P4 overclocking

[hartski]

It's my first time to overclock a P4 and would appreciate all the help I can get. I have a P4 2.4GHz CPU, Gigabyte GA-8IEXP mobo, 2 sticks of 512 PC2100 DDR SDRAM and ATI Radeon 8500DV 64MB running on Windows XP Home.

I want to overclock it to at least 2.6GHz but don't wanna use watercooling. Buying a new heatsink and fan for under 50 bucks is acceptable. I currently have a Thermaltake Volcano P4 478 heatsink.

Is using the overclocking software from Gigabyte good enough and safe? Is it the EasyTune 4? How do you overclock anyway? Any guides you know of that can be found on the internet? What other components of the PC besides the CPU should I overclock?

 

[Stiffler]

Which 2.4 is it ? A or B (Is your current is 100 or 133 respectively?)

The only way to overclock the Intel chips is to increase the FSB, which is normally achieved via the BIOS. If it is a PIV (533) then you should be able to overclock to 2.6 quite easily by an increase of the FSB to around 145. If it is only a Northwood A which is at 100FSB then it may be a little more difficult to get the chip to 2.6.

Your current HSF should be sufficient for what you wish to achieve.


Tim


ps: for more information see <A HREF="http://www.overclockers.com" target="_new">http://www.overclockers.com</A>

I can call you Betty, and Betty when you call me... You can call me Al

 

[JasonR]

I used Easy Tune4 in the auto mode and pushed the FSB to a target level (i.e. 133MHz). Then I reverted back to the manual mode and made a note of the changes that were automatically made to the various other system components (AGP, PCI, RAM etc.) Basically, this approach just means you don't have to do the math yourself. Once I knew what I needed for all the various settings, I reset Easy Tune4 back to the normal state it was in prior to pushing the FSB up.

Next, I rebooted and went into the BIOS. I manually set the FSB to 133MHz and checked that all the other settings automatically aligned to the same values Easy Tune had suggested were correct. They did. Then I rebooted.

The logic behind my approach was that it seems like the BIOS is the best way to make such alterations to the system bus, since it takes place at such a low level. I'm sure there are many other methods for approaching this, but I found Easy Tune 4 a handy tool for working out the various numbers. So far, however, I've only done a simple OC by pushing the FSB to 133MHz.

FWIW:
P4 1.8A (OC'd to about 2390MHz)
512MB Corsair PC3200 DDR
GA-8IEXP mobo

You should be able to easily get 2.6GHz, although your RAM might be a limiting factor.


Cheers,
JasonR

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[JasonR]

Something I forgot to mention is that I believe Easy Tune4 makes system changes on the fly. i.e. each mouse click that raises the bus speed results in the immediate implementation of that increase. I used Easy Tune4 to push the FSB to 150MHz, looking for the same info I referred to in my previous post. At about 145-147MHz the system spontaneously rebooted. I repeated the exercise to make sure it wasn't some weird aberation and got the same result. This is where I base my deduction on the immediate implementation of changes made with easy Tune 4. Maybe everyone else already knew this but I didn't

Cheers,
JasonR

*** Whoa...I just figured out how to make my text <font color=blue> Red </font color=blue>, <font color=white> White </font color=white> and <font color=red> Blue </font color=red>...Cool !!! ***