I don't like asking but...

[brothernod]

I don't really wanna ask. I feel like some stupid noob, but I'll ask anyway, cause... well I want to know damn it

What is going to hold back an fsb overclock in my computer??
my components are this


Athlon XP 1700+ (unlocked)
Epok 8kha+
256 meg stick crucual pc2100 ram
128 meg stick mushkin pc2100 ram (1st gen)
Ibm 60 gig 60gxp (this drive is awesome, but how will it deal with a high fsb)
maxtor 30 gig (don't remember the model, it's 7200 rpm diamonmax maybe)
d-link 10/100 network card
sound blaster audigy oem (i currently have a Diamond sonic impact s90, but that's gone in 2 weeks)
Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4400 (I have a voodoo 3 2000, but that's gone in a month or so)
oh yeah, yahmaha 8x4x24 cd burner.

assume everything is stock cooling right now. The maxtor is currently the boot drive, but I'm gonna be goin back to the ibm as boot soon. I'm shooting for an fsb of 160. what is gonna hold me back??
can anyone give their opinions on any of my parts??
as I said, sorry for asking such a lame question, but it's hard finding stuff about all the parts I have together.

I'm concerned about how the hd's are gonna handle a high fsb. and I'm also curious about the sound card.
thanks.

 

[RainMaQer]

The first thing that I'd say would go... would be the NIC. Most NIC's dont handle high FSB's very well. Next would be the HD's but I'm not so sure on that one. Even my Maxtor can handle a pci bus of 40 MHz. What pci bus speed are you looking to hit?

 

[brothernod]

I'm fairly ignorant about the complexities of the pci bus and such.

I don't wanna overclock my harddrives, but i don't know what options I have in my bios for playing with it's divider and such.

and I need a NIC in my computer, i'm not giving up my cable modem, nuh uh.

 

[RainMaQer]

When you raise the FSB it changes ALL speeds in your system.

EXAMPLE:

Default Processor: 1000 MHz w/ 100 FSB (10X multiplier)
Desired Overclock speed: 1100 w/ 110 FSB (10X multiplier)
PCI Bus@100 FSB=33 MHz (1/3 DIVIDER)
PCI Bus@110 FSB=36.6 MHz (STILL 1/3 DIVIDER)

The PCI bus is the bus that ALL pci slots run on included in this is also you IDE ports. A motherboard that supports a 133 FSB has a 1/4 PCI divider that will put the PCI bus back in spec when running at 133 (133 divided by 4 equals 33). The AGP slot has it's own divider as do the USB slots and other peripherals. This in a sense overclocks your HD, PCI cards, etc.

Your processor I'm assuming runs on a 133 FSB so you by default will use a 1/4 divider... check to see if you have a 1/5 divider for the PCI bus. That will help when you go higher than 140 or so. Also since your XP is unlocked you can just change the multiplier to overclock... which does NOT affect your PCI bus NOR your FSB.

 

[brothernod]

I'm lookin for the fsb overclock cause I know it gets ya a lot more performance.

I didn't know that the divider for the pci was the same for the ide drives...damn.

think a 160 fsb will effect my drives??

 

[RainMaQer]

As I recall from another thread that mobo doesn't support or have a 1/5 PCI divider... so at 160 FSB your PCI bus would be 40 MHz. My HD and other PCI devices (NIC included) handle that no problem... but yours may not. Best thing you can do is give it a try. If you get data corruption or windows registry errors then your HD can't handle that high of an FSB. If you don't then your good to go... but then you might not be able to get online... which means your NIC can't handle it. Gonna be one of those "never know until you try" situations

 

[pixelstick]

Don't mean to butt in, but would an ATA133 drive be better for higher FSB than ATA100?

 

[nikhsub1]

Don't mean to butt in, but would an ATA133 drive be better for higher FSB than ATA100?

No. They are both designed to run on the same 33Mhz, the difference is that ATA133 is SUPPOSED to transfer at 133MB/Sec, which, it never will. You can't even get ATA100 to transfer at 100MB/Sec. Now if you were running a mobo with a 64bit PCI slot and say a TX2000 raid card designed for the 66Mhz slot, your trasfer rates will be much better.

 

[pixelstick]

No. They are both designed to run on the same 33Mhz, the difference is that ATA133 is SUPPOSED to transfer at 133MB/Sec, which, it never will. You can't even get ATA100 to transfer at 100MB/Sec. Now if you were running a mobo with a 64bit PCI slot and say a TX2000 raid card designed for the 66Mhz slot, your trasfer rates will be much better.

So are all HD's made to run at 33Mhz? Is SCSI any different? I just don't believe that I've reached the limits of my system at 152FSB (1.53 Ghz).

 

[stefanb]

Ok here's another noob question, is it better to have a slighly overclocked PCI or a slighly underclocked PCI?

For instance, when running at 140 a 4 divider would be 35 and a 5 would be 28. Is it better to be 5 Mhz under than 2 Mhz over?

I would assume it would be more stable underclocked, but how much does this limit the performance of the PCI bus?

I know you really don't have an alternative, just wondering...

 

[nikhsub1]

Well I would say it is best to run at the highest FSB your system will handle.

 

[CrystalMethod]

Ok here's another noob question, is it better to have a slighly overclocked PCI or a slighly underclocked PCI?

For instance, when running at 140 a 4 divider would be 35 and a 5 would be 28. Is it better to be 5 Mhz under than 2 Mhz over?

I would assume it would be more stable underclocked, but how much does this limit the performance of the PCI bus?

I know you really don't have an alternative, just wondering...

All depends on the components. Some people will buy certain cards, HDD's, etc... just because they're known to have a higher tolerance for being overclocked. We're all playing around with manufacturer's tolerances when we overclock. Some of the braver of us will induce conditions where it will allow pushing past those tolerances (liquid cooling, peltiers, etc...). Best thing to do is figure out for yourself if you would rather have a slightly underclocked bus, or slightly overclocked bus, or if you even notice the difference.