Overclocking Noob. Advice

Hi, im new to the forum so first id like to say hi, and thanks in advance for any help given.

Basically ive been building/fixing/maintaining computers for years now, got some qualifications etc so im reasonably well clued up hardware wise. But havent built one in a while until now...

Im building one for a friend. Got a foxconn SiS 661FXME motherbaord with a Northwood 2.8Ghz CPU (SL6PF).

The Foxconn website says the FSB is overclockable to 800Mhz. Id like to try and attempt this, but the thing is ive never even thought about overclocking etc before and i cant seem to find any good/useful information on the net (without spending hours searching).

I figured the best thing to do was find a good forum and ask.

My main question is, How does this all work? Is it a software based modification? if so is there somewhere I can get some good, preferably free software for a noob in this area?

Sorry for the long post...

Thanks

T

m facing the same probelm..
i do want to know abt this term.. of overclocking..
plz help me out in this regard.
m really thankful to u at this ..

Overclocking is the act of increasing the clock speed of your computer's components (such as your CPU, which might have a default clock speed of 2000mhz (2ghz), and pushing it to 2500mhz(2.5ghz))

Overclocking is primarely done via the BIOS for each motherboard, however it is not without risks. Many components are built to barely meet the specifications they have, for economy reasons, and pushing them beyond that will often cause them to fail. Also you will need *VERY* high quality cooling and power supplies to handle the increased demand, as the components will become less energy-efficient as they are pushed further beyond their normal usage limits. DO NOT attempt to overclock if your system is not *ROCK SOLID* stable to start with, and *DO NOT* do it on any vital system.

To overclock, first you need to know your current specs, I'd recommend using software like Sandra to check on what the currently running specs of oyur hardware is (NB, Memory, CPU, GPU, etc.) Then start with researching your components, find the maximum they are officially rated for, for example, my memory (Crucial Balistix) was rated for 3-2-2-5 timings, but was runnning at 4-3-3-6 by my motherboards default. After confirming it was stable at that speed, I adjusted the motherboard to manual memory timings, and set the 3-2-2-5 timings, giving me about a 15% increase in memory throughput. The CPU I chose was an AMD 4000+, I researched and saw it's the same core used in the 4400+, and while the multiplier was locked, the FSB wasn't, so once I confirmed everything was stable, I slowly started raising my FSB 2mhz at a time (default was 200, moved to 202, rebooted, ran it for an hour, seemed good, move to 204, etc.) I would choose realtively frequent points for extended use testing, such as 210mhz for my FSB, and would run a week at that speed, making sure it was fine before moving up any more.

With good hardware and good cooling, you can usually manage about 30% above stock speeds. With very good hardware and exotic cooling (such as watercooling products from Thermaltake or Koolance) that can be almost 60%, and in rare cases 80%, but this is all at the risk of destroying your hardware and data.

I have a 661FXME-E that had a 2.4g intel cele and switched to a 1.7g P4 witha bit of cache. Thought the celeron was locking my fsb at 100mHz (eg 24x1000fsb=2.4g) but the P4 does the same 17x100mHz fsb=1.7g. Cant find a proper manual for this board other than an "easy install". Any bios foxconn has for the 661FX series is not specific for the ME-E. If I raise the fsb above 100mHz (the max is 132mHz, for whatever reason) nadda, pc will not boot reset cmos to fix. There are ratio's for the fsb upto 2:1 eg: 100mHz fsb = 200mHz ram. I need help getting my ram upto par.


foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/detail_overview.aspx?ID=en-us0000108

You may want your own thread for your problem. Anyway, I can't get your link to work to look at your particular mother board and/or bios, and really need more information about your system. What bios? What type (brand and speed) of ram do you have? And perhaps most importantly, what exactly is your question? All you have are statements of the fsb and multiplier speeds of your two cpus.
I take it you are trying to OC by increasing your fsb, which causes the pc to not boot.
Without having anything else to go on, have you looked in the bios for an option to lock the AGP frequency?