[-OCM770-]

running xp home, pentium IV on 2.6ghz and woul'd like to overclock using CPUCOOL what speed is safe?


-OCM770-

[Advertisements]

Varies by PC to PC, you need to read up on overclocking first, if you have to ask the question you need to do more research. Lots of good overclocking websites and forums that have all the information you could possibly need to explain it, you need to know what you are doing as otherwise you can do damage or just make your PC unusable and its usually harder to fix these things than it is to do it in the first place.

[warriorscot]

Varies by PC to PC, you need to read up on overclocking first, if you have to ask the question you need to do more research. Lots of good overclocking websites and forums that have all the information you could possibly need to explain it, you need to know what you are doing as otherwise you can do damage or just make your PC unusable and its usually harder to fix these things than it is to do it in the first place.

[GrantG]

Since you asked, you can easily overclock it to 8.4ghz.

[Vaillant]

Yeah, if you want to burn out every circuit on the motherboard... Besides, I'm not sure about that figure.

Point being, unless you really require a massive amount of processing power, overclocking is dangerous and needless with today's processors. I find that the first thing that keeps you behind is the lack of ram, or too slow a hdd for the rest of the computer. I just upgraded to a SATA drive, and let me tell you, what performances problems I had before (still very rare, and if you noticed I'M also on 2.6ghz) are totally gone.

If you do decide to proceed, make sure to take it slow, check your temps often, and keep GOOD ventilation... Perferably a liquid cooling if you really want to be safe.

[crunch]

I overclock everything I touch more than 30 PCs except some cheap boards that seem to only underclock. I have never fried a celeron, I have fried 3 AMD athlons, and all pentiums are doing good. only lost one board. I buy very large heatsink/fans for this and activate BIOS shutdown features for temps. Every board and processor has different clocking methods, some are by increasing BUS speed, others by increasing multiplier, some jumpers, some software, ie jen jumper. My pentium boards had a little of both. except the intel duo core board had to be done by using burn in features in BIOS. Default ran the 3.0 at 2.9, burn in allows it to run at 3.2GHz. Processors vary even among identicle CPU part numbers. CPU cache makes quite a difference as well. Such as P3 type Celeron 1.4 OCed to 1.678 will out preform much faster P4s on pcpitstop. This could go on and on, anyway, when I started I secured a small mercury thermometer (taken out of a floating aquarium thermometer, just break away outer glass) with the red bulb tight to the base of the heatsink. I never let them get over 120 degrees. When overclocking watch what's going on with PCI bus speed. On most board jumpers PCI bus increases slightly with FSB speed, my max stable PCI speed has been 39 yet some mobos offer higher. Don't press your luck past 37. The cooler things are the harder you can work them, leave the case off at first. In an ASUS terminator a celeron 1.2 is running 1.678 only one I've every seen maintain that percentage of abuse. 1.4 usually get unstable at 1.7 and wind up slowing you down. AMD rarely run their rated speed, very fortunant to get a 2200 to run 2.4GHz. Cache and CPU speed is like a slow big truck versus a fast little sports car. Depends on what you are doing but in the long run the big truck will haul the most fastest, ie multi task while multi downloads (use big truck)vs. gaming (use sports car). STAY COOL!!!

[GrantG]

A good OC will never lose anything:p

[-OCM770-]

I'm confused, can i overclock or not? do you need more details? HOW CAN I DO IT USING CPUCool? I can't do it in the BIOS, is my bios locked?, can i unlock it?

[HPDV8315LOVER]

I dont recommend overclocking anything that could damage your computer.

[crunch]

Message for someone else, mess with horses, motorcycles, airplanes, and boats long enough and you will get hurt! I've always pushed limits to the max, that's how we live and learn.
I've never used download software programs to overclock but have read of them, I flash BIOS on everything as well for latest improvements, to get higher speeds, larger hdds, and solve other problems. Not always for the faint of heart either, but wade in get your feet wet after a few it's a breeze and most mobo brands offer great support.
AS A RULE FOR SAFETY: LIMIT OVERCLOCKING TO 10% ie run your 2.6 at 2.86 being a pentium it can handle it if you keep cool. (heat kills no matter what speed) Getting 10% out of an AMD has cost me. But 20% more from celeron has never failed. At some point a board will become unstable mostly from PCI bus too high, ECS has been my worst luck but ASUS and Biostar hang in there (get what we pay for). What is your board? That will be your limitations if it's cool. Out of curiousity, PM me the board brand and model. As I prefer to OC by the board and BIOS giving regard to the board's manufacturer input.
Will look into the software.

Edited by crunch, 20 October 2006 - 06:52 PM.

[GrantG]

You're bad.

[wannabe1]

crunch has been there...listen to his advice, it's been right on the mark thus far.

[-OCM770-]

OK, i PM'd him the model and will also post it here:

MSI Gamila/Giovani/Neon Series
Pentium IV 2.6 Ghz codename Northwood 512kb L2 cache
<chipset unknown, how do i find out?>
Windows XP Home SP2


-OCM770-

P.S. MSI does not support the model of my board anymore

[crunch]

I'll find it

[-OCM770-]

OK, thanks crunch, if it helps, i have a COMPAQ PRESARIO SR1020LA




-OCM770-

[crunch]

Ok, your board is really hiding under two other names. I would like 4 things. One is a model code likely with a K or xeon and other numbers. And name on chipset ie Intel, VIA, ALI, etc, also get name off BIOS chip ie Award, AMI, Pheonix. Other board real name is under MS-6577, but we still need the rev number from 2.1 to 4. Get the 2 numbers off the board, both with letters and the MS-xxxx rev. x.x . Confirm that it's a socket 478 CPU for me.
I dug out a MSI board and plugged it in and sure nuf the BIOS are out of date and has a poor BIOS clocking limitation at the moment. MSI site says my older board can run a 2.6 so LAID one out, it currently has a 1.7 in it. So we can flash together to obtain better clocking if possible. One really cool thing with MSI is live BIOS flashing when it works, also we can flash the regular way starting with a boot image and the great "CALDERA" If need to PM me and hook up by phone. Hope you have second PC availible for communication. Mine is laid out on the bench plugged in and turn on able. Will put a harddrive on it and install XP home then scan on pcpitstop for a before audit. While waiting.