help first post, new overclocker and an old board!!

right i dont wanna overclock my new board, due to me being new to this overclocking lark, so i knocked a system together comprising of....

1 x pentium 4 2.4ghz
1x radion geforce 4 5600
AND A GIGABYTE GA-8SIML MOBO

ok so its not the greatest, but i managed with the guru 3d utility reg tweak to overclock the graphics card with a bit of extra cooling, but its the cpu i wanna really boost cos i reckon its still a decent peice of kit, unfortunately the board aint, i go into bios and there is no option to tweak the multiplier or the FSB, and im not too confident of messin with the jumpers, so my question is, is there any utility i can tweak these settings from within windows? or is there anyway i can update the bios etc.. so these settings are available? please please someone help me out with some info and some links or something and ill be eternally greatful.

im a new member and i was recommended you by this months gigahz magazine in the overclocking article, they said you were well helpful to noobs, i hope you prove them right.

peace

G

to the forums.

first let me start off with saying this: i love giga-byte motherboards. i swear and use them in every singe one of my machines.

now lets get to the good stuff. while doing some research on your motherboard, i found out that there are two versions avaiable: Rev. 1 and Rev. 2. this should be written down on the motherboard somewhere. Rev. 1 and Rev. 2 seem to share the same bios. NOT 100% sure on this, so i advise you to check on the motherboard itself to see if there is a rev. 1 or rev. 2 printed somewhere before updating the bios.

then, after you have updated the bios, the fsb adjustment is in the Frequency/Voltage control section of the bios. (its in the online manual, page 48). if its not visible, then press ctrl + f1 (giga-byte sometimes hides advanced controls from users, so that they dont mess up their system), but im not sure if that applies to your motherboard, but its worth a shot.

then lastly before i advise you on your overclocking fun, may i ask what type of cooling you are running on the processor? do you know the sSpec of the processor (usually abunch of numbers and letters that kinda look like this "SL7E5", thats mine for example), if not then its not a major factor. What kind of memory do you have and with what kind of timings?

oooh now we are gettin somewhere, im not too sure of the memory timings, but im using a gig and a half of kingston ddr 333mhz, the board is rev.2, as for cooling im running 3 akasa 80mill fans mounted front rear and top of case, with a akasa icicle (i think thats the name of the cpu fan) the three 80mill fans are adjustable via a front mounted fan controller.

also i really dont know exactly which spec processor it is, i hoep some of this helps as im keen to get started, im also adding another 160ghz seagate ide drive and a new benq dvd burner so this may u the temperature soon, but as it stands ive got motherboard monitor which tells me my case temp is 35 degrees and my cpu stands at 30 degrees according to that,altho i know my bios tells me too and i can check that if you like.

sorry if i sound like a dumbass

did you take my advice and try to goto the bios and see if the fsb is adustable?

havnt updated it but will report back when i do tomorrow night.

cheers mate.

ok so im sorry to bug you again with my whining!!

having read some info on my board today, sat at work something has dawned on me, som e of the settings are greyed out such as the voltage etc.. i can screenshot them when i get home, and my bios is to be updated when i get back too, but does this mean that my board has been locked? and is there a way around this??

thanks in advance.

Strange, did you try to press ctrl + f1 at the main bios screen?

The only option that should be locked is your cpu ratio, this is standard and intel locks it by default (it might not even be on the screen). double check and make sure you are updating the correct bios for the right revision.

Gigabyte locks some of the voltages and other goodies. The upper end boards have a better chance of being able to change them. Some of the older boards were locked also.
My last GB mobo was grayed out on all the good stuff but RAM timings and FSB. I relied on auto settings, RAM timings(no divider available) and FSB. It got my GA-7VM266 with a 2400+ to 2.4GHz. Gigabyte likes to overvolt ever-so slightly on some things and the auto settings scale halfway decently. I was happy at 15(locked) x 160. With tight timings on the RAM.

yeah these settings are greyed out mate, not too sure how to do what you suggested above, im still at work till 9pm (gmt) so i cant say what i have really.

TweakTown made a review of the board, while back.

Overclocking

The board itself does have some overclocking options but they are very sparse. You have your Standard Frequency/Voltage Control menu in the Award BIOS (personally I prefer Award to AMI, seems to have better IRQ routing). Under this menu you have your Auto-Detect DIMM/PCI CLK option and Spread Spectrum.

The first of the overclocking options is the FSB Clock. This is adjustable from 100MHz up to 200MHz in 1MHz steps, at least they got that part right. After that is the CPU Voltage Control. You can change the voltage from 1.1v up to 1.85v in 0.025v steps. Good voltage ranges but that’s where it all stops. No AGP voltage, no Ratio selectors, nothing. This being said, we got a maximum of 113 MHz out of the FSB before the AGP card we used started to say "No way" to the higher AGP bus speeds. Unfortunately, due to today's video cards getting faster and faster, they need a more stable AGP bus. And to overclock it you need to be able to set the ratios manually. In all, very poor overclocking.

As for tweaking, the board does have all of the memory features including memory clock speeds of 100/133/166 for DDR-333 memory, so in a word excellent Intel alternative board.

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thanks for that, will be home soon so ill report back then

right, i tried the ctrl +f1 nothin happened, i updated the bios using a dos flash and the latest bios update from gigabyte, changes nothing in bios, i do believe im screwed!!

are there no other specific overclocking bios updates for this board? even 3rd party ones?

slightly cheesed off now.

theG said:

right, i tried the ctrl +f1 nothin happened, i updated the bios using a dos flash and the latest bios update from gigabyte, changes nothing in bios, i do believe im screwed!!

are there no other specific overclocking bios updates for this board? even 3rd party ones?

slightly cheesed off now.

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well if it doesnt have an option, then i guess your out of luck. sorry bud, tried to help as best as i could.

ok mate, thanks for your help. at least you tried, i think ill just go get a new board, it dont have to be expensive to be overclocked, any reccommendations for that processor?

theG said:

ok mate, thanks for your help. at least you tried, i think ill just go get a new board, it dont have to be expensive to be overclocked, any reccommendations for that processor?

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well your best bet for overclocking a 478 p4 is going with abit ic7 (anyone in the series) or the asus p4c800 or maybe p4p800 (cheaper than p4c).

thankyou mate, you been a star.

theG said:

thankyou mate, you been a star.

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welcome buddy. congrats on your first star. (no pun intended )

oooooooooohweeeeeeee i got a star!!