OC a8n-sli deluxe 3500+ noobie needs insight

[bounce19712]

greetings,

first off..

I am new to OC'ing...my main goal is to squeeze the best possible performance out of my system for BATTLEFIELD2 and also small movie editing(BF2 movies..lol)...

.I have a few questions..most to do with Overclocking..one or two off topic...here is my systems specs:

AMD64 3500+ 2.2Mghtz (Venice? possibly?) cpu temp right now is 31c (no load)
Corsair XMSpc3200pro rt 2gb(4x512)
ASUS a8n-sli Deluxe (bios R.1016) mb temp right now is 45c(no load)
7200rpm Raid 0 @ 64kb cluster size Seagates on Nvidia sata Raid
Nvidia GForce 6800gt (x2)
Creative X-fi Fatality
Viewsonic f22 21"crt
thermaltake tsunami case with Tt cpu cooler (Air)

system was bought through Newegg from ABS computers and labeled the "Ultimate M6" model

all BF2 video and sound settings are set on UltraHigh 1600x1200 @ 75 hz (identical to desktop settings)


from reading up on beginner's guides and searching around I understand this is how I should go about overclocking my computer...

findout what my specs are on all related hardware items...then, in this order or close to it...

overclock my memory and or/with overclock my fsb
overclock my cpu
overclock my gpu (sli)

initially I should speed up the memory?

: CORSAIR xms PC3200 DDR 400 black heat sinks..

specs are 2-2-2-5-2 or 2-2-5-2?..anyways....should I set my bios ram sets to these numbers, with stock fsb speed of 133 and all voltages default...lower the multiplier for cpu to 8x?...then try increasing FSb speeds...166and so forth....until unstable then possibly increase voltage?...or not...I dont really want to increase voltages too much I dont think....isn't voltage changing the real risk behind longevity of your hardware?...anyways I'll see what I can get out of stock voltages...what do you think?....also is this quote true? : "You can reduce your aggressive memory setting (2-2-5-2) to get higher FSB speeds, but it has been noted several times by others that "In general, you can get better memory performance out of a lower clock speed and better timings than out of a faster clock speed but worse timings."
Often, your memory performance is more important to overall performance than your overclock, so a good approach is to overclock as far as your memory can operate at its most aggressive settings."

if my corsair 3200 ram says 2.5 volts on the side of it on the sticker....is 2.9volts vdimm too aggressive?...

on the ASUS motherboard...there are two options for getting 10% overclockage automatically...the AI setting and AOS...anyone done these? one I think is full time 10% increase and the other is on demand overclocking....

on another note...I initially read alot of stuff here and there and jumped right into overclocking the proccesor up to 2.7mhz but it blue screened during game play....that was without bumping voltage up....and temperature never went higher than 50c.



more another notes:


(should I do 128kb cluster sizes on raid 0 volume build for faster map loading?? or is 64 just as good??...(first guy to load the map and get into the game server gets the good vehicles!!)

what if any software will read my computer's hardware and give me specs, max specs on ram/cpu/bus speeds?

does installing manufacturer's monitor drivers from viewsonic increase any performance?

thanks for any replies....I've been researching now for bout 8 ttl hours on subject....kinda tired of searching...just wanted to get an idea of what ya'll think.

G

 

[bounce19712]

thanks everyone for your rapid responses...lol

 

[Bahamut]

I was able to bring my cpu to 2.4 ghz and my memory to 440 mhz using a simular setup (same cpu/mainboard) and its very stable. I set the multiplyer to 11 the HHT is set at 220 drawing a blank on the other setting name but it starts at 100 i set it to 120. Anything past that seem to make my rig slower and less stable. Temp on a stock h/s is 44c with no load. Try starting at that and move up one at a time testing the temp and stablity every time. Be prepared to clear the cmos (the jumper is next to the cmos battery). Remeber to write every setting change down just incase your rig doesnt boot you dont have to start from scratch.