Simviation Forums

I was wondering, how much of a performance increase would I see? It's at 2GHz now, but some people have overclocked it to 3GHz,  not even with a different fan. but I think I may need a new fan. Things are getting a little crowded in there. The 9800 GT takes up a bit of room, I was thinking about putting 2GB or so of RAM in there...
But if I was to play it safe, would you recommend getting a small external hard drive?
Thanks guys

If you want to play it safe then an external hard-drive might be useful to backup your data in case you're worried something may go fry. Personally, I wouldn't even bother - you can just take the drive out and plug it in to another computer to backup files (provided they are NOT in 'my documents'). Chances of damaging anything is extremely low, or practically zero if you know what you are doing. I think you could get over 20% performance gain on stock cooling. 80% if you get good air cooling and have the motherboard and memory to match.


To overclock you will require a motherboard that supports it (or you can try windows based programs but they DO NOT ALWAYS WORK), and also memory that can run at speeds higher than 400mhz. Preferably faster than 667mhz. I would just get 800mhz memory, since it's el-cheapo now. 2 gigabytes or more is a must. I am upgrading to 4.

If you want to play it safe then an external hard-drive might be useful to backup your data in case you're worried something may go fry. Personally, I wouldn't even bother - you can just take the drive out and plug it in to another computer to backup files (provided they are NOT in 'my documents'). Chances of damaging anything is extremely low, or practically zero if you know what you are doing. I think you could get over 20% performance gain on stock cooling. 80% if you get good air cooling and have the motherboard and memory to match.


To overclock you will require a motherboard that supports it (or you can try windows based programs but they DO NOT ALWAYS WORK), and also memory that can run at speeds higher than 400mhz. Preferably faster than 667mhz. I would just get 800mhz memory, since it's el-cheapo now. 2 gigabytes or more is a must. I am upgrading to 4.

I'm totally new at this so what do you mean by memory, like RAM?

PS, if someone could just post some MUST KNOW things, I'd really appreciate it!

OK, your computer and motherboard have a number of parts

CPU ---- this is what processes everything.
Front Side Bus (FSB)

If you bought this computer with your own Pocket Money, and you total it by over-clocking it , etc, (which you are quite likely to do), then you only have yourself to blame.... ...!

If your Dad bought it for you, or for his own use, and you total it by over-clocking it, etc, (which you are quite likely to do), then you are in REALLY, REALLY, BIG TROUBLE!.... ...!

I tend to leave "things" well alone, if they are running satisfactorily.... ...!

Paul....Retired Sparks.... ...!

If you bought this computer with your own Pocket Money, and you total it by over-clocking it , etc, (which you are quite likely to do), then you only have yourself to blame.... ...!

If your Dad bought it for you, or for his own use, and you total it by over-clocking it, etc, (which you are quite likely to do), then you are in REALLY, REALLY, BIG TROUBLE!.... ...!

I tend to leave "things" well alone, if they are running satisfactorily.... ...!

Paul....Retired Sparks.... ...!

But if you make sure everything is cool, aren't you set?  :-/

[quote]
But if you make sure everything is cool, aren't you set?

You monitor temperatures as they increase. If they go over 65 you call the quits. Damage won't happen at that temp unless you're pumping a whole lot of volts through the proc / socket.