Well I hope I dont get yelled at because Im not sure whats ok as far as to posting in this forum... Anyways Ive been looking around for quite some time and Ive searched and searched for overclocking guides. I have an abit nf-7 motherboard and I set it to run overclocked settings but is there anything else I can do? Is there anything I can do with the os to overclock? I probably sound like a complete noob but thats what I am when it comes to overclocking. Ive read all of the guides on this site and I just didnt pick up any of it. If I offended anyone with my ignorance please tell me, Ill be sure not to post in here again.

heh nonsense you'll do fine here, and we have a wide array of OC'ers and such, and no its not a "dumb" question, you are just starting off i take it, so don't be afraid to stick ur arse out!! and welcome!

you'll find everything you need here, and then some!

hmm you should check back tomorrow and see the results that you get from one post like this! we here at PR try to help in anyways we can!

Thats cool. I just know that some people take their forums quite seriously and I didnt want to offend anyone. Its good to know that people are actually willing to induct newbies and take them in instead of kick dirt on them.

Give us the specs on what processor and memory you are using and we can tell you what to manually set it at. By the way what kind of heat sink do you have? (if you got the money go for a vapochill hehe)

Its on my profile but I have an amd 2700+ abit nf-7 motherboard and 256 geil ddr (which Im soon to get another one). Standard heat sink, but Im going overkill with the fans.

I want to know if its this before I start throwing numbers at you.
Model: AMD Athlon XP 2700+
Core: Thoroughbred
Operating Frequency: 2.17GHz
FSB: 333MHz
Cache: L1/64K+64K; L2/256K
Voltage: 1.65V

I didnt know what kind of 2700 you had. Is it a barton?

AMD Athlon XP 2.16ghz Not sure what a barton is (my noob is showing). not sure the FSB or the cache or the voltage...

I would first turn off the auto overclocking features of your motherboard and if youÂ’re using a OS overclocking program to turn that off too. Start by increasing the multiplier a little. If it boots then you did the right thing. Only go a little bit at a time and be sure to check what temperature your processor is running at. You can also increase the fsb but do that gingerly. Stop when you start having blue screens and shut downs; and my safety temperature for athlons is not to go over 40.C.

Well Im not sure what or where the multiplier is. Second, I cant/dont know how to check the temp. of my cpu while my computer is on and running xp, third, I dont know how/where to increase the fsb speed. Once again Im completely new to this so Im in the dark. Would these settings be in cmos?

Soft Menu

Ok for you we will use the software for overclocking.

Look in your userÂ’s manual to see how to install your Soft Menu Software. My bet is that it is on your driver cd that came with your motherboard (utilities on the cd)

Ok. With my computer running fully overclocked and whatnot, will it shorten the life span by a large margin?

Well if you just over clock it to 200mgz it probably wonÂ’t shorten it to much. If itÂ’s running above 50c then you are shortening its life span. I would invest in an aftermarket heat sink if you plan on going further than 200mghz.

Ok thanks for the patience. I picked up alot in just 20 minutes. I read the manual and it clearly showed me everything you were talking about. Im going to look into this more and just basically feel things out. Im not going to go crazy with everything because I dont want to buy another cpu or motherboard. Im still probably gonna need a hand doing things right. I have no idea what is safe and what isnt. Could you tell me some somewhat "fail safe" overclocking settings, like settings that are subtle but would increase performance?

ARGH YOU DAMN NOOBS RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE.

Ok now that I got that out of my system....the overclocker's best friend is the BIOS. That's where "the magic happens". You get into BIOS by holding the delete key while it's booting up. You find all the options you need to overclock in there. Before we get into it heavily I'd recommend you at least read the overclocking 101 links on here:
http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread....&threadid=8968

to at least familiarize yourself with the terminology. Then go into the BIOS and just surf around (don't change anything yet) to associate things you read with what your motherboard has. After that it should be easier for you to understand what we're trying to say, you know?

You should be able to check your CPU temps through BIOS and with installed software that should have come with your mobo.

The CPU will be obsolete long before it's lifespan comes to an end.

You can try the link found here for overclocking as well. There is both a newbie version and an advanced version to be found there.

http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread.php?t=23526

I recommended the OS version because he didn't know where some of the stuff was in the bios. I was also afraid to ask what type of Bios he had. (Example Phoenix)

Quote: Originally Posted by post_break Could you tell me some somewhat "fail safe" overclocking settings, like settings that are subtle but would increase performance?

If you go into the BIOS as Anon has suggested, you can *usually* select "Fail Safe" and/or "Optimized Settings" for your motherboard. To get a feel for the difference in performance, set it up on one, taking note of the settings within the BIOS for that one, then boot into your OS, and see how it runs. After awhile, reboot and go back into BIOS and pick the other one, check the settings, then boot into OS, and see how it runs now. Granted, you won't usually see a "Day-and-Night" difference between the two, but it should help you get a better fell for how the BIOS settings impact the overclock.

Oh, yeah, and welcome to PR, if you're not already sick of hearing that!

Here is another good link to look at after you finish the other 2 =]

Well I am using the "turbo" setting in the bios and I did see a difference in performance when running games compared to the normal settings. I havent payed too much attention to what bios I have but Im pretty sure it is Phoenix (oddly enough thats what my xbox has now). I see all of the settings like fsb speed and multiplier, I just havent learned what they are yet. Id rather know what they do first before I mess with them. I am currently looking into what they are and what they do.

bios version v6.00VG