Overclocking Experience Summary

Overclocking Experience Summary

 

Superfrequency is an uncertain name for cainiao. Overclocking means burning out the CPU, shortening the hardware life, and means a very complex technology for them.

　　

Before introducing the superfrequency, Let's explain the terms mentioned in this article.

· Chipset-the chipset is a collection of chips that can implement a series of functions. The chipset is usually composed of two parts: nanqiao chip and beiqiao chip. These two terms will be further described later. The two chips can effectively transmit data without conflict. Currently, the chips supporting the Athlon XP processor on the market include the KT266A, KT333, KT400, nVidia nForce, nForce2, and integrated series of chipsets.

· Multiplier-this term will be used multiple times during testing. Multiplier is the internal speed setting of the processor. For example, if the frequency of the processor is 10 and that of the front-end system bus is 1000 MHz, the actual frequency of the processor is MHz (1 GHz ).

· Dual data transmission (DDR)-we usually call it DDR directly, which has become a very popular technology. The increase in frequency is always restricted by some conditions. Therefore, manufacturers must adopt other methods to increase the frequency. They adopt DDR. This technology can transmit data twice per clock cycle, doubling the bandwidth of the DDR memory chip. Currently, all the Athlon processors and most of the motherboard that supports the Athlon processor can support DDR. Therefore, the DDR technology not only improves the memory bandwidth, but also improves the data transmission speed between the processor and various system devices.

· Front-end system bus (FSB)-in short, the front-end system bus is a data channel or physical interface that connects the processor and the main memory. From the perspective of high-frequency players, it is measured by Megahertz (MHz. The higher the value, the faster the data transmission speed.

· Beiqiao chip-the main function of beiqiao chip is to contact and coordinate the operation of the processor and memory, and provide support for the PCI bus and the AGP bus. Data transmission between the North bridge chip and the processor is performed through the front-end system bus.

· Nanqiao chip-nanqiao chip provides the most basic input and output functions, such as USB, serial port, audio output, IDE, and ISA. Different from the beiqiao chip, the nanqiao chip transmits data through the PCI bus of the beiqiao chip.

· AGP voltage-VAGP refers to the voltage setting of The AGP interface on the motherboard. However, not all boards can adjust this setting, but this setting is very useful in overclocking.

· Core voltage-This refers to the core voltage setting of the processor. Increasing the core voltage can help the processor increase the frequency or improve the stability after overclocking.

· Memory voltage-from this name, we can see that this refers to the voltage of the memory stick. Although the increased voltage is very helpful for improving the memory speed, the high memory voltage may cause system instability.

Overclock knowledge

Ordinary overclocking players usually increase the front-end system bus or increase the frequency of the processor to achieve the purpose of overclocking, but for real overclocking players, they usually combine these two methods for use, to achieve the best overclocking effect.

When users increase the frequency doubling, only the performance of the processor is improved. When users increase the front-end system bus, the performance of the entire system is improved. Why? As users increase the frequency of the front-end system bus, they also increase the frequency of the AGP, PCI, and ISA bus. The speed of these buses is calculated based on the frequency of the front-end system bus. The following figure shows the default frequencies of these buses:

The frequency ratio of The AGP, PCI, and ISA bus to the front-end system bus is provided by the chipset. Therefore, only a few motherboard can support frequency locks of bus, such as AGP and PCI.

In addition, the selection of chipset is also very important in the overclocking process. In general, the newer the chipset, the higher the possibility of overclock. This is not only because the new chipset supports a higher front-end system bus, but also because it may increase the frequency ratio settings of the front-end system bus and the bus such as AGP and PCI. The advantage of adding these functions is obvious. You can let the front-end system bus run at 166 MHz, while the speed of other bus remains the default frequency.

 

Our requirement for overclocking is that the system must ensure stability, but there is a big difference between different systems. We will discuss with you how to make the system after overclocking more stable. Super frequency requires repeated experiments. Do not be afraid of failure. The key is to analyze the cause after the Super frequency fails, clear the CMOS settings, and start the super frequency experiment again. If you do not know how to clear the CMOS settings, read this article first. Otherwise, the system may fail to start.

 

Special note: You must be careful when trying to overclock the player. Overclocking is risky. A slight carelessness may damage the hardware.

 

Heat Dissipation

Good cooling conditions are one of the prerequisites for stable overclocking. Although this does not require repeated adjustments by users, it is helpful to improve the hardware overclocking capability and ensure system stability. Generally, the most important thing for a system is to ensure the heat dissipation of three parts: processor, chassis, and video card.

 

-Processor Heat Dissipation

You may often see the evaluation of the Heat Dissipation fan of the processor on the Internet. These heat dissipation fans can take away the enormous heat generated when the processor is busy, especially when the processor is used frequently. A high-quality cooling fan is essential for almost every super-Frequency System. There are a lot of high-quality heat dissipation fans on the market, no matter which one you choose, you only need to ensure that this heat dissipation fan can take away a lot of heat, can ensure that the temperature of the processor is not high.

 

-Chassis Heat Dissipation

I am often asked why the temperature of the processor remains unchanged after a high quality fan is used. The main cause of this situation is the insufficient heat dissipation of the chassis. Even the best heat dissipation Fan cannot take away the heat in an environment with hot air.

It is very effective to install a heat sink fan in the chassis, but the fan is installed to facilitate air circulation, so that there is enough cold air near the processor.

 

-Graphics card cooling

Why do we mention the heat dissipation of the video card in this overclocking article? This is because the graphics card is the most heat-generating device except the processor, especially the graphics card with nVidia display chip. Heat is a major obstacle to our overclock, so we should try to discharge the heat as much as possible.

Currently, the video card is usually equipped with a small heat sink fan at purchase, while the previous video card is usually equipped with only one heat sink. Although their heat dissipation conditions are much better than those of previous graphics cards, they also generate much larger heat. Therefore, it is necessary for you to consider buying a more powerful graphics card cooling fan.

It should be noted that the Fan Power connectors of the gefore3 and GeForce4 series graphics cards are somewhat different. Before purchasing a graphics card cooling fan, check whether it can be used on your own graphics card.

 

 

 

Basic overclocking Method

The following describes two basic overclocking methods. They are the frontend system bus overclocking and multiplier adjustment. The best overclocking method is to use both methods at the same time, but using only one method can also increase the frequency of the processor.

It should be noted that not all boards support overclocking. For example, Dell, IBM, and Gateway do not support overclock. The reason they do not provide overclocking is to ensure system stability and service life.

Next, let's start with the topic of this article.

 

· Frontend system bus overspeed

It is the most common method to increase the bus frequency of the front-end system. We explained to you that the front-end system bus is a data channel used to connect the processor and memory. The speed is measured by Megahertz (MHz. All processors have their own front-end system bus frequencies. Below we list some processors and their respective front-end system bus frequencies:

 

The overclocking method we introduce here is to increase the default frontend system bus frequency of the processor. Because the front-end system bus plays a significant role in the system, the performance improvement brought about by the increase in the bus frequency of the front-end system is also obvious. The following is an example of a super-frequency front-end system bus:

Default

(Front-end system bus frequency) 100 * (multiplier) 10 = 1000 MHz

Overclocking front-end system bus

(Front-end system bus frequency) 133 * (multiplier) 10 = 1333 MHz

As you can see, the improvement of the front-end system bus plays a key role in improving the system speed. But what should I do for the processors whose front-end system bus is 13 3 MHz? Because 133MHz is currently the highest frequency supported by the official front-end system bus, you must upgrade the front-end system bus to over 133MHz to improve system performance.

 

· Frequency Doubling

If the user can adjust the frequency doubling of the processor, the frequency that can be selected during overclocking will be richer. However, it should be noted that AMD's processor can adjust the frequency doubling of the processor in some ways, while Intel's processor cannot adjust the frequency doubling at all. All Intel processors lock the frequency doubling. This means that the user cannot modify the frequency doubling of the processor. Although AMD's processor also locks the frequency doubling at the factory, users can use some methods to unlock the frequency doubling. In addition, some motherboard manufacturers also provide the multiplier adjustment function in the BIOS of the motherboard.

We will continue to use the above example to explain the effect of multiplier adjustment. Previously, we increased the frequency of the processor to 1333 MHz, and now we have upgraded the frequency of the processor from 10x to 12x:

(Front-end system bus) 133 * (multiplier) 12 = 1596 MHz

As you can see, the superfrequency effect of this method is also very obvious. However, knowing how to adjust the bus frequency of the front-end system and adjusting the multiplier still cannot guarantee the success of the overclocking. There are some additional factors that must be taken into account.

　

I. Preparations before overclocking.

1. Learn about the super-frequency performance you have configured, and check whether your CPU and memory are super-powerful. Whether the motherboard and the surrounding heat dissipation environment support the super-frequency.

2. Learn the basic knowledge about super frequency. For example, what is external frequency, frequency doubling, memory timing, and HTT bus frequency are summarized as follows:

 

A. CPU clock speed = External frequency * Frequency Doubling (generally speaking, the overclock is to change the frequency and frequency doubling so that the CPU runs at a higher frequency than the standard frequency to achieve the purpose of overclock)

B. As for what is the HTT bus frequency, you only need to understand the relationship, that is, the CPU external frequency * HTT bus speed (Note: Non-CPU multiplier) should not exceed the HTT bus frequency, otherwise, the system may be unstable!

Taking the AMD X2 3600 + U as an example, the default external frequency is 200, the frequency is 10 *, The HTT bus frequency is up to 1000 MHz, and the default HTT bus speed is 5 *, that is, 200*5 = 1000. If you want to overclock the CPU to 250, to meet the 250 * HTT bus speed not greater than 1000, in BIOS, we must change the HTT bus speed from the default * 5 to * 4 or lower. (In some BIOS, * 5, * 4, * 3, and other options are not included, but replaced with * 1000, * 800, * 600, and so on .)

Ii. issues that should be paid attention to during the overclocking Process

1. Study your motherboard manual in detail to understand what the BIOS represents in English. At least you need to figure out the main items, such as where to adjust the voltage and where to change the memory timing)

2. Eliminate all interference factors, such as shielding sound cards and NICs, and disabling CNQ cool-down technology before trying to overclock, it is particularly worth noting that the AGP/PCI frequency or PCIE frequency should be locked to ensure the stable operation of other components. The AGP/PCI frequency is locked at 66/33, and the PCIE frequency is locked at 100 MHz.

3. Add proper voltage to the CPU and memory. The principle is very simple. to work overtime, you must pay the overtime fee as the driving force. But do not adjust the voltage too high at once, because it is highly risky and easy to burn out components. (We recommend that you use the minimum stride available in the BIOS for upward adjustment. The maximum applied voltage should not exceed 0.3 V)

4. synchronous/asynchronous memory.

A. What is memory synchronization/Asynchronization. There are two types of overclocking: Memory synchronization overclocking and memory asynchronous overclocking. Memory synchronization can optimize the overclocking performance, while memory Asynchronization is mainly applicable when the overclocking is very high, for example, an external frequency of 280, 290, or even more than 300. The so-called memory synchronization refers to overclock the memory when it is working at a standard frequency. I still use my configuration as an example: My memory is Yuzhan DDR2 667, and its standard operating frequency is 333.3 MHz, if synchronous overclocking is required, I should select DDR667 In the BIOS memory settings. Otherwise, if DDR533 or DDR 400 is selected, the memory is asynchronous!

B. Why asynchronous overclocking? Since memory synchronization can optimize the overclocking performance, why asynchronous overclocking? The reason is that the main board, memory, and CPU overclock are an overall concept, that is, you are overclock the CPU and the main board at the same time. As long as you change the external frequency of the CPU, the actual working frequency of the memory will also rise. Generally, before the maximum external frequency of the CPU, the actual working frequency of the memory has reached the limit value that can be reached by the memory frequency. At this time, it is impossible to continue to tune the external frequency of the CPU. Because the memory frequency has been maximized, it becomes the bottleneck of overclock. However, what should I do if I still want to tune up the External CPU frequency? In this case, you must first reduce the memory frequency, that is, asynchronous memory!

 

Iii. How to verify stability after overclocking

1. After testing the stability of the super-frequency machine, you can use super pi, 3DMark03/05/06, Memtest, SP2004, and other software. After the super-frequency testing, you can run the above software without errors and complete the process smoothly, this proves that your system is relatively stable. Congratulations! (Note: SP2004 should be running for at least two hours)

2. Of course, in addition to the above method, you can also play a large game to verify the stability of your super-frequency machine. For example, if you have been running for more than 10 hours without getting stuck, restarting, blue screen, or crashed, your system is relatively stable and overclock successfully!

Iv. remedy for overclocking failure

The overclock failure mentioned here does not mean that the component fails to burn out because of your high voltage. If this is the case, you can change the hardware! The failure I mentioned only refers to the situations where the startup cannot be started or the system cannot be accessed due to the excessively high frequency. In this case, you only need to remove the battery on the motherboard and discharge the motherboard, you can reset the default BIOS settings. Wait for 3 to 5 minutes and install the battery. Then you can re-enter the BIOS and set it!

The above are the super-frequency knowledge I learned in the forum and the summary of the essence. If anything is wrong, please give me some advice, thank you! In addition, if you have learned something in this post, I hope you can reply. Your reply is my motivation for posting! After all, it took me a whole night to summarize this post.