Overclocking

I haven't posted in a week, mostly because things have been busy. I finished Half-Life 2: Episode 2 in the last week and I'll talk about that in a future post. I've been reading and trying to learn more about overclocking. I have already overclocked my PC to decent settings for my rig, but I felt that it could go higher if I understood more about how it works.

Currently, this is my rig:

• EVGA 590 SLi board
  
• AMD 4200+ 2.2GHZ (stock) OC'ed to 2.65GHZ w/ a HyperTX2 cooler
  
• 2x1GB Corsair XMS2 800mhz (PC2 6400) set to timings 5-5-5-12
  
• XFX 8800GTS 320MB OC'ed to Core: 650mhz, Shader: 1400mhz, Memory: 1000mhz.
  
• Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Soundcard
  

The case I use is a Raidmax Smilodon, which I highly recommend to anyone. It is easy to work in, has ample upgrade space and has plenty of cooling. Raidmax has a newer version of this case, The Aztec, and it is slightly better due to its use of a 120mm exhaust fan. The difference in price is about $20, so it may or may not be worth it.

I have tweaked some BIOS settings to bring the CPU up to 2.7GHZ, but I need to spend more time with balancing the memory speed/timings and the CPU speed.


For those with the AMD 4200+, I suggest this article if you are interested in OC'ing. Part1(air-cooling) & Part2(water-cooling)