overclocking????

[CAO3500]

how can i figure out how to overclock my 600 MHz athlon in my compaq? and my geforce 2 mx 64 mb vid card???

[dam]

Simple: Enter the BIOS (press [Del] at startup) the overclocking thingy should be under the advanced chipset.Remember to get an extra fan or a good heatsink.Compaq suck at cooling.
Graphics card overclocking is dangerous.

[Bass Evolution]

Always be cautious when over-clocking, dont just go for the highest setting; you will, and I repeat, you will cook your CPU and/or graphics card...


And remember you will void your warranty by over-clocking and we cannot be held responsible for any damages caused to your machine.

[BMWboy]

you might also have to reset some jumper setting on your motherboard. unless you know exactly what you are doing, dont mess with the motherboard. and definatly get a better cooling fan.

[dam]

Yup.As I said Compaq's suck at cooling.
Poor Radioactive man

[BMWboy]

i dont know how it is on your computer, but my BIOS lists the cpu speed as a multipe of 9.
eg:i have a 1200Mgz upped to 1333Mgz, it lists the speeds as 133.33 and 147, respectivly.

[Curi0us_George]

Grapihcs overclocking is not dangerous. You need to add a Registry Key to enable it, though. Anandtech expains how

If you have a Compaq, I'd bet that you won't be able to overclock. Your motherboard will almost certainly be a "value" motherboard, and it won't have such extras. However, as long as you have a socket Athlon (thunderbird), then you can overclock without those features. It's just less pleasant. Tomshardware explains the entire overclocking process very well.

If you have a Slot Athlon, don't even bother trying. You will either need to spennt $50 dollars on a little add-on card for the CPU card, or you will need to build it yourself. It's not worth the cost or the trouble.

[dam]

Graphics card overclocking is ver dangerous if you dont know what youre doing.

If you are going to do it get power strip.
http://www.entechtaiwan.com

For nVidia cards: Heres the registry key:

http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/coolbits.reg

[Curi0us_George]

I don't know anyone who's harmed their computer by overclocking their graphics card (nVidias are particularly tough to damage). The worst you can do is crash you computer.

Add the registry key and the overclocking utility can then be found in the Control Panel -> Display screen. Click the last tab (I don't remember the name and I don't think the German name will help you too much) and then click advanced. Voila! That's all you need. You don't need any 3rd party utilities. Your nVidia drivers will have everything you need. (you should, of course, update to the latest version)

[dam]

Bows down to superior knowledge.

[will]

heheh. i just oc'd my athlon 1.33G w/ 133MHzFSB DDR RAM to 1.47G w/ 140MHzFSB (multip. 10.5)
how high should i be able to get my athlon? i have a very good cooler

[Curi0us_George]

Dam, I learned everything I know from Tomshardware.com. They go a bit psycho on the overclocking sometimes.

Will, sounds like you are stressing it a bit right now. I don't think it will go much father without watercooling or a VapoChill (yum) case. I'd imagine that if you ran some hard-core tests on it, it might keel over right now.

[BMWboy]

you cant get much faster, because the CPU only allows for a small amount of overclocking. I have my 1.2Ghz will not let me past 1.33Ghz. you dont need that heavy-duty cooling crap quite yet. my neighbors 1.4Ghz Athalon runs 5C hotter than mine, and he doesn't overclock. just need a good fan/heatsink combo. I have a Global Win CAK38. it uses a copper heatsink and a fan that passes the self-propulsion test

[Curi0us_George]

A vapochill would get that 1.2 Ghz running faster.

[will]

Originally posted by Curi0us_George
Will, sounds like you are stressing it a bit right now. I don't think it will go much father without watercooling or a VapoChill (yum) case. I'd imagine that if you ran some hard-core tests on it, it might keel over right now.

this is my cooler. and it kicks ass: http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnps6000Cu.htm
the big 92 x 92 x 25mm fan is running at full speed. i have 2 case fans: 1 at the bottom of the inside of the front of the tower pushing cold air in, and one on the top of the back (i.e. next to the processor) blowing air out.
it has been running for about 3hrs now with no probs at all. oh, and i have upped the Vcore to 1.8V and the RAM to 2.7V.

[BMWboy]

not really, it would take soddering to make it go faster, i've checked. and willfisher, check your sys. temp., the heat sink can take mild overclocking, but not that much. if your over 70C after runnign your favriote graphics-intensive game for an hour or so, back down your speed some.(I know a large amount about heat sinks, before i overclocked, i spent about a month researching them, the one i got is one of the best out there)

[will]

my machine worns me if its over 60, and shuts down if its over 70. it is therefore under 60deg.

[dam]

You could use Rain.Helps maintain temperatures.

http://www.benchtest.com/rain.html

[Nofx Guy]

Originally posted by willfisher
my machine worns me if its over 60, and shuts down if its over 70. it is therefore under 60deg.

whoah! i dont even let my chip get that hot...i have my running under 40 and definatley always under 50..

my XP 1700+ (1.47 ghz) is oc'd to XP 2000+ (1.67ghz)....


also if you want to overclock your system you would go into the bios...

go to advance chipset options, or something similar to that...and up your front side bus by small increments...usually go up by 3 or 5 times each time.. after every time you up it..save your settings and re-boot...if you get into windows fine and nuthing crashes...go back into the bios and up it some more...keep doing this till your pc either wont boot, hangs on boot, or crashes in windows...at that time go back into the bios and lower the FSB to the most stable speed you had it going at..

if your machine crashes and wont boot up...you then must re-set the cmos..to do that you would open up your case and turn off your power at your power supply, or unplug the pc from the wall...then look beside your mobo battery...there will be a little jumper...move the jumper over one notch and then turn the power back on, on your PSU. wait 5 seconds..turn the power back off at the PSU and move the jumper back to its original place... put your case side back on and re-boot..your cmos is now re-set to factory settings...you will need to re-set the time...

hopefully that is helpfull...

[CAO3500]

wow i just learned a lot of shit... just got home from school. thought i had learned enough today ! now ive got to go find out what kind of motherboard and stuff i have in my computer, cause i only halfway know what im doin. i will be sure to educate myself as much as possible before foooling with anything so i dont mess anything up. thanks (plus i dont know i have enough cooling as said, damn compaq)

[will]

Woo...
I now have it running stably at 1.5GHz (from 1.33), with teh fsb at 142MHz (from 133) and the core voltage at 1.84V.

the temp is only 47degC!! woo!

[BMWboy]

my computer enjoys lying to me about the CPU temp. in windows, i have a program that came with my motherboard that claims the temp of my CPU is around 90C. i found this rather difficult to believe, so i checked the BIOS. it tells me that it is at about 58C +/- 2C. for a few seconds, though, i was quite worried

[Atmo]

Originally posted by dam
Graphics card overclocking is dangerous.

It's actually a lot safer to overclock a video card than it is to overclock the cpu...you'll notice weird arifacts on the screen caused by running the ram too fast before the card dies...

When it comes to cpu overclocking, you'll either get a major crash or fry your cpu if you overdo it.

I'd make sure the cpu isnt running any more than 40 degrees before overclocking. If it is invest some $ in some good case fans and a decent hsf. Compaqs will only have the bare minimum where it comes to cooling, and u might have to purchase some better ram, like kingmax or similar which is good for fsb overclocking.

[CAO3500]

my bios sucks and hardly has any advanced options... is there any way to update it away from compaqs website? its a compaq computer with a phoenix bios. later

[dam]

I dont know about Compaqs but you usually have to dowload a BIOS flashing utility and then upgrade your BIOS.

[dylman]

Tried it. No good.

I recently had cause to curse Compaq for their crippled BIOS... They're complete bastards and they don't want people to upgrade their machines beyond a certain point - I've had to drop from 512Mb to 128Mb just to get my new graphics card to work. If I had a proper BIOS I could have fiddled with some settings and maybe solved the problem. Instead XP now runs like a dog and games take forever to load.

Solution: I'm building my own machine in a couple of months.

[Curi0us_George]

Originally posted by Atmo The Freak
I'd make sure the cpu isnt running any more than 40 degrees before overclocking.

Willfisher, I'm surprised it's runnig well with that heatsink. It didn't get a very good review, if I remember correctly. I dare say those case fans are helping a lot, though.

You should really do some full-load tests and see how long it holds up with your current overclocking. 24 hour, 100% utilization is about the best test. But you could probably get by with just 2 hours, and be fairly confident about the stability. I'd just be afraid that it would crash at a bad time with that much overclocking and that heatsink. You must've gotten a really good processor, though.