Questions About Overclocking From A Newbie

[Eros]

im new to overclocking really, have done much with it so i have lots of questions!!

 

for all my questions lets use my athalon xp 1800 cpu

 

 

now just because a comp just crashes after upping the cpu speed doesnt mean that its overheating correct? could it be the voltage going to the cpu? how does upping the voltage help the cpu?

 

what is a dangerous cpu temp? and a system temp?

 

lets say that i have a stick of pc100 @ CAS level 2.. would it compare to a stick of pc133 @ CAS level 3? does upping my CAS increase my speed of my ram?

 

changing the speed of my ram in my motherbored from 100-133mhz, would there be a huge different in system speed?

 

speed related questions

 

how fast is PCI, ISA,SERIAL,PARRALELL,AT,PS2,ports?

 

 

im overclocking my videocard with RadClocker, whats a general safe speed with ati raedon 7200 cards, for the ram as well

 

thanks all!!!

[Eva_Unit_0]

Hmmmm....that's a lot to respond to. However, you already seem to know pretty well what you're talking about. ( Good! You're only a half-noob!) I'll just make a few comments:

 

1. Correct, just because a cpu isn't stable doesn't mean the problem is heat-related. raising the core voltage will increase stability, but also cause more heat to the generated.

 

2. We try to keep our cpu's below 55 deg Celsius. System temp isn't as clear cut...just make sure you have plenty of airflow thorugh the case, since system temps affect the all-important cpu temp.

 

 

3. Once again, you are right with the clock speed vs. timings. Although I'm not sure if your exact example would perform the same, you have the right idea. Ram speed is all about finding a balance between clock speed and latency. Also, like you said, running at tighter timings at the same speed will increase performance, although you'd really only be able to see a difference in benchmarks.

 

4. Yes, running the memory at 133 would give quite a considerable speed boost over running the ram at 100, especially if you don't have ddr memory and bandwidth is at a premium in your comp. However, be aware that this relates back to #3.

 

5. PCI- 33mhz ISA- 16mhz (i think)...and who cares about the rest. You can't overclock any of these since that causes stability problems and gives no performance gain.

 

6. With a video card, you just keep raising in ~5mhz increments until you get artifacts. Test with something like 3dmark01 after every increase to check for artifacts. When you get them, lower the speeds by 1 increment and you should be fine.