Okay, here it goes.. I wanna overclock my PC! I've done a little bit of research on overclockin in theory, but I have no real experience with it. I got the PC from Alienware about 6 months ago (it was the 'Grey' model if you were keeping track of it.. I don't think they call it that anymore). It has an ASUS A7N8X 2.0 mobo, an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ cpu, Geforce FX 5200 Ultra 128MB vid card, is running off the integrated mobo sound, and has 512MB PC2700 DDR (I know not what brand, etc of memory). I have read that you can increase the speed of all virtually all of your components by raising the FSB. This brings me to.. **Question #1: The Front Side Bus is a property of your motherboard, not processor, right? And every component can utilize different FSB speeds, but cannot exceed the mobo FSB? **Question #2: My BIOS has an "External Frequency" option (mine is set at 133 Mhz), and apparently the FSB is the result of doubling this value (making it 266 Mhz, I guess). Why is this? What is the difference between the two, and why double it? Anyway, if all this is true, I would like to raise the FSB on this thing, and therefore increase the speed of all the shiat. **Question #3: The options available to me in BIOS for the External Frequency are 100 Mhz, 133 Mhz, 166 Mhz, and 200 Mhz. But I thought that you could raise it by whatever increments you wanted. What exactly is goin on with this one. I know heat is one of the major issues of overclocking stuff. My PC has 3 fans in it (they're green, way cool), although I don't remember seeing 3 last time I opened it up, but my receipt says there's 3, so... whatever.. I dunno what brand, etc of fans are in this thing, but the BIOS reported one running at around 4500 rpm, one running at around 2280 rpm, and one at 0. I don't know if these RPM's are good, or even relevant to quality of the fan, but there it is. Also, the BIOS reports the Mobo temperature to be at 22C/71F degrees, and the CPU temperature to be at 34C/93F degrees. **Question #4: Based on the above info, do you think I should get better cooling before I do this stuff? And there's more.. **Question #5: On my CPU multiplier (BIOS says 'CPU Frequency Multiple'), It is set to "7.0x/15.0x". Now, forgive me, but wtf is that supposed to mean? It was wedged between the "7.0x" and "8.0x" options, so is that something like 7.5x? **Question #6: There is a "System Performance" option in the BIOS, and it is set to Optimal by default, where it apparently runs everything at a good ole stable speed, but there are options for Aggressive, where apparently it overclocks some stuff for me and makes no guarantees, and User Defined, which is I guess what I want. What do you guys think of this? Will the BIOS even save any changes that I make myself if I don't have this on User Defined? **Question #7: "Memory Frequency." It is set to "by SPD" by default, but the description says plain as day "set this to Auto for best performance." What does "by SPD" mean? Should I trust what it says and change it to Auto? **Question #8: "FSB Spread Spectrum" and "AGP Spread Spectrum." Okay, I have no IDEA what these are. All I know is that my FSB spectrum is set to 0.50% and the AGP spectrum is disabled. What the hell ARE these? **Question #9: "CPU Vcore Setting." The voltage running into my CPU. It is set at 1.650V right now. Is messing with this a good idea? Do you think I will need to raise it for what I'm doing? This sound pretty risky, so what do you guys suggest when messing with this? Phew! I know this is a kind of lengthy post, so I tried to make it as clear and organized as possible. Any info on this stuff and/or overclocking in general will be greatly appreciated. And, if you guys know any good links that could help me learn every aspect of overclocking from the ground up, please tell me. Same goes for any links that you think would answer my specific questions, although I would prefer your guys' answers. Thanks.

Woh, this is deep really deep. Let me try this one, I am sure many will follow: 1) FSB is a function of the processor. Major components are made up with a) memory b) PCI and AGP c) Hard drive /floppy etc. The limits of the components still based on the OLD architect which will be replaced soon. 2) BIOS acts as a "monitor" or "traffic cop" in identifying the hardware configurations and their limitations and specifications. It can be very friendly, or it can just issue you lots of traffic tickets if you over speed. The 133 and 166 just happens to be how computer evolves in speed increment, i.e. 16 mhz, 33 mhz, 66, 100, 133, 166, 200 etc. 3)Anything in between, kind of fine tune adjustment depends on BIOS (the Cop) in letting you do it or not. 4) Heat increase is a function of speed + energy and input /output equation. Naturally, heat is a waste but everyday engineers are trying hard to limit this waste of energy. Yes, to overclock is to deal with heat which is not as bad as getting or knowing or having a processor that could give you the kick. 5) Multipler is needed for many "functions" other than "progressive", "linear", "harmonic","freqeucy response" etc. For example, to make a processor a 1(multi) x 2,000 mhz is to deal with divider to meet PCI 33 mhz speed and 166 mhz memory speed. So, either you use a divider and multipler you end up the same. Therefore CPU speed could be measured by 12 x 200 = 2400 mhz (2.4Ghz). Let other answer the remaining 4, awaiting other input from my 2 cents input.

Do you have a manual of this board? Do you read it?