8 misc. questions. Please help

[Shuruga2]

Hi, I’ve got some misc questions about my system please have a go at answering them, thanks.

First, my system:
T-bird 1400
Gigabyte GA-7DXR
512 PC266 DDR – unknown company
ATI AIW Radeon 7500
Soundblaster Live 5.1 Platinum with LiveDrive
40G Maxtor HDD @7200
Sony CD-RW 16x8x40 (CRX1611)
Mat****a DVD 16x (SR-8587)

First question.
Does anyone know if this board is any good for overclocking? I’m not doing anything serious now, but I plan to in the summer with a WC system.

Second.
How hot is too hot for ram? I’ve got the ram voltage set to 2.6 right now which gives me temps from 38.5C idle to 41C under load. At what point should I be getting heat sinks or cooling in some other way? Should I even try going to the highest setting 2.7? How much does it actually improve performance?

Third.
The board has a “AGP 4X Overvoltage Switch.” Right now its at the default, 1.5V. Should I consider playing with this? Would it get better performance out of my card? The card is currently OC’d using Rage3D Tweak to the point where if I go much higher funky stuff starts to appear in game. How much would changing the voltage affect the temp of the card, or would it?

Fourth.
Is what the manual calls “system bus” the same as front side bus? If not how can I find out what I’m running at and how can I change it?

Fifth.
My current frequency settings are CPU: 133, PCI: 33, AGP: 66. The board can go to (140,35,70) or (150,37.5,75). What exactly do these numbers mean? How would changing them affect performance? Should I try changing them with just air cooling?

Sixth.
The board also provides a “CPU Frequency Override” which is currently set at 6.5X.
The manual says this function won’t be available with a locked ratio chip, so how do I know if this is actually doing anything? Should I start playing with this?

Seventh.
Is there any way I can tweak my soundcard? I know I’m not even close to pushing its limits, I just want to know that its limits are way out there. Also, is there a way to switch which output the card is sending a signal to? ie. sending the ‘rear’ signal out of the LiveDrive’s headphone jack?

Eighth.
Any recommendations for things to go on my summer upgrade list?


If you read all of this, thanks.
If you read it and can help me with something, thanks a lot.

 

[Shuruga2]

Ha. Whatever it is that blocks foul language changed what was supposed to be the brand name of my dvd. Maybe this will work.
Matsh ita

 

[minoukat]

1. Donno

2. Over 50*C is definitely too hot, donno much more

3. Donno, it might, it might not, actually i've never heard of that thing. based on the name, I'd say it controls the amount of voltage given to the card, so more might mean a better OC (graphic card OC, I mean), but I'm not sure. Also, it can raise the temps of the GC.

4. Yup, same thing, they just used a different term

5. it's the different speeds for your bus. Taking for exemple 133, 33, 66, the 133 stands for the FSB, the 33 is the PCI slot bus speed, and the 66 is the AGP slot bus speed. yes, increasing them willl also increase performance, but it might have repercussions on your hardware (it might not last as long as it should, might fail, ...)

6. I'm not sure, but I think that's the multiplier. it's what gives the real clock speed (for exemple, your 1.4GHz, if it'S with a 133FSB, it'll have a clock multiplier of 11.5 (11.5x133=1400MHz=1.4GHz))

 

[Ridenow]

I like the CDROM brand...I will have to check on the correct spelling.

1. Gigabyte boards never "embraced" overclocking abilities as much as some other brands *Abit, Epox...*
I have also had problems with their support, they are not on my recomended list.

2. I have not heard many people claim better performance with ram sinks. Most said it looked cool, but was not worth doing. Never done it myself, so I can't say for sure.

3. If it works, don't fool with it to much. I have read reports of frying video cards when voltage is changed on them.

4. System Bus = FSB. It should say in the BIOS and when it boots what it is currently set at. I think you even say that it is 133 in one of your questions.

5. Ah ha, you did say the FSB, just did not know it. Minoukat answered what they are. The PCI and AGP speeds are a division of the FSB. Example 133 FSB / 4 = 33 PCI. Yes, you can try to change them, but if you cooling and system is not up to it, it will crash and you will have to reset those settings.

6. I am going to agree with Minoukat, we think that may be the multiplier setting. 6.5 does not sound right though. That would mean your processor would be running at 850 MHz, not the 1400 that you said. If your processor is locked, changing the setting will not do anything. If the processor is unlocked than this setting will change the speed of it. See my comment about cooling for number 5.

7. SB Live is a good card, there is not much you can do to them. The settings are changed using the mixer software that came with the card.

8. You have a decent system. I am sure there are toys that will be out, but the only things you could want for the base computer is a bigger heat sink and a tube of Arctic Silver.


You are welcome, this is one of the reasons we are here.

 

[Shuruga2]

wow, thats great guys, thanks.


something else i thought of. is changing the frequency, on the board or in bios, the same as changing the multiplier?


thanks again.

 

[Ridenow]

NO. The frequency and multiplier are different things.

The frequency is the same as FSB, the speed of the motherboard. The multipier is how many times the speed of the board the processor runs at.

For example lets say the FSB is 133MHz and the multiplier is 9. That means the processor would be a 1200 MHz.
133*9=1197. (processor speeds are rounded a little)

 

[Shuruga2]

alright.
so does that mean the highest speed i can get with my board is 150*12.5=1875 ? or can i continue to go higher using the bios setting?

thanks

 

[Ridenow]

That sounds about right. I did not look it up to check.

Sometimes there will be a new BIOS version that will let you go higher.

 

[Aeon Flux]

First question.
Does anyone know if this board is any good for overclocking? I’m not doing anything serious now, but I plan to in the summer with a WC system.

Second.
How hot is too hot for ram? I’ve got the ram voltage set to 2.6 right now which gives me temps from 38.5C idle to 41C under load. At what point should I be getting heat sinks or cooling in some other way? Should I even try going to the highest setting 2.7? How much does it actually improve performance?

Third.
The board has a “AGP 4X Overvoltage Switch.” Right now its at the default, 1.5V. Should I consider playing with this? Would it get better performance out of my card? The card is currently OC’d using Rage3D Tweak to the point where if I go much higher funky stuff starts to appear in game. How much would changing the voltage affect the temp of the card, or would it?

Fourth.
Is what the manual calls “system bus” the same as front side bus? If not how can I find out what I’m running at and how can I change it?

Fifth.
My current frequency settings are CPU: 133, PCI: 33, AGP: 66. The board can go to (140,35,70) or (150,37.5,75). What exactly do these numbers mean? How would changing them affect performance? Should I try changing them with just air cooling?

Sixth.
The board also provides a “CPU Frequency Override” which is currently set at 6.5X.
The manual says this function won’t be available with a locked ratio chip, so how do I know if this is actually doing anything? Should I start playing with this?

Seventh.
Is there any way I can tweak my soundcard? I know I’m not even close to pushing its limits, I just want to know that its limits are way out there. Also, is there a way to switch which output the card is sending a signal to? ie. sending the ‘rear’ signal out of the LiveDrive’s headphone jack?

Eighth.
Any recommendations for things to go on my summer upgrade list?

1) Have no clue. Most newer boards of any kind from my expereince are good for overclocking. All though most will disaggree I've found that a biostar motherboard is just as good for overclocking as an Asus. By the sounds of the setting you have in your bios you have a better one to do an easier job with it.

2) Someone mentioned 50 is to hot. It really a matter of personal opinion to an extent. I run my processor at 50 and it is rock solid and completly stable. Id say 55 degrees is when you shoudl start to worry and 60 is to high. Amd says 80 is to high. At any point try not to hit the 60 degree mark. Like I said its personal opinion. It should still run stable at 60 degrees but really try not and hit that. 38 is a good temp. 50 is acceptable. 60 is to high.

3) Over volting your agp slot will help with stability just as over volting your system processor will. But keep in mind the more volts means the more heat. If you try and do this first try and get better then stock cooling for your video card.

4)System bus and Front side bus is essentially the same thing. There is another bus we'll just call "back side bus" (I cant remember the exact name at the moment. Mind block for some reason. If you want to know it tell me and Ill remember it and tell you) that you almost never really have to worry about. Pretty much all buses are syncronus to each other. If you have problem with one you'll have a problem with all of them.

5)133 means your front side bus. 33 is your PCI bus and 66 is your agp bus. Usually by over clocking your front side bus you overclock your pci and agp bus as they are all codependant on each other. Overclocking them will make everything faster of course. The higher the number the faster it is.(at least for buses anyway) But the PCI and AGP bus are much easier to fail then the front side bus. if you over clock the agp and pci bus just make sure you have good cooling on all pci cards and your video card. And remember do it in small increments. I know its time consuming and a pain in the *** but in the end youll be happy you did when you didnt fry something.

6)The cpu frequency override is your clock multiplier. just for fyo you get your actual clock speed by multipling your front side bus by your clock multiplier. So we'll use your computer for an example and presume you have a pentium 3. Your front side bus is 133 mhz and your clock multiplier is 6.5. Your clock speed of the pentium would then be 133*6.5=864 mhz. So you have a 864 mhz pentium 3. Now it gets different with athlons and pentium 4 of course. On most athlon boards you fsb will be 200, 266, 333, etc.. but your acdtually bus speed is halfof that. Its because of the way the DDR archetecture works. I can write a whole essay about this so we'll leave it to that at now. I hope that helps answer part of your question. AS for the rest of it if you have a clocked lock processor you will not be able to change that. You will now if your processor is clocked lock because your clock speed will not change if you change this. Keep in mind most processor now of days are clocked locked.

7)Dont really know but never really tried.

8)Get a good a+ book and really nice water cooling kit.

 

[Matthias99]

For question five, based on the settings you gave, your motherboard does NOT have a PCI/AGP bus lock. PCI and AGP cards are generally not able to run at much higher than specced speeds (33 and 66 Mhz, respectively). Newer motherboards built for overclocking will let you set the FSB independently of the PCI and AGP speeds (a "bus lock"), allowing you to run your FSB and processor faster while keeping your expansion cards at their normal speed. Since you don't have this, I wouldn't bother spending much time trying to increase the FSB. It may work, but it's likely to introduce instability, and if it doesn't work there's little you can do about it. Just up the CPU multiplier (if you can). Everything else seems like pretty good advice.