Overclocking with Aopen Ax6bc & P3-450

[cheapo]

This is actually my first attempt to overclock anything. Whenever I try increasing the clock ratio on the CPU to 5.0, my system still runs at 450. It only goes up whenever I increase the FSB to say 103, and I get like 463mhz. I was wondering what the dangers lie ahead of me in overclocking. Should I be aware of anything in particular? I'm running on 128 pc100 ram too. Or am I just being paranoid? Thanks

[Dave_7]

You have not chosen an easy path for your first attempt. P3 450s are not notorious for being the best overclockers.

First, don't bother with multiplier settings (5.0, 5.5, etc...) because your chip, like all newer Intel chips, are locked with one multiplier. Your's is 4.5 . And that 450 chip probably doesn't have much more than 600MHz in it... even with REALLY good cooling.

Just keep an eye on the heat of your chip (probably in your bios somewhere) and you should be fine. If you are able to adjust the FSB on that motherboard, then go to it. More than likely, though, your PC100 RAM will fizzle out once you reach 117MHz or maybe even earlier. But who knows...

So you'll be getting speeds like 463MHz (4.5 x 103). That's how it works. The chip may need more voltage to run at the higher speeds... like 2.3-2.5v. I don't know if your board allows for that kind of adjustment. Just beware that more v's could mean more heat... so keep an eye on it.

Realistically, if it boots into Windows at the overclocked speed, you're probably ok. Just don't do a lot of 3D gaming without knowing what the temperatures are, first.

See which speeds allow for stable operation... and which speeds give you blue-screens. It's all fine-tuning.




Dave.

[cheapo]

Thanks Dave_7 for the reply.

The reason why I'm so paranoid about 'clocking is because i'm running on my friends p3-450. He's letting me borrow it now that he upgraded to a 700. So I don't wanna break his toys.

As for my mobo, it doesn't have any temperature monitor system, so how would I add something like that on there? What temperatures should I be watching for too?

My board also has auto-detecting voltage. I can't control that part, so does that mean it automatically increases as I increase FSB?

[Dave_7]

Not necessarily. It will probably detect the default voltage, only... no matter how fast you try to run the chip.

I think Fry's has thermometers that you can put on your chip if your motherboard doesn't have any sensors. Although, that does sound unusual that there would be no sensors. But also (second-tier critical here) the chipset can get stressed and hot while overclocking. But you probably won't have to worry about that.

If you are interested in overclocking, I would suggest that you grab the cheapest ($65 or so for a 566MHz) Celeron FC-PGA you can get and throw it in a slocket (a slocket that has voltage adjustments)... and do your overclocking on that. Because, afterall, it is your friend's stuff... and frying his chip would not be good. Besides... that P3 450 has VERY little potential to overclock. So little, infact, that you'll likely see no substantial performance difference.

If you do go the way of the Celeron, make sure that your motherboard will accept the lower voltage requirements of these newer chips, though.




Dave.