
Written by RedInferno for the Microbeta (http://www.microbeta.net) Tweak
Guide
This Article is the property of Microbeta.net. Reproduction in any part
or whole without express permission of Microbeta is prohibited.
Dedicated to:
Kw13, your kindness and friendliness was shown to me when I first came
Theman123, you make awesome graphics and thank you for the sig
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for me since
Linoman, your jokes are always appreciated and you add a personal side
to the forum
Clarky3429, you are a bright guy and always know the answer
And KelpFries, without you the forum would not be possible
Thank you all.
Table of Contents:
Section One: What is overclocking?
Section Two: How can I overclock?
Sections Three: Overclocking Tips
Note: A basic familiarity of hardware terms and features is required
to understand this. If you are unfamiliar with something, look it up
on the internet and then continue reading.
Section One
If you know anything about the hardware side of computers at all, then
you must have heard the term overclocking somewhere while browsing the
web. So what is overclocking? Overclocking is the modification of manufacturer
specific settings that will allow your machine to run faster than standard.
This adjustment of settings might involve changing the Front Side Bus,
memory to CPU ratio, or voltage settings. Much of overclocking is done
in the BIOS, so boot up your computer that you plan to overclock and
boot into the BIOS. Look for settings such as the FSB and other speed
related settings. If they are grayed out, you might either have to enable
the settings in the case of grayed out settings, or if they are not
even there, perhaps your motherboard does not support overclocking.
Many prebuilt computers’ motherboards (like Dell computers) do
not give you the ability to change such settings. If this is the case,
consider building a custom computer or buying a different 3rd party
motherboard.
Section Two
Concepts Behind Overclocking:
• Clock Speed = FSB x multiplier. Where do you find the FSB? Just
look for your CPU chip model and look for the FSB on the net. The multiplier
is the ratio that is multiplied by the FSB to give the computer’s
clock speed, for example, 2.4 Ghz. You can also look for your chip’s
multiplier on the net. So, let’s say you have an AMD Athlon FX-55.
This chip has a 2.6 Ghz clock speed. The FSB of this chip is 400 Mhz.
However, since this chip’s FSB is quad-pumped the base FSB of
this chip would be 100 Mhz. So we know that:
Multiplier x 100 = 2600 Mhz (or 2.6 Ghz), which means the multiplier
has to equal 26. So if we could raise the FSB to 105 Mhz we would get
a clock speed of 2730 Mhz (26 x 105 = 2730).
• Remember, whenever you change the FSB speed, you also change
the memory speed, as these two are linked together. For example, DDR
memory is dual-pumped, so it would operate at 400 Mhz when you FSB is
at 200 Mhz. DDR2 is quad-pumped, so if your FSB is set at 200 Mhz, your
RAM would run at 800 Mhz. However, DDR2 also runs at a 2:3 ratio to
your FSB, so in reality your DDR2 would only run at 533 Mhz (200 x 4
x 2/3). If we modify this ratio, we can modify the memory clock speed.
So if we overclocked the CPU FSB to 250 Mhz and adjusted the memory-to-CPU
ratio to 7/8, we would end up with a memory clock speed of 875 Mhz.
(250 x 4 x 7/8)
• Voltage Tweaking requires a lot of patience, and I generally
do not recommend it. Overclocks in this area must be made in minute
increments, or you risk frying components. There is software out there
that will let you do this, but let me explain briefly the concept behind
this overclock. When you adjust the voltage in small increments, like
0.025 V, you give more power to the component and this gives a more
aggressive overclock. However, you risk overheating and wear and tear
on your delicate electronics’ circuits.
Section Three
In order to keep your computer from getting damaged, you should read
this section of tips that will help you overclock safely before you
try it on your gaming rig.
• Always overclock in small increments. This will prevent sudden
failure of your hardware and will give you a better chance of knowing
how far you can push the settings instead of going all out at once.
• Once a setting fails (failure to boot or a Blue Screen of Death
are signs), you should lower the settings, or reset to standard settings
by clearing the CMOS. Look for a small jumper, or, if your computer
doesn’t have one, pull out the CMOS battery for about 30 seconds.
• If you have managed to overclock your components with occasional
failures, do not be tempted to keep these settings. Although you may
rationalize this, it is not worth putting extra wear and tear on your
components. Every time they fail due to overclocked settings they are
potentially damaged.
• Consider investing in a water cooled or phase change system.
These will keep your system cool in more aggressive overclocks. If your
CPU temperature is causing system failure, or your case fans are starting
to sound like lawnmowers, you should probably get at least a water cooled
system. They are only about a few hundred dollars. Phase-change systems
actually use refrigerants to cool your system, but these can cost a
lot more, usually around 1,000 dollars. However, a phase-change system
will keep your CPU running at around -50 degrees Celsius.
• Run many, many benchmarks. These test your system for stability
at the overclocked settings. Some good benchmarking and stability programs
are PCMark04, Prime95, or HeavyLoad 2.0.
Well, I hope you enjoyed what I hope was an introduction to one of
the many aspects of PC Modding. Please remember that this is only intended
as a broad overview and introduction to overclocking. You can find much
more on the internet, or join a computer forum like Microbeta, where
there are lots of hardware gurus that will help you out.
I would like to acknowledge CPU Magazine for a few of the ideas presented
in this paper. I love reading your magazine and I thank you for simplifying
some of the ideas I presented here to make them more beginner-friendly.
Until next time,
RedInferno
Written 9/18/2005