[Waynej]

I posted here not too long ago in regards to building a gaming PC, which I have now done and am looking at overclocking.

Overclocking is completely new to me, so any advice and general tips are appreciated.

First and foremost I want to know how to monitor my current setup and know what I am looking for when looking at the information. Like what's a sae temperature etc and what I should not go over. Things of that nature.

Then I want to look at actually overclocking and pushing it a bit.

My setup is in my sig below, Quad Core Intel Q6600 running at 2.4ghz standard, with Arctic Cooling 7 Pro. Other than my CPU, what else can I look at pushing further, graphics, ram etc?

[Lizard]

Originally Posted by Waynej

I posted here not too long ago in regards to building a gaming PC, which I have now done and am looking at overclocking.

Overclocking is completely new to me, so any advice and general tips are appreciated.

First and foremost I want to know how to monitor my current setup and know what I am looking for when looking at the information. Like what's a sae temperature etc and what I should not go over. Things of that nature.

Then I want to look at actually overclocking and pushing it a bit.

My setup is in my sig below, Quad Core Intel Q6600 running at 2.4ghz standard, with Arctic Cooling 7 Pro. Other than my CPU, what else can I look at pushing further, graphics, ram etc?

Having just overclocked my PC for the first time (with lots of help from the people on here) i can tell you that it is unbelieveably easy .

The two sites i was given to read are
here
and
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overc...out-first.html

both these sites i found to be very helpful as the first site deals mainly with your CPU with links to the software you need, the second site deals with also overclocking your CPU, but also goes into how to get the best out of your RAM.

My advice would be to do the first site first (and then when you have things stable) go onto the second.

The other thing that you can overclock is your graphics card (cant help on this one), but you want to do the CPU & Ram 1st as this will effect the graphic card.

[jezzer256]

It all depends on what motherboard you have. Some mobos offer great overclocking options; others allow nothing to be changed.

Those 2 sites above are definitely worth reading. Once you've read them, come back with any questions you may have!

Jezzer

[Waynej]

Originally Posted by jezzer256

It all depends on what motherboard you have. Some mobos offer great overclocking options; others allow nothing to be changed.

Those 2 sites above are definitely worth reading. Once you've read them, come back with any questions you may have!

Jezzer

Yeah I expressed an interest in overclocking when getting advice on here, I have an ASUS P5K SE motherboard.

Though before I jump in with both feet, I first want to monitor my current setup. What software is recommended (free) for me to do this?

EDIT: the other reason I want to run some tests before attempting overclocking, is to make sure everything is currently as it should be. But, I have noticed that my PC game Gears of War freezes up occassionally. Though no more than my Xbox typically crashes so maybe it's just something to do with LIVE and not my PC's setup.

[jezzer256]

Download a program called Speedfan (here). This will give you a reading from all of your PC's temperature sensors.

Jezzer

[Waynej]

Originally Posted by jezzer256

Download a program called Speedfan (here). This will give you a reading from all of your PC's temperature sensors.

Jezzer

Cheers for that, here are my results. I ran it twice and the overall value was a bit different each time. I assume that's normal though.

So, with this info, what do you lot recommend I should be looking at making changes to?

This doesn't mean that much to me, as I don't know what I'm looking at, I'll spend some more time with the program later and see if I can find out current temperatures on everything and post back with those too.

[Lizard]

Originally Posted by Waynej

So, with this info, what do you lot recommend I should be looking at making changes to?

:

Start by printing off the relevent part from the 1st link I gave you (as you will spend a lot of time restarting the comp) and downloading and running the software listed in the site.

The two main software links you will need is coretemp and prime95, prime 95 is used to stress test your cpu and coretemp tells you how hot it is getting.

Download both from the site and run them, making a note of what the cpu temps are before you start prime95 and then the temp of the cpu 20 min in on running it, as this will tell you your cpu temps when its not overclocked.

Then start overclocking!

Dont get to worked up about what your current results are on tests, as even without overclocking, bios has set your timings etc for what is safe not what is best.

[Waynej]

Cheers for that, also can you please repost the 2nd link, as it's not working.

[Lizard]

Originally Posted by Waynej

Cheers for that, also can you please repost the 2nd link, as it's not working.

http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overc...out-first.html

[jezzer256]

Originally Posted by Waynej

Cheers for that, here are my results. I ran it twice and the overall value was a bit different each time. I assume that's normal though.

So, with this info, what do you lot recommend I should be looking at making changes to?

This doesn't mean that much to me, as I don't know what I'm looking at, I'll spend some more time with the program later and see if I can find out current temperatures on everything and post back with those too.

I posted Speedfan to allow you to monitor temperatures in your PC, not really to benchmark your current spec (it's an alternative to 'Coretemp', but it allows you to read the temps of the graphics card & hard drive etc as well). This is because it's essential to make sure your temps aren't peaking too high under stress when you've overclocked - you could end up frying your CPU or motherboard, which is a costly mistake.

Note, the temperature sensor readings can also be read from the BIOS - although this will be when the PC is effectively idle, so they would increase quite a lot when the PC is under stress (when gaming etc).

When you've learn the basics of overclocking, tweak the FSB in the BIOS by 10mhz or so, then boot back up. Run multiple instances of Prime95 to stress out each core of the CPU to 100%, then check the temps using Speedfan. If it appears stable, repeat the process, increasing the FSB by 10mhz or so each time (possible less). This is essentially the basics of overclocking - but read a more in depth how-to on another website to learn more!

Jezzer