I thought I'd have a little read up on overclocking computers... so thought this may be a good place to ask for info :)

Before anybody asks or suggests it... I am not new to computers in the slightest (do it for a living) but I am new to overclocking... hence asking for info :D

I have a AMD XP2400 processor on a resonably cheap Matsonic board. Am tempted to change board, but wanted to see what can be done first :)

Currently running at around 1.83GHz and I have 1GB of PC2100 RAM.

Fairly basic system at the moment, but would be interested to see what we can do with it :D

Any advice or info on where to start would be appreaciated :)

Cheers

Rob

not familiar with that matsonic board, but have a root around on www.ocworkbench.com quite often those boards are clones of ECS/PC chips boards.

key to overclocking is making sure that the chip is as cool as possible, people have their own preferences, but i like a full load temp to be under 50 degrees full load (ie running something like seti, rc5, maybe encoding divx etc)

you can change the speed of the processor in 2 ways, the FSB how quick the board run, usually 100, 133, 166 or 200.

or you change the multiplier (the speed of a cpu is the fsb * the multiplier) in your case 166*11 (i think)

so either sloly bump the fsb up (to 167, 168, 169,170, you get the idea) or change the multipler (say from 11 to 11.5 or 12)

everytime you change it, run a few games, apps etc to make sure that it wont crash. if it does, either back off a little, or bump the voltage up (say from 1.5 to 1.55/1.6) and test again.

gimme a shout if you have any problems

toodle pip

Blimey.... well, the first thing I noticed is that my CPU temp was a lot higher than you mention to begin with! CPU temp is showing at around 60 degrees?!

However, I have managed to take the 2500+ up to 1.98ghz safely, with no signs of instability... and the CPU temp hasn't increased much at all either.

Odd!

Rob

2100+ @ 2.43GHz (1.73ghz stock), which runs at 35° under 100% load. :)
I have quite a few custom modded fans....:P

Fantastic :D

Im going to order some more case fans I think, I have a pretty hefty processor fan at the moment so that should be ok...but just the one case fan. Case can take another 3, so I'll get a few I think :D

Rob

rob.

before you go blowing your stack on case fans, make sure you have a decent heatsink first.

go look on ocuk at some of the thermalright heatsinks ( http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Thermalright_120.html )

one you have done that, make sure that none of your IDE/power/floppy/whatever cables are stopping the air flow, so make sure there out of the way.

make sure the the heatsink is on with some decent thermal paste (artic silver)

toodle pip

i highly recommend the ThermalRight SLK-900.
bit pricey, but bloody good heatsink.
the slk-800, slk-700 and SK-7 are all fantastic heatsinks too, at a much more managable price.

I got a good deal on one of these jobbies today...

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/Silverstream/Objectstore/Images/I203047.jpg

I also bought two more case fans to go at the front of the case, to pair up with the fan at the back of the case.

But despite all of this, my CPU temp stays at around late 50's degrees! So annoying!

Managed to get the processor up to 2.08ghz, but the temp rose with it so I have now backed off until I sort something out

Cheers for your help

Rob

those coolermaster's got slated in a recent thread

here (http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/vbb/showthread.php?t=61046)