Overclock P4 (newbie)

[clueo8]

I have:
Intel Pentium 2.4ghtz s.478 533 Processor (with normal heatsink/fan)
(My motherboard supports HT, but the processor does not)
1GB of SDRAM
128MB Nvidia 5200 Graphics Card
ASUS P4S533 Motherboard
2 Case Fans

I'm running Windows XP SP2 with 4 HDs, DVDROM and CD-RW.

I would like to speed up my processor, but I'm afraid I'm gonna smoke it. Could anyone help me with what I need to do or buy to safely overclock my CPU? My ASUS bios will let me set it to manual and tweak it a bit, but I fear it until I hear it from the pros... Thank you in advance,

Tim

[KryoNexus]

you should be perfectly fine overclocking your system. the only time you really risk damaging hardware is by increasing voltages, and even then, you are usually ok as long as you keep the temps down.

start by just increasing the FSB and see how far you can get. btw, jurtje has an awesome overclocking guide in the forums here. if you are interested in overclocking, i would definitely recommend looking through it.

[clueo8]

Yea, I was just reading that after my post... Where would I increase my voltage? isnt there just a multilplyer and FSB?

[clueo8]

And should I invest in thermal compound or something? or a new heatsync/fan combo?

[jurtje]

What Kryo really meant to say, was to read my overclocking guide (http://forums.ocia.net/viewtopic.php?t=464). Most of your questions will be answered there ;)

[KryoNexus]

i would definitely invest in a new hs/fan with some artic silver 5 thermal compound. as far as the voltage thing...it varies for each board. it should say something about vCore voltage or CPU voltage. just increase it a bit if needed (not too much though, it will skyrocket your temps). increasing the voltage will help you get a bit more stability though

[clueo8]

in my ASUS bios, i can set it to manual, then change the FSB. The multiplyer is set at 18x but wont let me change it. The FSB has 2 numbers (ex: 133/33) and i dont know what the second number is.

Another question: Will the thermal compound be messy and hard to remove if I ever had to replace my processor??

Thank you all for the posts!

Tim

[siq]

If you can give us the version of your BIOS we might be able to be more specific with you in what you exactly want to do.

[clueo8]

my mother board is ASUS P4S533-X Motherboard and i have a 1005 Beta version of my bios.

[KryoNexus]

Another question: Will the thermal compound be messy and hard to remove if I ever had to replace my processor??

it will be a little more messy than thermal tape would be, but if you take your time with it and only use "a rice grain's" worth, then you'll be fine. cleanup is a breeze. take a q-tip, insert it into pure isopropyl alcohol, wipe over processor and heatsink until they are both clean. :-)

[clueo8]

can anyone recommend what the best heatsink/fan thats affordable? So far I heard that artic silver 5 thermal compound is the best compound...

[KryoNexus]

as far as heatsinks, i would go with the thermalright sp-94 or possibly their new xp-120. check back frequently as we are going to release a review of the xp-120 soon.

[siq]

yeah those two are awesome especially for the new prescott cores out because they run super hot.

which raises another question, what core does your p4 have? is it northwood?

[clueo8]

im pretty sure it is Northwood

I'm looking into this heatsink and fan:
http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=2331&cat=46&page=1

Let me know what you think?

[KryoNexus]

in my ASUS bios, i can set it to manual, then change the FSB. The multiplyer is set at 18x but wont let me change it. The FSB has 2 numbers (ex: 133/33) and i dont know what the second number is.

you can't change the multipliers on p4's, so that's why you're having problems there. the 133/33 is the speed of your bus. the 133 is the fsb (the one you want to change). the 33 is the speed of your agp/pci bus (you want to leave it at 33 if at all possible). on a side note, the agp actually runs at 66, but it is just understood as double the pci bus, so if you raise the pci bus, you'll be raising the agp bus too, which will likely cause instability.

anyway, try to change the 133, but leave the 33 at 33 if at all possible.

I'm looking into this heatsink and fan:
http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=2331&cat=46&page=1

that actually looks like a decent heatsink from what i can tell at first glance. i would see if you can find anyone that has reviewed it first to see whether or not it performs well. just search on google for it.

[clueo8]

it isnt possible... they change in pairs!!! :(

[siq]

wonder if that has anything to do with not having your agp locked or whatever.

[clueo8]

whats the disadvantage of increasing the pci/agp bus? will that speed them up as well?

[jurtje]

Yes, and you don't want that, because they are not made for that, they will run out of spec and cause instability. Be sure there's absolutely no option like: AGP lock, AGP frequency or ratio's
If there aren't, you can overclock the PCI and AGP ten to twenty procent depending on the vid card you have.

[clueo8]

nope, nothing about AGP Lock or anything...

[KryoNexus]

if there isn't an agp lock, it's going to be hard for you to overclock that processor very far. i'd play around with it, but i don't know if you'll get very far. you might want to invest in a different board

[clueo8]

Well, i got the fan and heatsink and everything installed... actually cools very nicely... Fan speed is controlled by a sensor on the heatsink (speeds up when temp rises) Overclocked it a little until i got a hardware failure with prime95 within seconds of starting... (probubly my AGP graphics card)

so right now its a P4 2.400 @ 2.484 (sadly, that is maxed out with my situation) and my temps are about 37 C idle and about 46 C max after a few prime95 tests.

IM READY FOR SOME GAMING! NOTTTTTTT

Thanks to everyone for your help.

So, whats the cheap-est, best-est, and overclock-er-able motherboard out there???

[KryoNexus]

no problem. glad it worked out for ya.

as far as new motherboards.... i would maybe look at any of the following...

Abit AI7(Techniq uses this board)
Abit IC7-Max3 (what myself and Beemer run)
DFI Lanparty Pro875B
Asus P4C800

These boards are all very good overclockers. The last three support speeds up to 275fsb (though it is unlikely you will get above 260). Arguably the Asus P4C800 is the best board on the market for this class, but they all perform within reasonable margin of each other. I prefer Abit personally, mostly because their RMA process is better than anyone out there. Just personal preference though.