[Zantham]

cont'd

So now you've raised your CPU up a ways, maybe your hitting over 3GHz now. Eventually you are going to hit the wall. Either your system will not POST (black screen, wont boot). In this case you will probly have to clear your CMOS and reset it all back to stock. Then reboot it at stock and run some tests to make sure its OK. Then you can go back into your BIOS and play with your FSB some more.

Another thing that might have happened is your system booted OK, but memtest failed. Again, you will have to consider your next steps carefully.

Or, your system booted OK, passes Memtest, but XP locked, or BSOD on you (Blue Screen of Death). The BSOD generally causes a spontaneous reboot. Again you have hit a wall with your overclocking and may need to set your FSB a little lower to get it to work properly.

Or finally, your system boots, goes into XP, temps are all ok, but when you start your stress tests you start getting errors. You have hit a wall.

Note the FSB setting where it crashed, and where it was last stable.

Because now we get to where the smart people STOP...overvolting the CPU.

WARNING: The following DEFINITELY can cause physical damage!!!

NEVER EVER go over 1.8 Volts on the CPU. Even if your temperatures and stability allow it, DON'T. At 1.8 Volts your CPU begins an accelerated slow death called electron migration. This occurs all the time with electronics, but normally happens so slowly that the product itself (such as your CPU) has been upgraded / replaced / whatever. At 1.8V, this electron migration in a Core 2 Duo has been shown to increase exponentially. So it may work a while...days...months...years....but the odds of it failing increase dramatically. I never go beyond 1.6V myself. The more you raise your voltage, the faster you drain the life from your CPU.

The other problem with overvolting is heat. Even a fraction of a volt can massively raise temperatures. Hence this next part is even slower and more painstaking.

Most Core 2 Duos run around 1.35V. Your BIOS will allow very small voltage increments, usually 1/8th of a volt or less.

Here is where the gamble comes in...how much are you going to raise your voltage? Depending on your temps in the previous tests, you may be able to raise it a full volt, or you may want to go 1/2 or 1/4 of a volt, until you get a feel of how much the voltages change the temps. Note at higher voltages the temps raise even faster! Before you change your voltage, you will want to learn where your BIOS shows the temps of your hardware. BIOS temps are generally higher than what Core Temp showed in Windows, partly because of no power savings (System Idle thread, power management, etc). Again, note your temps in here before continuing.

Now overvolt your CPU. Let's assume you threw caution to the wind and went to 1.4V. Adjust this in your BIOS, save your settings and reboot. Immediately go into your BIOS again, and into the temperatures page. Again, if your CPU is hitting high temps, you will immediately have to power off your computer, hopefully before it causes any damage....

So you watched your temps for a few minutes in the BIOS and its all good, you now will reboot into XP. Again, watch your temps as you run idle, and now, more than ever, as you perform your stress / stability testing.

You will notice as you increase voltage, the differential between your idle temps and your max CPU temps will increase greatly. For example, your idle temp stock may have been 30C, your FFTs test may have hit 55C. Now that you've overvolted it some, your idle may be 35C, but your max temps may increase to 65C! This effect gets more pronounced the higher you overvolt your CPU.

So now your over clocking becomes:

Raise FSB, check temps, stability, etc. When you hit errors in testing or instability, raise your voltage a notch, at your discretion. Then test your CPU at the same FSB settings as just crashed on you, check for stability, temps, etc. If you still have errors, either cut your losses and drop your FSB (and possibly voltage) and call it quits...or keep raising the voltages. Keep doing this until either you hit a voltage you are no longer comfortable with, your temps are getting too high under orthos testing, or you plain can't keep it stable anymore.

When you think you have finally gotten your system stable, its temps are all acceptable even under load, now you begin more stability testing, such as memtest overnight, orthos overnight, 3D Mark run again and again in a row, any combination of orthos and 3DMark....whatever it takes to check stability. You may want to try some of your games out too, play them at high settings so it makes your system crawl (if you can set it that high!)

Congratulations....if your computer is still working....you've now just overclocked your CPU successfully.