Overclocking Basics

[watto86]

DISCLAIMER: I, nor anyone else on the MaxIT forums takes any responsibility for your actions with your computer system. This is merely a guide and we are not telling anybody to overclock their computer. If you do overclock your computer, you do so at your own risk.

This is only meant as a BASIC guide to overclocking. And seen as how i've been out of the game for a while, I might not be up to scratch on some things. So if you feel i've said something incorrect or anything. Don't hesitate to tell me or blast the shit out of me.

Overclocking




Part 1: Reason
First off, we have to answer the age old question you will inevitably hear, "What is overclocking, and what does it have to do with me?"
Well i'm glad you asked. Overclocking is basically getting your computer to run faster than the manufacturer of the parts has intended it to do so.
The inevitable second question from some may be, "Running faster than its supposed to? Wont that effectively kill your PC?" The short answer for this is no, provided you take certain precautions and have particular devices in your arsenal.
Overclocking is also a useful tool to get the most out of your PC for hopefully only spending a minimal amount. Put it this way. If you have a computer that is say for example, 3ghz, and to take it to the next level you want, which may be 3.4ghz. Buying a new CPU to reach that speed could prove to be quite costly, especially for such a minimal gain. Whereas thanks to the wonders of overclocking, we can now reach this goal with little to no expenditure in comparisson to buying a new CPU (unless you just want to spend a shitload).

To make this as basic as I feel I can, i'm going to break down the entire ordeal into parts reguarding different devices and tools for overclocking. Please keep in mind that I know many of you probably already know how to overclock, and that this guide is more of a beginners guide to.

Part 2: The Tools:

a) BIOS:
This is arguably the most important tool in the overclockers arsenal. It makes all your warranty voiding goals possible. BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. It controls all the elements for overclocking, the Front Side Bus (FSB) or HTT (Hyper Transport Technology on A64s), RAM Bandwidth And Latency, and so on and so forth. A better definition of the BIOS can be found here.


b) CPU
CPU, or "Central Processing Unit" is basically the brain of the computer, its where all the calculations take place. Effectively, this is what gets worked the hardest with your standard overclock. This is why there are more CPU cooling options than for any other component. You can find a better definition here.
The CPU is measured generally in Gigaherz (ghz), which means trillions of cycles per second, but more accurately measured in Megahurz (mhz), which is millions of cylces per second. Basically, overclocking is in attempt to get your CPU mhz/ghz higher so that it can run faster.


c) FSB (Front Side Bus)/HTT (Hyper Transport Technology For A64s)
Basically the FSB/HTT determines the speed of the computer, and refers to the way that data is sent between the CPU and the rest of the computer. The FSB is also known as the System Bus.
Getting the FSB/HTT to run faster will result in your CPU working at a higher frequency/speed.


d) Video Card
Back in the old days, we used to simply use old PCI video cards and 3DFX cards, then moved over to the Accellerated Graphics Port (AGP), but in more recent times, things have since moved over to PCI-E (Express) and SLI (Symmetric Link Interface).
There are a couple of ways to overclock your video card and increase its overall performance. From personal experience and research, i've found that the safest and most commonly accepted method for performance increase is through video card software.
Some of the more common apps for ATI cards are ATI Tool and Rage 3D. The most common and widely agreed effective app for NVidia cards is Coolbits.
Any other questions or tips on Video Card performance can be found here in Ket's guide to ATI and NVidia overclocking.


e) RAM (Random Access Memory)
Another Essential part when overclocking. RAM deals with the workload on your computer. Sorry for the crap explanation there. But you can find out more here.
When it comes to overclocking RAM, you want to keep the bandwidth (the speed it is operating at) as close to your FSB speed as is possible. Keep in mind that normal DDR RAM only uses a multiplier of 2x, while your CPU will use something much higher. This is why ratios are used when it comes to RAM, though you will probably more commonly hear/read of them being refered to as "dividers".
Latency is also important too. The term latency refers to how much time is spent doing nothing. Hence it being "latent". The objective here is to keep the latency to a minimum, while keeping high bandwidth, and therein lies the problem. Your BIOS should tell you the timings/latency of your RAM, and if it doesn't. You can use a 3rd party app like CPUZ to find out anyway.


f) Voltage/Power/VCore
This refers to the amount of volts running to the computer. Basically, the more volts/power you can get running to the computer, the higher you can push the speed of the FSB. The same principle applies with RAM, but is more dangerous. And be warned, the higher you send the VCore, the higher your temperatures are going to be (which we'll cover next), and coupled with the speed increase on top of the voltage increase, if you're not careful, the temperature could increase at an exponential rate.
Hint: Don't bring your volts too high. Go as low as you can to keep your overclock stable. Picking a good PSU (Power Supply Unit) is a good way to ensure stable overclocking. A decent PSU should be at least 500w, and have at least 30-40Amps (A) on the +12V Rail/s (most PSU manufacturers will have these details in voltage tables for each PSU on their website).

g) Managing Temperatures and Cooling
Managing Temperatures
This is always good policy. Even if you aren't overclocking. Just so you know how your computer is doing temperature wise. Some people will tell you to stay below about 60 degrees celcius (60C). But in reality this is more of a cutoff point. In other words, if things get toward/past this point, you're in deep shit. Ideally, if you can keep things as low as possible, then you shouldn't come into contact with any real problems. There are a few ways of finding out the temperature of your CPU and other components. One method is simply by using the sensors that many BIOS' come with built into them, another is to use software that may come packaged with your motherboard. Or you could download a configurable program such as Motherboard Monitor. There are many out there, if you search enough you're bound to find many others.

Cooling
This is also an extremely integral part of getting your PC into peak condition, without it, your PC, more specifically your CPU, is likely to overheat.
In short, PC cooling is basically getting various components of your PC to run at lower temperatures (overclocking or not, nobody will stop you). Be it your CPU, your Northbridge (where applicable), your RAM (yes, there are options), your Video Card, be it its GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) or VRAM. There really are countless products and several methods of getting the lowest and safest temperatures possible. Which we will now explore.

Air (Passive)
In many cases, simply there for show, other times because users want a quieter option. Passive air cooling is using large heat sinks with no fans or anything of the sort to try to remove as much heat as possible. This has more effect on objects like RAM and VRAM than CPU and GPU cooling.
To the best of my knowledge. Pretty much all heatsinks are made of either aluminium or copper and these days its not uncommon to find heatpipes incorporated into them.

"Regular" Air Cooling
Refers to a combination of a heatsink and fan. Fans come in a few different sizes, most common diameters are 80mm, 90/92mm and 120mm. Larger fans tend to move the same amount of air, which is usually measured in CFM (Cubic Feet Per Minute), at lower RPM, sometimes even more, and more commonly move more air at higher RPMs than their smaller counterparts.

[watto86]

Water Cooling
Is as the name suggests, using water to cool your hardware. Many different bits are available for different components. The 3 things which water cooling is aimed at are your CPU, your GPU and your Northbridge.
Water cooling kits consist more commonly of a resevoir, which contains the bulk of the water, a pump, to move the water throughout your system, CPU/GPU or NB waterblocks for the water to travel through to evaporate heat from said components, capiliary tubing, for the water to travel through and last but not least, a radiator to get rid of as much of the heat as quickly as possible. Basically, the flow starts when the pump takes water from the resevoir, through capillary tubing to the water blocks you have installed (its entirely customisable, which means you can add other cooling solutions to bits you didn't use water on), then from there the water evaporates heat from the components, then pumps it to the radiator which cools the water for the next cycle round and repeats. I have heard of people installing radiators either side of the cycle (both before and after the water reaches the components), but considering how much a second radiator can cost and the minimal gains some people have had, it comes down to how much disposable income you might have at the time.
Water cooling kits can be bought in separate pieces, or in pre-made kits. From opinions of others i've talked to who use WC, you're better off shelling out the bit extra and getting your own custom kit, rather than pre built, as apparently its not much better than good air cooling.

Vapour Phase Change
Phase Change is effectively bolting a fridge/freezer or AC unit to your computers CPU. It uses the same elements: A condenser, a compressor, and evaporator and capillary tubing (with particular insulation). This is the most "extreme" method of cooling, as it lowers your temperatures lower than the other previously mentioned methods, and can result in a higher overclock if you know what you're doing.
Phase change kits predominantly are sold as a pre-built cooling solution, be it in the form of a Vapochill or Mach2, etc. Or if you have the money and know how, you can create your own phase change kit.

OK. That gets the basic elements out of the way. Now we can move on.


Part 3: The Method
Okay. This is where all that reading starts to pay off and you get to tweak your system.
And now that you have a basic understanding of the parts and what they do, it will make this section much shorter than part 2.

a) Increasing your CPU frequency/speed
OK. Heres where we give your computer more base speed by getting the CPU and FSB to speed up.
To do this, reboot your computer and when your computer is starting up, press the appropriate button/key to enter your BIOS settings (f1, delete, whatever it may be).
In the BIOS? Good. Now that you're here, there should be a menu saying "BIOS Features" or "BIOS Features Setup" or something to that effect. From here you should see an option saying something along the lines of "FSB/HTT frequency." The speed for this may vary depending on your motherboard and your CPUs rated FSB (800mhz, 1066mhz, 1333mhz, etc), then your CPU multiplier does the rest. Your CPU multiplier cannot be changed on most CPUs, if you can, it will normally only be to work it backward. So say for example if your CPU has a multiplier of 15, it can only go 14, 13, 12, etc.

Your Systems speed/CPU Frequency is determined by two things. Your FSB frequency, multiplied by your CPU multiplier. So if you have a Core 2 Duo e6600 at 2.4ghz at stock speed, it has the FSB of 266mhz, and the CPU multiplier of 9. So in other words:
266x9=2400mhz
When in the FSB settings in the BIOS, simply raise the frequency of the FSB/HTT using the corresponding keys for your BIOS.
When you have worked out a decent Overclock, save the settings and reboot your computer. If your computer wont load your operating system, or barely works, it means you don't have a stable overclock. Now don't panic, like I explained in sections 1b, c and f, increasing the VCore of your system. Simply up the voltage in small increments by finding it in the BIOS features as well, but remember to be careful not to go too far and overheat the PC. This is also why I explored the different cooling solutions with you all. If you have adequate cooling, this isn't an issue really. Anyway, once you have reached a speed which you deem a good overclock (be it your first attempt or not), that runs stable and with decent temperatures. You've made a good start.
Now that you have a decent FSB frequency, we can move onto your RAM divider/CPU Ratio which I discussed in section 2e. It is a simple bit of mathematics, but is essential to getting more out of your PC. Its basically the speed of your FSB, in comparisson to the speed of your RAM frequency.
So say for example you have a stock FSB frequency of 266mhz, and a stock RAM frequency of 266mhz (which your BIOS may rate/tell you is running at DDR2 533mhz), thats a ratio of 1:1. This is the ideal ratio to have, but if you push your FSB higher than your RAM can go, keeping the ratio as tight as possible is a must. So say for example you get your FSB speed to 550mhz, your next goal would be to get your RAM frequency as close to that number as possible. So 550:500 would be 1:1, but if you can only get it to 500, that would be 550:500 = 1.1:1 (hope I did that maths right). At any rate. Golden rule is to keep the RAM speed as close to your FSB speed as you can and trying to keep those timings/latency down where possible (also in BIOS features/settings).

As for overclocking your video card. I don't think going into detail on that is necessary here, as Ket tackled it in the link I gave in section 2.

And when its all said and done, I cannot stress enough that you make sure you do everything carefully in small incrememnts and with adequate cooling methods. The last thing you want is for your pride and joy to go up in smoke.

In summation, i'd like to say this. Read anything on overclocking and hardware that you deem necessary, particularly cooling and power, as these will lower your temps and keep a stable OC.

Good luck to everybody.
Watto

[Ket]

Nice beginners guide, stickied 8) As for me tackling mainboard Vmods, I will get round to it eventually, having nice pretty pictures for the boards out there than could do with the extra volts, like the Asus A8N SLI Deluxe for example

[decoc]

nice guide mate, brings a tear to my eye, reminds me of the good old days when my athlon xp 2500 ran at 2.6ghz and my 5800ultra ran flat out screaming away at 1.3ghz ram and 600mhz core

gr8 stuff

decoc

[watto86]

Originally Posted by decoc

nice guide mate, brings a tear to my eye, reminds me of the good old days when my athlon xp 2500 ran at 2.6ghz and my 5800ultra ran flat out screaming away at 1.3ghz ram and 600mhz core

gr8 stuff

decoc

Thank you. Good to see some of my work appreciated. *tips hat*