hi there
a couple of days ago i ordered my new upgrades consisting of an AQXEA xp2500 and 2x 512mb twinmos 3200 ram from cpu city and theyve just arrived this morning,and now i need ure help please
im totally new to overclocking so i dont realy have a clue other than upping the fsb on how to get a succesful overclock,,my upgades are going into my sn41g2 which as we all know is an nforce2 board (supposedly great for overclocking),,so what ide like from u guys is a surefire way to get a succesful overclock on my new processor (which is supposed to be a great clocker) some people have had results of upto 2.4ghz using this particular processor but to be honest i dont realy wanna push it that far as its in such a small case and as we all know shuttles are pretty hot at the best of times, ide be more than happy with 2.0ghz or maybe a little higher if possible without having to adjust the core voltage
so if any of u guys could spare me some of ure overclocking expertise and tell me what i need to be doing to reach my goal ide be forever thankful,,i realy donno nothing about ram timings or anything like that or even what the aggressive/optimal settings do,,im pretty much just starting from basics so please help me through this
thnx in advance


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Yeah you should find the XP2500+ comes with 1.65v as std, you should find it's happy UNDERVOLTED to 1.50v at that speed and would run VERY cool too. Basically I'd be VERY surprised if you have any problem running it at 2.0ghz as it should do so with less than 1.60v let alone the 1.65v it comes with as std. SO check what voltage it uses by default, I'd suggest either leaving it alone if it's 1.60v-1.65v or set it to this if it's different, 1.65v is normal for all AthlonXP of XP2000+ and higher. The higher voltages obviously help to reach higher speeds at the expense of heat and every 0.05v above 1.65v adds risk to the CPU.
TwinMOS PC3200 is designed for use up to 400mhz, you should find your BIOS has the RAM set to sync with the FSB (eg 1:1, 4:4 etc), that's best. Leave the RAM timings on AUTO / SPD, as said you want to find your maximum stable o/c and then try tightening them if you wish.
sn41g2 is based on the original nForce2 which is still very good but could have some problems with 400FSB esp on Barton (proabably fixed via BIOS anyway). However nForce2 with onboard gfx (GF4MX) don't really do 400FSB but should easily do 333FSB and probably get a good 380FSB I should imagine. If using the old onboard gfx then be sure to use 2 sticks of RAM in each channel for Dual Channel mode as this takes you from a lowly GF4MX420 to a GF4MX440.
So basically I would suggets you find what FSB you can run at by upping it gradually and testing thoroughly for stability each time (Prime & 3Dmark). Ideally you want to keep your CPU speed close to 1.83ghz so as to only invlolve the FSB to find the highest it can go (stable). Once you find out lose about 4mhz to ensure you aren't too near the bleeding edge of stability. Then simply try upping the multiplier 1 step at a time with your new max FSB. When you find the max stable setting it's time to either back off a notch for the long term or apply a little more voltage and see if that helps you to get decently higher. When you have your max stable multiplier with your max stable FSB you can either leave it there or play around find the exact combination for optimal o/c, such as 11x200=2.20ghz VS 11.5x197=2.27ghz VS 13x180=2.34ghz. Just rem it's a good idea not to be too close to the absolute max o/c. You could also see how far you can get undervolting if you want to run as quietly as possible.
Happy days.
It's a shame there aren't multiplier or voltage controls in the BIOS and I don't think you'd find any dips on the mobo either unfort. You can force the voltage higher or lower or even alter the multiplier by modding the bridges (cutting or joining) but I would seriously avoid that, it doesn't leave much room for error, is risky and isn't very 'changable' either. Neither the stock 11x multiplier nor 1.65v voltage should limit your o/c'ing much at all anyway.
As to things seeming Prime unstable even at stock I'd simply try it a day later after your first cold boot. Most proabably nothing to worry about at all.
