Overclocking- The basics

[Dippyskoodlez]

Introduction

A lot of people see overclocking as an intimidating hobby, that should only be attempted by the extreme or rich. Overclocking, when done moderately, or extremely, CAN be safe, by no means ever fool proof and 100% safe, as running anything beyond what you’re paying for is a risk, when handled with care you can achieve anything from a minor boost in performance to a great overclock, surpassing other models of the same part in speed. If attempting overclocking without basic knowledge of how it works, or what you are doing, and what to do if X happens, you can cause yourself many headaches, and possibly damage your hardware. There are many “rules of thumb” people use, and as hardware is constantly evolving, more are being made and new ways of doing things are constantly being discovered.

Originally Posted by OnePageBook/Hell-Fire

Overclocking is a science, as it were. It takes skill, knowledge, and patience.
Too many people expect to much without putting in any effort on the learning side of the culture. If you are one of these, you are NOT eligible to be an overclocker

Ethics

*Damaged hardware due to overclocking should NOT be RMA’d. It is illegal, and unethical.* If anything, at least mention that you overclocked it. They might RMA it for you anyways...

Occasionally you’ll run across a forum member, or even a forum that condones this illegal and very bad practice. Overclocking voids any and all warranties provided by the manufacturer. Some manufacturers don’t mind certain overclocking, and many are now beginning to sell and warranty parts for a higher voltage, or pre-overclocked “stock” speeds. Some companies to look for items like this are OCZ, BFG, Abit, and Gainward.

In many ways, overclocking itself, is undetectable by companies- but that does not mean RMA if it dies! RMA'ing stuff you kill causes manufacturers to charge more for stuff. That’s not cool.

How do I start?

Now we can get to the good stuff! When it comes to overclocking, there are many ways of going about getting the most out of your system. Most importantly, you must cover the basics of what will be changing while overclocking- Power usage, and heat output. After that, you can begin tweaking your system for every last MHz it has inside of it! If you aren't familiar with computers, you will first want to get familiar with the "jargon" used in this article. If you've been around a while, you can probably skip this section by clicking HERE

This article is written from the view that you can think for yourself- I cannot, and will not provide every little step to overclocking, because overclocking is not always step by step. One of the many uses of overclocking is learning. Trial and error will usually not kill any components, especially as manufacturers continue to engineer more and more idiot proof components(or, at least attempt to). The second and third basic uses of overclocking are the obvious performance advantages, and the learning of how to troubleshoot, and become more familiar with how the hardware behaves.

Jargon

• FSB - Probably one of the most important, and common acronyms used today in overclocking. It stands for Front Side Bus. The FSB is the link from CPU core to memory controller, and it is usually in MHz.
• CPU - Central Processing Unit. A vital component that counts really, really fast.
• PSU - Power Supply Unit. The big grey box that provides juice(power) to all of the components in a system.
• HDD - Hard disk drive. Stores information (windows).
• P4 - Pentium 4
• P4 connector - 4 Pin connector in the ATX spec created by intel as an auxiliary power source for the CPU.
• HTT - Hypertransport tunnel- Used in place of the FSB for A64's(Almost).
• LDT - HTT multiplier. Modify this to keep the HTT in spec.
• Multi - Multiplier
• Vdimm - Dimm(ram) voltage
• VDD - Chipset voltage
• Vgpu - GPU voltage
• VDDQ - GPU Memory BUS voltage.
• VTT - Vdimm tracking voltage
• Vcore - CPU Voltage
• DMM - Digital Multimeter
• LN2 - Liquid nitrogen

Power Supplies

Overclocking every and any component will effect the power draw to some extent. Running a CPU at 2ghz and 3ghz will have a major impact on the power supply, and you will need to make sure your PSU meets several important requirements.

1. A good brand/quality PSU- Quality over quantity. A 350W Antec Smart power can smoke any generic 500-600w PSUs no contest.
   
2. Capable wattage- too little juice, even in the best of brands PSUs can choke a system and limit your overclock.
   
3. The proper power connectors!! This must be stressed, because recently motherboards have started using 24 pin ATX connectors, rather than 20 pin, and different style p4 connectors. Double, even triple check!

Different systems have very different power requirements- so its best to aim higher than what you will actually be using. Recommended PSU's vary, depending on a system, so the choice ultimately is yours. Since overkill doesn't hurt here- get a nice beefy PSU if you plan on overclocking. Even when not overclocking, a good PSU is required for stable day-to-day usage. PSU requirements have changed greatly recently, and will continue to change with hardware, so the day after an article is written, it becomes outdated. The best resources for PSU advice are Forums. A personal resource I use is "The PSU thread" over at XS. Commonly trusted brands include (in no specific order):

• Pc Power & Cooling (Currently, prettymuch THE top PSU manf. aside from servers, but those don't count...)
• FSP(fortron source)
• Sparkle
• Antec
• OCZ
• PC Power and Cooling
• Zippy/Emacs
• Enermax
• Zalman
• Tagan
• Seasonic
• Mushkin

Cooling

Cooling is definitely one of the most vital components of a good overclock. As power draw increases, to put it bluntly, stuff gets HOT! Fail to keep the components within the operating ranges, will result in either damage, or death of that component very quickly, especially at high voltages. As a general rule, I take the manufacturers specified thermal ceiling, and for every increase in voltage, lower the ceiling. I've concluded this by simply observing a few basic facts:

1. Mobile Athlon XP's are rated 100C maximum
2. Desktop Athlon XP's are rated 80C maximum
3. Mobile and desktop Athlon XP's are as far as we know, Identical, just speed binned for better speeds.

While I have no proof of this rule of thumb, I have yet to result in a dead CPU or GPU because of heat and/or voltage.

Increasing the speed increases heat output, but when you increase the voltage, it amplifies the heat output by much more.

A rough example of how increasing the voltage will effect the heat output/power usage on an Athlon XP. As you can see, MHz itself doesn't have as much of an impact on power consumption, although, large jumps will increase the angle of the line by a significant amount.

Types of cooling

1. None - Not a good option for almost anything out- especially overclocking!
   
2. Passive heatsink - More common with older systems, such as Pentium’s, Pentium II's and Pentium III's, as they generally can handle higher temperatures and still run fine, along with the fact that their thermal envelope is very, very low (in range with most low power laptops today), so a large modern heatsink, such as an XP-120 would keep it cool enough to not even need a fan.
   
3. Active air cooling - Probably the most common form of cooling today, relies on fans to amplify the amount of airflow over the heatsink and cools much more efficiently, but can be extremely loud, and has its physical limits, such as size of the heatsink, maximum airflow through the fins on the heatsink, and the ambient air temperatures.
   
4. Water cooling - A basic loop of water, running over heatsinks designed for this purpose, known as waterblocks. Much like active air-cooling, but instead of air, water is used. Temperatures using this method are generally lower than most air cooling, and a good water setup should be able to outperform the highest end air cooling setups, and quieter, to boot! The main components are the waterblocks (heatsinks), the tubing, pump, a radiator to dissipate the excess heat into the air, and sometimes a reservoir.
   
5. Thermoelectric cooling (TEC, aka peltiers) - refers to a "heat pump" type layer that is sandwiched between the CPU and another cooler (air, water or another TEC). It generally needs double the wattage of the heating element - in this case, the CPU. Has a hot side and cold side depending on polarity (cold side on the CPU!) and end up increasing the internal temperature of the case substantially, unless the TEC is cooled externally. The advantage is it's noiseless. The cold side is placed against the CPU, and warm side is cooled by another means - water or better for a good setup - since it puts out it's own heat, plus heat from the CPU. (~Beomagi) While generally safer and easier to utilize rather than building your own phase change, it isn't without its dangers! There are many horror stories of people leaving peltiers on, or their water pump dieing, and the peltiers then burning up not only the waterblock, but the CPU and motherboard as well!
   
6. Water chillers - Using the evaporator of a phase change system to cool a reservoir of water. This setup is simpler and safer to make for beginners, as it can be done as simply as taking apart a window air conditioner, slightly bending the evaporator, and building a reservoir around it. Turn it on, (make sure you take the fan out!!) and within minutes, you have chilled water! General expected water temperatures: -15C
   
7. Phase change - Phase change is similar to water, as it is a chemical in a closed loop, flowing through a block, but a little more extreme. Instead of water flowing over the block, it uses a gas at a high pressure to create a liquid. As the liquid flows into the CPU or GPU evaporator, it evaporates and in doing so, basically "sucks" the heat out of whatever it can, to gain the needed energy to turn back into a gas at the pressure. The evaporator line is insulated as much as possible to keep it the coldest where it will meet the CPU. As the gas returns, it created a high pressure, but this time as a gas form, and needs to be cooled. The condenser cools this part of the cycle. The compressor controls the pressures. General expected evaporator temperatures: -40C
   
8. Cascades - A cascade, is basically a dual phase change system. It uses what you could call "normal" phase change system to super cool the condenser of the second stage. This allows the use of much colder gasses in the second stage, which are unusable in a normal single stage system. For a 3-stage system, it is just repeated once more. This type of cooling isn't suited for 24/7 usages, as running 2 or 3 compressors uses an extremely large amount of electricity and is primarily for long benching runs. Temperatures of a 2/3-stage system can approach and exceed -110C.
   
   Autocascades are a new and complex design utilizing a single compressor system, and using two gasses, separating them to act as a normal 2-stage cascade. This creates more strain on the compressor, but allows for much colder temperatures than what you could achieve using a single stage system. It works by just separating the gas and using it to cool the condenser of the first gas, rather than using a completely separate loop for that gas.
   
9. Dry ice/liquid nitrogen - Unlike the other methods of cooling this is the least permanent. Using dry ice or liquid Nitrogen requires a "container". It is an open-ended tube with copper at the end, which is on the CPU or GPU. Using dry ice, acetone is added to the container to increase surface area and lower overall temps and increase capacity. Liquid nitrogen is a liquid, so no additives are necessary. Both methods sublimate/evaporate very quickly, so refilling often is necessary. General temperatures are -60/-160C respectively.

Ultimately, your cooling choice is up to you. Look at what your goal is with overclocking, and pick whichever best suits you (Along with your budget!). For a light overclock, and learning, it’s best to start with an upgraded heatsink. For the more experienced users, water-cooling is a very good option, and for those looking for excellent operating temperatures, phase change is a good way to go, BUT those wonderful temperatures come at a price!

Benchmarking

When overclocking, most of the gains aren't extremely noticeable, but as always, it will depend heavily on the programs used, actual hardware, and how much of an overclock is obtained. The most common benchmarks are:

• 3dmark01
• 3dmark03
• 3dmark05
• Aquamark 3
• Superpi
• PCmark04
• PCmark05
• Sisandra
• Everest

For every benchmark, there are of course, tweaks. There are too many to cover in this article, as it is aimed overclocking rather than tweaking., but that’s what this is all about. Tweak. Experiment. You may just find a new useful tweak!

For general comparison, in 3dmark, it’s considered "comparable" as long as you use the default settings. Changing something will alter the comparison, and render it useless.

These programs are also very handy for troubleshooting, and general hardware information (i.e. Showing off your speeds.)

• CPU-Z
• Clockgen
• CBID(AMD ONLY)
• Rivatuner
• Atitool
• systool

Component Selection

Not only is cooling important, but what components you are using is, as well. Yes, you can overclock with almost anything, but not everything will overclock well. There are general things to look for. For CPU's, it can be revision, stepping, or a certain model. Ram, it can be certain chips or PCB. Motherboards are usually either good overclockers, or poor ones, and overclocking is heavily dependent on the bios used, along with voltage options. For video cards, there isn't much you can do, but something most of the other components lack, are mods. Such as 256bit 9500pro's, some were moddable to open up the rest of the pipelines, which effectively turned it into a 9700pro! These mods are usually more rewarding than regular overclocking, but once the card is modded, you can overclock too! For the most up to date information on which components overclock the best, check the forums !

Stability testing

There is no real definition set in stone for stability when overclocking. Some people require prime95 validation of over 24+ hours, some less; some just require the computer to never crash. The general consensus however, seems to be 8+hours prime95 for CPU, prime95 and memtest 86 (test 5 usually), Video card wise, a few hours of 3dmark looping, and no artifacting while rendering 3d objects. Game tests are good for testing the overall stability of all of the components working together, and can still reveal instabilities not shown by tests run by prime95, memtest and 3dmark loops.

Platform Differences

Not all systems are the same- nor are all CPU's. The basic raise the clock, increase X speed generally works, but there are usually some catches.

Athlon XP's

You may have multiplier control, and you have FSB control. A PCI lock is necessary to keep the AGP/PCI bus in spec, or your overall FSB will be limited greatly. With an Athlon XP, CPU speed is determined by FSB*CPU multiplier, and ram speed is determined using a divider of the FSB. It’s highly recommended to keep the ram 1:1 on Athlon XP systems, for stability, and performance reasons. An alternative to Bios overclocking, is clockgen- but with the Athlon XP platform, it is very sensitive to on the fly clock changes, so it will often crash the system. Clockgen is generally not recommended for this type of system.


Athlon XPs love voltage in general. The maximum "safe" voltage for most people running 24/7 should be around 1.9v. Extreme cooling allows the use of 2.1-2.3vcore, but only if you don't care especially for the life of it!

Pentium 4's

Pentium 4's are all about one thing. Clockspeed. They were designed to scale well, and did pretty well until the prescott core hit. While overclocking pentium 4's there has been the Sudden Northwood Death Syndrome, or better known as SNDS, which was too much voltage, or the cpu's just dieing, but that has pretty blown over, with the disappearence of the northwood core. Prescotts are now the main P4, whilst running hot, can scale to amazing speeds under the right settings. You normally have fsb, the pci lock, and sometimes a 14x multiplier to mess with. Multipliers are locked on P4's, however some people prefer to spend the extra cash to hunt down engineering samples to have multiplier control. As usual, clockgen works best with newer chipsets.

Athlon 64's

The Athlon 64 is possibly one of the most confusing of the processors, but offers some of the most overclocking flexibility available today. Since AMD moved the memory controller onto the CPU, it really messed with the way you overclock these systems. In some ways, it’s a wonderful thing, but it has its downfalls.

The CPU speed is determined by the HTT*CPU multiplier. The CPU uses the Hypertransport link to communicate with most of the motherboard, and overclocking this has no tangible performance difference, and like the PCI bus, running it too far out of spec will cause stability problems. To fix this, you change the LDT multiplier, to keep it within 800mhz for socket 754 Athlon 64's and 1ghz for socket 939.

With the memory controller on die of the Athlon 64, it is now capable of running much greater speeds than the traditional Northbridge FSB. It is now set to run 1:1 with the CPU speed. In turn, overclocking the CPU results in overclocking the memory controller as well. This has an added bonus- Higher CPU speed returns lower memory controller latency! However, this also screws up the .5 multipliers, and will return a slightly different memory speed than expected. AMD does not support, nor recommend using .5 multipliers, and with such a wide range of HTT to choose from, it’s unnecessary to use anyways.

Memory speed is determined by dividing the CPU speed. There is no longer a "1:1" ratio, so dividers will have no impact on performance whatsoever. 10x300htt using 250mhz memory will perform exactly as 12x250 set to 1:1.

Alternatively to regular Bios overclocking, clockgen works fantastically on these platforms! You have a very effective HTT range to choose from, along with multiplier control from within windows. The multiplier control is excellent for turning your CPU down to 1ghz while surfing/checking e-mail, and cranking it back up to full speed when you get ready to start a game up.


Currently, VID (voltage) control does not work for most boards.
Some examples of an Athlon 64 Bios screen:


Thanks to angry_games over at DFI-street for the use of his great bios screen examples!

Core 2 Duo's

Coming soon!

Volt mods

When overclocking increasing the voltage can usually benefit the maximum overclockability, as long as you have the cooling to make up for it. Almost every component has voltage modifications. Some will provide a very healthy voltage boost, some mods are used to stabilize voltage, and some provide little to nothing.

How a Volt mod works

Most components use a circuit that automatically detects and corrects the voltage constantly. When the voltage drops, the chip tells the system to give it more, and vice versa for too much voltage.
A volt mod, however, is intended to correct problems, and/or surpass those options that are available in the bios though they do have their limitations.

Volt mods work, by creating resistance on the voltage sensing line, to act as if the components aren’t receiving enough voltage- this in turn will allow you to physically bypass what’s available in the bios, and select everything manually.


Most mods require modifying the motherboard.

Motherboard voltage mods

Although most mods are performed on the motherboard and affect the removable components, there are mods to alter the voltages of the non-removable components of the motherboard.

• VDD- Chipset voltage. For PC's using a Northbridge, this mod is usually useful for obtaining higher FSB speeds.
• Vagp- AGP voltage. This mod changes the voltage of the communication link between the North Bridge and AGP card itself- it does NOT effect video card voltage levels (i.e. GPU).
• Vfsb (?)
• Cap mods - Cap mods are usually considered some of, if not the most extreme mods, of all mods. Cap mods are adding capacitors inline with the circuits to provide either cleaner power, or to provide a more stable voltage under load. Caps have been added to motherboards, video cards, and even ram. However, cap mods do not return as significant of results as volt mods and improved cooling, but can help obtain that extra 3-10mhz when pushing the components excessively.

Video card voltage modifications

Voltage modifying a video card can be fun, rewarding, risky, and extremely costly! Do it correctly, and it could net you a very nice overclock, but mess it up, and if you're modding a brand new $700 video card, you could easily kill it and render it a $700 doorstop.

• VGPU- GPU core voltage. Increase this to do the same as a Vcore increase with a CPU. Keep in mind, some GPU's may be more sensitive to voltage to others, and too much voltage WILL kill a GPU.
• VDDQ- This is the voltage for the input/output of the memory. Basically the voltage for the bus between the GPU and memory itself. (DQ bus voltage)
• Vddr- the main DDR voltage for your video cards ram.
• Vref-(Reference voltage)- The reference voltage for VDDQ calculated by .7*VDDQ.

CPU Voltage modifications

The primary (and currently, only) voltage modification available for the CPU is the Vcore. Older CPU's had off-die cache, which was powered separately, and could be modified. Too much voltage in a CPU will easily kill it. Some CPU designs are very voltage tolerant, and react well, and can take loads (Athlon XP’s), and others (Pentium IV’s) don't.

Ram voltage modifications

• Vdimm - The primary DDR voltage- most effective at increasing an overclock.
• VTT -( Reference voltage) the VTT is supposed to always be 1/2 of the Vdimm, and is used to keep track of the Vdimm. If the VTT drops from 1.6 to 1.5, your Vdimm will follow from 3.2v to 3v. VTT drooping is very, very bad.
• Memtest 86 - While not a mod, Memtest 86 is the most vital tool used in overclocking memory to maintain stability, however, ram passing memtest only proves that the ram itself is maintaining consistency when reading and writing to the IC's. Memtest stability does NOT mean your memory controller is capable of handling the excess load created by the increased power draw, and speeds.
• Hipro's ram mod - First and only physical cap mod I've located for ram, success, however, is undocumented at this time.

Overclocking the CPU

Overclocking the CPU can be the most rewarding, costly, difficult and easiest to overclock at the same time. CPU's are measured in clock cycles, and it is classically determined by FSB*MULTIPLIER=CPU SPEED. All desktop CPU's to date use this basic concept, except for Athlon 64 (K8) based CPU's, which use a variation. A64's use the HTT*CPU MULTI to determine final memory controller & Core speed.

Most commonly used CPU stress testing, burn in, and stability testing programs:

• prime95
• Clockgen
• SP2004

When overclocking the CPU, some people prefer finding the maximum core speed; some prefer to max out the FSB first. While the FSB is the communication speed of the CPU and memory controller, some believe that the CPU has an effect on overall maximum FSB, but I have yet to see any solid evidence of the silicon limiting this. With the addition of the memory controller onto the CPU, the "maximum" memory controller speed may not longer stay the "maximum" stable operating speed because of the ability of the memory controller to keep up with the CPU speed at a 1:1 ratio, therefore overclocking the CPU speed overclocks the memory controller speed. This helps to reduce latency times, but may limit your overall overclock if your memory controller isn't capable of operating at the CPU's speed.

Voltage is necessary to be changed as well, to allow greater speeds. Basic CPU overclocking guide can be found here

Overclocking the RAM

RAM overclocking, with some computers will produce the most beneficial results after reaching a fast enough CPU speed. Athlon 64's performance difference after ~230-240mhz memory speed, you will find diminishing returns will kick in. However, if your memory isn't capable of running "1:1" then you can use a divider to slow the memory down while sustaining a sufficient CPU/memory controller speed.

Ram works like an open book, and is volatile, so all of its data is erased once it loses power. When reading and writing, there are latency delays, the most common, and over-rated is CAS.

Most people use an abbreviation for the common ram timings of CAS-trc-trp-Tras. HERE is a great explanation of how ram works if you’re interested in further exploring the operation of RAM.

Hipro as he is known, is a very valuable person to the enthusiast community.
His ram cap mod is just an example of his not only brave inventions risking killing great hardware, but his contribution of mods.

Popular DDR IC's

When overclocking, enthusiasts have found that the same IC's tend to perform, and overclock similar. The biggest manufacturers of IC's are Samsung, Hynix, Winbond, and Micron.

When it comes to latencies and overclocking, there are still 2 sides, like AMD Vs. Intel. Some people see low latencies, as the best route, regardless of the speed. Others prefer the looser latencies of some IC's, which provide a much higher overall operating speed.
Low latency IC's

• BH-5
• BH-6
• url=http://www.winbond.com/s-winbondhtm/partner/PDFresult.asp?Pname=918]CH-5[/url]

BH-5 definitely has the greatest record of overclocking well. It is notorious for holding super tight timings of 2-2-2-5/6 at ~250+Mhz. However, this speed does not come easily. It requires burning in, and extreme voltages to obtain the speeds. The increased production die size of .175?m, rather than 130?m allows for much greater voltage tolerances. CH uses 130?m.

Increased latency IC's

• TCCX
• Ballistix
• Hynix B

TCCD has a reputation for allowing ~300mhz at 2.5-3-3-7 or looser timings, and does not need a large amount of voltage to obtain such speeds like BH type IC’s. Crucial’s Ballistix is an interesting competitor, offering a higher CAS latency, but lower trc and trp speeds, while obtaining high frequencies.

DDRII

DDRII Behaves verymuch like DDR, except uses a lower voltage, and looser timings. Sepecific modules may behave unlike regular DDR when modifying timings, however.

Overclocking the Video Card

• Atitool - Made by W1zzard here at techpowerup, is an excellent tool for overclocking and modifying ATI video cards. Some Nvidia support is being included.
• Rivatuner - An excellent video card overclocking tool.
• Powerstrip - An excellent universal overclocking tool.
• coolbits - A driver addition found in NVIDIA’s drivers, it allows changing the core and memory speeds of your GPU.

Overclocking a video card is rather simple. It is primarily done from within windows, accomplished through the use of usually one of the programs listed above. Like a motherboard, video cards have bios as well. However, it is not as easily accessible as a motherboards bios, and must be altered before flashing. It is not intended for the end user to be modifying, and therefore is not easy to change. Video bios’ flashing is sometimes required for pipeline mods, fixing an operating conflict, and manually changing the clock speeds to a preset overclocked speed.

Summary

If you found this guide useful, need some help, or have some information I left out, feel free to post in our forums and pass it on to a friend.
-Dippyskoodlez

[Dippyskoodlez]

bumpage for others's viewing pleasure..

[BIOHazard87]

good thread, but rivatuner is universal, not just nvidia, i use coolbits for nvidia, rivatuner for ATI personally

[G.T]

Making this thread a Sticky may be a wise move.

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by BIOHazard87

good thread, but rivatuner is universal, not just nvidia, i use coolbits for nvidia, rivatuner for ATI personally

fixed.

[breakfromyou]

add PC Power & Cooling to that power supplies list. how dare you leave out one of the best power supplies on a list like that.

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by breakfromyou

add PC Power & Cooling to that power supplies list. how dare you leave out one of the best power supplies on a list like that.

Whoops! How did I miss that?

[yun]

good thread

[Zebbo]

As for a side note you could add this into your text:
Overclocking is a science, as it were. It takes skill, knowledge, and patience.
Too many people expect to much without putting in any effort on the learning side of the culture. If you are one of these, you are NOT eligible to be an overclocker

This is from Master OPB and Hell-Fire and I have to say I cannot agree more with them.

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by Zebbo

As for a side note you could add this into your text:
Overclocking is a science, as it were. It takes skill, knowledge, and patience.
Too many people expect to much without putting in any effort on the learning side of the culture. If you are one of these, you are NOT eligible to be an overclocker

This is from Master OPB and Hell-Fire and I have to say I cannot agree more with them.

Very true.

[Steevo]

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=104862


Hard OC'ing can be done with minimal $$$. Here is proof, all you need is some time and understanding.

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by Steevo

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=104862


Hard OC'ing can be done with minimal $$$. Here is proof, all you need is some time and understanding.

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=17816

One of the first CPU's out of AMD's fab.... 2 hours after it was delivered (date: May 2005.) Ram is also @ 250mhz One fast machine...

or my 2924mhz Axp on air

[WarEagleAU]

For powersupplies, you might want to add Thermaltake (toughpower series is awesome) and Mushkin has some nice power supplies too :P

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by WarEagleAU

For powersupplies, you might want to add Thermaltake (toughpower series is awesome) and Mushkin has some nice power supplies too :P

I'll add mushkin as they have a great rep, and i guess they did just start adding PSU's..

I have yet to see any solid evidence Thermaltake is a great supplier as of yet...

I'll add em if you can find a nice list of un sponsored happy customers that arent total idiots to this stuff

[WarEagleAU]

Well, I happen to have a couple of friends who have them, and they swear by them. Great bang for the buck and pretty solid. However, I do understand what your saying.

[Zebbo]

I was going to write small forum review about the Mushkin 650W PSU on TPU but I had to leave it since I lost my 7950GX2 card and 6800GT doesnt draw nearly enough juice out of +12V rails. Intentions however was to leave all my own opinions out of it by just showing some results, not to turn it into a marketing bull...

Paint however on the cover of these units seems to be on "bling bling" line. Pretty much does same job with mirror
Of course I know its all about people's opinions as well but someone likes it to be like that, some dont.

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by Zebbo

I was going to write small forum review about the Mushkin 650W PSU on TPU but I had to leave it since I lost my 7950GX2 card and 6800GT doesnt draw nearly enough juice out of +12V rails. Intentions however was to leave all my own opinions out of it by just showing some results, not to turn it into a marketing bull...

Paint however on the cover of these units seems to be on "bling bling" line. Pretty much does same job with mirror
Of course I know its all about people's opinions as well but someone likes it to be like that, some dont.

imo bling bling on a psu is kinda.. bleh. waste of time for a lot of people, outside of the outside left that people *might* see in a window...

I'd rather have a better psu than a an led fan..

but that may just be me.. I love the signature big fat grey box the PSU has achieved over the years

[Zebbo]

Originally Posted by Dippyskoodlez

imo bling bling on a psu is kinda.. bleh. waste of time for a lot of people, outside of the outside left that people *might* see in a window...

I'd rather have a better psu than a an led fan..

but that may just be me.. I love the signature big fat grey box the PSU has achieved over the years

That's the point where it is about opinions

I personally could not care less is the paint mirror polished or not, but I certainly do know some peoples do, no matter how good the product would be performing (though it is a little weird)

But then again, the very first Mushkin unit was not aimed much into an extreme overclockers direction but more like to gamers side. Statement however may sound a little misleading but I can say it will handle even heavier system since one testbed it went through was using overclocked Prescott 670 CPU with CF X1900 XTX. I'll end it here now since its getting too much offtopic

[Dippyskoodlez]

Bumpage, Added a Core 2 duo section to be updated later, and going to add a DDR2 overclocking section when I get my AM2 setup going.

[i_am_mustang_man]

i just read this for the first, and wish i had done so earlier! it's pretty much what i knew about a64 already, but it's very clear and concise, which is perfect

plus, i fully agree with the rma commentation

[Dippyskoodlez]

Added a basic DDRII blurb that may answer a few basic questions about it..

I'll ad more in depth to it when I've had more time to play with this stuff..

[giorgos th.]

very nice thread man..great job..
but where is Heroichi??

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by giorgos th.

very nice thread man..great job..
but where is Heroichi??

Ellaborate?

[giorgos th.]

explain please because i`m not to good at english..

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by giorgos th.

explain please because i`m not to good at english..

Whats it mean? (explain)