- Joined
- Mar 3, 2008
- Messages
- 789
Well ive seen quite a few threads about overclocking and figured it would be a good idea to create a beginners guide to overclocking.
WARNING!!!!- DO NOT OVERCLOCK WITHOUT PROPER COOLING AND KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR SYSTEM. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES CAUSED TO YOUR PC. IF YOU COMPUTER IS MANUFACTURED BY DELL OR OTHER COMPANIES SIMILAR TO THEM YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT BE ABLE TO OVERCLOCK YOUR CPU. ALSO, OVERCLOCKING WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY SO DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! THIS WILL ALSO REDUCE THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF A CPU AND OTHER COMPONENTS. DONT DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE!
1. "Tools needed"
A. Core Temp
i. This is a program used to monitor the temperatures of all cores of you pc. It records the highest and current temps of the cpu.
B. Prime95
i. This is a program that can be used to max out your cpu and ram and see if your overclock is stable. Also has a burn test to load your cpu to 100% on all cores. You can use this to record temps with Core Temp.
2. Common Terms in overclocking.
A. FSB- Front side bus. This is the major factor in overclocking and the higher the FSB the higher the clock you will get. this is measued in Megahertz or Mhz.
B. Multiplier- This is the the number that is multiplied by the the FSB to get your cpu speed. Example: FSB = 400 and Mulitplier = 8. Clock speed would = 400 X 8 =3200Mhz or 3.2ghz.
C. Vcore- this is the voltage for the cpu. you will want to look up safe operating voltages for your cpu as it differs across cpus. Generally is only adjusted by small increments to create a stable clock. This also will cause an increase your system temperatures when increasing the voltage.
3.Beginners Guide
A.First I would reccomend reading the manual for your motherboard or finding it online to learn about it. Also go through the bios(hit "del" on startup usually) and read through all the settings. Do not change anything at this time. Become comfortable with the bios before trying to adjust stuff.
B. After becoming comfortable with the bios, look, enable the option to set your own cpu clock settings so you can adjust the FSB.
C. Once the FSB can be adjusted, increase it by 10-15Mhz and boot up, continue doing this until your computer wont boot or you obtain your desired speed.
D. If your computer will not boot, it should reset back to stock settings, if not, you will have to remove the battery from the motherboard and put it back it. Doing so will require you to reset your time on your internal clock in the bios and any boot settings you may have made.
i. You will then need to go back to the FSB speed you reached that would boot.
E. After getting the computer to boot the next thing to do is launch Core Temp and Prime95. I would first run the burn test to see how hot the pc gets after 15-20 minutes of full load.
F. If your temps are within the safe operating temps for your CPU, then continue to the stability test, you will want to run this test for as long as you can, preferably overnight or as it wont interupt your normal computer use.
G. If your temps are not within the safe operating temps, then you need to go back into the bios to lowing the FSB speed.
H. Finally, enjoy your higher speed processor.
4. Advanced User Guide.
So your comfortable with overclocking now and wish to push your cpu a little more. Well this is where it gets more difficult and dangerous.
A. Check your Safe voltages for your cpu and motherboard.
B. Begin with step A in begginers guide and get the max overclock until it gets to step D where the pc wont boot.
C. When you get the pc to boot, go ahead and up your Vcore by a little bit. No more than .025 at a time. Repeat this step until the computer will boot and be stable while making sure to keep it within safe operating Voltages.
D. try to push your cpu to a higher FSB speed and up the voltage as need while staying within safe voltages.
E. Once you hit a wall, where the pc wont boot, or your getting close to your max voltage, go to steps E in the beginners guide and continue down that list. If your temps are too high, try lowering the voltage and FSB to lower temps.
F. Enjoy a faster processor.
If anyone wishes to add to this feel free to reply to this post or pm me.
WARNING!!!!- DO NOT OVERCLOCK WITHOUT PROPER COOLING AND KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR SYSTEM. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES CAUSED TO YOUR PC. IF YOU COMPUTER IS MANUFACTURED BY DELL OR OTHER COMPANIES SIMILAR TO THEM YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT BE ABLE TO OVERCLOCK YOUR CPU. ALSO, OVERCLOCKING WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY SO DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! THIS WILL ALSO REDUCE THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF A CPU AND OTHER COMPONENTS. DONT DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE!
1. "Tools needed"
A. Core Temp
i. This is a program used to monitor the temperatures of all cores of you pc. It records the highest and current temps of the cpu.
B. Prime95
i. This is a program that can be used to max out your cpu and ram and see if your overclock is stable. Also has a burn test to load your cpu to 100% on all cores. You can use this to record temps with Core Temp.
2. Common Terms in overclocking.
A. FSB- Front side bus. This is the major factor in overclocking and the higher the FSB the higher the clock you will get. this is measued in Megahertz or Mhz.
B. Multiplier- This is the the number that is multiplied by the the FSB to get your cpu speed. Example: FSB = 400 and Mulitplier = 8. Clock speed would = 400 X 8 =3200Mhz or 3.2ghz.
C. Vcore- this is the voltage for the cpu. you will want to look up safe operating voltages for your cpu as it differs across cpus. Generally is only adjusted by small increments to create a stable clock. This also will cause an increase your system temperatures when increasing the voltage.
3.Beginners Guide
A.First I would reccomend reading the manual for your motherboard or finding it online to learn about it. Also go through the bios(hit "del" on startup usually) and read through all the settings. Do not change anything at this time. Become comfortable with the bios before trying to adjust stuff.
B. After becoming comfortable with the bios, look, enable the option to set your own cpu clock settings so you can adjust the FSB.
C. Once the FSB can be adjusted, increase it by 10-15Mhz and boot up, continue doing this until your computer wont boot or you obtain your desired speed.
D. If your computer will not boot, it should reset back to stock settings, if not, you will have to remove the battery from the motherboard and put it back it. Doing so will require you to reset your time on your internal clock in the bios and any boot settings you may have made.
i. You will then need to go back to the FSB speed you reached that would boot.
E. After getting the computer to boot the next thing to do is launch Core Temp and Prime95. I would first run the burn test to see how hot the pc gets after 15-20 minutes of full load.
F. If your temps are within the safe operating temps for your CPU, then continue to the stability test, you will want to run this test for as long as you can, preferably overnight or as it wont interupt your normal computer use.
G. If your temps are not within the safe operating temps, then you need to go back into the bios to lowing the FSB speed.
H. Finally, enjoy your higher speed processor.
4. Advanced User Guide.
So your comfortable with overclocking now and wish to push your cpu a little more. Well this is where it gets more difficult and dangerous.
A. Check your Safe voltages for your cpu and motherboard.
B. Begin with step A in begginers guide and get the max overclock until it gets to step D where the pc wont boot.
C. When you get the pc to boot, go ahead and up your Vcore by a little bit. No more than .025 at a time. Repeat this step until the computer will boot and be stable while making sure to keep it within safe operating Voltages.
D. try to push your cpu to a higher FSB speed and up the voltage as need while staying within safe voltages.
E. Once you hit a wall, where the pc wont boot, or your getting close to your max voltage, go to steps E in the beginners guide and continue down that list. If your temps are too high, try lowering the voltage and FSB to lower temps.
F. Enjoy a faster processor.
If anyone wishes to add to this feel free to reply to this post or pm me.
