Utilities to montior system and to OC: Recommendations?

Ok...so my order was delayed for the last few parts for my new rig (and its killing me because I have everything else BUT the CPU! grrr...!)

I figured, in that time i'd ask a question here on recommended utilities and program to help me monitor, test and overclock my sytem.

Here is what I have:

ASUS M2N-E, AM2 board
AMD 3800+ Single Core
2gib Corsair XMS2 memory
x1900xt 512mb, vid card
Zalman thermal grease
Zalman 9500 Heatsink
320gb, SATA Seagate

It has been a looonnnggg time since i've overclocked. The last CPU I OC'd was a PIII 600mhz Coppermine

So really, here is what im curious about.

1.) A good utility to help me monitor my temperatures so I make sure I don't cook the CPU (So many new things are out since my 600mhz days).

2.) A utility to help test memory for errors, maybe even stress test

3.) recommended utility to help me OC

4.) Benchmarking programs (there are a lot, but like to hear personal preferences)

5.) Any other's that come highly recommended as well.


Lastly, my chipset on the MOBO is a nVidia 570. Would ASUS or nVidia be the best place to get the latest driver updates?


I can feel the OC'ing world start to pull me in. I'm already planning my next rig.

thx

Actually, I would also like some info on good system monitoring utilities. I need something for both Unix and Windows based systems, something free. So if you help one of us out you'll help the other.

Thank you.

search

I did a search. This thread list some utilities but you have to page through it. Free Software.

Motherboard Monitor 5 (MBM5) Or prog that comes with mobo - temps
Memtest - Stress Memory
Prime95 - Stress CPU CPU&Memory (run max heat output test for 12-24h Best CPU test)

All easy via google

Overclocking is pretty much all bios now.

SuperPi is good for cpu/RAM stress testing as well, especially whe used parallel with Prime95.

Motherboard Monitor 5 isn't really updated anymore. A better program (although it too is no longer maintained) is Everest Home Edition. You can find that on Oldversion.com.

Like he said, overclocking is mainly BIOS. Some mobo manufacturer's ship "overclocking" programs with their boards (mine does for example) but the likelihood of ever getting a stable overclock that way is about zero.

There's an app the name of which I can't recall - FSB something - that will raise the FSB of supported boards within windows, but it won't allow you to lock the pci bus clock, so there's a slight chance it could kill hardware (especially SATA drives).