New to OC'ing

[mooch37]

First off, I would like to say that I've read the stickies and I know what all the componenents of my PC are so that should help.

I recently bought Crysis and so far everything looks amazing, but I've noticed that the framerate drops considerably during an explosion. It's roughly 20-25 FPS. Now, I don't think it would be my card because it's a 8800GTX and soon I'll be getting another with SLI. This is my first time overclocking and I am not going to rush through this. I realize that theres a lot of information to learn and thats why I'm taking this slow. I was wondering how hard it would be to jump it up to possibly 3GHz. What do you guys think I should shoot for? And do you guys think that would make much of a difference if I did that? I've already downloaded Prime 95 and ATI Tool, but if anyone thinks I should go with something else, please let me know. I hope all my specs help you get an idea of what I'm dealing with.

Specs:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+ 2.61GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte M59SLI-S5
Cooling: Cooler Master Liquid Cooling Kit (CPU avg. temp 35 C)
Memory: A-DATA - 2 GB DDR2 800
Hardrive: WD Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM
Video Card: EVGA Nvdia Geforece 8800 GTX
Case: Nzxt Apollo Gaming Tower Case
Sound: Creative SB X-Fi
PSU: 750 Watt -- Thermaltake Toughpower W0117RU Power Supply
OS: Windows XP Media Center Edition (Service Pack 2)

I also had a question regarding the CPU temperature. I have a digital guage on the tower and it shows two temps. One is 28C and the other is 35C. This may just be a no brainer, but I can't seem to figure it out.

Thanks

[hat]

I wouldn't even bother with SLI, or overclocking the graphics card, at least for now.
28C is CPU temp, 35C is the temp of the CPU core

You should download CPUz and see what your revision is. If it's F3, you can most likely go over 3GHz. If not, expect 2.9 to be the most you'll get out of it.

[mooch37]

Well, I downloaded it, but I don't see what your talking about. It tells me all the info about my computer but I don't see any options. It's version 1.42. If you don't mind, could you tell me what I need to do to run this test? Do I just copy and paste the info from the zip file?

[mooch37]

Ok, hang on, this might be it.

Family: F
Model: 3
Stepping 2
Revision: JH-F2

So, I'm assuming it's an F2 right?

[mooch37]

What would you suggest I OC then?

[hat]

You got the same steppin g and revision I do.

I suggest you OC the CPU, and see what you can do with the RAM...

[mooch37]

hat, please don't take this the wrong way, but I was really hoping you could elaborate a little more on how I should go about doing this. I've been in the BIOS and I've seen the menu where you change up the Mhz, but if we have the same settings like that, what did you set yours at? Or any other information you think I should need.

[theonetruewill]

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=30480
Have you read this? - Very useful

[hat]

I'll give you my main settings, but my memory is a hell of a lot slower than yours (it's ddr 533), and our motherboards are different.

CPU/RAM divider 200MHz
timings 4-4-4-12

voltages
cpu: 1.325 (yes thats undervolted, at least for me)
RAM 1.85

FSB 250
HTT link multiplier 4x
CPU multiplier 11x

and that's pretty much it...
if you've read all the guides, you should know exactly what to do...

make sure you lock your PCI bus if you have an option for it. If not, it's probably automatically locked like mine.

[mooch37]

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=30480
Have you read this? - Very useful

Yes, in fact, it was the very first one that I read. I understand most of it, but because this is my first time and the fact that several people I know have messed up their computers doing this is making very cautious about doing this. Eventually, I'd like to be able to do it without a problem, its just this first time is going to seem a little rough.

[cdawall]

here is my simplified guide ;)

MAKE SURE YOU SET YOUR BUS LOCKS
set the ram to a 533 divider (may be labeled 266mhz) timings 5-5-5-15 2T
set the HTT link to 3x (may be labeled 600mhz)
raise your chipset volts by +.1v
raise your cpu volts by +.135v
i would recommend using a 10x or 11x cpu multi
raise the cpu bus speed until either it becomes unstable or you are happy

after you have done that check what your ram speed is and if its close to 800mhz change the timings back to stock IE 533(266mhz) 4-4-4-12 still 2T though

[mooch37]

Well, we finally got it overclocked. I could not have done it without Namslas and Panchoman. They pretty much did all the work and I just followed instructions. It started out as a 2.61 and after the OC it was 2.87 on the cpu. Theres a very noticeable difference in Crysis now. I can play it without having to think about the lag. Before, I was getting roughly 30 fps without any explosions and it would drop to 20's when things did blow up. Now, I get roughly 40-50 and maybe 35 or so when an explosion occurs. It's amazing. I can't thank these two guys enough for helping me out. This was my first overclock and I know that had I done this by myself, I probably would have fried something. 3dmark06 starting marks were about 9600 and after the OC its at a 10421. Thanks a million, Namslas and Panchoman.

[ntdouglas]

:toast: