How to OC my CPU?

[tony123]

My Athlon XP 1800+ is running at 1.5GHz. How do I make it faster?

[wulf109]

Check your motherBoards BIOS to see if it allows increseing the BUS speed from it's normal 133 to higher speeds. My XP1600+ will clock to XP1800+ by increasing the BUS speed to 147.
Athlon/duron CPU's are not very overclockable,generally speaking anything over 10%is not likely. Intel is a better choice for overclocking. I've never seen an Intel that wouldn't accept a 25%,some will take 33% and even 50%.

[tony123]

It maxes out at 133/133. Can't go any higher.

[Clockwork]

My Athlon XP 1800+ is running at 1.5GHz. How do I make it faster?

A BIOS update might help. What type of mobo do you have?

[gf]

Hi tony123,
What motherboard do you have?

[tony123]

I have an ECS K7S5A

[wulf109]

Check this website,it has BIOS updates that allow overclocking a K7S5A.


http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/ecs/k7s5aguide/

[Piccoro]

Don't flash your bios just to OC.
AMD and socket A motherboards allow for more flexibility when OCing.
Intel only allows you to increase the system bus speed as the multiplier is locked.
If you have a nforce board for AMD, that is best for OCing because it allows you to lock the AGP at 66mhz so you are free to increase the system bus without creating instability.
Boards with a VIA chipset dont offer that so they can be limited on how well the system bus can be OCed.
Athlon XP systems run best with their system and memory bus speeds running in sync (1:1). And to do that you need memory that can increase in speed to keep up with the system bus that you set.
AMD allows for more flexible OCIng becasue you can change the multiplier and increase the system bus less (keep stability) to obtain high CPU clocks. With top end parts an Athlon system can OC more than an Intel system because of that flexibility. Intel relies on system bus increase only while AMD can increase system bus and multiplier to push your CPU to the top.

Don't OC unless you get parts that are best for it. You will make your system unstable. To get any real OC you might have to increase voltage which could shorten the lifetime of your system, cause it to fail and increase system tempurature. You need a good cooling setup (good case cooling,cpu heatsink/fan, room tempturature). It's best if you know about what revision your parts are, what core your CPU is, and the stepping.

[808smokey]

Don't do anything til you figure out which chip you have there's a few different types of 1800's. AMD's don't have locked multipliers What's the model number on the actual processor (under the heatsink) should be something like this AXDA1800 DLT3C 0307VPMW You should be able to bump it up to 2.4G but you'll need to watercool it or put an ass load of fans in there. Without water cooling you might get 1.7 - 1.8 safely without killing your processor. I would also go to a "real" overclocking forum. Overclockers has some good info. Try the AMD forums too they have a lot of good info AMD Forums

[tony123]

I don't know what the model # is. I've never taken a pc apart. A friend of mine put it together and he is no longer available. I guess now would be a good time to learn. I'll defiitely do more research before doing anything. I initially thought OC'ing was as simple as tweaking the bios. I didn't know it required extra hardware for it to run safely.

If I switch to water cooled system, would I still need fans? I could do without the noisy fan.

[Piccoro]

The best way to OC is know your parts or what to get to get the best OC with stability. Knowing what is possible and what your limits are with the hardware.
There really isnt any extra hardware unless you have the wrong stuff for what you want to do.
With watercooling...
You need case fans but not CPU fan or gfx card fan.
The case fans dont need to be fast and you can get a fan controller to lower the noise/RPM by a switch or dial. That should get rid of the noise if you have a watercooling setup.
Although the radiator has a fan on it, usually a 92 or 120mm fan.