Hey there Geoff, I just wanted to say that your beginner’s guide to overclocking, was immensely helpful and without a doubt the best guide regarding overclocking I have read thus far simply because you assume that the reader has no prior knowledge on the topic; something a lot of tutorial based writers often neglect, plus from my experience, overclocking can be as simple or as complicated as the user wants it to be and you definitely highlight this fact and it shows in your writing; your guide is simple enough for beginners to understand yet it manages to delve into the more complex aspects of OCing, so kudos on that.

Anyway buddy, keep up the good work yeah?

I also need to add that i enjoyed this article. Learned alot although i wish someone would compile a down to earth dictionary for the multitude of terms used by all the different companys to describe the same things. Another thing I wish someone would share is more of these great programs like Prime95, Ntune, and CPUID dont know how i lived without them

Holy CPU coolers, Batman!

I like these guides. Are more on the way?

Great article, Ive never really gotten into the whole OC thing I just buy the best I can at that time and upgrade about every year or so but Im tempted to try this stuff out just for fun. I just picked up a Phenom 9600 black box edition and I think ill start there.

Nice article.
Stuff I've oc'ed over the years:
Celeron 400@498
Celeron 366@550
CuMine P3 700@933
Tualatin 1.0@1.3
Duron 600@950
Mobile Barton 1.8@2350
Mobile 754 K8@2.6
current: Brisbane 3600x2 (1.9 I believe) @2.95

Im home for Christmas right now, but my rig at school is a GA-P35C-DS3R with a B3 Q6600, so I plan on entering.

Right now Ive got it running at 3.0, and Ive tried to poke up higher and I think its my cheap G.Skill memory thats letting me down. Plus the B3 version of the Q6600 runs hotter than the G0s most people have, so I dont know if Ill start hitting a thermal wall too.

Hopefully my fellow gerbils will have useful advice.

Can someone tell me why lowering the multiplier and raising the FSB is bad?

I have an Opteron 185 Stock 200Mhz x 13 Multi = 2.6Ghz

Can't get any higher unless i drop it down to 233Mhz x 12 Multi = 2.8Ghz

and so on...

Do i even have any other overclocking options without having unlocked multipliers?

great cezars ghost! you got over 70% overclock on the e6750 on stock cooling? thats amazing...

I've been hearing about a black phenom. playtime will be fun next year.

Good stuff, I stopped my overclocking before messing with voltages until now...

Very nice, very nice. If you keep this up TR well may well be in danger of becoming known as the guide to all things PC.

Love the sidepipes heatpipes shot on that HSF. It's almost worthy of Popular Mechanics. :-) Missed the manicured nails, though...

Page 3:
"The processor affinity for each Prime95 instance can then be set through the app's advanced options."

This statement, unelaborated, I suspect will cause the intended audience of this guide to either scratch their heads, or just disregard it entirely as incomprehensible while reading, and forgotten later. Granted, one can easily look this up elsewhere, but perhaps a few more words here would make this guide more user-friendly? Just a thought.

I choose my components based on price, unfortunately. As a result, I have never seen such a plethora of awesome overclocking bus options as well as voltage settings. Colour me green.
Also, my memory was always stock stuff, which probably didn't let me overclock that much.
Celeron 600@675
Athlon XP TB-A 1533 (unlocked, but not overclocked... even when I dropped the multiplier and raised the FSB, there was always some small thing that would push the system over the cliff)

Hmm, how about TR Gigabyte Volar review?
It's in the picture already. ;-)

next up: overclocking the Killer NIC.

i find it pretty odd that some E4400 owners can OC to 3.2 and i can't hit 3.15 without the system refusing to POST and resets back to default BIOS settings...from the guide I THINK i can conclude that its the RAM thats holding back the process

btw i have a question, do you need to add an overvoltage to the northbridge (which in the BIOS is MCH or something of the sort?)

thanks for the guide TR, i hope you guys come up with more guides :)

Ahh, good times when one was forced to overclock because the higher speed grades was just too darn expensive. Nowdays speed is cheep and overclocking is just a good way to pass time and a "because i can" thing. Not to mention that i value stability and silence above all right now except when im gaming.

Just the other day i actually threw out my Athlon k7-500. I never did overclock that sucker as i in part didnt want to pry the casing off, or get hold of en overclocking card to use on the extra piece. Bad move as it turns out. Before i tossed it out i took the casing off, its worthless anyway. And lo and behold. Even some of the earlier 500Mhz athlons that came out was really K7-650 ones.

Oh well, might try it on the next workstation, depending on how it performs.

Guess I'm lazy. I just use the software o'clock utilities that come with the manufacturer. Gaudy, yes, but fiddling with BIOS lost it's luster a ways back...

Nicely done article there Geoff.
Intel's Core 2 processors O/C like crazy but they get hot after 3.4Ghz or so.Aftermarket cooling is a must for those going higher if they want a stable system.
I was wondering if TR is planning a look into the Extensible Firmware interface which is inching its way(it seems) towards broad release?.
Might be best if they let Apple do the interface :))

This article takes me back. Specifically, to a K6-2/400 that ran at 504MHz for a couple months before destabilizing...

That has to be the biggest chunk of metal I've seen since Titanic.

I'm content with stock coolers, in fact I'm particularly impressed by intel's stock solution.

i just oc'ed my e2160 from 1.8 to 3.5 ghz 89% oc, best cpu ever

Any plans to address overclocking CPUs from that other manufacturer? I can see those fanboys rubbing their hands to blast this about "biased" and whatever other bad words they can come up with.

that is indeed a 100% unadulterate truth :)

Thank you so much for this guide.

My early experiences with overclocking back in the 90's did not go well, so I gave up on it. I'm going to try it again now.