660 O'C Advice needed

[SilverBack]

Hi All!

Im a beginner to this, so need some help or a steer in the right direction. I have read many posts here, done some searches etc, so I have a brief understanding of what overclocking is, but cant find a A-Z of how to do it.

I have a 3.6 660, on a gigabyte board. I want to overclock this baby! But heard that its locked, so cant do it through BIOS. So how do I do it then? Also, what is the max I can overclock it with so that it doesnt reboot or crash all the time, and at what temp will it operate best?

Need to get an extra fan for cooling for overclocking. Which fan do you recommend without breaking my bank account?

Any help and direction appreciated!

Cheers

[speed bump]

DO you know the model for this board.

can you tell is anything else about your setup.

[SilverBack]

Sorry, yeah. Here are the specs:

MB: 775DUAL-915GL
Supports 800MHz
Supports Dual Channel DDR400
Intel 915GL

CPU: P4 3.6 2M Cache 800MHz LGA775 [660]

RAM: 1GB PC400 184 DDR

Thats all I can remember...

Im just very worried Im gonna stuff it up, so need someone to help me here, if possible? ;)

[Know Nuttin]

the multipliers are locked upwards so you can't increase the multiplier to overclock. The only way to overclock would be to increase your FSB.

Ctrl + F1 gets you into advanced options in the bios.

No one can tell you exactly how high you will be able to overclock, and with what voltage. Each chip is different.

Your board may limit you, as success with 915 based motherboards are inconsistent. Some top out at 210, some top out much higher. Your ram may also limit you unless you run it slower than your FSB. At which point this is required, is also variable.

I definitely suggest you get a better CPU cooler than the stock one included with the 660. At the minimum, you should look for an XP-90 and a decent 92mm fan.

[SilverBack]

Thanx Know Nuttin for the info

Just been searching a bit about overclocking...got a feeling my motherboard is not gonna be up to scratch with overclocking...hmmm...gonna have to find out for sure!

[batboy]

Right, the motherboard might not be the best for overclocking, but it will O/C a little to get you some experience. Like Know Nuttin' was implying, there is no cookbook recipe for overclocking. Each brand and model motherboard is different. Each CPU is different. Cooling is a huge part of overclocking. Also, the combination of mobo, CPU, RAM, and power supply all factors into the sucess or failure of overclocking. That said, I'm sure we can get you going in order to do a modest O/C.

The CPU multiplier is locked, but you still adjust the FSB (frequency) in the BIOS. Other things such as voltages and RAM settings are also done in the BIOS too. Try increasing the FSB from 200 to 205 MHz and see what happens. Check temps and test for stability. Good luck.

[SilverBack]

Thanks batboy...gonna give it a try this weekend and ley ya know how it goes!