J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

My Athlon was getting a bit hot, it normally ran at 48/49 with a peak of 50 occasionally (games), recently its been getting higher, to 56 so something had to be done, bought a cheap Coolermaster (HAC V81) cooler from PC world for 12.93, took pc apart when I got in, cleaned all the crap out (very very dusty), took video card out and dismantled fan and cobs of crud fell out, fitted new heat sink and took out crummy generic one out, pink plastic pad all goey with paste as well. Also I cut out the metal behind the case fan as it was harbouring crap and impeding the airflow, I dont know how they thought it would flow air. I fitted the fan control to the front of the pc (it has a variable resistor to control speed) by drilling a hole in a blanking plate.

The result for thirteen quid and an hours work, its now gone down to 38/39 with the fan cranked up or about 41/42 with it turned down. Its pretty noisy with it up high but quite acceptable when turned down.

Just had to tell somebody ! and the wife wasnt in a mood to humour me !

Feeling cocky now may even go for some modest overclocking, if anyone cares to assist I would be grateful, its an Athlon XP 1700+
in an Epox Motherboard (8KHA+) with 512 MB Crucial DDR 2100, SB Live and an ASUS Geforce 3 also fitted.

Gedi

not to spoil your fun, but AMD's are fine to run at 56. The different core design draws more power than the intels, but this is OK.

anyway, congrats.....may the modding continue

Jye

I take it when you got rid of the old goey thermal pad you then replaced it with decent thermal paste?

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Decent thermal paste ?

Well Maplins finest, not Artic Silver or anything, I know its ok at 56 but its better at 43 and gives a bit of headroom for overclocking.

Jye

P1 Enthusiast

Try using a Pabst 30CFM fan which is nice and quiet and an SLK800 or 900 (future proof with the 900).

Top temps you want sustained for your cpu under load is about 50-55C really. Recommend www.overclockers.co.uk and either a Shin Etsu thermal pad for the cpu or AS3 (if your confident - good instruction on web for it though).

A 2100+ might be a good buy also for 60 quid for better clocking but i am sure you 1700+ should do about 2100 MHz, have fun

(Dont be scared putting the voltage to 1.85V in the bios for the cpu, it will be fine)

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Do I need to do the thingy with the bridges on the CPU as it looks scary !

Can I wind the FSB up ?

Are there any guides to overclocking for amateurs ?

kamikaze

Its always better to shell out on a faster cpu in tghe first place rather than overclock
For example its only 25 quid more to buy a 2.4 gig cpu rather than a 2 gig one
Saves a lot of time and effort

My experience of overclocking is that you cant tell any actual tangible improvement anyway.

P1 Enthusiast

J4cko, suggest you visit the following forums;

www.overclockers.co.uk >> Forums
www.overclockers.com >> forums

Both offer excellent advice, overclocking is not hard nor is it complicated, you just need to know what temperature to stop clocking at and what tests to run to make sure the rig is completely stable. Normally ppl recommend running a benchmark overnight to test it.

The multiplier, FSB and voltage adjustments should be in your bios depending on your motherboard. The 166FSB (333 speed) will be fine and is suitable and optimal for memory so can leave that alone.

Rest is just upping the multiplier and seeing what temperature you get, if you try too much it just won't boot, no harm should be done. If the temperature is still low you can try more voltage to get the higher multiplier stable until its run at 50-55C max.

MATTeL

http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.yk is another good place to gt kit from.

Shaun

The BEST thing I ever bought not long ago was a Alloy case with 6 fans in it, a new 500w PS with 2 fans.

Immediately solved my heating problems.

Attu

Ive just upgraded my XP2200 for a XP1700 the XP1700 is now running a 700mhz overclock as an XP2400.
You need to make sure its the right type of XP1700 but rumour has it that they are XP2400 or XP2600 but badged as XP1700's.
Not bad for £45 and it runs at 40 deg C air cooled.

Andy