Should i overclock a 5 year old pc

I've seen posts where people OC older processers than that, and I would think that if that cpu has been kept cool and taken care of, then it shouldn't be a problem.

A few years ago I decided to take apart an old computer with an athlon xp 1800 and clean it all up. I even cleaned off the thermal paste and forgot to put some more on! Put it all back together and the thing melted on me within seconds. This PC I am on now has prevented me from making the same mistake... I tried to up the bclk to 200 once, and it shut off on me thank god. I've learned alot since then and appreciate the new protective features of the new board. Point being, if you are confident in that board, then it might not hurt to try. I'm not a overclocking pro yet though so I can't say much about your board.

So.. if you cant afford a cheap ram upgrade or a couple generations up on a graphics card, I wouldn't risk what you do have that already works to some degree. I'd just leave it as is.

This review states that your CPU can be OC'd even up to 2.4Ghz. I linked just the final "Thoughts" but read thru the whole article.
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=933&page=8
Note that how far you can go also depends on your motherboard's Overclocking ability.

I recond another gb of RAM could make alot more difference

Heya , Fellow Wowhead here  
Yup, as stated get more and faster ram (Google your mobo to find out the fastest speed Ram it supports) in there dude, if your on a 32bit O/s buy 4Gb max

Waste/invest as much as you can afford to on a better gfx card, Im using a 9500gt at the minute in this Rig and I run around Lagaran at 75fps with about 150ms latency,
Fans Fans Fans   get some good cooling in there if your powering up a decent gfx card,
And maybe think of a 550+ psu depending on which gfx card you decide upon
But imo you can eke a lot more from it upgrading than O/c'ing the current set up,
Moto

i am obviously ignorant.. because i have no clue how ram can help.. whenever i am running programs and/or games i notice that not nearly half of the 1gb is used up (viewed on windows task manager)

it will just help because its splitting the load on two sticks instead of one?.. like dual channel?

The more ram you have, the more the system will use usually. It depends on the program you're running.
If your game uses 500mb of the 1gig that you have currently, after you upgrade to say 2gb, then your game is likely to use a full gig.

Ram would be real cheap for your system most likely...
If you do decide to get ram, ask here first, because there is alot of ram compatability issues and it can cause your stable system to become very unstable if you pick the wrong stuff. What is your system called? As many details as possible helps

i already linked my ram and mobo in the OP. i should be able to run a total of 4g. so should i just buy another 1g corsair stick at 3=3=3=8?

oh yeah sorry about that, yeah if you can match up the ram, that'd be ideal.

Just looking at newegg briefly, they have discontinued the 2x512 sticks, but they do have the 2x1gb sticks..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

For some reason I feel guilty for sending you to pay 90 dollars for 2 gigs of 400mhz ram... Didn't think it would be that much.

No its not like that, otherwise, my 4GB RAM will be 2GB utilized and anyone who have 8GB will have 4GB utilized for the same application.
But the OP is correct that adding another RAM stick will help in a way of dual channelling. But not much.

To triangle2234:
OC is the first bet. It's also free... but you have to watch your temperature if you are using the stock cooler... make sure you are at least 10C below the maximum ( to give allowance to any misread of the temperature monitoring program ).

By today's standards, your PC is lacking in several major areas:
1) Low clock rate single core cpu.
2) 1gb of ram is not enough.
3) For games, the graphics card is all important.
4) Is that a IDE hard drive?

What to do?

I would not invest much, if anything on improving your system.

1) Go ahead and overclock your cpu a bit. 10% is usually safe, just do a little at a time. Success will be limited by the efficiency of your cpu cooler. Don't spend extra on a better cooler. Realize that your gaming will be limited by the graphics card, more than the cpu.

2) XP works hard to keep some ram free by writing less used frames to your hard drive page file. ...constantly.
Extra ram reduces this overhead. An extra 1gb would be a big difference. Either match the ram you have, or sell it and get a matched 2gb kit. Many older motherboards are very sensitive to mismatched ram. Do not pay much extra for faster ram or better timings. It will not make as much difference as the extra gb will. The task manager statistics do not tell you what you need to know. What you need to know is how much ram is needed to hold most of what you use withoug excessive demand paging(AKA working set). The task manager will only show what it has currently available, not what it needs.

3) AGP graphics cards are obsolete and may be expensive. Perhaps you can upgrade your graphics card with a good buy on e-bay.

4) IDE drives are slower than modern SATA drives. This becomes important if your shortage of ram causes lots of paging to the hard drive.

I suggest that you start saving for a more current system. If your budget is very small, start by looking for a bargain PC on e-bay or craig's list. Complete systems usually sell for less than the component parts.

Look for a minimum of:
dual core cpu @ 2.4
2gb of ram
8800GT
SATA hard drive

---good luck---

right thank you.
i already made myself a nice list of gear on newegg wishlist for a relatively low price. http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx...

also i tried overclocking the other day. i upped the fsb clock from 200 to 215 in the bios. reset. and i get a black screen.. no post, no bios choice no nothing.... restart again same thing... after letting it sit for a few minutes i try 1 or 2 more times maybe and finally it posts and i can get to bios and fix change.. that was the scariest thing ever! ..

why did it fail to up my FSB clock by a measly 15mhz ??

... so i tried changing a few of the "auto choose" settings to distinct values.
set my HT to 5x and my cpu multiplier to 9x. set my "timing to aggressive"

then i tried a modest 10mhz overclock on FSB. ( these changes were all in the same bios session) and upon restarting i get blackscreened again! i restart again and another blackscreen!

so i let it sit for a few minutes cold. power up, and i get into windows fine .. that is strange. if i can run p95 for an hour im doing another 10mhz. .etc.

Relax your timing setting a bit, may help some imo, and go in increments of 3-5Mhz at a time, small steps make more progress in this world I find.
Moto