Need some Ideas

[Lost Soul]

Hi guys,

Well this is my first post here but have been here reading up on guides and honestly they are very helpful and for a person like my self who is usually lost when it comes to upgrading and trying to fix things for my comp. But i do long research and eventually get them done.

So now the question is, i will be overclocking for the very first time and need advice as to whether or not my system is worthy of overclocking or do i need to buy some rams or otehr stuff. My specs are:

P4 2.0ghz
768 ddr ram; pc2700 512mb (166mhz); pc2100 256mb (133mhz)
AIW 9800 pro 128 with arctic cooler
Asus p4s800
zalman Zalman CNPS7700-Cu CPU Cooler
wd120 gigs with hdd cooler

Can you guys suggest what progs to use? I will be using ati tool and basically following the guide that is on sticky here.

Thanks in advance

[batboy]

The P4S800 is a little limiting because it don't lock the AGP/PCI and it don't support dual channel memory. That said, you still can do some overclocking. Nasgul points out that mixing RAM will limit your O/C too, which is true, but if you are on a tight budget, might as well try overclocking what you have first.

Download a handy free program called CPU-Z and see what CPU you have. All P-4 2.0 processors will be 400 bus (100 FSB), but they made them in two flavors: Willamette and Northwood. If you have a Willamette, forget about overclocking. If you have a 2.0A Northwood, then crank that sucker up to 110 FSB (2.2 gig) in the BIOS and see what happens.

Don't worry too much about RAM timing at first. You can play and tweak and fine tune that later. For now let's keep it simple. Leave the RAM timing setting on "SPD" for now. For now just leave the memory ratio on "auto". It will probably default to 1:1 anyway which is what you want. If that works ok, check temps and test for stability. If it still works, try 115 FSB.

ATI Tool is for overclocking the vid card. For overclocking the system, you have to get into the BIOS and under system clock speed select "user define" to unlock the frequency (FSB) settings. Your CPU multiplier is locked at 20X, so leave that alone. Default FSB is 100, so raise that to like 110 to test it.

For testing and benchmarking, download the free versions of Sisoft Sandra and PCmark2004 (this is an excellent stability tester). For vid card benching download 3Dmark2003. I already mentioned CPU-Z. You'll also need a temp and voltage monitoring program. If your motherboard install CD didn't come with an Asus monitoring program to do this, then try downloading a program called MBM5.

Good luck.

[Lost Soul]

The P4S800 is a little limiting because it don't lock the AGP/PCI and it don't support dual channel memory. That said, you still can do some overclocking. Nasgul points out that mixing RAM will limit your O/C too, which is true, but if you are on a tight budget, might as well try overclocking what you have first.

Download a handy free program called CPU-Z and see what CPU you have. All P-4 2.0 processors will be 400 bus (100 FSB), but they made them in two flavors: Willamette and Northwood. If you have a Willamette, forget about overclocking. If you have a 2.0A Northwood, then crank that sucker up to 110 FSB (2.2 gig) in the BIOS and see what happens.

Don't worry too much about RAM timing at first. You can play and tweak and fine tune that later. For now let's keep it simple. Leave the RAM timing setting on "SPD" for now. For now just leave the memory ratio on "auto". It will probably default to 1:1 anyway which is what you want. If that works ok, check temps and test for stability. If it still works, try 115 FSB.

ATI Tool is for overclocking the vid card. For overclocking the system, you have to get into the BIOS and under system clock speed select "user define" to unlock the frequency (FSB) settings. Your CPU multiplier is locked at 20X, so leave that alone. Default FSB is 100, so raise that to like 110 to test it.

For testing and benchmarking, download the free versions of Sisoft Sandra and PCmark2004 (this is an excellent stability tester). For vid card benching download 3Dmark2003. I already mentioned CPU-Z. You'll also need a temp and voltage monitoring program. If your motherboard install CD didn't come with an Asus monitoring program to do this, then try downloading a program called MBM5.

Good luck.

Thanks for the replies guys,

I downloaded cpu-z and here is the main thing you and i both will be interested in knowing:
[img=http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/3647/motherboard6hp.th.png] (http://img160.imageshack.us/my.php?image=motherboard6hp.png)

I know i need to get better ram and with my board i believe the max it supports is 3gb and i will probably upgrade that to a 2gb for sure but need some suggestions as to which would be the best ram suited for my mobo. I would love to have the best quality ram for my mobo.

Also, is it really necessay for me to buy a new mobo? I want to be able to oc my comp to atleast a 2.6 or higher, if that is possible after the appropriate upgrades.

I downloaded the mbm5 prog but when i open it my cpu temp goes to 70 degree celcius and i had to uninstall it. Currently i am using everest to tell me the info but it does not tell me the temp for vid card which is what i really want to know as my games like halife life 2 and halo freeze and i get horrible FPS, especially in hl2.

And before I go into my bios, i need to back up bios as well right? I dont want to take any steps that will lead to frying up my mobo or anything else. I just want to learn to oc so i can get the best performance out of my pc. And I have a enermax psu 460 w. Although i might need to include some extra cooling in my case.

Thank you

[Lost Soul]

Ok so I finally followed what bat boy instructed and increased the fsb to 115 which made it go to 2.3ghz from 2.0 and the benchmark results for 2.3 from pcmark04 revealed to 2966 as compared to 2084 when it was 2.2 ghz. I forgot to benchmark when i had 2.0 so dont know..lol.

The temps are normal: CPu temp and mobo temp and hdd temp are all below 30 degree celcius so thats fine. I tried doing increasing to 120mhz but the comp kept hanging so once i get better ram then i can play around with the memory setting and inc. voltage for that so it would stabalize.

Also, is the 2966 result any good? i dont even know what that means?

Thanks...me a little happy for my 2.3..hehehe

[batboy]

The reason 115 FSB works and 120 don't is that you are running the PCI too far out of spec at 120 FSB. You'll need to hit 133 FSB in order to enable the 1/4 PCI divider (currently it's at 1/3). The trouble is... you have a B0 stepping 2.0A and not that many would do 2.66 gig. You might try bumping up the vcore to 1.6v if temps are less than low 50's load and try 133 FSB, but I bet you won't be stable. That's a good increase in PCmark2004. Almost 900 points more with a 100 MHz O/C.

[Lost Soul]

The reason 115 FSB works and 120 don't is that you are running the PCI too far out of spec at 120 FSB. You'll need to hit 133 FSB in order to enable the 1/4 PCI divider (currently it's at 1/3). The trouble is... you have a B0 stepping 2.0A and not that many would do 2.66 gig. You might try bumping up the vcore to 1.6v if temps are less than low 50's load and try 133 FSB, but I bet you won't be stable. That's a good increase in PCmark2004. Almost 900 points more with a 100 MHz O/C.

Batboy, so with my current specs its not likely tht i will get more than 2.6 oc right? So can you recommend some good ram for my mobo...i have listed the specs of my mobo in the above post. Or you think i should just get a new mobo? And if yes then can you please recommend something that will last a while and that will have good upgrade features for future.

Many thanks

[batboy]

You are in the unfortunate situation that if you try to upgrade one thing, then it will snowball into getting other things too.

For example, the motherboard is a weak link, so you get a nice new socket 478 i865/i875 motherboard. Now the RAM is the weak link because you will want a good matched pair for dual channel performance. You buy 2X512 of good RAM and then you need a new CPU because that one is an old B0 stepping 400 bus CPU that won't O/C that much. See what I mean?

It's almost better to be happy with what you got right now and then start saving up for a new system. If you are on a super tight budget and that's not really an option, then let's look at what you already have on hand. The Asus P4S800 is not the best, but it's not bad if you match it up with the right CPU and if you don't run the PCI too far out of spec. You have a good vid card, nice Zalman heatsink, and decent HDD. The RAM? Well, it's a mixed bag of stuff. The 512 PC2700 ain't bad, but the 256 PC2100 is lame.

Here is what I recommend if you can't afford much. Pull the oddball PC2100 out and try to sell it. If you need more RAM, try to find another stick of 512 PC2700 to match what you already have. Pull the 2.0A Northwood out and sell it too. Now you have two options. Try to find a cheap used C1 stepping 400 bus Northwood that will overclock better than yours or get a Celeron D and run it at 150 FSB. I looked it up and with a BIOS update your P4S800 will run one of these Prescott Celeron D CPUs. I recently bought a used 2.53 Celeron D for $50. Newegg.com sells new 2.66 Celeron D 330 (remember to get socket 478 not LGA775) for $80 shipped. Your system should be able to easily run this CPU at 150 FSB using default voltage for a sweet 3 gig. I bet selling your old CPU and RAM will almost cover the price of a new Celeron D.