Maximum PC

Don't know if this has been posted before, but here it is...
There is a PDF download version for offline viewing and printing too.
I have found this guide more helpful than any other. A lot of the information carries over to Intel as well.

http://www.diy-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28049

This guide helped me hit 2.8Ghz on my open case air cooled opty 165.
It explains everything with a lot of examples and details.

A lot of the info is for DFI/Lanparty boards, but the same basic stuff applies to other boards too.

They give examples for Intel as well, because most of the techniques apply. It goes into serious detail, it is the most detailed guide I've seen so far.

But everyone knows that my guide is better

Seriously though, nice find!

Hi Ravenhawk, your guide is nice, but I will say I think it needs a little work. It is not as detailed, and does not break down the steps they way I would like to see.

For one thing, when approaching an overclock, you need to address each component separately first to find out the Max of your CPU, then the Max of your RAM, then the Max of your Graphics Card (but I have never OC'd graphics).

So I think your guide should mention that specifically and break them out into different sections. The way you isolate is that you:

1) Do CPU first
- Underclock Ram
- Underclock HTT for AMD
- Not sure about Intel have not done it (YET - next week!)

2) After you find the Max of your CPU you start over for RAM:
- underclock your CPU or put at stock
- underclock HTT
- start stepping RAM up until you get failures in memtest, etc

3) Graphics Card Time....
- I'm a graphics noob so I would not know what to put here, or even if
you really need to isolate by underclocking etc.
4) Put it all together time
- Now that you know Max CPU & RAM, need to find right multiplier that
maximizes both
- Etc.

Anyways, I don't mean you any disrespect, and this is just my opinion, and hopefully you will take this feedback and improve the guide.

I would even suggest breaking it out into two sections, or divide each subsection up into an Intel and AMD section. I know there are some basics that are a little different, but most things are the same.

I'm on the look out for a really detailed guide to overclocking Intel, Specifically, an updated one that focuses on teh Q6600 or other current quad core offerings would be awesome, since this is my next OC project.

Thanks for your input. If you noticed though, I did put the CPU OCing first, the RAM speed second, and the GPU third. Also, I don't think it's necessary to divide it between Intel and AMD, since the principal is still the same, just different terminology, which I made sure to mention. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by underclocking, since it is in fact an overclocking guide. We are trying to find the max, not the minimum. Thanks for your input though!

I think what he means by underclocking is setting the other components to run lower so you only hit one overclocking ceiling at a time.

Yep that's exactly what I mean. I'm talking about the part when you talk about overclocking the CPU.... During the first phase it is best to isolate memory, either by unlinking it, or putting it on a ratio... If you just start winding up HTT or FSB you are overlocking both at the same time.

The end result is to overclock both, but it is easier to get there by doing them one at a time to find the max of your CPU and max of your RAM separately so if you get failures you know which part is responsible.

I think in my feedback I was missing the final step where you take the results from overclocking CPU & RAM separately. Then at the end you figure out the good FSB + Ratio so you can have both at a reasonable, stable max (sacrificing a little RAM speed for CPU speed if you need to!).

You are right you don't really need to totally break out AMD and Intel but it would be good to point out the differences at each step. For example, from reading these forums it looks like most enthusiast Intel boards have a way of unlinking RAM, while that is not an option on AMD (that I have seen). If you mentioned at the start of the CPU section about unlinking RAM, or putting it on a ratio so it runs slower, and for AMD you have to turn the HTT down I think you would have it covered.