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How to Overclock your Computer
Author: Greg Monkiewicz
e-mail: gmonkiewicz@gmail.com
Version: 0.11
Latest Version Update: April 12, 2005
---------
Contents:
---------
1. Warning
2. Intro
3. Determining the key to access your BIOS
4. Finding your FSB
5. Altering your FSB
6. Changing your multiplier
7. Credits
8. Legal
--------
Warning:
--------
I and the other people who helped compile this guide are not responsible for
anything that goes wrong.
Make sure you have an appropriate Heatsink that will be able to handle the
extra heat and make sure that you have good enough ram that can deal with the
extra speed boosts.
-------------
Introduction:
-------------
I made this guide to help other people as I was once helped by a writer in a
magazine to obtain a higher performance without buying new components for my
computer. This step is known as Overclocking. It simply involves the user to
make his processor run at a higher frequency that it was designed to run at.
------------------------------------------------
Step #1: Determining the key to access your BIOS
------------------------------------------------
Power up your rig and press the Pause/Break key which is near F12 to freeze
the POST screen. Usually in the bottom left corner of the screen it says which
key is needed to be pressed to enter the BIOS. Usually on self built computers
the BIOS key will be either Del or F2. If you have a manufactured computer
such as a Compaq, Toshiba, Dell, E-machines or HP you might be shown
a "splash" screen which displays the company's logo. Entering the BIOS is
trickier now. Sometimes it is possible to get rid of the splash screen by
simply pressing the "Esc" key and in other times you must try to press F12 or
F8 to get in.
-------------------------
Step #2: Finding your FSB
-------------------------
Once in the BIOS you are shown many categories in which you can enter. Your
FSB can be located in a variety of different places depending on your chipset.
Usually it can be found under a certain "Advanced" category.
--------------------------
Step #3: Altering your FSB
--------------------------
Now once your FSB is found, change the "Auto" default setting to "manual".
Lets say you have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ in your computer. Your FSB would be
166 MHZ which in reality is 333MHZ because it is double pumped (2x). Some
other processors such as the Intel Pentium 4 uses a quad pump (4x) so keep
this in min when upping your FSB. Initially it is wise to raise the FSB by 5
MHz which will give you the following:
CPU SPEED = FSB x Multiplier
CPU SPEED = 166 x 11
CPU SPEED =1881 MHz
CPU SPEED = 1.88 GHz
Keep in mind that all processors have different multipliers.
As you can see your new CPU SPEED is 0.05 GHz faster than your original stock
1.83 GHz processor's speed.
It is recommended to run a program such as Sisoft Sandra and do a few CPU
tests to see if it can handle the load. If it succeeds then you should be fine
to continue overclocking.
Enter your BIOS once again and continue in increments of 2-3 MHZ. After every
little notch of overclocking run Sisoft and see how your computer is doing. If
you notice that after saving your new settings your comp does not post or
Windows does not boot, that will be a good indicator that you went above your
processor's maximum.
Now lets say that your omputer would no longer boot at a 199MHZ FSB. You
should then lower your FSB by increments of one until your computer becomes
stable again after running Sisoft. To make your computer take the ultimate
test you should run CPU-Burn in for a period of around 24hrs and see if it
crashes or not.
----------------------------------
Step #4: Changing your multiplier
----------------------------------
Only certain AMD processors such as the thunderbirds allow you to do
the "pencil trick:. This hack involves you drawing/connecting two conductors
together to unlock it. Other AMD processor that have a serial number that
start like "___" (I will find out soon and get that edited in) are capable of
using a product called "Speed Strip" to unlock it's multiplier. Having an
unlocked multiplier gives you a lot more overclocking possibilities. If you
are one of those lucky people who have an unlocked processor you can do the
following:
Leave your FSB at stock settings and raise your multiplier by 0.5x until your
computer becomes unstable. Once unstable you can try adding up to 0.5 extra
Volts of extra juice to stabilize it. If that does not work then lower your
multiplier by 0.5x of its current setting and then proceed to fiddle with your
FSB as described earlier. This method of using the multiplier and the FSB will
give you way better results.
Enjoy the higher FPS in your games now.
Author: Greg Monkiewicz
e-mail: gmonkiewicz@gmail.com
Version: 0.11
Latest Version Update: April 12, 2005
---------
Contents:
---------
1. Warning
2. Intro
3. Determining the key to access your BIOS
4. Finding your FSB
5. Altering your FSB
6. Changing your multiplier
7. Credits
8. Legal
--------
Warning:
--------
I and the other people who helped compile this guide are not responsible for
anything that goes wrong.
Make sure you have an appropriate Heatsink that will be able to handle the
extra heat and make sure that you have good enough ram that can deal with the
extra speed boosts.
-------------
Introduction:
-------------
I made this guide to help other people as I was once helped by a writer in a
magazine to obtain a higher performance without buying new components for my
computer. This step is known as Overclocking. It simply involves the user to
make his processor run at a higher frequency that it was designed to run at.
------------------------------------------------
Step #1: Determining the key to access your BIOS
------------------------------------------------
Power up your rig and press the Pause/Break key which is near F12 to freeze
the POST screen. Usually in the bottom left corner of the screen it says which
key is needed to be pressed to enter the BIOS. Usually on self built computers
the BIOS key will be either Del or F2. If you have a manufactured computer
such as a Compaq, Toshiba, Dell, E-machines or HP you might be shown
a "splash" screen which displays the company's logo. Entering the BIOS is
trickier now. Sometimes it is possible to get rid of the splash screen by
simply pressing the "Esc" key and in other times you must try to press F12 or
F8 to get in.
-------------------------
Step #2: Finding your FSB
-------------------------
Once in the BIOS you are shown many categories in which you can enter. Your
FSB can be located in a variety of different places depending on your chipset.
Usually it can be found under a certain "Advanced" category.
--------------------------
Step #3: Altering your FSB
--------------------------
Now once your FSB is found, change the "Auto" default setting to "manual".
Lets say you have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ in your computer. Your FSB would be
166 MHZ which in reality is 333MHZ because it is double pumped (2x). Some
other processors such as the Intel Pentium 4 uses a quad pump (4x) so keep
this in min when upping your FSB. Initially it is wise to raise the FSB by 5
MHz which will give you the following:
CPU SPEED = FSB x Multiplier
CPU SPEED = 166 x 11
CPU SPEED =1881 MHz
CPU SPEED = 1.88 GHz
Keep in mind that all processors have different multipliers.
As you can see your new CPU SPEED is 0.05 GHz faster than your original stock
1.83 GHz processor's speed.
It is recommended to run a program such as Sisoft Sandra and do a few CPU
tests to see if it can handle the load. If it succeeds then you should be fine
to continue overclocking.
Enter your BIOS once again and continue in increments of 2-3 MHZ. After every
little notch of overclocking run Sisoft and see how your computer is doing. If
you notice that after saving your new settings your comp does not post or
Windows does not boot, that will be a good indicator that you went above your
processor's maximum.
Now lets say that your omputer would no longer boot at a 199MHZ FSB. You
should then lower your FSB by increments of one until your computer becomes
stable again after running Sisoft. To make your computer take the ultimate
test you should run CPU-Burn in for a period of around 24hrs and see if it
crashes or not.
----------------------------------
Step #4: Changing your multiplier
----------------------------------
Only certain AMD processors such as the thunderbirds allow you to do
the "pencil trick:. This hack involves you drawing/connecting two conductors
together to unlock it. Other AMD processor that have a serial number that
start like "___" (I will find out soon and get that edited in) are capable of
using a product called "Speed Strip" to unlock it's multiplier. Having an
unlocked multiplier gives you a lot more overclocking possibilities. If you
are one of those lucky people who have an unlocked processor you can do the
following:
Leave your FSB at stock settings and raise your multiplier by 0.5x until your
computer becomes unstable. Once unstable you can try adding up to 0.5 extra
Volts of extra juice to stabilize it. If that does not work then lower your
multiplier by 0.5x of its current setting and then proceed to fiddle with your
FSB as described earlier. This method of using the multiplier and the FSB will
give you way better results.
Enjoy the higher FPS in your games now.
Guide created: 03/08/06 (updated 01/05/12)
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