How to overclock my PC

Originally posted by Zephon
You have to access your bios and then change either the fsb or the cpu's multiplier. Maybe your system will overheat. If so, try a new cooler or something to take out the heat. Check out the following site for more info:
http://www.overclockers.com

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With most modern CPUs you cannot change the multiplier. On AMD CPUs you can unlock it by connecting the L1 bridges(can be done with a lead pencil, dunno if it can be done anymore) but Intel CPUs are permanently locked down. The only thing you can change is the FSB.

Shadow_Caster: i assume your CPU is on a 100 Mhz FSB(100x7.5?). You can possibly bump it up to 133 Mhz, which will turn it into a 1 Ghz CPU. Modern mobos will allow you to adjust the FSB in 1 Mhz increments as well. After starting your computer, at the RAM testing screen press the `Delete' key. It should bring you to the BIOS and it should have an option to adjust the FSB. You can adjust the speed here. I don't know your motherboard model but almost all P3 motherboards have softFSB options(unless you have a specially modified OEM version). Only certain CPUs will be able to overclock though and if you're using PC100 RAM then I suggest you switch to PC133 RAM as well to match the FSB setting.

Overclocking can often lead to more heat generation and instability. The rule of overclocking is to adjust it to its maximum peak of efficiency(the highest speed it'll go without crashing or stalling). If you get errors loading Windows with the new setting then you need to downclock it a bit, and even after you achieve its maximum speed potential you should thoroughly test it (play Quake 3 for an hour or so or run intensive benchmarks) to make sure it remains stable. If not then you need to downclock it again or get a better fan/heatsink. The only thing you should never touch when overclocking is the core voltage. Increasing this can potentially fry your CPU. Another issue with overclocking is that your AGP and PCI buses also get overclocked and some AGP cards cannot handle the new speed. Newer motherboards have additional AGP divider settings and most modern videocards can usually handle it.

Originally posted by Phuzzi
p3 750 oc'ed to 1000? I'll be surprised if it even gets into windows, let alone stable. At least, with the cooling technology he has.

It's amusing you look down on raising the Vcore, and yet both of the top x86 cpu manufacturers use that very method (among others) to raise yields.

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The Coppermines are outstanding overclockers, although it all depends on the model and the week it was manufactured. The later models are known to scale up to very high speeds. Ones that can go above 133 FSB (without voltage increases) are pretty rare and you'd be lucky to find one. Still, my Celeron went from a 66 FSB to 91(an increase of 38%) without voltage modifications or extra cooling, and it was built on the now-inferior 0.25 micron transistors. Increasing from 100 Mhz to 133(an increase of 33%) shouldn't be too much trouble for a Coppermine, being built on a more efficient 0.18 micron design. Still, only certain rare models can do it and I think it'd require a bit of a voltage increase anyways, since the P3 1 ghz needs 1.7 core voltage to function.

Intel raised the core voltage on the P3 1 ghz because they couldn't perform without the additional power, due to the fact that the P6 is an aging design. It's pretty much reached its limit and Intel just tried to squeeze the last bit of life out of it, well, at least until the Coppermine-T or Tualatin is released. It was a desperation tactic to get back on even ground with AMD. Previously Intel's always kept the core voltage the same within each generation of processors. Well, at least they're getting a healthy dose of competition from AMD.

Coppermine is the codename for the enhanced P3 processors. All of Intel's P6 and future processors have codenames(P6 original=Pentium Pro, P2 original=Klamath, P2 enhanced=Deschutes, Celeron=Mendocino, P3 original=Katmai, P3 enhanced=Coppermine, Pentium 4=Willamette). The original P3s used the Katmai core(they were pretty much P2 Deschutes with SSE). You may also remember that the Athlon came along at this time and blew the P3 out of the water. Intel then improved the P3, built on a smaller 0.18 micron(which the Athlon was already using) and on-die L2 cache. The P3 processors ending with `E' (e.g. P3 600E) use the Coppermine core. (BTW, the ones ending with `B'[e.g. P3 733EB] use the 133 Mhz FSB, which cost less but aren't very good for overclocking). The Coppermines were second in the 1 Ghz race, but they humiliated AMD with its superior performance. Then AMD made similar improvements to the Athlon and thus was born the Thunderbird, or T-Bird. The performance of the Coppermine and Thunderbird are very similar but the Athlons are a lot cheaper.

Intel will soon introduce a further enhanced P3 (codename: Tualatin) which will be built on a smaller 0.13 µon design (higher speeds) and possibly 512 KB of on-die cache and in a couple of months they'll also introduce their mainstream P4 processors(Northwood). AMD's also improved the Duron and Athlon and incorporated Intel's SSE into their K7 core(Palomino). And thus the constantly struggle for processor dominance goes on...