look out its another noob

hi all

i apologise for this post inadvance, but i've gota few queries i need help with

i have:

2.1xp thoroughbred
msi 745f ultra mobo
1 gig of unbranded 2700 ddr

now i'm interested in oc'ing my cpu ( not by a massive amount, to around 2ghz?) and have read as many threads as poss to get my head round it, but as is the norm for me i'm struggling to understand all the info flying about ( tho its extremely useful)

i've read about the multiplyers, the voltages etc, but i need a very simple explanation as a way to overclock. now before anyones suggests a particular thread, i've looked at most of the noob ones and i'm still confused. Thats not to say i know nothing of a pc, having put my own together but basically i need a simple...do this, do that, do the other ...guide to overclocking without the need to calculate anything

as i said at the start apologies in advance and if i'm honest i'm looking for people to do the hard work for me......which is a bit of a cheek i know, but i don't have anyone around me to support or help me.

any advice would be gratefully recieved and appreciated

cheers
fishman

Welcome to the forums.

Well I'll try and explain it best I can. The FSB x multiplier equals your CPU operating speed. For example my FSB is 240 and my multi is 10 so 2400 is my CPU speed and my memory bus at a 1:1 ratio (means my memory and CPU run at the same bus speed) is 480 because DDR ram runs at 2 x FSB speed.

The voltages can be adjusted on motherboards to stabalize an overclock. On your motherboard I'm not sure, is that a SIS chipset on there? If so you are going to be pretty limited and MSI boards aren't known to be great overclockers as far as I know. When a motherbaord does have voltages usually the chipset voltage (used to stabalize the motherboard when running high FSB speeds), RAM votages (used to stabalize the memory when running FSB speeds over stock), CPU voltages (used to stabalize the CPU when running at higher operating speeds than stock), and AGP voltages (used for ?, I've never really messed wth it) can be adjusted.

Now just because the voltages can be adjusted doesn't mean all parts can handle over volting them. The voltage used on the CPU mainly depends on your cooling. On air with an SLK-800 and a maxed out Smartfan 2 I was able to run 2.0 volts on my older Barton CPU. Not alot of people run that high of a voltage mainly because their CPU cooler can't handle it. My current cooler can't even handle it. I can barely get it to cool past 1.75 volts to my core but it is alot more quiet than the Smartfan was.

When it comes to RAM the voltage depends alot on what chips are on it. Mine has BH-5 chips which can take silly voltages and run very fast speeds. For example mine is at 3.3 volts while the stock voltage was 2.7 or so but I have heatspreaders on them and a fan blowing directly on my sticks. Not alot of people run that high but some run even more volts to them. The highest I've seen was 3.5 volts but I would never go that high.

The chipsets tend to top out at 1.9 volts but some people do modifications that run higher. My old NF7-S board was modded to run 2.1 volts on the chipset but I also put active (fan blowing direclty on the heatsink) cooling on it and that eventually was too much for it and the board died out. Which brings me to why you have to be careful of what voltages you do: There is always the chance you will burn up the part you are over volting but that just comes with overclocking and being scared about that eventually goes away.

Now to your system. The CPU will overclock if the other parts will follow. The best I can remember a 2100+ T-bred will run at 2.0 with only a small voltage increase. Your RAM being generic and only 2700 probably won't get you too far and thats where most people run into a bottleneck. The motherboard I have no idea about because I've never used or really heard much about one but the options will be in the BIOS or have jumpers if it allows overclocking.

To find the options go into your BIOS and look for voltages and see if it has options. What type of BIOS your board has chages where the settings are so I can't tell you for sure where. If so your in the game. All I can say is start small and get your feet wet then go for the more extreme stuff after you play some and feel more secure about doing things.

Whew thats alot but I hope it helps. Most of all....Have fun!

thanks for the reply..wannaoc...it made sense..but i have one more question...and this may make any seasoned overclocker laugh but....can i just increase my FSB in small increments to gain MHZ's on my chip

nothing major... a 300 mhz gain would be great..at least that way its a small step for an eager beginner..without having to tamper with ram/voltage settings..

cheers

Yes, you can just up the FSB till you reach a certain speed. But sometimes the mobo's themselves or the RAM reaches a limit and if your chip still got some more, then you have to get the multiplier into the action.

if your current FSB is 266(133Mhz*2), your ram PC2700 is rated DDR333, you can slowly raise your fsb toward 333 (166Mhz*2).

You have a SiS motherboard that you can only change the FSB on, not the multiplier unless you go around cutting bridges or dropping wires into the CPU socket. Your board however IS AGP/PCI lockable so you can change the FSB to whatever you want and the PCI speed will remain constant. Set the DRAM ratio to 1:1 and up the FSB in 5MHz increments, testing for stability with Prime95

The board and RAM are rated for 166MHz, and your CPU has a multiplier of 13x. Running at 166MHz would give a CPU speed of 2.15GHz, which is well within range of a Tbred-B at 1.65V.

What cooling have you got? Check your temperatures with MotherboardMonitor. Your board does not have a sensor for the CPU onboard diode, just a diode under the CPU socket so be wary of low temperature readings.

The 745Ultra does provide "true" overclocking features. FSB range is selectable at 1Mhz stepping from 100~200Mhz. although 183Mhz is about max.

Multiplier from 6x ~ 15x,

Voltages are also adjustable for Vcore and Vdimm.