How many can I overclock my CPU?

Custom built system or pre-built?

If it's custom built, I don't see why you wouldn't have access to that option in the BIOS.

Like with tweaking a car's ECU, just make sure you know what you're doing and how to test if you're going to do this kind of thing to make sure you do it safely - I've seen less people fry hardware than blow motors, but it's been done.

Ahhh, I love overclocking let's get down to business. Like STi stated if it's prebuilt system chances are the BIOS features don't even include options for overclocking or are very limited.

I'll give you this link with a beginners guide to overclocking. I know it's a bit long, but please read it so you can get an idea of how you will start.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1804

I also want you to download this application that monitors your temperature to make sure we don't overheat your CPU.

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

It's on the left hand side towards the top of the page. It's HWmonitor run this and it will give you the temperature of your CPU as well as your Graphics Card and voltage readings (not truly accurate but good enough to have an idea).

In the meantime I'll check out your board it's an Abit so chances are you will be able to tweak the BIOS settings. I'll see what I can find out about your board and I'll try to help you get started.

Maybe 2.2ghz or even 2.3 if you got your case properly cooled. I guess we'll see.

Even if your board doesn't allow you to overclock it is still a good idea to read the guide so you get an idea of how overclocking works and how to get started myabe you can do it in a future PC having a bit of knowledge on the subject.

OK, well have you downloaded the application I mentioned above? What are your temps like? I really need to make sure you are keeping an eye on your temps to make sure all is well before you even start.

Yo do not need any program besides something to monitor your temps and maybe downloading PCmark or 3dmark03 to measure your performance from stock to overclock speeds.

You can get both PCmark and 3dmark03 from www.futuremark.com Now those two applications are not necessery, but they help to measure the performance increase of your system when overclocking.

To start overclocking you need to get in to the BIOS of your PC by probably hitting the Del key before your system starts windows up. Sometimes it can be the F2 key or the F10 key, but most of the time is the Del Key just power your system up and start hitting the Del key until you are in your bios.

Please familirize yourself with the bios and make sure you go over that guide a few times so you are aware of all the things you need to do when overclocking. I'm assuming you have you stock heatsink on your processor so you won't be able to overclock much since heat will be an issue, but maybe 2.2 is a reachable goal if you do it right.

Basically what you will be doing is rasing the FSB (Front Side Bus) frequency, I beleive for the 462 socket which is what I think you are running it starts off with a 100mhz FSB You will have to raise it maybe 5mhz at a time save your bios settings see if your computer boots in to windows check the temperature of your CPU to make sure all is good then run 3dmark03 and or pcmark. Also a good application to run to check stability of your system after overclocking is Prime95 which you can get here http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103

If your system can't run the benchmarks or keep stable you can then restart your computer go in to the bios and change the voltage of your CPU up by the next available option. So I think it may be around 1.4v maybe a little higher for your CPU I don't know what the next step up may be it varies from motherboard to motherboard, but if the next available option is 1.41 then change to that if the next available option is 1.425 then change to that you get the idea right? just one step up save your settings and try and check for stability again. Only raise the CPU voltage if your system is not stable otherwise you can leave the voltage the way it is. The 5mhz increase on the FSB should take you up to 1.89Ghz I beleive.

Please let me know if you got other questions and confirm back to me that you are understanding everything I'm explaining, that you read through the guide, and that you downloaded and properly ran all the software I told you to get.

Ps. you may want to run 3dmark03 and PCmark before you start overclocking to get a base figure of where your system stands then write down those figures or save them. Then when you overclock a bit run the benchmarks again to see how much performance you've gained from the overclock and so on.

You have a hardware error after you did what?

Are you running 61c with prime running or when the cpu is doing no work in other words when idleing?

61c is pretty high. Is your computer case well ventilated? Is your PC clean and without much dust in it? If it's not you may want to consider cleaning it to see if your temps come down a bit.

The error you might have gotten might be from the temperature not a big deal it won't damage your cpu, but it will probably not be stable either.

Do you have the stock heatsink on that CPU? It might be a little difficult to find an aftermarket heatsink/fan to change the stock which is a 462 socket AMD if you want to make your CPU cooler. If you have any thermal greese you can take off your current heatsink and reapply the thermal greese because if you haven't touched it in a while chances are that this is part of the reason why your temp is so high.

If you can add some case fans to keep the inside of the computer cooler that will help reduce your temps as well.

Right now my biggest concern is your temperatures.

Stock cooler is designed to work at the stock clock speed. A good aftermarket fan will be good insurance for overclocking, and won't break the bank (~$50)

I would say a less then that. It's a 462 socket AMD processor the trouble for me would be finding a good one.

So needer, did you run 3dmark03 before overclocking to 1.89? If so what was the score. Did you run 3dmark03 after 1.89ghz overclock? if so what was the score.

Sorry I'm just a bit lost on exactly where you are at the moment.

I really don't see any issues with such a mild overclock you can probably even try a bit more then that and run 3dmark03 see if it goes through. Raising the FSB frequency to 176 might still give you good results. I beleie you would be running at 1.93 or so.

If you can manage to get your CPU to 2.2 I beleie that would be the equivilent of an Athlon XP 3000+ or 3200+ right? I don't know if you know how that worked when AMD did that.

Sounds like your pc cant handle overclocking.

The heat is the problem 61c on that type of processor causes crashes. If he can bring the temps down he'll be able to overclock it.

Maybe the heat isn't the problem though as I'm not sure what the temps are when you are running 3dmark03. It could be lower if you rn HWmonitor while running 3dmark03 and your temps are well below 61c then you may just need to raise the CPU voltage a bit.

Did you find the CPU voltage in your BIOS? Have you raised it at all after raising the frequency of the FSB 5 Mhz?

What are the steps on the voltage?

Meaning if you run 1.6 what's the next number up you can go? you know like 1.61? or 1.625?

If you have a digital camera handy, I would love to have a look at your bios if is not too much trouble maybe you can take a snapthot of your bios when you are in the screen with the CPU settings you know the settings where you overclock.

How many fans have you got installed inside your pc?

Thanks Needer. You still haven't answered my question what steps does your CPU core voltage go up by? I see by the pictures you provided that it's set at 1.675 I also see that your Chipset voltage is set to 1.6v can you raise the chipset voltage to the next available setting to please? Try that maybe it will bring stability. Also what are your options for your CPU FSB/DRAM ratio that's set on AUTO in that snapshot? Are the options linked/unlinked or synced or something of the sort? Can you set it to unlink if there is such an option?

Is there a bios menu that shows the speed of your ram? Also what is the speed of your ram rated at and the latencies if you know them. If you give me the make and model of your memory I can probably find out the timeings if you don't know what these are.

Thanks needer!

What else can you change besides the option of AUTO and By SPD? Is there another option?

It doesn't appear to be a submenu for changing the memory timings, but if you find a submenu where you can change settings on the memory something along the lines as advance memory settings or something that shows as CAS (tCL), tRAS, tRCD, and tRP. If there isn't don't worry about it, but if there is can you give me another snapshot of that menu as well?

OK no problem. Did you get to check the setting I asked about in my previous post?

You have to change that setting to something, your memory speed is directly linked to your processor speed and it could be causing instability when you overclock your CPU especialy if your memory can handle even a slight overclock.

When you are in windows at 1.93ghz download CPU-Z from www.cpuid.com and check for me how fast the memory is going under the memory tab.

Well your memory is 400mhz memory and you are running it at 177X2=354 so it's well within specs.

The only thing that I can think of now is the heat off the CPU causing instability or just having to apply more voltage to the CPU. Try bumping the voltage a little more and see if it gives you stability.

You may be able to by gaming isn't completely depandant on CPU more GPU, but if your CPU was bottlenecking your graphics card then yes it would probably allow your graphics card to work better therefore yielding better results in gaming like on NFS Undercover.

To reduce heat try applying more heat paste to CPU and remove both sides of your pc case to get better ventilation.

If you can get Artic Cooling MX-2 paste that is one of the best around.