The SECRET of overclocking revealed

Attention all newbies. I constantly read post from beginners wanting assistance to overclock their CPU when they have some generic or OEM motherboard that is not overclocking friendly. The secret to a successful overclocking adventure STARTS with the motherboard. You don't really overclock just the CPU, you overclock the entire computer system via the motherboard. The motherboard is the heart of your computer. You absolutely HAVE to first possess a good overclockable motherboard. The forum seems swamped with people that don't or can't understand this concept. Thank you for allowing me to rant and rave a bit.

This deserves more respect. Bump!

Yep batboy's statements deserves the upmost in respect, concerning motherboard oc'ing!

I've said for a long time that you can take the greatest or best of cpu's and put it on a poorly designed/engineered chipset and motherboard and you will have a poor to fair system at best, but you can take a fair cpu and put it on a superior chipset and motherboard and you will still have a decent system. I think the AMD vrs. Intel situation is like this right now. AMD has great cpu's but not hardly a decent chipset/motherboard to run them on, while Intel's P4 is somewhat lacking in comparison. Yet it is Intel's chipsets and motherboards that have given the P4's a stability and compatibility advantage over AMD's and expecially second party chipsets, such as Via, with poorly engineered chipsets and motherboards. So I think Intel has got a small point in not wanting Via to release Via engineered chipsets for Intel cpu's. (Although that is not the real reason Intel wants Via to stop this.)

Cheers,
Mike Lamb

Darn straight!!! I personally like Abit motherboards, however the specific application needs to be evaluated first. I ALWAYS pick a motherboard that has some sort of Softmenu. Much easier to change voltage and bus speeds. I also consider whether or not the motherboard has the ability to increase voltage high enough without having to major mods.

In my opinion, Abit and Asus are probably the top two motherboards currently available for overclocking. There are other brands that work well too if you get one that has FSB adjustments and voltage adjustments (preferably done within the BIOS). Other things to consider are stability and performance, plus features like PCI, AGP, and RAM clock dividers. Shop around and don't skimp on the motherboard. Like I said earlier, it's the heart of your system.

Hold on there batboy...I'll see your secret and raise you another one. The real secret to great ocing, even before the mobo, is the wealth of knowledge in forums like this one.

After the Beginners' Guide (where you'll get an understanding of the basic elements) and the CPU database (where you'll get an understanding of what's achievable), the best advise to fellow rookies is to read through a couple of months worth of posts from forum members. By the time you're done, you'll know what you need for the heart of your system.

It'll depend on short/long term objectives. You say potato, I say spud...You say tomato, I say marinara...well you understand. Some prefer AMD, some Intel. Some will oc the limits of a mid range cpu, and spend extra dollars on custom cooling and oc tolerant components...Some will go with stock cooling and standard components, and direct the extra dollars towards a faster cpu.

When my objective was a little ocing, the system I had was perfectly fine. When my objective was great ocing, the tips on what & where to get the right components (keeping price in mind) came from tapping the brains of veterans.

So the real secret revealed is...READ.

"That's all I have to say about that." (re: Forest Gump)

Well spoken Rick G...well spoken.

Rick G said:

Hold on there batboy...I'll see your secret and raise you another one. The real secret to great ocing, even before the mobo, is the wealth of knowledge in forums like this one.

After the Beginners' Guide (where you'll get an understanding of the basic elements) and the CPU database (where you'll get an understanding of what's achievable), the best advise to fellow rookies is to read through a couple of months worth of posts from forum members. By the time you're done, you'll know what you need for the heart of your system.

It'll depend on short/long term objectives. You say potato, I say spud...You say tomato, I say marinara...well you understand. Some prefer AMD, some Intel. Some will oc the limits of a mid range cpu, and spend extra dollars on custom cooling and oc tolerant components...Some will go with stock cooling and standard components, and direct the extra dollars towards a faster cpu.

When my objective was a little ocing, the system I had was perfectly fine. When my objective was great ocing, the tips on what & where to get the right components (keeping price in mind) came from tapping the brains of veterans.

So the real secret revealed is...READ.

"That's all I have to say about that." (re: Forest Gump)

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actually i remember reading your post a long time ago asking for help...looks like you got it figured out...nice oc

Lets not forget ram people. there's lots of industry standard that don't do poop when your o/c. I apologize for my use of profanity. I guess if your starting out the board is priority number one. Then its time to find the chip. From my experience the secret to succesful orgasmic o/c is LUCK! The more research you do helps to improve your odds for getting all the right components which will improve your success for reaching the fsb you want. Rick G is right learn from others and then spin the wheel cause you will never know till its time to boot.





abit vh6-2
cel [email protected] at 1.7 volts
20 gigHD,900 megs ram 133 cas 2
gf2mx,

murdoch said:

Lets not forget ram people. there's lots of industry standard that don't do poop when your o/c. I apologize for my use of profanity. I guess if your starting out the board is priority number one. Then its time to find the chip. From my experience the secret to succesful orgasmic o/c is LUCK! The more research you do helps to improve your odds for getting all the right components which will improve your success for reaching the fsb you want. Rick G is right learn from others and then spin the wheel cause you will never know till its time to boot.





abit vh6-2
cel [email protected] at 1.7 volts
20 gigHD,900 megs ram 133 cas 2
gf2mx,

Click to expand...

Ram is not too important, if you look at FunnyPerson's sig he has generic ram and decent overclock. What batboy mainly points out is the motherboard is the heart of overclocking because it comes before everything and knowledge can be important too.

A lot of good info here; let's see if my 2 cents adds anything!

I think Knowledge is most important, and then a good mobo- without these......

RAM is important to a degree- high quality ram SHOULD give better, more consistent results while generic ram is more of a crapshoot. I have had excellent luck with my ram, all of which is generic. I could probably- stress on the probably- get better results with better ram but to me the extra expense is not justified by the improvements. I do have 2 128mb sticks of pc133 that I can only use in non-oc'd systems, but I also am using a total of 1408mb of ram in various types/sizes(all generic), oc'd up to 155 fsb.

Memory seems to involve luck as much as anything else- but you will most likely improve your odds with "good" stuff.

Lots all good comments. Of course overclocking knowledge is extremely important, and yes, other components are very important too. You should be using good quality stuff throughout your system, but without a high quality, overclocking friendly motherboard, you just aren't going to get very far no matter how much knowledge you have or how good your RAM is.

batboy said:

Lots all good comments. Of course overclocking knowledge is extremely important, and yes, other components are very important too. You should be using good quality stuff throughout your system, but without a high quality, overclocking friendly motherboard, you just aren't going to get very far no matter how much knowledge you have or how good your RAM is.

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Yep I totally agree and thats what I tried to point out that the motherboard is before everything without it you can't do anything with other components.

Errr. Make sure you research and shop around for a OCable mobo.

Damn piece of crap Intel board

Mike360000 said:

AMD has great cpu's but not hardly a decent chipset/motherboard to run them on, while Intel's P4 is somewhat lacking in comparison. Yet it is Intel's chipsets and motherboards that have given the P4's a stability and compatibility advantage over AMD's and expecially second party chipsets, such as Via, with poorly engineered chipsets and motherboards.

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Isn't the KT266A supposed to be an awesome AMD chipset though? Jeez, I hope I didn't upgrade to this just to get a chipset that's been hyped beyond belief! An honest question...not a rhetorical one.

Pinky said:

This deserves more respect.

Click to expand...

Definitely!

another secret

lots of luck...or a big bottom as i use to say, cpus aren't twins and mobos aren't clones.

If you are planning to oc first of all I think you should choose a cpu which will oc the best. I was lucky in my first try (PII 400@[email protected] stock cooling) but when I changed my cpu with cel 600 I knew that it would oc better.
And I see people trying to oc a cpu which is at its limit (like PIII 933 or older PIII 1000) So if you are planing to oc choose a cpu like PIII 700 at 100 fsb (not 133 considering the pci speed) And always choose the ones with newer stepings. (like the cD0 PIII 1 Ghz)
As an example I’m planning to buy a taulatin celeron but I’ll wait for 1Ghz and 1.1 since 1.5ghz seems to be the limit with default core voltage and stock cooling.
And I agree one of the most important component in an oc’d system is the motherboard and and like my Abit BE6, one of the best mobo of its time

nucro said:

If you are planning to oc first of all I think you should choose a cpu which will oc the best. I was lucky in my first try (PII 400@[email protected] stock cooling) but when I changed my cpu with cel 600 I knew that it would oc better.
And I see people trying to oc a cpu which is at its limit (like PIII 933 or older PIII 1000) So if you are planing to oc choose a cpu like PIII 700 at 100 fsb (not 133 considering the pci speed) And always choose the ones with newer stepings. (like the cD0 PIII 1 Ghz)
As an example I’m planning to buy a taulatin celeron but I’ll wait for 1Ghz and 1.1 since 1.5ghz seems to be the limit with default core voltage and stock cooling.
And I agree one of the most important component in an oc’d system is the motherboard and and like my Abit BE6, one of the best mobo of its time

Click to expand...

Hey you have any idea how good the Abit BE6 compares to the BE6-II? I'm not sure myself but I would liek to know

tsunami,

I mite can add a little about the BE6 boards since I've bought about a dozen of them in differing flavors.

All the Abit BE6 models, including Raid are practically identical except for the Raid functions on some boards and the revisions from ata 66 to ata 100(rev2). Most of the BE6 boards themselves are the same except for minor hardware changes, in partitular the blowing of capacitors on the early boards. And of course the boards may vary concerning the BIOS updates.

So the only real difference between a BE6 and BE6 II Raid is the Raid function in conjunction with the ata 66 or ata 100 capabilities, on how they are implemented in series.

These boards, as you may know, and for the other poster, carries the famed Intel BX 440 chipset. As far as I am concerned, it is the finest chipset to have ever held a processor. But I gotta admit Intel has recently came with some other brilliant chipsets, concerning dependability and compatibility.

Chers,
Mike Lamb