Newbie - Starting from scratch

[Guest]

Hello everyone. I'm extremely new to Tom's but thought I would jump right in. I'm also new to the overclocking world, having never overclocked anything except maybe my first car. I've been trying to follow everyones post's and see if I can learn anything, but there is so much when you are so new. I thought maybe I would start by posting my system and get everyones opinion. This is the first system that I have actually built myself, and the more I learn here the more I wish I had waited until I knew more.

Soyo SY-6BA+100
P3 600 100FSB w/ 512 cache
128MB PC100 SDRAM (64MB name brand, 64MB junked from old pc)
Voodoo 3 2000 PCI

After doing some reading online, I know I went overkill on the motherboard - simply by the fact that it supports up to 8 IDE devices (I thought it was wierd when, after the bios loaded, I got this screen that allows me to configure RAID). But it works so I'm ok with it.

My question is where to start? I've been looking at fans - should I buy a big fan for my case? Right now I've got the standard 2 fan, heat sink setup on my CPU - should I buy a Golden Orb, or an SECC2II? After almost burning my fingertips off after I touched my Voodoo, I'm thinking I should try to cool it. Is a Card Cooler the way to go?

I'm really interested in getting into my system and squeezing it - I just have no idea where to start.

Thanks for even taking the time to read my post 🙂

Jim

 

[lhgpoobaa]

motherboard is good.
processor, ok. the FSB can be tweaked sufficiently.
the ram... i doubt it. if u want to overclock, particularly the FSB (100 in your case) u need high quality ram, i reccomend PC133 or PC150 at CAS2 if your truly serious. look around and see which brands people reccomend.
the good stick of yours may overclock a little, but the second salvaged stick is highly dubious at anything over 100Mhz
once you have decent ram u can begin increasing the FSB. not too sure of the multiplier for those pIII's.

hope that helps

ThePoo!

 

[Guest]

This doesn't even come close to answering all your questions, but I just saw a very basic overclocking guide at:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/intel_overclocking/index.shtml

FYI, since your Pentium has 512K of L2 cache, I "assume" you have one of the older, non-Coppermine chips, i.e. your cache is not directly built into the cpu but is "off-die." You need to know this if you plan on messing with your heat sink, which I would not do until you find out more.

I'd start by floating around and reading a few more guides on some of the overclocking sites like this one and, to name a very few:

www.anandtech.com
www.overclockers.com
www.sharkeyextreme.com
www.firingsquad.com

I wouldn't try to get too "exotic" at first. If your PC is up and working okay, concentrate on one thing at a time until it's finished (or you decide to give up). If you start multasking and screw something up (I'm speaking from experience), it will be hell to try and figure out what you did wrong.

Mike

 

[Guest]

I did kinda suspect that I would have to go with better RAM. I think I'll get a couple good 128 sticks.

Thanks for links, I'm going to check them out today and see what info I can find. I just downloaded some temp monitoring software and it put my cpu at 150F. Seems like I am going to have to get that down before I start trying to overclock anything...

 

[Guest]

there really isnt a ton that you can do to your system. I have a P2 350 that is old and I got it up to 400 max by changing the FSB. Then since the CLock multiplier is locked I cant do any more. I have recently decided to go with a new motherboard and new Processor. I know the AMD's are cheap. Im getting a new MB (Abit KA7-100) and Processor (athlon 950) for $544. Then I will concentrate on overclocking. If you have the money and are really gona get into overclocking buy an AMD compatible motherboard. They are much cheaper to upgrade and soooo much easier to overclock.

The SDRAM is compatible even though it is only 100MHz. So you might want to think about going with a new upgrade. I believe that you could use your current case. I hope that you have a good time in the overclocking world!

-Matt-

 

[Brent]

The 950 Tbird and A7Z raid combo is selling curently below the $400(USD) mark. probably just a hair over 400 with shipping. I know your talking about the older slotA Athalons, but why pay more for less.

 

[Brent]

Ops I ment kt7 raid DOH!
To many different MB's make my head spin 8)