Newbie - basic advice needed!

[onelegout]

Hi!
I recently bought a p4 3.0ghz processor, and a new motherboard.
the motherboard came with some software specificly for overclocking your system, called 'easytune5'
it has an 'easy mode' which just lets you click up or down for faster or slower, but im kinda scared that i will go breaking something.....
I heard that the p4s have a diode which slows them down if they get too hot, but is there any other way that overclocking can damage your system?
Also, when i boot my bios is showing a cpu temp of about 50C but as soon as windows has booted and I run easytune5, the cpu temp reading on that is like 28C. Im idling at 22C. Is this difference of temps normal?

Thanks
H

Well after reading some articles on it, i had a go, so im now running at 3.4Ghz (13% overclock) and everything seems to be running smoothly!
How do i know how far i can go until i get problems? I searched for a program to test stability but couldnt find one.
Do you just push it slowly faster and stop when you start experiencing crashes? Im such a noob!

Cheers
H

[Overconfidence]

I'm not into p4 overclocking much, but I can tell you that prime95 (google search it) or CPUburn will help you stress test your system. Run it for half a day and see if it runs into any errors.

[public_eyesore]

is it a prescott or a northwood? If you have a pressy you could probably get it up to 3.6 on good air cooling.

[onelegout]

Whoops forgot all about this thread!
Thanks for the advice people!
No idea what core i have, but I now run it at 3.6 stable (havn't tried to go higher!) :)
im thinking of ditching my air cooling after christmas and buying a nice watercooling setup! :)

[Produkt]

What about AMD over clocking?

[acidrain]

hey about overclocking i have a amd 2500+ its beeing coold at 25°C by 4 fans
it runs on a slow 1.75 gh i can overclock it to 2.1 gh but my pc starts to reboot after a wile, now i have instald t° monitoring and the core t° is 32°C with 2.1gh
now i ask myselfe why is my pc rebooting? can somewone answer me ? (srry for the bad englisch)

and alsow my os says its a amd 1500+ thats strange cous on the processor it say's its a 2500+ and if it is a 1500+ and its running at 1.75gh its overclockd and the temp is 25°C sow it cant be ??? someone can tell me what to do ?

[DickNervous]

There are many, many factors involved in Overclocking.

Adjusting the FSB (Front Side Bus) will increase the speed that the CPU runs at as well as the RAM and possibly some other components. Most BIOS have a way to have the PCI/AGP bus run on a separate clock which makes life much easier. Of course, when you up the speed of the CPU you might have to up the voltage. Doing either of those increases the temps. Same thing for RAM, to make it run faster you need to up the voltage. Sometimes, with RAM with tight timings, you may have to relax them.

As for the AMD vs Intel overclocking, the concepts are all the same. THe only difference is in how they report the FSB vs CPU Ghz vs RAM ghz. Intel says teh FSB is 800mhz, but it is really 200mhz quad pumped. AMD does something similar, depending upon which CPU (Athlon, Athlon 64, etc).

[sega01]

just give it somthing better than a stock fan if you havent yet, the more cooling the better. and consider getting ram sinks, if you are overclocking the fsb its going to strain the ram more, and the ambient temp will rise. once you get good cooling you can bring a p4 very very high. my friend has a 2.4 ghz p4 that he oc'ed to 4.2. its running 70-75 f. good luck!

[Dudeman]

hey about overclocking i have a amd 2500+ its beeing coold at 25°C by 4 fans
it runs on a slow 1.75 gh i can overclock it to 2.1 gh but my pc starts to reboot after a wile, now i have instald t° monitoring and the core t° is 32°C with 2.1gh
now i ask myselfe why is my pc rebooting? can somewone answer me ? (srry for the bad englisch)

and alsow my os says its a amd 1500+ thats strange cous on the processor it say's its a 2500+ and if it is a 1500+ and its running at 1.75gh its overclockd and the temp is 25°C sow it cant be ??? someone can tell me what to do ?

is this temp at idle or under load? have you adjusted your voltage? if your temp at idle is ok that doesnt mean that underload it will be too, there is a chance you have it to where underload it overheats, thus you get the reboot. also there is a chance its not getting enough power for the amt oc'd thus the reboot. i would check all your settings and monitor the temp under load, and from there do lots of adjusting. watercooling is your friend too, remember that.:D