Help

[CrawlerZX]

ok heelo i'm new here so i dunno any rules or anything so plz forgive me if i do anything wrong but here it is.

my system
Chaintech 7AJA2E
Duron 1.3
Ati R9000 pro 64 MB
Generic 512 Memory pc-133
350 w Power supply

i'm planning to overclock it to around 1.5
and i'm planning to use this fan http://www.accupc.com/itemDetail.jsp?pid=fanv9&refer=PriceGrabber

or most prolly this

http://www.accupc.com/itemDetail.jsp?pid=fanv8

would it be good enough?

tnx in advance :)

[Mizzery]

Most people have been able to hit 1.4 - 1.5 on air, but be prepared to start upping the voltage as you get towards 1.5

[FishDog3]

If you are handy and have a jigsaw, make a hole in the side of your case to duct to the heatsink... you will have no problems getting decent temps at 1.5 me thinks.

[Bman1238]

I would say go with the Volcano 9, but if the extra 12 bucks is there, I would stongly recommend the Volcano 11. I have one of those and it is great.

[CrawlerZX]

well i'm planning to keep my case open anyway and would my mobo be able to take the overclocked cpu? and would it be softwar or hardware jumpers?

y would i need to prepare higher voltage new powersupply or sumtin?

what would be a good thermal grease? thats cheap

I use an award bios dated 2001 and it has a thermometer and my cpu temp is 51C idle is this ok? i'm using an oem fan would this fan suffice for cooling needs?

P.S.
i'm new to overclocking

[irish80122]

Originally posted by CrawlerZX
well i'm planning to keep my case open anyway and would my mobo be able to take the overclocked cpu? and would it be softwar or hardware jumpers?

y would i need to prepare higher voltage new powersupply or sumtin?

what would be a good thermal grease? thats cheap

I use an award bios dated 2001 and it has a thermometer and my cpu temp is 51C idle is this ok? i'm using an oem fan would this fan suffice for cooling needs?

P.S.
i'm new to overclocking

First of all, unlike some of the other posters, I am not feeling too good about your chances of getting to 1.5 IF you plan on doing much of that by tweaking your front side bus. It will have to be pretty much all multiplier because your memory will not do much more than it is! If you don't know what I am talking about on either one of those, let me know....Okay, onward.

The best way to see if your motherboard can overclock is go into your Bios (usually done by holdling down delete when you boot up, in case you didn't know) and seeing if there is something like an "Advanced Chipset Features" section. Just look around and see what you can find. There should be places where you can adjust voltages, multipliers (if the chip is unlocked, I think that one may be but I am not sure, I got into OCing with later chips) FSB, and other things.

Your power supply will probably be fine, the voltage thing is controlled by the motherboard. It just usually takes the processor a bit more juice to get going faster than normal (kinda like a car with acceleration) and that is what cases the additional heat.

On the thermal grease side, people may say chermanique or however you spell it, but I don't like the stories I have heard. I think just buy some Arctic Silver III, it costs more but it is worth it if you are going to do this right.

Overall rule of thumb for overclocking is to stay under 50 degrees. This doesn't mean that you have to be under, but it is always a good idea to be under. Since you are already over, if you put more voltage into that chip, you are going to be high 50 to low 60 range most likely. You need a better fan and heatsink combo. Look around, there are tons out there depending on your noise tolerance as well as how low you want it to go. For instance, I have a Volcano 7 heatsink (not a great one) and a tornado fan on my overclocked chip, and at 25 degrees as my ambient temperature, my CPU is at 36 Idle and 42 load. These temps are pretty average for an OC, so consider that.

I can tell you are new to overclocking but that is okay, because guess what, we all were at one time or another, lol. Feel free to post more questions or to email me at Irish80122@aol.com and I will help as much as I can. I am more of a newbie overclocker, only having done it for about a year or two, but I think I can get you on the right road. Good luck!

[CrawlerZX]

hello thank u very much here is my new questions

would this be good enough?
http://accessories.gateway.com/AccessoryStore/Hardware_316441/PC+Components_316805/CPU+Upgrades_316807/1991635_ProdDetail
or a fry's thermal grease for the same price?

and how do u set the voltage?

and would there be a good program that can test my cpus stability after modifying the multiplier?

thank u in advance :) and i might drop down to high 1.4

[irish80122]

Originally posted by CrawlerZX
hello thank u very much here is my new questions

would this be good enough?
http://accessories.gateway.com/AccessoryStore/Hardware_316441/PC+Components_316805/CPU+Upgrades_316807/1991635_ProdDetail
or a fry's thermal grease for the same price?

and how do u set the voltage?

and would there be a good program that can test my cpus stability after modifying the multiplier?

thank u in advance :) and i might drop down to high 1.4

Well, as bad as this sounds, overclocking is really all about values. Is that good enough, well yes and no, you have to answer that question. Is it enough to create a decent bond between your heatsink and processor, probably, but no better than the stuff that comes on the heatsinks that come with the processors. Will Arctic Silver, though more expensive make your computer run a few degrees cooler, YES! Is it worth it? Your call, just remember that heat is a pretty big factor in overclocking. I would bite the bullet, go to newegg, and order some AS3 (Arctic Silver 3). It is up to you, but if you ask any serious overclocker, they will say they use arctic silver, either 3 or chermanique (I think I spelled it wrong again). If you are going to go cheaper, go with the chermanique which is made by Arctic Silver, but even that I have heard some horror stories about. It is up to you though, is it worth the extra few dollars or not? That is your answer. The chermanique should be about the same about dollar wise as the stuff you are talking about, and many believe it is just as good as AS3. I just can't get some of the horror stories out of my mind, but you can search and find those by yourself.

It sounds like you have already been in your bios. Just look around in there and there should be a place (if your motherboard has it) where you can adjust the vcore, this is the voltage for your processor, and it should be set at 1.x (I don't know what the x is for that processor). Play with adjusting it when you are not stable and then that will help you max out your overclock!

There is a FANTASTIC program called Prime95. It is actually supposed to be used to find the biggest prime number in the world but since they realized that people were using it to test stability, they built in a torture test. This will test your CPU against known values to see if it is getting them right or not. If not, you know that your computer may not be stable. That is what I would recommend! Search on Google, it should be a free download.

Don't drop down, have a goal and try to attain it, but accept it if you can't. I can't get my 2500+ over 2.1 when many people are hitting 2.4, but my cooling isn't the best. I mean, my processor usually at max gets up to 45C and that is when my room is really hot, but it may need more cooling and more voltage, which my motherboard is not a good overclocker. Therefore, it is going to be new motherboard time very soon, especially if I go to watercooling.

The most important thing to know about overclocking is though we are all after performance, in reality that isn't our number 1 goal. We probably spend more money on our setups to overclock than it would cost to buy the better chip and get that speed. Overclocking is a hobby, just like working on your car. Some people get the bigger exhaust pipe so the car gets an extra few horse power, some of us go to watercooling or peltier to get a few extra MHz. Same type of deal, doesn't make a huge difference, but it is all about squeezing as much as you can out of your machine. Keep that in mind! Good luck! Let me know on your results

[Toysrme]

Overclocking to most of us falls into getting the most out of your chip and prolonging it's useful life.

For the past few years there has been no reason to buy a chip and oveclock it to save money. Unless it's tip top of the line, the next step up is always fairly cheap nowadays.

**********

Now, as far as thermal paste, just order a stick of AS III online. If you can't do that, swing by radioshack and buy some generic white silicon paste. Personally, I don't trust anything but those two. (Note silicone paste won't get the results ASIII will)

**********

Find out what motherboard you have. Bypass the gateway startup screen and write down the bios version information.
(you can halt any dos program by hitting the PASUE BREAK key btw)

[CrawlerZX]

hi i have a
Chaintech 7AJA2E
with 12/5/2001

and where can i get AS III really cheap?

and do i need to occasionally re-grease the heatsink?

[Ben721]

Maybe xoxide, svc, bestbyte.net, frozencpu.com

One of them will have it cheap.

You will need to put AS3 on once, and you don't need to do it again, but I and some others do like every 6 months.

[CrawlerZX]

tnx but i'm ready to buy except i need to know how i can change the voltage?

[CrawlerZX]

o aand i was reading the other thread but the cpu's temps are from the bios so i guess i can reach 1.5, neway how do i chang the voltage any ideas?

The board layout is interesting, featuring a couple of my pet hates, so time for the magical mystery tour around the board working from the top down. Moving down the boards we first arrive at the CPU socket and to our left we see the voltage regulators, well away from the socket - so in an excellent position for any vortex inducing high powered CPU coolers you may install. The three-wire CPU fan header sits below the CPU socket to the left, and that means that in our case the power cable for the fan was stretched across the Cooler.


would this be how to change the voltage?

[irish80122]

Originally posted by CrawlerZX
o aand i was reading the other thread but the cpu's temps are from the bios so i guess i can reach 1.5, neway how do i chang the voltage any ideas?




would this be how to change the voltage?

For your purposes and where you are, NO, don't do a voltage mod. There should be an option in your bios, look around. If not, there may be a mod for your motherboard but the best option by far is just to get a new motherboard. You can find them cheap on Newegg refurbs. They also have a sale right now on a Epox Nforce2 board, I think the link is on Newegg's front page. Check that out and see if you like that as well. Good luck.

[CrawlerZX]

well the whole idea is to not spend much and i was talking about changing the voltage of the cpu incase of instability after OC