Overclocking DO’S and DON’TS: Help Guide 1

Chef

Here’s a list of factors that I devised for people to consider their systems before overclocking!
DO:
*Make yourself familiar with your components, particularly the BIOS, before you start.
*Bag a set of baseline benchmarks before you start.
*Invest in good cooling for your CPU and possibly for your graphics card. This will allow you to squeeze a little bit of extra grunt.
*Overclocking will take hours, so don’t expect to be able to get it sorted just before bedtime.
*Always make changes in small steps, not large leaps. It’s a little tedious, but much safer.
*When you’re done, give your system a thorough stress test and run benchmarks to ensure stability.
*Take extreme care and pay attention at all times. For example, watching your benchmarks run can reveal telltale signs of instability.

DON’T:
*Jump straight in and make changes-preparation is the key.
*Don’t forget to use Thermal Paste when installing new cooling. Both CPU’s and GPU’s can’t live without the gacky grey/white stuff to survive.
*Don’t forget to check all connections. For Example, many graphics card has bitten the dust thanks to someone forgetting to plug in the fan.
*The most important rule of all: don’t dial in large overclocks in one go.
*Unless you’re an expert and experienced, don’t mess and tamper around with voltage settings for any component. You have been warned!
*Don’t get greedy. Not all components, apparently identical models, will overclock to the same extent. So when you’ve got a stable, ramped up CPU, GPU or memory, be grateful!




Good Benchmark Tweak Programs: Below are programs that I only use for either my system or other people’s system overclock. I reckon these programs are the best Benchmarkers categorised in their groups, and they produce some fine results at the end of the day… Do NOTE that some of these programs are not freeware and some require you to buy it. If you don’t have the full version of some of the following programs below, I’d be happy enough to lend you’s my serial and registration numbers for the programs…..! =)

Best Graphics Card Benchmarkers:

3DMARK06
3DMARK05
3DMARK03
3DMARK01
3DMARK VANTAGE (Soon)
Nvidia Ntune – Tune Up/Stability Stress Test Section

Other options include some individual game benchmarks, like HOC Quake 4, Doom 3, Unreal Tournament 2003 and some Final Fantasy benchmarking programs, but do note that these game benchmarking programs require the full game or the demo and latest updates and patches installed!

Best Graphics Card Overclocking Programs:

Coolbits 2.0
ATi’s Overdrive
Nvidia Ntune
Riva Tuner (Latest)
Powerstrip (Latest)
ATi Tool 0.27b (Adds a lot of bug fixes and support for large new ranges of graphics cards, otherwise latest version required)

Best Graphics Card Overclock/Stock Speed Information:

GPU-Z
Riva Tuner
Powerstrip
ATi Tool
Nvidia Ntune
ATi’s Overdrive
Everest Ultimate Edition (Latest, then look in graphics card section)
SiS Sandra 2008 (Latest, then look in graphics card section)

Best CPU Benchmarkers:

PCMARK05
PCMARK04
PCMARK VANTAGE
Orthos 2004 (Latest)
GO Orthos
OCCT
OCCT Perestroika 1.11
Prime 95 (Latest)
Super Pi
Super Pi Mod 1.5x (Very Rare now)

Best CPU overclocking Tools:

First of all, a little advice, overclocking through windows is something I don’t recommend and may be encouraged to those who are really desperate to overclock their computers and can’t through the BIOS. Overclocking through windows causes instability and may crash at times. If you choose this option, do it at your own risk and I will not be responsible at all!

Clockgen
SetFSB

Best CPU Overclock/Stock Speed Information:

CPU-Z
Everest Ultimate Edition
SIS Sandra


And that is all, if you need a serial key or registration key needed for one of the above programs feel free to ask. All keys of mine are genuine and all these programs are registered by me, no cracks, virus free!!!!

If there is any mistakes, please feel free to report them to me…. It’s the only this guide will get better !!

Hatrix

ggggd guide!!!!!!!!! repped!!!! i may need ur help to overclock my 7300 GT!!!!
can u help me out!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm a total N00B in overclocking

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Ccleaner
KillBox

Chef

UNDER CONTRUCTION FOR THE NEXT 5 MONTHS....I WILL BE BENCHMARKING MY NEW SKULLTRAIL SYSTEM!

Strider

Mathew, You bought new hardware ?

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Chef

yes...as I always I have nearly every computer hardware thats been released for the past 3 years!

Dark Star

Afaik.. All bechmarking tool are for name sake.. To do real bechmark check FPS in games rather than wasting your time doing Pc or 3d marks ...

Some of these test are biased towards some manufacturer like Super PI test favour Intel ..

Chef

No to do a burn in test, why don;t you go burn your computer aye?

Dark Star

Huh ! So you think burn is burning PC

Real Time benchmarking doesn't mean doing it physically.. Means in excuting applications rather than counting on benchmark utils..

Like there are no util that can give exact temp of the system, or there are no perfect volt resuming util.. Using it will confuse you only

You are still a kid so don't go an burn your pc real time benchmarking :... ROFL

Chef

omfg you obviously don;t have a sense for sarcasm do you dark star?

If what you said above is true...then explain to why more then 1 million overclockers and enthusiast out there follow the methods I have mentioned in my thread? O.o...??? huh

Strider

Chill out guys.

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