How do I overclock?

Xmporter

Honorable
Feb 23, 2013
14
0
10,510
Hi all.
I have a Compaq SR5703WM computer. I just got a ''new'' processor for it. It's the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400 2.2 Ghz. I want to overclock it. Everyone is saying that I can overclock it safely to at least 2.7-2.9 Ghz with stock cooling. Can I get some instructions on how to overclock it to that safely?
 

assasin32

Distinguished
Apr 23, 2008
1,356
22
19,515
Sorry to tell this to you but with pre-built computers the bios is locked down so you can't overclock. You would have to replace the motherboard if you want to overclock and than you have to deal with a whole lot of other issues with reinstaling the OS, etc.
 

Xmporter

Honorable
Feb 23, 2013
14
0
10,510
Why would you want to overclock it? Gaming? Faster speed? Not worth it.

Overclocking is definitely worth it, it's a huge value for the price. An extra 1ghz faster CPU would cost over $100-200 in price but only $20-60 in a heatsink from low to high end and maybe $50 more at most for a better mobo.

I'd say I personally only spent about $60 for overclocking gear as opposed to non-overclocking, yet I gained over 1.3ghz on my CPU and memory controller, 1.1ghz on my RAM, and 35% on my GPU. I'd say that's definitely worth the less than $100 I spent.

It also depends what games you play, but most modern games are CPU intensive. I personally not only play a very cpu intensive game like Starcraft 2, which definitely appreciates overclocking (100mhz is roughly equal to +1-3FPS, so 15 faster fps is HUGE increase in performance when you are talking about minimum frames per second, where even a 3960x at stock will struggle to run 4x4 in starcraft2 when a big battle occurs, the nature of sc2 as it is).

And, i also stream all the games I play. Now maybe you don't stream, but given your stance on overclocking I'm guessing you probably couldn't handle streaming on your system. I didn't originally stream, but because overclocking made my system much faster than what it was, I was able to stream all my games. Now I actually have a following who watch me play, and I'm getting close to making money for playing.

I know in my sig rig I have an i7, but the last 3 years I had an athlon ii x3. I unlocked and overclocked it to 3.4ghz quadcore, which let me stream 720p starcraft2. Quite a big improvement, being able to stream 720p on a $300 computer is pretty awesome. Suffice to say, my i7 build can stream an insanely high quality stream and handle sc2 easily at the same time. It's pretty nice.

Now if you play crysis 3 or bf3, the CPU isn't nearly as imporatnt, but it's still a very integral part of the game and minimum fps is always determined by the CPU.

But back to the OP - yea no way you can overclock on a stock computer. What games do you play? It'd really help if you just told us what computer you had, what components you had, and what exact games you play. We can't really help you if you don't tell us what you are even doing or working with.

You can't overclock on a pre-built computer but you can still buy a graphics card, and you can overclock a graphics card on a pre-built computer. Most games are very GPU intensive, so you could still get a huge boost in performance and an overclock of 20-40% that'd be very respectable further increase.

I don't think anyone told you you can overclock your athlon 64 on stock cooling. That's a terrible idea. The chip runs too hot even at stock settings, whoever told you that was a moron.

I'm usually playing games that shouldn't tax a computer too much like f1 2012, gta 3, rigs of rods, etc. So, there's no way at all I can OC a new CPU on my prebuilt? I'm also gonna upgrade the cooling so that's not a worry. But I might end up getting the Athlon 64 x2 4800 since its the max my computer will let me use. Anyone know any good CPU's for AM2 Mobo? If u wanna see the specs for my computer, just search SR5703WM specs on google. It's the first link. Dead stock everything.
 

Xmporter

Honorable
Feb 23, 2013
14
0
10,510
How much are you paying for the Athlon 64?

You know, you can build a decent computer that'll be way stronger than an xbox 360, that'll play modern games at ~medium-high graphics, for less than xbox 360. Like under $200. It'll definitely be stretching some stuff but it's possible, you'd have to buy parts on sale and such, and get the most value if you get a part or two off ebay or amazon too, but definitely doable.

You might be able to overclock like your FSB, go into your bios and see if you can change the bus or anything. Just google 'how to overclock sempron le-1250" and such, it's all out there and we're not going to baby you on it.

But yea prebuilt computers generally lock you out of all that stuff. So you are forced to just buy a new computer instead of upgrade or overclock. Not to mention they'd have a nightmare with RMAs from people blowing stuff out with overclocks, given prebuilts have warranties that are half a decade and that's their main selling points.

Generally for gaming, your GPU is what's most important. You can buy like a 4850 for $20 on ebay and that'll play medium-high graphics on those games just fine. Your CPU might be enough for those games, and most prebuilts big problem with gaming is they have no GPU, or a very weak one.

Is your FPS similar on low graphics settings as to when it's high? Or when you increase graphics, do you get huge drops in FPS? (use fraps to see fps).

When you play said games, is your cpu utilization in task manager above 90% consistently? Or is it much lower than that?

You know, you can use something like a Phenom X4 955 on AM2 boards. you are aware of that, right? You could probably find an Athlon II X3 or X4 for under $50 and that'd be a huge boost in CPU performance.

However the vast majority of games, such as the ones you listed, are all about the GPU, so it's most likely that you could put an i7-3770k in your computer and you'd still have problems. You need to have a half decent GPU to play games. And your system has no GPU at all.

No wonder you have issues... I mean the CPU you have should be okay.

Well, I'm only paying about $35 for the 4800. TM says that I am using 100 percent of my CPU and about 98 percent of ram. I would upgrade to an even better processor but as you can see, I'm quite limited. Since my PSU is only 250 watts, I am limited on the GPU too. I would have a great one if it wasn't for that. Btw, what is the FSB cause I don't see it in the BIOS?
 

Xmporter

Honorable
Feb 23, 2013
14
0
10,510
$35 for a 4800 sucks.

It would be really useful if you just posted your full system specs so we don't ahve to play a million questions. Just tell me what PSU you use before you make me ask. Or we can just do this a couple more times before I get irritated and bug off or until you really want help.

250w is more than enough for a PSU unless it's a low quality PSU. Any single GPU system will be hard pressed to push past 250w (except a bulldozer maybe). Wattage tells you nothing of a PSU's capabilities. But somehow I doubt you have a quality PSU.

You don't need to buy an AM2 processor, if your system is am2+ you can get an am3 CPU and it'll work in it just fine, like a Phenom X4 955.

Here are my specs:

Motherboard

M2N68-LA (Ivy8)

Manufacturer: ASUS
Form factor: Micro-ATX- 24.4 cm (9.6 inches) x 24.4 cm (9.6 inches)
Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Memory sockets: 2 x DDR2
Front side bus speeds: 2000MT/s (2.0 GT/s)
Processor socket: AM2
Expansion Slots:
2 PCI slot
2 PCI Express x16 graphics slot
1 PCI Express x1 slot

Processor

AMD Sempron LE-1250

Operating speed: Up to 2.2 GHz
Number of cores: 1
Socket: AM2
Bus speed: 1600 MT/s

Processor upgrade information
Socket type: AM2
Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades:
Athlon 64 up to 3800+
Athlon 64 X2 with Dual Core technology up to 4800+ (up to 65 watt TDP)
Sempron - All

Memory

Amount: 2 GB
Speed: PC2-6400 MB/sec

Memory upgrade information
Dual channel memory architecture
Two 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
Supported DIMM types:
PC2-4200 (533 MHz)
PC2-5300 (667 MHz)
PC2-6400 (800 MHz)
Non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
Supports 2GB DDR2 DIMMs
Supports up to 4 GB*
32 bit PCs cannot address a full 4.0 GB of memory.

Video graphics

Integrated graphics using nVidia GeForce 6150SE
Up to 256MB of system memory (with 512MB or more system memory)
Also supports PCI Express x16 graphics cards

Sound/Audio

Integrated Realtek ALC888 Audio
6 channel high-definition audio
Audio CODEC: ALC888
Networking

LAN: 10-Base-T
Interface: Integrated into motherboard
Technology: Realtek RTL8201N
Data transfer speeds: up to 10/100 Mb/s
Transmission standards:10-Base-T Ethernet

Hard drive

Size: 320 GB
Interface: SATA
Transfer rating: 3.0 Gb/sec
Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM

Power Supply
250W power supply

*STOCK EVERYTHING*
*TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM HP/COMPAQ WEBSITE*

I want to upgrade ram to 4GB and am planning to put the AMD Athlon 64 x2 4800. If you need more. let me know. I think that I covered everything.
 

Xmporter

Honorable
Feb 23, 2013
14
0
10,510

Well apparently I can't OC anyways due to how locked down the bios is. Thanks anyways everyone. Whenever I get another computer, I will take these tips into account.