Found 2 programs that work rather well for overclocking if anyone is interested?
Powerstrip that overclocks your PCI/AGP video card and
MZCPUAccelorator for CPU.
Did wonders for my machines.
Any other suggestions?
tracker.

my Q6600 2.4GHz cpu does 3.6GHz on air default voltage just by increasing the FSB manually. No software needed. Runs smooth too.

Also a frys combo (Athlon II X3 435 + MSI board) I recently got for $79.99 AR does 3.8GHz on air with a little increase of voltage with FSB as-well.

my Q6600 2.4GHz cpu does 3.6GHz on air default voltage just by increasing the FSB manually. No software needed. Runs smooth too.

Also a frys combo (Athlon II X3 435 + MSI board) I recently got for $79.99 AR does 3.8GHz on air with a little increase of voltage with FSB as-well.

Pro96, could you put that in terms that a "newbie" to this stuff is working on?
FSB? I am very interested and if you could share some knowledge it would be appreciated.
tracker

Pro96, could you put that in terms that a "newbie" to this stuff is working on?
FSB? I am very interested and if you could share some knowledge it would be appreciated.
tracker

This will help ya..

Beginners Guides: Overclocking the CPU, Motherboard and Memory - PCSTATS.com (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1804)

Pro96, thank you very much. I am new at this and this and at a glance it seems to be a very good read! It's a very interesting topic and have noticed that very minor changes can make a big difference,
I will read with great interest and see if I can apply any changes for testing.
thanks again for your input!
tracker.

Pro96, thank you very much. I am new at this and this and at a glance it seems to be a very good read! It's a very interesting topic and have noticed that very minor changes can make a big difference,
I will read with great interest and see if I can apply any changes for testing.
thanks again for your input!
tracker.

No problem, just remember one huge detail first. Most OEM PC's like Dell, Compaq, Gateway, etc will not overclock with FSB since they lock out that feature in the bios.

One way to Overclock say a Dell is to modify the Processor itself to increase the Mhz speed on it from stock.

Also alot of barebones you buy/built don't overclock too well, specially generic boards.
Good overclocking boards have always been like Asus, MSI, Abit, and other well known brands.

pro 96.
I'm working with NetVista machines and 1 Dell
Can you tell me what FSB is?

I know next to nothing about overclocking but I'll take a crack at FSB. FSB is front side bus.

Look here and try to do the math with one of these from the list:
List of Intel Pentium 4 microprocessors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

P4 cpus are quad pumped meaning that a 400 fsb gets divided by 4.

A 1.6ghz 400fsb cpu is 400/4=100, 16 times multiplier times that 100=1.6ghz

Look at the pentium 4 extreme edition. 1066fsb/4=266.5 14x gives you 3.73ghz.

You can see how changing the fsb would give you a new speed.

Pro96 has a 2.4ghz 1066 fsb (1066/4=266.5, 9x266.5= about 2400). To get to 3.6 he could change that 1066 to 1600 (266.5 to 400) or the multiplier from 9X to about 14X. I'm interested to find out how he actually did it. I can tell you how to do the math but not what works in the real world.

Thanks for the link avg1joe.
I will do some reading there also and dig for info to find the jumpers if there is any on this IBM NetVista 8305?
Any other info welcomed!
tracker

The multiplier on the Q6600 is factory locked at 9x, so the FSB is up to 400 to achieve 3600MHz
400x9=3600

Some Processors have the multiplier unlocked, most don't.

Overclocking is more art than science, especially with the older Intel CPU/chipsets.

The 8305 is a ~5 year old model based on 845G chipset.
Although IBM had always their own BIOS in PCs, I haven't seen too many mobos (especially in branded PCs) with the capability to lock the PCI/AGP clock while overclocking the CPU. Without such independence you most likely won't get much more than 10% stable overclock. Especially if you have any PCI extension cards installed.

Diogen.

I'd like to add that just because you raised your FSB and were able to get into Windows, doesn't mean that your system is stable. You'll need to stress your system to see if it's stable, some applications out there are Prime95, Intel Burn Test, etc. You also want to monitor your temperatures while stressing so you need a temperature monitoring software for this. If your system fails the test, it's not stable and you will probably need to raise your voltage to make it stable.

Before you do any overclocking, you want to find out what's your max temperature and your max voltage for your processor. And like Diogen mentioned above, overclocking is an art but you need to know what you're doing or you'll fry your new processor. :)

Got Ya, This is why I'm asking questions and doing some reading before anything else. I'm using MZCPU accelerator and Power strip and that seems to be going good for now. I also have SpeedFan working to monitor stuff. To tell you though, it doesn't look to good being able to do anything more than that with my IBM's? Haven't looked at my Dell yet to see if anything is possible there?
But I have to say, the reason I first started this thread is because MZCPU and PowerStrip are making a big difference in a safe enviroment. I'm not saying it's making things lightning fast but a considerable difference.
I do quite a bit of streaming video and this seems to have worked out the picture stuter.
If anyone has other program suggestions that I may have missed, please share.
Thanks, tracker

I think it is interesting to play around with this, especially on secondary PCs...

But this experience has more of a textbook value, i.e. not much applicable on modern CPUs. The overclocking scene is quite a bit different today compared to 5 years ago. For example, all Black Edition AMDs have its multiplier not locked, i.e. your overclock depends mostly on how efficient your cooling is. If you really want to get something for nothing read this writeup about unlocking two hidden cores in Phenom II X2 555 and make it a 4-core CPU...
AnandTech: Unlocking the Phenom II X2 555: 3.2GHz Quad-Core for $99 (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3730)

Diogen.

More read,, great!!
Yes, very interesting topic to say the least.
Thanks, tracker.

I'd like to add that just because you raised your FSB and were able to get into Windows, doesn't mean that your system is stable. You'll need to stress your system to see if it's stable, some applications out there are Prime95, Intel Burn Test, etc. You also want to monitor your temperatures while stressing so you need a temperature monitoring software for this. If your system fails the test, it's not stable and you will probably need to raise your voltage to make it stable.

Before you do any overclocking, you want to find out what's your max temperature and your max voltage for your processor. And like Diogen mentioned above, overclocking is an art but you need to know what you're doing or you'll fry your new processor. :)

Q6600 2400MHz @ 3600MHz 100% stable with Prime95 running all night long.. lasted more then I did lol

Screen capture just done right now.. on my Q6600 machine

Q6600 2400MHz @ 3600MHz 100% stable with Prime95 running all night long.. lasted more then I did lol

Sweet! I pushed my AMD X4 630 from 2800Mhz to 3500 Mhz. Of course, Prime95 stable. :D

It's wild you all have the knowledge to do this stuff!!
I have a little time on my hands at the moment and would like to learn.
I don't suppose I can do anything with my VIC 20 that is the basement???? LOL.. Laugh all you will!!I also have an old IBM with a green monitor down there that I used to used for my packet HAM communications. Got it from a fair in the States. It boasted not one but 2 x5 1/4" flopply drives.. WOW!! So heavy,, I'm thinking of making a boat anchor of it??
tracker.

Any overclocking horror stories before someone gets the idea that this is a good idea to do to their main machine?

I got a bunch of mac G3 blue/white towers for $5 each. I decided to try overclocking with them (which could be done with jumpers). I forget the numbers I achieved but what I remember clearly is permanently killing the onboard ethernet port. I should have done a little more research because I was not the first person to have that side effect.

Anyone else break anything?

I've never overclocked Macs before so I can help you there. I've overclocked Intel and AMD processors and one thing I learned is to go slowly. You raise FSB by 5 and test, if it fails you raise voltage a bit and test. There are many methods and you can find guides on how to do it on many forums.

Read and learn about your processor and have realistic expectations before doing anything. You CAN kill your CPU or motherboard if you do it wrong. For some people the 10-20% is not worthy but for me is more of a hobby than anything else, I don't play games on the computer.

As was said in the last 2 posts by avg1joe and RandallA, that it can be a mess if not done right. This is why I think I'm going to stick to the programs rather than fooling with the machines themselves but will read the links out of interest. The programs do a fair job and as stated that one can only expect so much from overclocking.

Even on motherboards with locked multiples FSB/PCI/AGP from the early Pentium IV times, I've never had problems going from 133MHz FSB to 141MHz on decnt cooling, even stock, i.e. 6%.
When attempting this once on a SFF Sony PC the CPU was fried in a few minutes: inadequate cooling.

Going higher on such boards was always a gamble.

Diogen.

3700MHz on air smooth :D

Here are some world records of extreme overclocking

CPU-Z Highest Records ! (V1.01) (http://valid.canardpc.com/records.php)

Here is a capture from my $79 Frys combo (MSI 785GTM-E45 & AMD Athlon II X3 440) using the AMD Stock fan too..

3000Mhz @ 3810Mhz on air default voltage

Here is a capture from my $79 Frys combo (MSI 785GTM-E45 & AMD Athlon II X3 440) using the AMD Stock fan too..

3000Mhz @ 3810Mhz on air default voltage

What are your temperatures when you stress it? You could probably squeeze a bit more since you voltage is not that high. That's a nice overclock.

What are your temperatures when you stress it? You could probably squeeze a bit more since you voltage is not that high. That's a nice overclock.

31 °C approx since this MSI board runs at lower voltage been that is GREEN.

I used to do extreme oc with water cooling many years ago, but got tired of the mess and condensation it caused.

Once I hit 4500MHz with an old 2.6GHz P4 chip with water cooling at temps of 20 °C