Enter the Newbie

[Irish]

Ok, I will start out with the typical newbie speech. I am, obviously, new and want to learn more about the world of overclocking without venturing too far into it just yet.

First of all, my specs: 400mhz Celeron in a Intel Freeman Integrated 440ZX Motherboard, 256 MB of PC133 RAM (Yes, I realize this does me no good when the bus is only 66mhz, but I got it yesterday on sale for abou $20 so...) Of course, I bought this Gateway a few years ago when I knew no better about integrated parts and such, so now I'm stuck with an 8 MB ATI Rage 128 (have yet to find a decent PCI video card worth getting to replace it.)

Ok, the deal is, I am on a tight budget and just want a marginal improvement while not going too in depth. From what I gather, the mobo I have is about as far from an overclocker's dream as it can be, but it's really all I have to work with. I also need to keep this PC running until I get a new one in a few months. That's when, if I get addicted to oc'ing, I may go hardcore on this machine. Until then, anything is better than nothing.

I don't want to come off as lazy either as I have done quite a bit of research and reading, but still find myself somewhat lost. I know people can get tired of answering newbie questions, but I guess that's part of being a veteran at something. ;)

Anyone who cared to read this far, it is appreciated. Now, any advice you can give me or even just some encouragement would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps some success stories or just point me in the right direction. I also realize that I may not be true overclocker material as I don't really want to get to deep in it yet, but I think I'll eventually get there. I just need to start out easy. Thanks in advance for any replies and I hope I didn't bother anyone here.

BTW, and this is way off topic, but does anyone here happen to play SWAT 3?

[funnyperson1]

sorry, but since the mobo is intel you probably wont be able to oc, also the RadeonSDR and Geforce2MX can bo found as PCI cards, well worth the money and attention....look on the mobo and see if it has little jumpers on it labeled CPU Speed or Front Side Bus....

[Yodums]

FunnyPerson is right the branded computers is hard to overclock since their settings are different..

The only thing you can do now is check for jumpers..

Or you can pour 100 dollars out.. Get something like Abit BE-6 like me and something like a Golden Orb since it'll do good at speeds this low ..

Then you'll be able to overclock as well add a better AGP Card.

[Irish]

Wow, you guys are extremely fasy and I appreciate it. Well, I tried to take a look for jumpers, but didn't see any. Then again, I wasn't totally sure of what I was looking for. It's hard to see inside though, as it is very cramped inside this mini tower case. I had a hard enough time with the RAM.

By the way, I downloaded and installed SiSoft Sandra as I'd seen about and that is an awesome little program. My question is this, why does the manufacturer state that my mobo is only capable of 256 MB when Sandra said 512, I believe? Well, while I had my case open, I reinstalled a 64 MB PC100 module I had and voila, my computer registered it. 320 MB. That's awesome considering I just had 96 MB yesterday. If I had another slot, I'd throw that 32 MB module in there too, but oh well. I was just curious as to why they said it only handles 256 MB. Anyone know?

[Jon]

Might sound funny, but I've worked for Compaq and HP and when it comes to some older systems they put limits on PCs that actually have higher ceilings. The manufacturer states 256MB is the limit and you have proved this wrong. Sometimes they do that just because at the time of production, they never imagined anyone putting more than 256MB in it.

Not all OEM motherboards are like that though. Some will actually give error beeps and refuse to POST.

Welcome to the forums as well!

[Irish]

Ok, I had just written a longer post, but it is gone for some strange reason. Anyways, thanks for the replies and for welcoming me here. It's nice to see people lend a helping hand when asked. Hopefully, I will have my new computer soon so I can tinker with this one more. Maybe if I can take it all apart, I will be able to see the jumpers. If all else fails, I'll just stick around and learn all I can so I will know what I'm doing when I do get a computer worthy of oc'ing. I was also wondering about this Soft FSB. Is it of any help? Thanks in advance. :)

[Yodums]

Yes you can try SoftFSB..

ITs a program that will change your FSB upon loading windows..

If it works you should use WCPUID to find out your chipset number so you can actually use the program..

[Irish]

Well, my mobo isn't in the drop down list for Soft FSB so I guess I'm sol for now. Thanks for the help though fellas. Greatly appreciated. :)

[Yodums]

Ahh sorry.. Next computer can be a beauty if you pay attention to all the post so you don't make the same mistakes..

[Irish]

Now, for some reason, everytime I try to launch SiSoft Sandra, I get the error message: Missing ODBC32.DLL or something to that effect. If someone could send me this file and tell me where it goes, I'd be eternally greatful. Just email me at sdboyd79@yahoo.com if you can help. Thanks in advance.

[JetMech]

Originally posted by Irish
Now, for some reason, everytime I try to launch SiSoft Sandra, I get the error message: Missing ODBC32.DLL or something to that effect. If someone could send me this file and tell me where it goes, I'd be eternally greatful. Just email me at sdboyd79@yahoo.com if you can help. Thanks in advance. Try uninstalling and reinstalling Sandra. If it worked before it should work now unless something became corrupted. You might also try using the Find utility in Windows to see if the ODBC32.DLL driver is still loaded in your system. You haven't mentioned what version of WIN you're using. It helps when requesting assistance to give as much info as possible so that someone possibly running the same can home in on your problem. Oh yeah please let me also welcome you to the forum.:)