My rig is starting to get a little old now, and I'm also short on funds, so I'm looking into Overclocking my CPU and GPU when I get back from Europe. I was hoping some of you tech junkies on here could help me out a little. I've been reading into it a lot, and I've realized that OC'ing is more than just upping the speed of the CPU.
Current setup:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego running at 2.2 GHz (with proper cooling, the A64 can get up to ~3.0 GHz before becoming unstable. Anyone have any cooling device recommendations?)
It's the HyperTransport Technology (HTT) that gets me confused. I've been reading about OC'ing A64's
here, and like I said before, it seems to be about more than just the CPU speed. (Scroll down to Part 4 of the article to read the relevant stuff).
Anyway, the stock HTT clock runs at 200MHz, and the stock CPU multiplier is set to 11x (thus 2.2GHz).[/list]
MB/RAM: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce 4 (Newegg does not carry this product anymore). FSB (according to Sandra) is running at 2x 1000MHz. Can support up to 16GB of PC3200. Currently running with
1 GB of Corsair ValueSelect PC3200 (VS1GB400C3). RAM timing @ 200MHz is 3-3-3-8.
This is where the aforementioned article confused me. Unlike Intel CPUs, OC'ing A64s requires balancing the CPU speed and the RAM. Though I DO understand what I'm saying here (regarding clock speeds, timing, etc),
I don't know what a good balance is. I've seen "ratios" tossed around, such as 1:1 or 5:4 (200:166), but I don't know what they mean, so any explanation of this would be appreciated. Also, I would be willing to get better RAM if anyone can suggest some good products.[/list]
GPU: eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB (the eVGA GPU cores come factory overclocked at 445 MHz, and the memory speeds come OC'ed at 1070 MHz. I believe the standard for 7800GT (not sure about this) is 400 MHz core and 1000MHz memory. Many people have said that the 7800GT can be stabily OC'ed up to 495 MHz core with 1220 MHz memory with stock cooling, but I am weary about those numbers (considering the card comes factory OC'ed as it is.)
I have already looked into unlocking the other 4 pipelines, but as of yet it seems that the 7800GTs are unlockable. Whether this is a GPU BIOS thing or a physical thing, I'm not sure. I've heard both sides, so meh.
So, that is my current setup. More than anything, I would like to better understand the relationship of HTT speed/frequency multiplier with the RAM speed/timing. I know how to adjust all or most of these settings in my BIOS, but it seems I can make many adjustments from Windows. I use the nVidia Control Panel (downloadable) and a program called RivaTuner to make tweaks.
I've done a little experimenting on my own, and for a while I was running my CPU at 2.6GHz with no problems (that was before I found out about the relationship between CPU speed and RAM timing. I'm now back to 2.2GHz.) My GPU core is currently OC'ed to 486MHz and the GPU memory is at 1201MHz. I am reluctant to push it any further, though apparently, eVGA's lifetime warrenty will in fact cover damage caused by overclocking (weird, I know. I forgot where I read that, but I DID check it beforehand.)
Thanks