PlaneShift
Fan Area => The Hydlaa Plaza => Topic started by: SneakyBob on December 23, 2004, 06:17:35 am
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I heard that there was a program out there somewhere that allowed you to overclock your cpu without having to mess with the insides of your computer.
Sorry this might be a little off topic but hey there seems to be alot of very smart people around here. ;)
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http://pcpitstop.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=32428 try that for starters.
However if you dont have a custom built PC, and you\'ve never done it before.. its a bit risky. You can do it via the BIOS, but on some brand computers its disabled. Far better to figure out how to get the maximum from your current setting by tweaking the computers settings rather than over clocking, IMO. Alot safer too.
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kk thanks
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Also If I do go above the limit, and my computer crashes is that it? Will it just stop working?? ?(
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lol Woot im a cool newbie :]
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\"Also If I do go above the limit, and my computer crashes is that it? Will it just stop working??\"
you have to reboot CMOS or something......... **looks at what he just wrote** thats probablly not right. I cant exactly remember, it says it somewhere on that page i showed you. But of course this is why its better to just tweak it rather then overclock it, because tweaking is software changes, so at worst you can just use a system restore, but overclocking is hardware changes, so if it stuffs up you can cause pernament damage.
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ok
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Can somone actually tell me...what overclocking is? I have heard of it but i dont know what it does or what it refers too? ?( My friends say they did it to thier computer but i dont understand
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Overclocking is when you make the CPU of your computer run faster then its meant to. CPU\'s run at a certain number of cycle\'s per second. The faster they run, the more energy is consumed and so the hotter it gets. The CPU is usually programmed to run at a safe speed, so theres no chance of it overheating. You can use the BIOS to change the number of cycles it runs at, but you have to make sure that it dosnt overheat in the process. Im not an expert at it, thats just a rough overview of it.
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overclocking doesn\'t just effect the CPU though. to overclock a CPU you have to alter multiplies and/or voltage levels. this effects both the front side bus (FSB) and memory speeds. it all depends on the CPU, motherboard and RAM you have in the machine whether or not overclocking is successful. by altering the settings sometimes data transfer around the motherboard and in the memory can not synchronise and you get crashes. if ANY of the hardware in your system is a cheap brand then i wouldn\'t risk overclocking at all, most cheap brands tend to be already running at their limits already whereas the better known brands tend to make allowances for room to overclock.
graphics cards can also be overclocked by altering the memory speed and voltages on the card. there are software driver tweaks which allow you to do this, some even have an automatic setting where it tests various settings to find an optimal overclock setting for your grpahics card. this is a great feature as you can get a fairly sizeable performance boost from your graphics card and IF anythign goes wrong and the card dies then its much cheaper to replace than a whole new CPU/motherboard/RAM (a badly overclocked CPU can fry all three, basically your whole system).
Intel CPUs have always had much much better thermal protection built in to shut down or slow down the CPU within microseconds of them starting to overheat and thus saving the CPU from frying. Earlier Athlon and previous AMD CPUs only had 1 second reaction times with their thermal protection and that is far too slow to protect the CPU. When a CPU overheats it can reach temperatures of well over 300^C and the motherboard can actually cathc fire (I\'ve seen video footage of this happening in a test lab where they were stress/load testing Intel/AMD chipsets).
Also a small percentage speed increase can generate an exponential amount of heat, so you MUST have good ventilation for your system, not have the machine in a hot room, and most of the time the heatsink & fan that your CPU was supplied with won\'t be enough to cope with overclocking much and you\'ll need something better.
As the other posters said though, if you don\'t know what it is don\'t touch overclocking at all, you can easily lose your hardware and if the machine catches on fire when you\'re not around well...
Instead first look for graphics card tweakers that will overclock your graphics card as that is a relatively safer alternative and since better games performance is what most overclockers are after its the best place to start. Plus software overclocking is a lot easier to fix.
When you are overclocking you should have something like 3DMark installed and maybe some VERY VERY graphics intensive games installed too (Morrowind I have found to be best for this, better than Far Cry at least). Once you overclock run 3DMark and your most graphics intensive games (put them on their highest quality settings) and WATCH THE SCREEN CLOSELY...look for little flickers or bad pixels in the display or other graphics glitches as these manifest first when the graphics card memory is working beyond its stable limit. Then adjust the overlocking settings back down a bit and repeat the process until the display in these games is always perfect...it is a tedious and time consuming process and you must watch the screen carefully the whole time but its the best way to make sure you do\'t fry your graphics card. Always when overclocking start with the smallest setting increase and work upwards, testing thoroughly at each stage and rebooting the machine to make sure the system is stable.
Overclocking can be good when you know what you\'re doing but when you don\'t its easy to get it wrong and often once its gone wrong you kill hardware and the only way to fix it is to replace it. Optimising your system is best with tweaking software, then maybe overclocking your graphics card a bit with software/driver tweaks...don\'t touch CPU overclocking unless you really know what your doing and your hardware is well ventilated in a cool environment (jsut having lots of fans doesn\'t mean its well ventilated either...read up on fluid dynamics and you\'ll see its very easy to create short circuits in the ventilation that lead to hot spots inside your case).
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Could a mod please move this to Hydalla Plaza? I don
\'t think it really suits here.
Programs that alter the clockspeed from within the os will only work with certain cpus, chipsets and mobos. Mostly you will have to at least change bios settings and may also need to change physical settings on the motherboard/cpu daughter board.
Note that this often causes unstable systems and data loss, not to mention hardware damage and overheating. Don\'t do this to a work pc, or one still under waranty (if they exist in your house ::))
Most intels are clocklocked so need more work to overclock, but I don\'t think that the majority of AMD processors need this work.
Voltage levels may be altered, which can improve stability, but this will lead to heat problems and cpu damage.
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I overclocked mine hrough the BIOS and my comp runs fine. I have 4 fans though...
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good for you. if 4 fans is what you think is important then when your motherboard is a charred mess i\'m sure they\'ll comfort you. if you really know what your on about you\'d understand that the number of fans is irrelevant. hope you\'ve got good filtering, the coating of dust a lot of fans draws into a machine makes a great insulating layer for components. doesn\'t bother me, i\'ve supplied stable overclocked systems for years, its people who havent a clue that ensure i have a market :)
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Originally posted by pelmen
good for you. if 4 fans is what you think is important then when your motherboard is a charred mess i\'m sure they\'ll comfort you. if you really know what your on about you\'d understand that the number of fans is irrelevant. hope you\'ve got good filtering, the coating of dust a lot of fans draws into a machine makes a great insulating layer for components. doesn\'t bother me, i\'ve supplied stable overclocked systems for years, its people who havent a clue that ensure i have a market :)
ouch, that was harsh. Well i know hardly anything about overclocking, but something i notice is that if you have a laptop, they have the fan underneath it... and its like wtf? why the hell would they put it there so it has the least amount of airflow? Silly people. If i use my laptop to play games, or something that uses alot of processing power i always elevate the back and just have an ordinary fan blowing on it..... it looks and sounds stupid, but i swear to god it makes my computer run at least twice as fast.
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Originally posted by pelmen
good for you. if 4 fans is what you think is important then when your motherboard is a charred mess i\'m sure they\'ll comfort you. if you really know what your on about you\'d understand that the number of fans is irrelevant. hope you\'ve got good filtering, the coating of dust a lot of fans draws into a machine makes a great insulating layer for components. doesn\'t bother me, i\'ve supplied stable overclocked systems for years, its people who havent a clue that ensure i have a market :)
Fans are one of the most important things when overclocking... It\'s what keeps the system cool you know ;) I\'d like to see you try a overclock without having any fans at all, then watch your mobo turn into a charred mess.... The most important thing is the efficiency of your heatsinks, if they can\'t remove the heat then the fans can\'t do their job. You need both to overclock, it\'s very dumb to say that fans arn\'t important at all.
I myself use liquid cooling, it keeps the system around 30C, it totally quiet, and make your case look cool :) I have 4 fans to keep the air moving around my case. I also keep heatsinks on my RAM and I have pipe cooling on the HDD\'s and Graphics card. Seems to do the job nicely.
Edit: I know a guy who live in alaska. He has a pipe going from his PC to the outside. The air keeps his PC at about 3C, his watercooling actually froze the other day :)
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Hmm been running the same overclocked system for 2 years with only 4 fans and no problems. Guess I won\'t be the one keeping you in business. It is just a matter of correct placement of your fans, cables and case in general. Make sure you have good air flow in and out. Clean up your cables so they don\'t block airflow, and make sure you aren\'t shoving your case somewhere where you can\'t get good airflow to it. I have seen so many people mess up systems cause they shove them under a desk and stack stuff all around it.
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Hmmm these days fans are not Important
This is the NEW world We look to Dry ice here !
Atleast ATI does.. those silly people when will they learn.
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To cool my system I\'d go with peltiers and water (preferably with plenty of additives). Fans make too much noise. You might not need the peltiers, but then you\'d certainly need a pump. With a small peltier you can even freeze the water in the air around the cpu - put silicone between the mobo and the pins to stop ice from causing shorts.