|
- Understand What OverClocking Is
Overclocking, or Speed-Margining, is the pushing of a CPU beyond the manufacturers recomemded speeds. Many have
successfully have pushed their 486SX or DX33 to 40Mhz or their Pentium 75 to 90Mhz or even 100. Some have dared to
push their Pentium 133 to 166Mhz or their 166Mhz to 200. Others accomplished 266 to 300Mhz!
- Know the Conscienquenses
OverClocking is not recomended if you deal with vitally important data, you could experience some problems
such as your floating-point calculations could be slightly off. Remember Overclocking could provide you with
the Performance that you were looking for, if your willing to take the risk. Overclocking can generate a larger
amount of heat and without suffiecent cooling your CPU might die prematurely.
- Keep Your Cool
The biggest enemy of Overclocking is heat, overclocking creates emense amounts of heat, don't attempt this
without adequate protection. You need a fan and heat sink. The heat sink pulls heat away from the CPU and then
the fan dissipates it. Heat sink compound also provides an efficent conduit. All of these work in unison to
prevent your CPU from turning into a molten pile of silicon. If you want serious protection consider a larger, longer
living, cooler, and quieter ball-bearing fan.
- Overclocking Information
- Know Where You Are
Don't forget to ground yourself when working inside your computer. Static electricity
can kill your motherboard, or other electronic equipment you may accidentally touch
inside your case. Plant your feet, and touch the case, repeat if you lift your feet.
Its time to meet your friend: the jumper. Jumpers are usually numbered
on the motherboard and have the letter "J" in front of them (j43 would be jumper #43).
It's best to find the jumpers position in your motherboard's manual first (you could go blind,
inadvertently knock a wire loose, or break something poking around trying to find them
directly on the motherboard. Motherboard jumpers are normally in two or three pinned configurations.
Two pinned jumpers are closed when the jumper block is on the pins, and opened when it's off.
Three pinned jumpers can be either open, or need the jumper block to be on pins 1 and 2,
or 2 and 3. The motherboard's manual will tell you where to move the jumper block to cover
the necessary pins. Pin #1 is usually noted in the manual and marked directly on the motherboard
with a '1' or a small arrow next to the designated pin.
- All the Flavors of 486
There are various different types of 486 CPU's. Most notably: the SX, SX2, DX, DX2, DX4, and Pentium
Overdrive chips. The 486 CPU uses an external data bus for communicating with it and the motherboard
as well as an internal data bus for its own operations. Both are 32-bit bus types. The external data
bus runs at 33MHz, the internal at the clock speed designated by the CPU. The SX and DX run internally
and externally at 33MHz. The DX is an SX with a math coprocessor (which a lot of today's games
and graphics apps require) and an internal cache. The SX2 and the DX2 chips run twice as fast internally
and the DX4 runs at the times the speed (The name is just a fancy marketing ploy.) The DX2 chips
use a technology that takes the external speed or 33MHz and doubles it for it's internal workings.
What does all this rigamarole mean? You take a regular 486DX-33 chip and turn it into a 486DX2-66.
you can however increase in other, more salient ways.
- Pushin' a 486
Changing the jumpers on a motherboard to a higher setting is the simplest way to clock up your
CPU. Locate the jumper(s) that control the motherboard's clock speed. (Again checking the
motherboard's manual.) When you find these, WRITE DOWN YOUR CURRENT SETTINGS. You'll be
glad you did just in case this doesn't work. Carefully move the jumper(s), increasing it to its
next highest speed. For example, if it was set to 33, try 40. If it was set to 50, try 66.
- Pentiums Like it Like That
Pentium chips usually overclock better than 486's and are generally easier to push, since
they run at a different clock speed internally than they do externally. The external speed
is used for the cache and main memory and is divided by two for the PCI bus. There are three
different external clock speeds: 50MHz, 60MHz, and 66MHZ.
- Strainin' a Pentium
If you own a P75, P90, P120, P150, or even a P166, just changing the clockspeed to either
60MHz or 66MHz will significantly impact benchmarks. If it doesn't, try bumping up the
multiplier a step from 1.5 to 2 or from 2 to 2.5.
- Gambling with Silicon Chips
When changing the CPU speed Settings, keep in mind that you are also changing the speed value of the memory
and PCI bus. The most stable clock speed is 66MHz. If you change from a 133MHZ to a 150MHz, your
CPU will be running faster internally but your memory will be running at 60MHz and your PCI
bus at 30MHz. Memory access will be slower. Those gains may not be worth the drain on your CPU.
But if you can get the baby to work at 150MHz, you'll save yourself a nice chunk of upgrade change.
- Push it Harder!
OK, test it. A shareware version of a DOS-based utility called SysChk has been included
on bootDisk 05 and can be used to benchmark the speed of your CPU.
The goal here is to get the most speed out of your machine.
If it bails out, you need only to set it back to the original settings or those of the last
successfully tested speed.
- Know Your Limitations
As with anything pushed past its recommended limits, there are bound to be problems. You're attempting
an experiment, treading into a dark area few dare to enter. Your CPU may be running fine but your
other equipment may not be up to the challenge. Video cards, disk controllers, memory, or even your motherboard
may not function correctly under such a heavy load. Some video cards do not operate at high speeds, memory may not have
enough time to complete tasks or there might be cheap components on the motherboard itself that
prevent success. Try decreasing the bus speeds; or slowing the memory speed down - your manual should explain how to do this all. You may want to invest in faster equipment or even a faster CPU. Hey, you gave it
your best shot, hopefully the powers below won't be too harsh on your soul.
- Midnight: Time's Up
You've spent all day digging in the entrails of your system, moving little pieces of plastic
back and forth. If you have not successfully pushed your CPU by now, you are most likely grasping
at straws. Give it up, go to bed and dream about the next generation of CPUs.
|