overclocking help

finsmaniac02

Hey guys, I am relatively new to writing posts in this board (or any board) but i thought maybe you all could give me some advice. First off, here are my specs... Abit nf7-s motherboard (nforce2), athlon xp 2400+, radeon 9700 pro, 512 meg pc2700, case has 3 fans... one on top (blowhole) one on side by window (intake) and one on back (blowhole), psu has a fan, and i have a volcano 11 hsf on my cpu.

I have been messing around with overclocking for a while, and i am interested in safety and performance (aren't we all?). I would like some reccomended settings from you all. I also have some questions. I have noticed that i get artifacts when playing certain video formats that games use (Hulk, and Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield are 2 that come in mind) When a pre-rendered video comes on, i get lines of green or read dots across the screen. Usually just 3 or 4 dots in a row, taking up maybe an inch width and a centimeter height total. I know this is from overclocking my cpu, b/c when i change the fsb those dots will go away. The funny thing is, they go away when i make the fsb higher, not lower (example: fsb 166 (333 actual) - dots... fsb 176 (352 actual (weird #, i know)) - dots gone) In case you wondered my 2400+ is designed for 266 fsb (thoroughbred core). Its not my ram, cuz ill set my fsb/ddr ratio so that the ram actually runs lower than 333 (although i have found my ram to be stable at like 360-ish)

I try not to mess with voltage to keep my temp down, i usually have around 43 degrees celsius for my cpu, which i think is satisfactory. Of course if i turn the fan up on my volcano i can get it down nice and low, albeit with an abnoxious noise level.

My main question is, what do you suggest as faras getting the best in game performance/benchmarks. At the very moment my cpu is at 200 fsb (400 actual) x10 multiplier, but this actually isnt performing as well in ut2003 (my main game to test on) as various other setings. I also wondered if you would know a reason why i get those artifacts mentioned above (which i dont get on this 400 fsb, lol). And i may get into OC'ing my radeon 9700 pro, so maybe some suggestions for that. Thank you all very much, i find many of these threads and whatnot very informative.

Roadee

2 things that you should do straight off..........

1. Get some quality high end memory.......OCZ PC3500 EL DDR, Corsair Twin X and the like....ALWAYS in matched pairs so you can take advantage of the extra memory bandwidth.

2. Always run your memory in Synch mode.....the fsb and memory speed have to be ran at the same speed on a NF2 board in order to get high performance....it is just the nature of the chip set.

And on another note........unless you go to water cooling, if you want high overclocks.....better get used to the noise of fans running at high speed.

finsmaniac02

thanks for the advice roadee, but does that mean.... hypethetically i ran my cpu at stock speeds, which is 266 fsb.... do you think i should then underclock my ram down to 266 to keep my ram and cpu in synch?

and i know that getting new ram should be a big priority, but i really dont have the money for that... so im trying to do what i can with what i have. (although i do know that my motherboard can run ram in dual channel mode or whatever, does that help out a lot?) Thanks a lot, any further advice from you or anyone else is appreciated