Intel Pentium 4 550 (3.4 GHz LGA775) overclocking help needed!

chaoscreater

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Hi guys, first of all I know how to overclock graphics cards, but have no experience and no idea how to overclock the CPU or Memory, I only know it has to do with multipliers and dividers, and that you might have to raise voltages sometimes but I don't understand how they work, even though I've read plenty of guides.......I'm not really good at this and prefer easy softwares to do it such as ClockGen (I've used it once to overclock my CPU slightly), as I don't want to mess around with the BIOS since I'm not experienced enough. Of course, I don't mind if someone guides me on what to change in my BIOS.


Ok so with the intro out of the way, here're my setups:

Intel Pentium 4 550 3.4GHz
ASRock G41M-GS3 motherboard
Corsair Value Select DDR3 PC10600/1333MHz CL9 2GB
Geforce 8800GT 512MB


Now, this is a very old HTPC so please don't ask me why I still have a Pentium 4 lol. Anyway from what I know, Pentium 4 CPUs are locked, therefore the only way to overclock is to mess around with the FSB or something?? I've been doing some research on how to overclock it but couldn't find much, either that or people have only been able to overclock it by 10% which is really little......I was hoping if someone can give me a guide on what to do?


Also, my 2nd question relates to the first as well, if you would please download this manual for my motherboard:

http://europe.asrock.com/manual/G41M-GS3.pdf


and if you look at page 19 on "Overclocking Setting", it tells you the different types of jumper configurations that you need to use depending on what you want to overclock to. I don't understand it completely, the only thing I know is that my Pentium 4 has a 800Mhz FSB, refer to here:

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=27469


and that my 2GB Corsair is 1333Mhz......so does that mean I must adjust the jumper to adopt the FSB1333?


I'm confused with that because I know you can overclock memory too, and if i'm not wrong, you usually overclock your memory when you overclock your CPU as well, but since my ram is already 1333Mhz, do i still need to change the jumpers? Or do i simply just overclock the CPU or FSB???


Sorry it's a bit long but I really need someone to clarify this for me, thanks in advance!
 

chaoscreater

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I know that the memory timings are better when they're lower, they perform or access faster. But why why should i increase the vdim?? At 1333Mhz (default), it's at 1.5V so shouldn't i decrease the voltage instead?? I thought we only increase voltages on the ram only if we want to overclock it?? But now we're underclocking it.....

 

chaoscreater

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except that most of them either sucked coz they overclocked by 2~5% with heat problems, or they only showed their results and no overclocking guides/procedures.

Also, they don't answer the specific question that i asked, which i doubt u read properly coz most ppl would give the typical common reply as you did.

Anyway, @henydiah:

I couldn't get mine to overclock much coz at idle, my CPU runs at 67 Celcius, which is not normal since that's what the temperature reading should be if it's at load......

my motherboard sets all the timings etc to AUTO, so it reads 6, 6, 6, 64 and vdimm at 1.53V.

Would it be better if I use a ram stick that's DDR800 or even DDR400 instead of using my Corsair 1333mhz? Except that it's a DDR3 so that's the lowest it supports, if i'm not wrong.
 

chaoscreater

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dunno what an Express 4 series chipset is, but refer to the manual, all the chipset and motherboard information is there, i posted that in the first link....
 
1. This is a G41 based board and yes, it uses DDR3.

2. WHY THE HELL are you running a P4 on that set up?!?! WTF? Spend like $30-50 and get a E2180/E5200. These CPUs WILL destroy the P4, even if the P4 was OCed. Seriously. The P4 is old tech and is extremely limited by the FSB and heat. With a Netburst based P4, just don't expect more than about 5-10% OC esp. with a CPU already at 3.4Ghz stock.

 

chaoscreater

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coz it's an old HTPC setup that i have, obviously if i had the budget i would upgrade the CPU.......in fact, i already upgraded the motherboard & ram, they were both super cheat on special that's y i upgraded it, otherwise the old setup as a ASUS P5GD1 PRO using DDR ram which sucked even more. I know about the heat and all that crap, i stated that in my first post already, but since this is just a cheap setup it gives me all the more reason to practice overclocking on a CPU.