martheli

Im new to overclocking and was wondering how much i could overclock my PC with these stats:

untitled.bmp

smz

This is too little information to give even a ballpark estimate.
All I can see is you are running a 90MM Athlon X2. Looks like you kicked up the FSB to 204 but that is going to work on any platform.

Any significant changes, need memory tweaking, voltage, and other factors.

The Motherboard, chipset, and CPU HS/Fan is a good starting point as well as your current temperatures as it is in stock mode.

You can grab Hardware Monitor, save it as a text file and upload it's contents and then provide us with information about my above questions.

Thanks.
SMZ

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{{{{ Scott - 25+ Years HW & SW Expertise - Dos, Linux, Mac OS X, & Windows }}}}
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martheli

Ok this is the info:
monitorinfo.txt

smz

You've got a good board. I use gigabyte myself but your temperatures per core are not going to cut it as far as any major overclocking.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 53°C (127°F) [0x66] (core #0)
Temperature sensor 1 54°C (129°F) [0x67] (core #1)

When you did this, was your machine idle? If it was idle, don't bother, if it was under full load, then quite possibly you may be able to squeeze a little more depending on other factors such as your PS and HS/Fan.

Cooling for your case is also imperative. Let me know what you've got and let me know if you took this reading while idle or under full load.

Thanks.
SMZ

__________________
{{{{ Scott - 25+ Years HW & SW Expertise - Dos, Linux, Mac OS X, & Windows }}}}
Abit IP35 / Core 2 Quad Q6600 / APC 650 UPS / Antec 900 ATX w/Antec Trio 550 PS
XFX GeForce 8400GS w/512MB / 320GB Maxtor SATA II HD / 4GB Corsair CAS4 DDR2
HP Laser P1006 & PS 2610 / D-Link DGL-4500 Router / Dell 24" LCD / Asus G1 Laptop

martheli

When i took those reading i had quite a bit of programs open but to make sure i took another reading while idle and it was as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 30°C (85°F) [0x4F] (core #0)
Temperature sensor 1 35°C (94°F) [0x54] (core #1)

As far as my cooling system I have 5 fans throughout my case.

smz

Well I consider myself to be an amateur to medium overclocker educated person. Far from professional with people that use water cooling,etc. But If I could squeeze 3.25GHZ per core on my 5600X2 with very little modification to my bios, it could also mean you have a darn good board or a lucky chip. I have to note for the record that the CPU heatsink and fan on my AMD is STOCK. it's a play box but 3.25ghz is tested stable via 24 hours of Prime95 at it's full blend torture test.

Everyone has their own steps they like to take in preparing to OC your CPU. In the lucky case you have a black edition Athlon X2 or an X series Intel C2D, then you have the luxury of raising the multiplier. Really your heatsink fan combo is most important at that point. The quality of both come to play when you have a locked multiplier and rely strictly on FSB to do your dirty work.

Depending on your board you may have a vast array of options for overclocking. Some boards have nearly nothing but a fsb adjustment.

We'll use my Abit with a little faster AMD X2 like yours for my explanation. Many people will tell you to leave your memory at stock speeds in terms of Cas generally 5-5-5-15 even though mine goes to 4-4-4-12, starting to OC, should not get the memory too involved. But no matter what you do, make sure the ratio is going to keep you in check with your ram. You may see something like 2:1, etc. My board tells me what the memory clock will be at if I attempt to set the FSB to whatever I choose. Make sure you don't go over your memory capacity which is 533, 667, or 800 speaking DDR2 here. If you don't have an adjustment for that, it could be hidden like my Gigabyte or your board just isn't meant for overclocking. In that case, call it a day and quit buying ECS products.

So I always read up on different achievements people have had with their overclocking on whatever chip i'm trying to OC. So I start by staying way under what others have done and then slowly go up the ladder. In the beginning you don't even want to mess with CPU voltage. But at some point, fairly soon with the AMD I might ad, you will encounter different things, inability to post, in ability to boot, BSOD, or maybe just locking up in windows. I normally would address the CPU voltage setting first and don't go crazy with it. a little nudge here and there. I won't go into any more detail at this point as what I have shared is enough to get you started but by keeping the FSB and DDR2 ram within a conservative level, you shouldn't be prone to any obvious damage but note any time you overclock, you are opening up the doors to build a grave for your computer. If you aren't comfortable with doing this, DON'T. make a couple wrong settings and let it run a little too long and you may just fry something. Such as too much voltage on the CPU, FSB, PCIe, etc. Also overclocking ram well above it's limit is a no no. Ever situation is different but a rule of thumb is what I'm talking about.

SMZ

__________________
{{{{ Scott - 25+ Years HW & SW Expertise - Dos, Linux, Mac OS X, & Windows }}}}
Abit IP35 / Core 2 Quad Q6600 / APC 650 UPS / Antec 900 ATX w/Antec Trio 550 PS
XFX GeForce 8400GS w/512MB / 320GB Maxtor SATA II HD / 4GB Corsair CAS4 DDR2
HP Laser P1006 & PS 2610 / D-Link DGL-4500 Router / Dell 24" LCD / Asus G1 Laptop