Need some tips

Hi all,

This is my first time at this O/C site and I really like it. I would like to OverClock my system too, however, Iam not sure whether my system is suitable or not. Here is my system specs:

ECS KTVTA3 266mhz FSB AWARD BIOS
Via Chipset ( unfortunately)
1.4ghz Athlon
64MB Geforce2 MX/200
SoundBlaster Live
650DDR pc2100
30GB ATA/100 Barracula
CDRW+DVD

I know how to unlock the mulplitier and increase the voltage,FSB just dont know what the max speed I can get out of this spec w/o hurting my system.
Please give me some suggestions.

thanks,
K

Welcome tot he FORUM!

Let me start out by saying 2 things. I don't know this boards stats and that I am not an overclocking genious.

If you ahven't done so read the guides on the frontpage on overclocking they will tell you alot about overclocking.

Second find that montherboard manual.

READ it ALOT. You don't have to memorize it, but it helps to know what the board is capable of. It being a ECS board I doubt it has much in the way of overclocking features. If it is like the K7S5A then you'll only have the FSB to overclock by. Yes it will run some of the system out of spec, but from what I have heard some motherboards ahve a PCI divisor that helps keep the system running at least tolerable levels. AS I SIAD read that manual, it "should" tell you what you need to know once you start tinkering.

For me I overclocked by first downloading the BIOS that semi-supported overclocking. Again CHECK the MANUAL and see if it tells you what other options are available in the BIOS. You may need to flash your bios, inwhich case read the guide on flashing your bios on the front page and usually the motherboard website will have a link somewhere near the bios download for instructions on downloading and installing that new bios.


For me my overclocking went like this.

Once my system was up and running and all the drivers were updated I went and restarted the system. Enter the BIOS and went to the cpu pnp and adjusted the only thinng it allowed me too which was my FSB setting. I started out at the lowest setting which was 100/100(which was underclocking my DDR ram) I went for 112/112 (o/c'd cpu under o/c'd DDR), i then saved and exited the Bios. I let it boot up and I ran a couple benchmarks to stress the system. No glictchs so I restarted and re-entered the Bios and again went to the cpu pnp page and went to my next highest FSB which was 124/124(now I'm overclocking my cpu and still slightly underclocking my DDR). I again save an exit Bios and boot to windows. I run several benchmarks testing stability and none occur so I restart and re-enter the Bios. I again go to cpu pnp and up my FSB to the next setting which is 133/133. I skipped 100/133 as for some reason my system refused it every time and is a known problem for the K7S5A as far as i know. Ok now I'm overclocking ym CPU at a good rate and my DDR is now running in Spec. I boot up and again encounter no errors and begin benchmarking for stability testing. No problems. I repeat the previous procedures and try for ym next highest FSB and it fails to boot at 142/142(i think thats my next one it's been awhile so i might be wrong on the numbers). So I restart, or hardboot whichever your able to do as far as i know. Re-enter adn drop your FSB back to the last level i worked at which for me was 133/133. What's this it failed to boot at this speed again..? So I drop it down soem mroe and ended up with an acceptable O/C of 700@868.

My other system went similar except I had changed it's voltage by bridging its L7's and it made it to and ran at 133/133, but had some windows glitches(i think due to older HDD) so I dropped it down to 124/124 and it's runnign GREAT.

That's my story on overclocking maybe it'll help you see what you need to do. If not maybe someone will come along and tell you how a little better and more clearly.

Good luck!

OC

Welcome to the addiction... I mean the world's greatest forum!

A temp monitoring program and a benchmark are absolutely essential to determining how much you can overclock and still remain stable.

I recommend Motherboard monitor and Sisoft Sandra. Once you have these tools, it's only matter of testing various FSB settings, and possibly increasing the vcore. At least for starters anyway.

Also, you can check the cpu database on the front page and see if any1 has submitted their overclock of the same cpu/motherboard that you have. They may have also included useful things like cpu temperature, type of cooling, FSB and/or mulitplyer settings, etc. There are also a lot of great guides on the front page, as well as many threads here in the forums that will help you get a good knowledge base about overclocking.

Hey, is your Athlon an XP 1600+ or a T-bird 1.4? And what kind of heatsink do you have on it? Any case fans? Good cooling will help in overclocking immesurably.

Thank you Arkaime23 and Tithulta !!

Since my ECS KVTVA3 MoBo is not very choice and sure not popular to overclock, I'm having hard time to find any infos or discussion on it. Do you think I should change the MoBo ? if yes what do you recommend ? I wish I knew about this ECS MoBo b4 I got this system.

BTW Arkaime23 It is 1.4 Tbird not XP.

thanks

i would try ocworkbench.com

Bar none the largest ECS resource.

I wouldn't change the board unless it was faulty. Lacking O/C features isn't something I call faulty.

Well, from what I have been able to gather, this board has limited OCing but has some decent features. Support for DDR memory being one.
The BIOS settings do not allow FSB or multiplier settings. There is a jumper for either 100 or 133 FSB to accommodate whatever CPU you have but there are no jumpers for multiplier changes.
This is basically all the K7S5A had to begin with except that the setting was controlled by the bios. It had 100/100, 100/133, and 133/133. That changed with newer bios upgrades so, until such time as someone writes a new bios that will allow more changes, you are stuck. Except for changing the bridges on the CPU, which I don't recommend unless you are prepared to sacrifice the chip. Not saying anything would happen to it but, you can easily void the warranty this way!

I have found the ECS board to be faster starting and, here someone is going to disagree, runs cooler than either of my A7V series boards.

Your system will most likely run strong and true for a long time with the setup you have.