Advice please

HyDa_DRUID

Hello ,

I'm a green foot when it comes to overclocking. I would like to know if there is any good tutorials or anything of that nature that might bring my knowlege up to par on the subject before i ruin my brand new system.

My system specs are as follows:

MSI K7N2 Delta-L (capable 400mhz FSB) main board
AMD Athlon XP 2600+
512 PC3200 Dual Channel Kingston value ram ( 2x 256 )
ATI 9600XT <---- I love this card hehehe

If there are any particular programs for O.C.'n or tweakin my hardware please state them. I thank all of you alot for your help.

Also, most of my system drivers in control panel are dated as being from 2001, is there anyway to update any of these system drivers to newer ones?

DRUID

chris285

right well for your graphics card i'd get hold of riva tuner, great little utility where u can alter the cards clocks. when u do though be sure not to go further when u see graphical glitches, as then the card has been pushed too far

as for cpu and motherboard, the best way is to increase the fsb slowly. take it up like 2/3 mhz at a time, and see if it is stable. when u reach fsb max, increase the vdimm voltage and go some more. if needed give the cpu more vcore as well, but keep an eye on the temps when they get to around 50 i would stop

tastyweat

Firstly - need to know which Athlon XP revision it is - it could be throughbred A, thoroughbred B, or Barton

If it's a thoroughbred A - then you will not have much luck overclocking - as the tbred A is at it's limit with the 2600 - as for the others - they should oc reasonably.

I'd also need to know what heatsink you have on it... if you have the standard HSF that comes with the 2600 in the retail pack - then it would be wise to replace that with a more powerful one.... it depends how much you want to spend - if you are looking for a good overclock on air cooling - the best you can get is about £50 in the UK - and you can pick something up semi-decent for £20

... for example - I have a Coolermaster Aero 7+ (copper) - on my Athlon XP Barton 2800 - that will keep it between 30-35^C at the speed that a 3200 chip runs at (2200MHz - 200FSB 11xmultiplier) - this HSF will let me take the chip up to 2.6GHz (I also need to increase the voltage at that speed from the stock (1.65V) up to 1.85V - and that will be kept just below 70^C.

Something else to watch out for.... it is a bad idea to let your chip go over 80^C - that leaves a safety margin for error


ok - just let me know the Athlon revision (tbred A, B, Barton) and what HSF you have and I'll get back to you in more depth