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How do you overclock CPU?

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Original Message
Name: vanusk
Date: November 7, 2002 at 08:15:11 Pacific
Subject: How do you overclock CPU?
OS: 98se
CPU/Ram: 650/128
Comment:

Hey...well, recently i went to the bios and it has this multiplier thing...it was on 6.5 and i changed it to 8.0...i dont see any difference so what does it do?

I wanted to overclock my system but i dont have a clue how...

I have a pentium 3 650 mhz 128mb ram...thanks


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Response Number 1
Name: Artman
Date: November 7, 2002 at 08:51:43 Pacific
Reply: (edit)

Your multiplier is locked by the CPU. You will have to try and overclock raising the speed of the front side bus (FSB). If your RAM and video card are good quality and your motherboard will allow it, with enough cooling you can probably set it up from 100 to 124 or possibly as high as 133. Build the speed gradually and stop at a point that it is as high as you want and is stable.

Overclocking without adequate cooling can fry your CPU.


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Response Number 2
Name: vanusk
Date: November 7, 2002 at 12:37:37 Pacific
Reply: (edit)

yes but HOW... how can i overclock it..how can i raise the speed of the FSB...


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Response Number 3
Name: jeff
Date: November 7, 2002 at 12:59:44 Pacific
Reply: (edit)

vanusk, please clarify...exactly what model P3/650 do you have? Is it a EB version? Raising the front side bus speed is indeed the way to go with Intel P3/650's but depending on your motherboard, you will have limits. If your board has jumpers to control the FSB speeds and the ratio between the front side buss and the PCI buss then you will have the easiest time of peaking your overclock.
While increasing the FSB speed is the easiest way to gain performance, you have to always keep an eye on the PCI buss. Increasing the FSB also increases the PCI buss speed and the critical thing is not allowing the PCI speed to get much higher than 38.5 to 39 MHz. Hard drives have been known to cough once or twice and refuse to work properly(or die) when the PCI buss gets that high. Other devices (modem,network card, PCI vid card,etc)on the PCI buss may also get flakey as the PCI buss speed gets up there so always keep this in mind.
Modern AGP video cards may not be as bothered by higher AGP frequencies as the PCI stuff but AGP buss frequency also will go up when you raise the FSB.
Let me give you some numbers...my old P3/450 mounted in a ASUS P2/99 motherboard was stock with a FSB of 100MHz, PCI of 33.3MHz, AGP buss of 66.6MHz. See how the MHz#'s relate? They all scale up together. By just raising the FSB, I could safely get up to about FSB of around 115MHz. Most (but certainly not all) PC100 memory sticks may be able to work perfectly at this higher speed but some may not. My 2 64 meg sticks did. I figured that if I couldn't change the FSB/PCI multiplier from the standard 3:1 up to 4:1 I wouldn't be able to get more of an overclock. The P2/99 board had jumpers that would allow a setting of FSB/133-PCI/33. That setting would give me the right multiplier but would my PC100 memory sticks work all the way up at that frequency??? I tried it and whaddayaknow..it worked perfectly. I now had a P3/600 with a 133MHz FSB and the Intel P3/600/133 hadn't even been released yet. Wow! 25% more performance for nothing.
Well, almost for nothing. My P3 was a retail model(I voided the warrenty 30 days after it was installed) and while many overclockers had pushed the retail version 450 to 600 and not had any problems what so ever with heat, I decided to replace the Intel heatsink/fan combo with a Vantec 5030 twinfan unit. Costly but well worth the price. I also added a inexpensive case fan to the front inside of the pc case and a even more inexpensive exhuast "slot" fan at the rear.
Pushing your computer can be fun but you need to keep in mind the added heat and other factors such as more noise from more fans. There are plenty of software programs that will allow you to raise the FSB while in Windows and they work well. We need more info on your motherboard in order to steer you towards the most popular for your application. Good luck with your tweak.


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Response Number 4
Name: vanusk
Date: November 7, 2002 at 14:09:40 Pacific
Reply: (edit)

Thanks man...well this is the info on my motherboard

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. MEW REV 1.06
Bus Clock: 61 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software, Inc. ACPI BIOS Revision 3002 04/17/1900
-----------
650 megahertz Intel Pentium III
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

thanks for your help


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