I need to know a little about OCing?

[Shyguy]

Hey there everyone, I need to know some basics about OCing, Ive had little to no experience with it. The closest Ive had is OCing my old GF2GTS card.

I'll be getting my new system by the middle of this week & need to know a few things about OCing, the system I'm getting built will be using the newest revision of the Aopen AK77 KT333 board (http://www.aopen.com/products/mb/AK77-333.htm), and I'll be running an XP 2200+ in it, It'll be in an Antec1080AMG case with a 430watt PS, I'll also be installing my new 80gig ATA100 WD HD in it too, along with either WinXP Home or Pro. What i need to know is how to go about using higher clocked memory in the system as it only has the 266FSB & supports DDR333, but would like to use DDR370,400,433 maybe even 466 in it down the road, I talked to the guy's at the local Computer Renaissance, & their technician guy said that sometimes you can OC only the memory or CPU, but most of the time you need to OC both, is there any do's & don'ts about OCing besides the one BIG important one (only OC in small increments)? My new mobo supports OCing the memory up to a max of 496Mhz, and allows to OC in 1Mhz increments, also allow's to adjust the Vcore & also if I remember correctly it allows you to adjust all the neccessary memory settings too. Ive heard alot about adjusting the voltage & stuff like that, but I'm not to knowledgeable about that stuff too. ( I really would like to be able to utilize DDR400 or better in this machine, so any help setting that up would be appreciated!!!)
Also for now I'm just planning on using CAS2 370Mhz DDR (PC3000) in it & would need help with bumping up the speed & keeping the whole thing stable for this type of DDR for now (I'll be using DDR370 CAS2 for starter's till I get used to OCing)!!!

I know I'm not making a whole lot of sense with this, as even i don't really know what it is I'm asking, but if anyone can provide any help, advice or comments please do so, THANKS!!!

Oh and I DO know that I will need plenty of cooling for this, & that will be taken care of too!!!

[Gene C]

from one xtreme site to another. got some more in my bookmarks if you need them.
http://www.extremeoverclockers.com/
http://www.hyperformance-pc.com/overclocking_faq.htm

[Shyguy]

Hey, Thanks for the links!!!

But after getting my new system, it runs so fast & stable now, I don't really have any real need to OC at the moment, the closest thing to OCing that Ive done is run my CAS 2.5 DDR333 in CAS 2 mode.

Although I may OC a few things on the old system, if I can? Like the PC133 ram & stuff, maybe CPU, & vid card when I get a new one for it, (I'll have to see about getting a new mobo for it as the old ones got some major problems with random restarts & stuff)I'm using the GF4Ti in the new system, so basically my old system has everything I need except that one critical piece of hardware to run it too.

[Gene C]

I'll have to see about getting a new mobo for it as the old ones got some major problems with random restarts & stuff
this can come from a lot of things.
heat, not enought air flow
memory problems
over loaded powersupply
wrong drivers installed

if you decide to get a new mobo. touch base with me on your old one.

[fshanda]

Shyguy one thing OCing is good for is boosting production in DC projects. You wont feel any difference in normal usage when overclocking your system. You will get better benchmarks if thats what you want. But if you are on the XtremePC NEO team, OCing your processor will give you a boost in production. The more a DC projects potential is based on CPU speed the the better the benefit in overclocking. I have almost all of my systems OC'd, some just a little and some as far as I can take them.

[Shyguy]

Originally posted by Gene C
I'll have to see about getting a new mobo for it as the old ones got some major problems with random restarts & stuff
this can come from a lot of things.
heat, not enought air flow
memory problems
over loaded powersupply
wrong drivers installed

if you decide to get a new mobo. touch base with me on your old one.

Already checked into all of the above, Cooling no problem, CPU Fan, Front & Rear 80mm's, Front 5-1/4 bay fans, rear PCI slot fan, on top 120mm, PS fan, & when vid card in there a fan on that too. Air flow well the above pretty much says it. It could be memory problems, but I doubt it. It could be an overloaded PS, Ive got, Well I had 2 HD's, a CDRW, a DVD, a GF4Ti, & a couple of other cards plugged in, half of those have been migrated over to the new system. But as far as overloaded PS goes I doubt it, cause the darn thing would sometimes restart doing the most mundane tasks such as using typing or other simple things, then other times while playing games or while surfing. Ive already checked it several dozen times for virus's & trojans, haven't ever found asingle thing. As far as wrong drivers, NOPE, I have ALL the right drivers installed. The only thing I havent tried was a fresh install of WinME, but being as I don't have a vid card for it anymore that'll have to wait.

[fshanda]

I had a problem like that once. I had an extra standoff under my motherboard when I did my first build. If I moved my desk or bumped the case the system would restart. May be worth a look see.

[Shyguy]

Shouldn't be the problem, cause Ive had th mobo for 2 years & the problem didn't start until about the beginning of this past year. I keep thinking that maybe there's a short on the mobo. Around the beginning of the year was also when I installed that 120mm fan, I had to drill several holes in the top of the case for air flow, took for ever to drill, the case is steel or something, I think I had to use those titanium drill bits to do the job, one of which snapped in half during the process (one of the small bits). Anyways I keep thinking that maybe there might be some real small bits of metal shavings on the mobo somewhere that might be shorting out the board every once in awhile. Either that or sometimes I keep thinking that there might be some sort of static charge build-up that discharges once in awhile that might trigger a restart or something?