver). Download the driver from the link in the article. (I can not tell you how much of a difference a driver can make...)

Most games require a 3D Mark score of 450 to run 640x480 in 16bit color to be at least playable, a 600 to run 800x600 in 16bit color, a 1000 to run 1024x768 in 16bit color. Add 500 to that for 32 bit color at each range or for "decent" performance at 16bit color. Add 1000 to each for "decent" performance for 32bit color. Using 3DMark, if you get a system so that all of the games get 15 frames per second, they are at least playable and at 30 frames they will have "decent" performance. Try to remember that al 3D Mark tests are at 1024x768 with 32bit color, and at least for now, that's probably way higher than you'll be able to play (even overclocked).

Overclocking your video card:
Believe it or not, a lot of speed is lost if you have a PCI video card. Your system will bottleneck under a 1000 3D Marks. Unfortunately, that's a limitation of PCI vs. AGP and there's not much you can do about it... Go to www.warp2search.com and search on NVIDIA. I recommend downloading RivaTuner. You can play around with overclocking the graphics processor and graphics memory. Don't save the settings to start up even if you run the test and it works until you play with the PC for a few hours and it doesn't crash. You should start by adding 5% to each one at a time and testing. Depending on the maker of your card, 10% is usually safe. Some card makers such as Gainward allow you to over clock by 20% without crashing. You'll have to try software vs hardware overclocking with RivaTuner to see which works best. This will NOT harm your card and overclocking its proc will probably be the biggest boost you will get to performance (your video is your bottleneck).

Overclocking your CPU:
Also not particularly dangerous or risky (requires 4 parts and 10 steps). I recommend getting the following from www.newegg.com:
Part 1>-$28 Thermalright AX-7 ( Heatsink ONLY ). Copper heat spread. Dimension: L77 x W72 x H42 (mm). Retail. Model#: AX-7 (Heatsink Only)
and a fan:
Part 2>-$11 Delta ( 68.51CFM ) 80X80X38MM fan. 3-Pin. For CPU and other applications. 12V. 4900RPM. Dual-Ballbearing. Model : FFB0812SHE. Model#: FFB0812SHE
and a 3pin to 4pin power converter:
Part 3>-$2 CPU Fan Connector Adaptor. 3-pin to 4-pin(male and female.) To be used with CPU Protector Alarm and others. Model#: 4PIN/3PIN ADAPTOR -OEM
and finally thermal transfer compound:
Part 4>-$11 Arctic Silver's NEW Premium Silver Polysynthetic Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 3. 6-gram( 2 cc. ) tube. Artic Silver Model#: ARCTIC SILVER III 6G

The total price is $52 plus probably $4 to $10 shipping. I know money's tight, but this is the best heatsinc combo on Earth and you can transfer it from PC to PC for the next ten years... I also think a cheap Gainward GeForce 3 TI 200 AGP (I've seen them for well under $100 would increase your performance [including video card overclock] that you would be smiling for about a year...) But right now we are talking main CPU...
What it takes to do:
Step 1> Take off your current heatsinc off the processor (see the small 1cm rectangle at the center? That's the only part we are concerned with).
Step 2> Squeeze a couple of drops of thermal transfer compound from the tube onto that block.
Step 3> Using something like a square of cardboard, spread the transfer gel so that it's covering the block and thin enough where it is just barely transparent (you don't want it too thick or it lessens it's effectiveness).
Step 4> Wipe up the excess with a dry paper towel (The stuff is not poisonous, but it can be little messy). Put the new heatsinc on (I have this board and khow that it fits).
Step 5> you will need 4 thin 1.25" wood screws to secure the fan to the heatsinc (proper direction is for fan to blow ON to the hetsinc NOT away from it). Go into a tool box at home or any hardware store (cost about $0.25). The four screws should dig into the top of the heatsinc between the fins.
Step 6> Last, plug in the fan power cord into the 3pin to regular 4pin power plug converter and plug that into an available power supply power plug (they are all the same --- if it fits the plug and reaches, use it).
Step 7> The hardware side is done. To actually overclock: boot the machine, and press the Delete key to enter setup.
Step 8> Go to the "Advanced" tab and highlight Operating Frequency Setting (press Enter and choose: "User Define").
Step 9> First, see if your "DRAM Frequency" is 133MHz or 100MHz. If it's 133MHz, switch to 100 by pressing Enter on it and selecting 100)
Step 10> "Highlight CPU Frequency" and start at "101 MHz". Notice that when you reboot, instead of saying 900MHz, it now says 909Mhz. You have just overclocked your system! Test the PC for a couple of hours. Go back in setup and raise this number and test again. I'm guessing you will be able to overclock easily to 110 MHz with this setup even if your memory is not 133MHz. It's the memory that will be your true bottleneck here. If the system locks up, reduce settings and try again.

Here's the cool part: after you find your stable settings, you can still overclock more. You will need the motherboard manual. Switch the jumper between the AGP slot and the first PCI slot (move the little plastic "jumper" over one pin so it connects the middle pin and the other one). There are two sets of dip switches on the motherboard. Normal settings for your CPU are a clock multiplier of 9x and a 100MHz bus (9 x 100 = 900MHz --- the speed of your CPU). By increasing the multiplier, to 9.5x you will increase the CPU speed to 950MHz (9.5 x 100 = 950MHz). I think you should go up by .5 and test each one... I think you might be able to get to at least 10.5x and still be stable. Now, remember that 100+ MHz number you got working in the system setup earlier? you can set the other switches to increase the Front Side Bus from 100MHz to 103MHz, 105MHz, or 110MHz. Make sure you choose whichever value is closest and the SAME OR LOWER than what you were using in the setup.

There you go. Your PC will be between two and five times faster. Video card optimization and overclocking is free, I recommend the GeForce 3 TI 200Mhz for under $100 or ATI Radeon 8500LE 128Meg AGP for under $199 for the biggest impact, and $52 for the CPU overclocking.
At a later date you can upgrade the CPU to a 1200MHz for under $80. (Using the overclocking kit above, I max mine at 12.5x and 110Mhz)

Enjoy.

Ken

Take note: to overclock the CPU, you will need to have a CPU that is not multiplier locked, however it is a simple process to unlock the multiplier if needed. On the top of the cpu there are several gold bridges. The ones you should be concerned with are the set of 4 marked L1. Each of these 4 tiny bridges must be intact (ie. not cut). If they have been cut, you will have to join them again. Aparrently you can do this with a pencil mark (graphite conducts electricity) but I used a conductive silver paint I got from an electronics store (it's usually used for repairing cracked PCBs and comes in a pen form too). Cost me about $5 for a 10ml bottle. Very carefully paint a line between the broken sides of the bridges. Don't put too much paint on, or the bridges may short with each other. Once this is done, you should be ready to do the above.