OC Windsor

[lancer_3k]

I have a Windsor 3600+ on my girlfriend's machine... with an Asus Nforce 430 M/B (Asus M2n 1394) and a single stick of DDR-667 RAM (Kingston Value Ram, KVR 667). The PSU is a 400W unit that came with the case, and there's also a Xpertvision 7900GS (not the Sonic version)

How would I overclock this machine to be as fast as it can safely get? The objective is to keep the thing running for about 2 years... so I can't really burn it out...

 

[yakyb]

stick another stick of ram in so it runs in dual channel mode that will get you a boost other than that i would upgrade the cooler then slowly up the FSB and test for stability in stages.

 

[1Tanker]

I have a Windsor 3600+ on my girlfriend's machine... with an Asus Nforce 430 M/B (Asus M2n 1394) and a single stick of DDR-667 RAM (Kingston Value Ram, KVR 667). The PSU is a 400W unit that came with the case, and there's also a Xpertvision 7900GS (not the Sonic version)

How would I overclock this machine to be as fast as it can safely get? The objective is to keep the thing running for about 2 years... so I can't really burn it out...

First of all, drop the HT multiplier from 5x to 4x. Now, slowly...incrementally increase the HTT (~5MHz intervals), and stress test(and watch temps) after each bump. you'll probably end up in ~240x10 area. If you manage to get it to much higher than 250x10, drop the HT multiplier to 3x. The idea is to keep the HT speed to 1000MHz or just under, as getting it much above 1000-1050 will cause instability. You may find along the way that a slight increase in vCore will stabilize things, and upping the vCore one notch ~.05v isn't going to cause any significant damage to the CPU... It may cut it's lifespan for 10 years to 8-9yrs.....whoop-de-doo. GL

Edit: One of the first things to do when overclocking, is to disable "Spread Spectrum"...in the BIOS.

 

[cd_rom]

Just to fill in the stress test bit, you may want to run prime95 for 15 mins or so and get back to HTT increasement like 1Tanker said!

@1Tanker: i like the way you explain it!!! Plain and simple

 

[SEALBoy]

I've got my HTT running at 1150MHz stable, but I can't go any higher since my mobo lacks an HTT multiplier.

@ 1Tanker: why does disabling the spread spectrum thingy help in the overclock? I though it was just to decrease interference or something.