Never done overclocking. Want some advise

CaptainnowCaptainnow
edited April 2005 in Hardware
Hello all. I'm new to this forum. I'm a college computer major and I've just completed building my first working desktop.

I'm curious about overclocking. I know little to nothing about it.
I've running an AMD Athlon 64 3200+. 2.0 GHz. I'm using an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. I'm running two 512 MB PC3200 400Mhz RAM.

The board has options to overclock from about 2% up to 10%. It has also has AI NOS settings for overclocking. I'm just wondering how safe overclocking is for this system and what would be the most that would be safe to overclock this system too.

Thank you for all your time and information

Comments

  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2005
    The first lesson in overclocking is to become familiar with the location of your CMOS jumper. You want to be able to reset the system if you push things a little too far.

    As far as safety, you will get a "no boot" problem or system instability well before you are likely to risk any damage to the hardware.

    As for what to expect as a peak result, that will be found only through trial and error. The quality of your ram and sufficiency of your cooling is often the most limiting factor.

    Most of the overclocking guru's around here keep bumping the speed incrementally until they reach a level of instability, then back things off a notch or two. :)
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited March 2005
    I'm not familiar with the AI NOS stuff but you should be pretty safe overclocking with what you have, even with the stock hsf if that is a Winchester 3200+ (90 nm process). I have a Winnie 3000+ I'm presently overclocking to over 2500 MHz on high end air cooling and before I installed the Thermalright hsf, I was easily able to overclock the proc to 2300+ MHz with the stock retail cooler with no problem.
  • CaptainnowCaptainnow
    edited March 2005
    Can you tell me how to tell how much RAM can be pushed.
    I have PC3200 400Mhz RAM. It's made my Consair.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited March 2005
    Can you link us to your ram? Corsair makes several different types of pc3200 and they vary in their overclocking ability.
  • CaptainnowCaptainnow
    edited March 2005
    The CPU Fan I have is just a stock one that came along with the processor when I brought. It was a package deal.

    When I've done some temp checks my CPU and motherboard hold a temp of about 38C. That is the highest I've seen them hit.
  • CaptainnowCaptainnow
    edited March 2005
    That there is my ram.

    http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=669365&CatId=1386
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    According to the link you posted your memory is Corsair Value Select C3 512mb (2 x 256 sticks). The stock timings are C3-4-4-8. It is not the best ram but it is not bad ram and while not the best for overclocking it will still allow for some. In this designation all sticks vary greatly as they are not hand selected and are only required to 'pass' the minimum requirement for its rating. Most sicks are quite better than just the minimum requirement while some far exceed it and others just barely squeek by. So as you see, what you have is going to be very individualistic in its own rite but is certainly worth an effort. If you wish to pursue overclocking further I would recomend something more high end further down the road as your interests and wallet dictate.

    Also, I do beleive you do have a Winchester core processor as I am fairly sure the 3200 is only made on that core. This is a big plus for overclocking as the 90nm cores have been doing much better.
  • CaptainnowCaptainnow
    edited March 2005
    mtgoat wrote:
    According to the link you posted your memory is Corsair Value Select C3 512mb (2 x 256 sticks). The stock timings are C3-4-4-8. It is not the best ram but it is not bad ram and while not the best for overclocking it will still allow for some. In this designation all sticks vary greatly as they are not hand selected and are only required to 'pass' the minimum requirement for its rating. Most sicks are quite better than just the minimum requirement while some far exceed it and others just barely squeek by. So as you see, what you have is going to be very individualistic in its own rite but is certainly worth an effort. If you wish to pursue overclocking further I would recomend something more high end further down the road as your interests and wallet dictate.

    Also, I do beleive you do have a Winchester core processor as I am fairly sure the 3200 is only made on that core. This is a big plus for overclocking as the 90nm cores have been doing much better.


    I'm just curious where you found the stock timings for my ram on that site, or what other site you used to fnid it out. Also what exactly does that time mean?
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Captainnow wrote:
    I'm just curious where you found the stock timings for my ram on that site, or what other site you used to fnid it out. Also what exactly does that time mean?
    I didn't have to look as my step-son has some and that is what it defaults to on his old machine and in his newer one too.

    C3-4-4-8
    Cas Latency

    CAS means Column Address Strobe. The Webster's Dictionary defines latency as "the interval between stimulus and response" just in case that word isn't familiar to you.
    This controls the timing delay (in clock cycles) before the RAM starts a read command after receiving it. Settings are usually 2 or 2.5 This setting has more affect on system performance than any other RAM setting. Since this is the number of cycles the CAS needs to find the correct address of the data that it is looking for. That is why your entire system runs quite a bit faster when the data can be fetched in 2 cycles rather than 2.5.

    C3-4-4-8
    RAS to CAS Delay (TRCD)
    This field allows you to set the number of cycles for a timing delay between the CAS and RAS strobe signals, used when DRAM is written to, read from or refreshed. Lower settings result in faster performance.

    C3-4-4-8
    TRP
    Indicates how fast RAM can terminate one row access and starts another one.

    C3-4-4-8
    TRAS
    The TRAS timing can be typically be set to 5, 6, and 7. TRAS is a timing that has little effect on performance, but has a huge effect on the maximum stable speed your RAM can run. We recommend always using the slowest ( highest number ) TRAS setting available; usually on AMD motherboards this would be 6 or on P4 boards this would be 7.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    I'm not familiar with the board but does the bios use softmenu III? I vaguely "think" that I recall Asus using it but I've never owned an asus personally.
    Anyhow here is a link that should help with softmenu III settings to some extent. It's the same basic concept if it doesn't match perfectly ...and you should still get a good idea of what's happening to achieve overclocks.
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    If your board has an oerclocking utility built in, which i blieve it does from you post, in my experience, anywhere from 6-10% is a safe range with air cooling i have my athalon 64 2800+ overclocked to a little under 2000 Mhz which is a little over 10% but my case is farely well ventilated and my room is cold so im pretty safe. The main thing to do is to watch proc and case temps or your processor will start to throttle, or start to operate at lower speeds, and you also run he risk of damaging it..just stick around 6-10% and you should be safe. if your system seems unstable or begins to hicup just back down a couple of steps at a time until you get system stability back.
  • araknydaraknyd
    edited March 2005
    hey all.. i as well am new to this OCing deal.. below (in the signature) should be some info on my pc..

    i understand that i up voltage, play with the FSBus and mulitplier and such but not really sure what im looking for when i do it or how to change them exactly (obviously in the CMOS).. i got this machine off a guy i knew who had it OC'd but i cant get that info and besides, i would much rather figure this whole thing out on my own with a little bit of help with settings than being told what they are, i learn more..

    if yas need some more info let me know.. guess im looking for a good place to start.. thx again..
  • davidpandersondavidpanderson Toronto, ON
    edited April 2005
    I just built a compy in December, had it die twice because of melting the ICH5R twice...lol...P4P800-E/USB 2.0 problems....anyway I am in the process of looking for a new mobo, and I want to try overclocking the PC...any suggestions? My specs are below...I have no prior experience OC'ing, an will no doubt have problems with the Presoctt's heat. Any suggestions are appreciated since I have no clue what I'm doing. Thx!
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited April 2005
    Actually, that Asus board you presently have should overclock quite nicely, plus it has the added bonus that it also supports the new Asus CT479 Pentium M adapter that Asus will shortly release to the market to let you use a mobile Pentium M proc instead of a P4. I've read one preview test of this adapter so far and they were able to get some simply amazing performance out of the Pentium M proc using the i865 chipset that your mobo has.

    If you want to get another brand's mobo that supports overclocking in socket 478 so that you can use your present Prescott, I would recommend the Abit IC7-G or IC7 mobo as they are fast and stable and have plenty of overclocking options. I've also heard that DFI also has some good mobos based on the i865 or i875 chipsets too.
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