The Bad Penny's Overclocking Adventure...

[Plugpennyshadow]

I have taken Nick's advice and decided to learn the black arts of overclocking...

Pity me?  Or praise me?  Or you can just call the folks with the funny jacket and rubber lined room right now!

I will ask intelligent questions.  But I am first gonna learn the guts of my particular rig.  Wish me luck...

By the by?  No tinkering til I get what does what to what and how whos and what's in Whoville, right?  Got it!

[T1MT1M]

what cpu you got? because i found that all you need to know is the really basic stuff then you just go as far as you can. you then realise why overclocking can be hard (especially if you have really bad memory like me ) and thats when you start going into it a lot. just gotta make sure temps are down, and how to single out which part is causing the problem and to change settings accordingly.


My experience found that the easiest way to learn.

[Plugpennyshadow]

Intel Cor2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 GHz 2.66 GHz.

That's what she says, and she's sticking to it!

ASUS P-5KE Mobo.

Will have this memory in the next week:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145197

Nick tricked, I mean ADVISED me to get it!  Yeah!  He advised me to get it...ROFL.  I didnt read his recommend post careful enough, but Im not gonna cry about it now.  It was the final push to do the do on the clocking thing.  Gonna spend the next three or four months researching afore I do anything to the rig.  The exception is Im gonna get a better cooler and a neighbor is gonna help me install it and lap the processor for it.  He says it can be a ticklish process.  One of those "Dont try this at home kids!" thingies...

[Plugpennyshadow]

Well, I understand your talking about knowing what part is causing the problem or setting or whatever.  Im approaching this whole problem much as I approach a breakdown, tune-up or customization (really that is the best analogy) on a car, lawnmower or one of my RC aircraft.

I am gonna try and learn what this shiny, sensitive and expensive stuff does, how it works together and what affects what in my particular rig.  A lot of reading but I like to read and know how to take notes...Helps with the bad memor thingie...If ya dont write it down, how do you know it happened?

One thing I could use is a help in the right direction for some of these utilities I see people pulling screenies from.  Have CPU-Z and MemSet (And I know not to play with MemSet yet, I know!), but would appreciatie some more with a brief what they do...

Thanks...

[T1MT1M]

I was just saying I was going to do what you did and read a lot. But once you know what your voltages are, what the max voltages are and what not to go over or what not to change (simple things like that) then tinkering is the quickest way to learn.

[Plugpennyshadow]

Yeah, I get that.  But I still have a bunch of learning to do...Brain is starting to cook already...Anybody got any eggs?

[T1MT1M]

[quote]Yeah, I get that.

[Plugpennyshadow]

I now type this on my backup machine as I have decided to do a fresh install of Windows Vista Ultimate.  Then Im gonna try my hand at clocking it without any distractions such as FSX or anything else.

Gonna start from scratch and do it slow and easy.  Installed new RAM last night.  Nick was right, the perf dropped in FSX five FPS or so without tweaking or clocking the system.  But I am not discouraged.

Ive started my research by doing a simple search on the terms used.  Very informative.  

Also the gathering information on how the different bits of tech work and work together, the limitations of my particular hardware generation and the limitations of my hardware in particular as it pertains to clocking.

Very enjoyable process.  Very...But the brains are beginning to heat up!  Haven't worked the old grey matter this hard in a while...

The Bad Penny Strikes

[NickN]

To take advantage of 1066 memory you must clock

The BIOS will increase the available memory speed as you increase FSB and CPU STRAP in the BIOS

You will need to set both memory speed and memory timing MANUALLY

The numbers I post here are ONLY a guess becasue I have never even bothered with a dual core processor however I do know you will need MORE than the Intel heatsink and fan to run this because the Vcore is going to get that chip HOT



Under the CPU ADVANCED SETTINGs

DISABLE EVERYTHING

ADVANCED SETTINGS

OVERCLOCKING: MANUAL

LOAD LINE CALIBRATION: ENABLED

[Plugpennyshadow]

I am gonna clock this system, but not immediately.  Am gonna trade back to my previous ram, putting the new sticks on ice till I get a little more knowledged.  Still researching, and every bit of advice is welcome from you Nick.  None of your advice, especially the personal direct to me go wasted...Except when Ive had a few too many and dont read them.  Sigh!  

Writing everything useful in my Clocking Log.

I am gonna wait a few months, possibly into the summer, to allow the new i7 processors and boards to get into circulation a bit more.  This will both bring down the price and get a more expanded knowledge base, not to mention tech base geared toward the new systems.

I have a question...

I beleive it was you, Nick, that told someone that the best advice you could give them was to chuck their old system as it was never gonna do what they wanted no matter how much they dinkered?  Getting "modern" gear was the start to a good experience with Windows in general and FSX in particular, correct?

To that end...

Will my upgrading to the new tech give me the boost in perf without clocking I seem to gather from the forums?  If so, I can then have a stable ""primary" machine with the latest tech and experiment with my current rig once it is a "spare".  Good plan?

The Bad Penny Strikes...

[Plugpennyshadow]

Thermalright 120 Extreme

Ordered one Sunday night...

To many posts about it to not go with it.  Everyone seems to have raves to say about it...

The Bad Penny...

[Plugpennyshadow]

As for the CPU in my current rig?  Im fingering the ORDER button on a quad.  Recommendations, anyone?  $300-400ish?

[vgbaron]

BP - IMHO you're approaching this in the wrong way. If you slowly get parts, piecemeal, you're going to get in the position where the oldest purchase isn't quite good enough for the newest purchase. You'll be chasing your tail. For example, if you buy DDR3 ram today for a q9650 and later decide to get an i7 CPU - the new mobos require ram that runs at a significantly lower voltage that what you just purchased - it won't be compatible.

Do your research, decide what kind of system you want and buy the parts. Do NOT try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Get quality parts at the beginning. If $$ is an issue, then, honestly, save up for the parts until you can buy them at once or within a reasonable space of time.

As to your which quad question - since the object of all this is to get the best out of FSX AND FSX is CPU dependent - get the fastest one you can afford stock. *IF* you are going to clock it, then there are some that start out lower in speed but clock better.

BY now with your reading you've probably seen that there are many different ways to approach the issue. Once you make your mobo/CPU/Ram decisions, then you will have a base to work from. Until then, you're kicking tires and no one answer is really going to suffice.

Good luck!

[Plugpennyshadow]

Guess I wasn't clear...

Im putting off any dinkering with clocking for the moment.  Gonna wait til the summer, buy an i7 based puter then start clocking with the my current system.

Im a working truckdriver who is working a bunch right now.  I have the time to research as I read instead of watch TV, but not the time to do the do right now.

My requests for recommends on a quad to go on my P5K-E board $300-400ish still stands.

Thanks for the feedback...

[Plugpennyshadow]

By the by, the new ram:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145197

is for the current rig.  DDR2 type recommended by Nick for clocking.
Im just sticking it back in the packaging til Im ready to clock the machine.

I aint dabbling in DDR3 til I get one of the new i7s and mobos...