Tweeking ?'s Need help

[yousuredo]

hey again, everyone...
I have no idea what to ask...
but will try to get my question out here, best I can...

Overclocking/Tweeking/ect...
I sort of understand it...
but need someone to dumb it down some...

I have a Celeron/Intel 1.7 prosessor...
Asus P4S800 Mother board...
GForce2 400, 64m Video...
700+ memory...

I want an Active Monitor installed...(need to download one)
I want/need to know if i can tweek my system...
if so How and to what degree...?
risks involved, results from...

well lets see if you understand, and can help...
remember i am new to all of this, so dumb it down some...
thanx chris

[dgrmkrp]

hmm.. i'm not familiar with the motherboard.. if it does have ample options for modifying the following things, you can tweak/overclock:
cpu voltage, cpu multiplier and fsb frequency(this is sure to be there somewhere) for overclocking the cpu.. depending on the celeron model you can get a lot more out of it.. and depending on the cooling you have.

the video board is a bit old.. so there isn't much you can do there.. you could try a registry hack(coolbits) or an overclocking utility (riva tuner).. but the performance gain would me really really small.. minimal.. also, i don't know if u have dual channel ram (doesn't look that way from here), but round RAM numbers are so nice.. think 1024 or more, not 700+.. there are several articles online that discuss different possible arrays of ram modules and their chips.. best is double sided modules (chips on both sides of stick) in dual-channel..

Tweaking utilities come next.. there are several.. they all "optimize" some settings in windows.. best i found till now is.. well.. reinstalling monthly and preparing for the next crash :) don't suggest anyhting, but win sux ;)

active monitors are nice.. as long as they are supported.. i've seen some issues here and there with older boards.. i don't think u would have any.. i use speedfan(small and easy and free, can even be used to dynamicly overclock/downclock if m/b supports it), but i also tried MBM (mother board monitor), which is a bit more complex but allows scripting and stuff.. lost it in one of those reinstalling processes.. also.. u should find some asus aplications online.. maybe use that.. i don't know.. don't have an asus board..

aa.. last but not least.. try to max out the ram specs.. if u have ddr1, try setting 2-2-2-5 latencies... if such an item appears in the bios.. also.. google a lot to find out what your board can do :) that helps :) and read before modifying stuff... there are lots of articles which take you step by step in the wonderfull world of squezing-every-MHzout-of-your-system :)

[Cevinzol]

When O/Cing you want to have good cooling. You didn't mention what you have. I'm assuming stock fans and sinks. If thats the case then I would first blow all the dust out of your machine, dust is an insulator. Then I'd look into lapping (mirror polishing) your CPU heat sink and remount it using arctic silver3. Your system (especialy your GPU) is out of date. I wouldn't invest a lot of money into new cooling components for an old system.

http://www.cpuid.org/
this site has some utilities.
CPU-z is used by Tomshardware.com for some fo their reviews.
I haven't O/C'd a sytem in a while. When I did it I made small changes in the BIOS and then rebooted my machine. You want to then run it on the new settings for a while to see if it locks up. push the system with a load. Demo modes of games do this - doom3, far cry, etc. Just look up any hardware review and you 'll get an idea what they use. If the system is stable, then bump it up a little more. Go slow. Don't expect much.

http://www.hardocp.com/ is a good place to start your research.

[yousuredo]

thanx,
stabilaty is a big concern, so i want be pushing it...
I have read that you get the best gains from matching memory to fsb speeds, and overclocking the fsb, with minimal stabilaty issues...
cooling is stock fan heat-sink on prosessor, and a 80m on the rear of case...
downloaded MBM and it say my CPU is 158F-161F, Case 89F-105F...
I disassemble the cpu and heatsink, a week ago to clean, and didnt replace the (grease/gel stuff) between the CPU heat sink...(I think that is causing it to run Hot)
My memory is DDR2700...
one 512 and one 256 stick
The 512 is the only one with chips on both sides

[dgrmkrp]

hmm.. what Cevinzol says is very important.. even if you do use the stock heatsink and fan, proper thermal compound is crucial.. and each time you fiddle with a cpu+HSF u should clean the old compound and put another one.. just a bead of arctic silver and voila :) lower temps (after a while they get lower..)

you could lap your heatsink's base... but you could also buy a cheap one with heatpipes (i'm thinking arctic cooling or whatever you want, and mount a tornado 92mm to it :D with voltage control of course) or an expensive hi performance one (make sure it's universal so that when you want to upgrade you don't have to change it), to ensure best cooling. I like heatpipes (and water, but i don't have necessary funds) 'cause they move heat a lot faster than normal copper or aluminum heatsinks.. this is a plus :)

Your temps are on the high side for a celeron.. (what does cpuz say? pics are nice :) ) and the case temperature is a bit high.. Q: how hot is it in your room? does the case u own have enough holes for air to pass tru? how big are they? 80mm,92mm,120mm? How many? Are they naturally blockes by the case front? Or does it have an intricate design to allow for airflow?

Even if u don't overclock, high temperatures only makes for instability and if u have lots of 120mm fans you can set 'em on low and enjoy silent cooling :D Also, if your motherboard supports ddr333(or 2700), u could buy 2 sticks of 512ddr400 and if u do overclock from the fsb, u will have some headroom concerning the memory at least.. also, heatspreaders are nice if the ram chips start heating up.. if your board has some special overclocking features, like frequecy dividers, then u can overclock a lot higher the cpu and keep the ram frequecy the same.. or not.. u have the option with dividers :)