Overclocking advise

[ocnewb]

Ok so ive read the "how to" and a few different reviews.
However I still have a few questions

To begin im going to admit I am fairly new to the overclocking scene.
Knowing this, im doing this project on my older PC.
Here are the specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Mem: 1G DDR 400 2.5 3 3 6 timing, i havent touched this
Mobo: MSI KT4V
Vid: XFX 6600GT
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Volcano

As it would appear my mobo will not allow me to alter my Vcore or my multiplier. They are set at "auto" if i change it to anything otehr than auto the machine will not boot up. I can however alter the FSB. By default the "Auto" multiplier is 15 and the default FSB is 133. I currently have my FSB up to 150. as seen below

I started at 133 and incresed my FSB by 4 or 5 each time. I would then run 3DMrak2001SE and see if anything went to hell

So far so good, the thing that concerns me is my temp hasnt changed much at all. At the start it was about 45c, with the new settings its as seen below.

My question are as follows

What programs should i use inbetween FSB increase to check for stability and for how long? Also do they record max temp under load?

Secondly, does any1 know of a way i can fix/change it so i can adjust my multipliers manualy? Should i try a newer bios?

any help is much appreciated, thanks

 

[ocnewb]

Any one got any advise?

 

[harmonica]

memtest and prime95

 

[earnhardt2]

My advice to you is this: do not make big changes at once or make more than one change at once. Be patient and test your system for stability after each small increase. That should help to minimize the risk of hardware damage to your system.

 

[ocnewb]

How long should i run those programs? I assume for Prime your running "Torture Test" on "Blend" mode?

 

[oshox]

I use Prime95 a great deal for stress testing, it is a wonderful freeware program. All of the tests do about the same thing, but it seems to me that the "Large FFT" setting would make the most sense for you. It is supposed to generate the most heat and power consumption. Prime95 will run indefinately, and tests in 15 minute intervals. I usually test four an hour at a time. If a computer is going to overheat, it will usually do it in that time. To be sure, though, let it run overnight.

 

[ocnewb]

does it tell you the max temp your pc hits during this time? If so where can i find it?

 

[thatguy32]

For temps try googling MBM (motherboard monitor), I think version 5 is free. Your temps shouldn't go up much though if you aren't adding more vcore. Make small changes like they said and run prime 95 for about an hour, if any instability occurs it will happen within this time. After finding your max, then run prime overnight to be sure. If you can't get any more overclocking out of it, the next thing I would try is to tightening your ram settings.

 

[ocnewb]

Awesome thanks for the tips.

I have however ran into a snag. After getting my FSB up to about 150 I decided to tweak my vid card a bit. I just clicked "Detect Optimal Settings" in the overclock tab of my 6600GT. I ran 3DMark2001SE and it crashed on about the 10th test(all the wavey flame like designs). So i set it back to origianl settings. And it still crashes on that same test. So i reset my FSB to 133. And still it crashed on that same test. The pc runs fine, games are perfectly fine as well. However it wont get passed that test. Any tips? Should i ignore it? My GPU temps are about 52c at with stock cooling. How high can/should that go?

 

[illinikevin]

Did you try backing off the video card setting a little bit? When I OC I only change one setting at a time and then run a benchmark so if it fails I know what caused it. If 3dmark ran fine with 150FSB and stock video settings lowering the FSB will not help the overclocked video card. Just kick the mem and gpu frequencies back 10 mhz and rerun the test. Once it passes start adjusting them back up 1 or 2 mhz at a time and test again. Eventualy you will hit it's limit. 52c is a fine temp for the GPU. I never had a problem overclocking on stock NVidia coolers, I usualy replaced them due to noise issues.

 

[ocnewb]

I set the card back to factory settings and its still kicking out on that test. However the machine is running fine.