Overclocking 101

[gis_mapper]

I have just built a new system around an Opteron 165 and MSI K8N Diamond Plus motherboard.

I want to start overclocking, but have not found "beginner details" via Google. The MSI board comes with a nifty utility called "Core Centre" that allows you to make tweaks in Windows, but with minimal user notes.

Is there a site that people would recommend that explains things like FSB, CPU voltage, PCI-E voltage, DDR voltage, multipliers, memory settings, etc (and their interrelationships when overclocking) so that I could build up my knowledge and then start overclocking.

Many thanks.

 

[chuckshissle]

My advice for you as a begginer would be to get as much knowledge and basics as you can about overclocking. You have to understand how things work and what overclocking can do with your pc as well as the good and bad side of it.

There are many forums you can read on, like some here in THG. You could even find some guides with important details and videos. Before you start overclocking you pc, have to have the right hardware to do so. In overclocking the stability of the system rely mostly on the hardware. So make sure you have the rights parts like good cooling and good overclocking ram. As you overclock, you basically push the hardware to work harder than the manufacturer's specifications, so heat and instability usually comes with it as a result.

Okay, to start the easiest in overclocking would be the FSB and you can adjust this to increase the frequency of the cpu. This is the simplest way to increase the performance of a pc without increasing voltage. As a begginer do not work with voltage and expert modes in overclocking at first. Voltage increase can make a system stable like putting more juice to the FSB will stabilize it during overclocking, but increases the heat and risks as well as shortened the hardware's lifespan. You have to decide wether overclocking is something you would really need to squeeze out more performance of your hardware. Overclocking for me is just for fun and only when I do some test and benchmarking.

You have to experiment with your system as different system have different overclocking potential and stability. So start with the very basic in overclocking then do some tweaking to get that most performance with the best stability. Most of all the best way to learn is from yourself and from your mistakes. Good Luck.

 

[angry_ducky]

Good advice.

 

[Covered_in_bees]

Here are some good articles on overclocking to read:

THG Forum Sticky
Very detailed guide from Short-Media
Another very good guide from MadShrimps