Overclocking (Main Thread)

I think I’ve officially hit the ceiling with my current rig.
To verify stability, I spent the entire night running Prime95 torture tests without a single error, and I used AtiTool to hunt for artifacts on the GPU (I noticed some tiny yellow dots popping up). These are the absolute highest frequencies I can maintain without any errors occurring during roughly ten hours of testing.

Barton 2500+ @ 2014 MHz

ASUS N6800XT 300/700 8*1/4vp @ 410/830 16*1/6vp

Improvements over stock settings:

6200 -> 9700 3Dmark03 score 😎
???? -> 4054 3Dmark05 score

The CPU peaks at about 69 degrees Celsius, while the GPU hits 70 degrees when the fan is set to "medium." I’ve configured the fan to kick into "fast" mode only once it hits 71, which effectively keeps the temps from creeping past 70; this prevents the fan from running at full blast constantly, keeping the noise down and power consumption lower.

It’s actually pretty impressive to see just how much headroom certain components have hidden inside them. 🙂

Enough rambling, though. Back to Oblivion, since that's the whole reason I'm even bothering with all this. 😁

P.s. The only thing I haven't figured out is whether those errors are being triggered by an overclocked frequency or if the temperature is simply too high... for instance, is a 420MHz core clock too aggressive for stable operation, or is 71C pushing it too far? Honestly, I don't have the energy to mess with it anymore today; at this rate, I won't even get around to playing anything anyway. 😁

Intel EE is top-tier, but if you're dead set on going with AMD, just make sure you have solid cooling. It'll run like clockwork:

Can anyone help me out here? Does anyone know if there's a better BIOS available than the one I'm currently running? I'm trying to push my overclocking further, but I've hit a wall because I can't adjust the voltage. Here's what I'm working with:
Intel Pentium 4 (northwood) 2.8 GHz@3.4 GHz FSB 162 MHz
ECS 848P-A (BIOS already updated)
1*512 MB Kingmax SuperRam 400MHz @404MHz
1*1024 MB -II-
Radeon 9600 Pro GPU 430 MHz Mem 450 MHz 256 VRam

Program: eSupport.com BIOS Agent Version 3.52
BIOS Date: 11/25/03
BIOS Type: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
BIOS ID: Compaq presariti 900 BIOS version: 0F0B
OEM Sign-On: None
Chipset: ALi M5237 rev 3
Superio: Unknown
OS: WinXP SP2
CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP processor 1500+ -1.333GHZ 1333 MHz MAX: 2000 MHz
BIOS ROM In Socket: No
BIOS ROM Size: 512K
Memory Installed: 512 MB
Memory Maximum: 1024 MB
Memory Slot 01: 256 MB
Memory Slot 02: 256 MB

Just testing this laptop out to see if I can overclock the CPU.
Thanks.

P4 2.4 FSB533 box 512 k, ASUS P4S533-X
Is overclocking possible here, and if so, what's the method?

So, I once tried overclocking my Athlon 64 3000 by a whopping 10MHz. Honestly, it was so insanely fast that it actually ended up being faster than it was before!

wanderingbadger16 said:because I was reading some overclocking articles online and they were all saying it definitely shortens the lifespan of the card.

Yeah, sure, you're shortening it, but we're talking about going from 10 years down to maybe 3 or 4...
By then, you'll have already replaced the thing anyway.🙂

Regarding processors:
I still find myself using my old 286 (every once in a while), even though it’s about 15 years old now.
Right now, I've got an Athlon running on a Socket A board, and I plan to keep pushing it until it finally gives up the ghost.

Buying brand-new hardware every single year feels like throwing money straight down the drain.

Alright, let me brag just a little bit too 😁 and ask a quick question. Here is my current rig's setup:

GPU: Asus ATI Radeon 9800 Pro HDD
HDD: 120GB
MB RAM: 2GB😲
3000 MHz Intel Celeron
OS: Gentoo Linux 2006.0
Connection: ADSL
...
But I've run into a small issue.
Whenever I try to play a game, my computer keeps restarting constantly. Can anyone offer some useful advice?
👎

Just fix the airflow in your case and you should be good to go.........

Download AtiTool and set it up to monitor and log your GPU temperature to a file; that way, you can actually see if the heat is spiking and causing those system restarts.

Well, I tried it myself, and suddenly my ink levels just spiked out of nowhere! 🙂

What does a 4200+ actually offer over a 2.8GHz chip?

Hey everyone!

I was wondering what your thoughts are on the X800XL. Specifically, I'm curious about its bit rate, and if there might be a better option out there for the same price tag.

THANKS!

Just a quick question here!

I'm running a DFI Infinity NF4 motherboard with an Athlon 64 3000+ processor, 2x512 DDR 400 RAM, one 250 GB SATA HDD, and one 160 GB UDMA HDD. My power supply is a hiper 4 S350SU 350 w along with some other standard components. I just ordered a new Nvidia 7600 gt, and I was wondering if my current power supply will be able to handle this setup, or if I'll need to upgrade that as well.

Well, I figured I’d throw my two cents in and brag a little bit too. Here is this photo because, honestly, a picture really does say more than any long-winded explanation ever could. Sure, the processor itself can handle a lot more, but let's be real—that memory is what's actually holding everything back here.

hollowjackal13 said:Just a quick question here!!!!!!!!!

I'm running a DFI Infinity NF4 ultra motherboard with an Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, 2x512 DDR 400 RAM, one 250 GB SATA hard drive, and a 160 GB UDMA hard drive. My power supply is a hiper 4 S350SU 350 w along with the usual small stuff. I just ordered a new Nvidia 7600 gt graphics card, and now I'm wondering if my current power supply can handle this setup or if I'll need to upgrade it too.

Here’s what Nvidia lists for that specific card.....

Requirements
Requirements minimum of a 350 Watt Power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 18 Amp Amps.)
Minimum 400 Watt for SLI mode system.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amp Amps.)

Spent a little time messing around with my X2 +4200. I wasn't exactly aiming for world-record frequencies or anything—just wanted to give the rig a bit of a kick without cranking the voltage into the danger zone.

Stock settings were running at 11x200, which puts me at 2200 MHz with 1.280 V.

Here’s what I’ve got now:

Voltage is up to 1.440 V, clocking in at 10x266=2660MHz, with an FSB of 266x4=1064 MHz.

The RAM is sitting at 2-2-2-5@444 MHz and 2.8 V.

Honestly, I think I'll stop here since everything seems rock solid.

It’s not quite that massive 50% overclock I pulled on my old 2.4 Northwood, but you can definitely feel the difference.

Next up, I'm going to have some fun with the 7900GT and see just how much more juice I can squeeze out of it.

amberorca192 said:Spent some time messing around with my X2 +4200. Wasn't aiming for insane frequencies—just wanted to bump up the performance without cranking the voltage through the roof.

Stock setup was 11x200, so 2200 MHz at 1.280 V.

Current settings:

Voltage is at 1.440 V, 10x266=2660MHz, with an FSB of 266x4=1064 MHz.

RAM is running at 2-2-2-5@444 MHz and 2.8 V.

Not pushing it any further than this since it's rock solid.

It’s not quite a 50% overclock like I got with that 2.4 Northwood, but you can definitely feel the difference.

Now I'm going to play around with the 7900GT to see how much more juice I can squeeze out of it.

There's still more room to grow.......
I'm currently pushing 10x 285 at 1.55v and temps aren't even crossing 40-45c.🙂 🙂

I was wondering if someone could give me a hand here. I'm running into some trouble installing my SATA controller. My setup uses a DFI Infinity NF4 motherboard paired with a Maxtor 6V250FO 250 GB hard drive. Every time I finish installing Windows, that little green "Safely Remove Hardware" arrow pops up in the bottom right corner of the taskbar. When I click it, it asks if I want to safely eject the drive. From what I understand, seeing that icon usually means the SATA controller hasn't been properly installed on the board yet. I checked the DFI website, but they don't explicitly list which specific controller is integrated into this board. I did find a floppy disk that came with the motherboard containing a few options: "SATA RAID driver," "Nvidia SATA storage driver," and "Silicon Image 3114 rev 1.0." Does anyone know which one of these I should be using to get everything running correctly? So far, I've tried installing the last one, but no luck.