Maximum PC

Hi guys,

I'm fresh and green when it comes to O.C. although I've been reading many articles / forums about it but the fear of burning the CPU inhibited me from messing with bios.

until... yesterday.. when I downloaded and run AMD OVERDRIVE OC software... The following 3 screenshots shows it all..
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm445/dikospunso/COMPUTERS/AMD_Overdrive_03.jpg?t=1296442495
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm445/dikospunso/COMPUTERS/AMD_Overdrive_02.jpg?t=1296442494
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm445/dikospunso/COMPUTERS/AMD_Overdrive_01.jpg?t=1296442478

Those settings are effective on computer startup.

But I just want to know if I can simply edit the BIOS using the above numbers, but I know there are way more settings on the bios. So whats a better approach ? Should I edit the bios as much as I can, then set the rest to [auto] ?

What are your current hardwafre specs?





Ted

oh sorry i forgot to post it..

* Asus M3A78-CM
* AMD athlon Phenom II x4 940
* 2GB x 2, DDR2 (4GB)
* GTX 260 - 896MB
* win7 64-bit

Those numbers give you a good starting point .. you know your PC can run with them.

The BIOS allows you to do more .. this includes more harm .. I highly recommend doing a lot of reading before changing any settings that your OC program didn't touch.

Finally, if you set your BIOS to auto, it will revert all the changes you've made. Auto is for suckers.

Hi Jipstyle,

Thanks again for ur great tips and suggestions

This is my current gamer PC ... until my PSU arrive for my sandybridge* build..
* my sandy bridge thread : viewtopic.php?f=35&t=110736&start=20

I really prefer software-based O.C. but its for windows OS only.
When my Sandybridge is up and running, I'm gonna use this as my linux box and thats when I need to do OC in bios level.

What I found with Intel's XMP settings was that they were far more aggressive than they needed to be. But it's a starting point to start lowering select items from. Volts are what kill hardware, and that's one I found far too aggressive. It's a bit backwards from baby-steps up (since you're going down) but may be a valid option if you like some of the speeds you're currently offered. On that one, I was able to drop the CAS one full notch across the board, get the CPU volts back to suggested "safe" levels, and remain at the 1800Mhz memory / 3.8Ghz CPU speeds XMP had set for me.

SB will be a piece of cake. Just think really hard about adjusting any volts or offsets/skews. If you get the K-version, you'll be at 4Ghz in no time without touching a voltage setting or buying heatsinks.

hi these tips are Intel CPU-related ? cuz this thread is about AMD Phenom II X4. But since I will be building a sandybridge when my PSU arrive, thanks for the tips too

Yes. I made it a general post to be general. I have to add words to avoid short word bans.

If Auto did it, so can you....AMD, Intel, or Cyrix: It all works the same.