Help with Overclocking

[Perfect Balance]

I've decided that I want to try overclocking my CPU a little, but I'm not sure how to go about doing it. With my old computer I just went into Bios and messed with the settings, but this time it's not so easy.

I've got a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ running at 2.2Ghz.

I'm looking for something around 2.5Ghz, which should be fine, I've been reading in a few places where people have had them at 2.7Ghz stable without excessive heat.

My MB is an Asus M2N68-LA with a Pheonix version 5.14 bios that doesn't let me mess with clock speeds, so I'm wondering if I can use a program to overclock, and what would be a good one to use.

Another thing I think I should mention. When running CPU-Z, it shows my processor running at 1004.4 MHz with a 5x multiplier, and jumps anywhere from 1800 with 9x multiplier to around 2210 with 11x. Apparently this is some kind of energy saving feature frequently used on laptops. I find it a bit annoying, especially since I can't really tell the max speed when it's like this.

Any suggestions on how to go about doing this? I don't really have any experience with overclocking.

 

[Tornado]

If your mobo doesn't allow you to fiddle with settings, then you are out of luck (this applies double for laptops). There is an off chance that you can find a way to overclock from within Windows (there are programs that can do this) even if the mobo doesn't officially support it, but such occurrences are few and far between.
Essentially, you can't.

 

[Perfect Balance]

Someone told me I could use another BIOS that allows me to mess with the settings.

 

[Tornado]

You could if you could find BIOs for a motherboard that is very similar to yours but allows overclocking. Even then it is a crapshoot as to whether doing so would completely brick your computer.

 

[opendriver]

When you see you CPU speed being throttled, that is called speed step, or C1E, can think of the other names right now.

As for overclocking with software, that's a huge no-no. Any overclocking should be done through the BIOS.

And if for some reason you do manage to overclock, watch your temps. Voltage doesnt kill the cpu, heat does.

 

[Perfect Balance]

When you see you CPU speed being throttled, that is called speed step, or C1E, can think of the other names right now.

As for overclocking with software, that's a huge no-no. Any overclocking should be done through the BIOS.

And if for some reason you do manage to overclock, watch your temps. Voltage doesnt kill the cpu, heat does.

Yeah I know about the temps, but I don't think I'll be OCing now that I would need to find another BIOS to do it properly. Screw that.

 

[Solid Lifters]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/overclock_your_pc?page=0,3

That should help. I have an AMD, too. Didn't try to OC 'cause my 'puter is a POS. Don't want to tempt it.

 

[Eric.]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/overclock_your_pc?page=0,3

That should help. I have an AMD, too. Didn't try to OC 'cause my 'puter is a POS. Don't want to tempt it.

If you had read any of the posts you would see that he cannot overclock through his BIOS.



In my opinion, you should never overclock a laptop. Its probably only safe to bump it up to the speed of a faster CPU of the same family since the laptop should be designed for that amount of heat. Like Opendriver said, software overclocking is a huge risk. If something in the BIOS gets corrupted when doing the overclock, chances are the system will be bricked.

 

[Perfect Balance]

If you had read any of the posts you would see that he cannot overclock through his BIOS.



In my opinion, you should never overclock a laptop. Its probably only safe to bump it up to the speed of a faster CPU of the same family since the laptop should be designed for that amount of heat. Like Opendriver said, software overclocking is a huge risk. If something in the BIOS gets corrupted when doing the overclock, chances are the system will be bricked.

I don't have a laptop, I should have made that more clear. I was just pointing out that my PC was using that powersaving feature that laptops usually have.

 

[nick09]

Laptops are made so the air can go through them but don't even try to overclock! Desktops have the space and huge amount of air to allow for overclocking. If you try overclocking a laptop, it will get huge fan noise and singe your lap badly. I'm just saying that laptops are not designed like their desktop kind and IS made less powerful to save the heat and battery life.

@Perfect Balance: That feature is not really needed, unless you want to save some energy bills. You should look up flashing the bios or even asking a tech expert about it if you can overclock your processor.

 

[Perfect Balance]

Laptops are made so the air can go through them but don't even try to overclock! Desktops have the space and huge amount of air to allow for overclocking. If you try overclocking a laptop, it will get huge fan noise and singe your lap badly. I'm just saying that laptops are not designed like their desktop kind and IS made less powerful to save the heat and battery life.

I know. I don't have a laptop.

 

[Eric.]

Laptops are made so the air can go through them but don't even try to overclock! Desktops have the space and huge amount of air to allow for overclocking. If you try overclocking a laptop, it will get huge fan noise and singe your lap badly. I'm just saying that laptops are not designed like their desktop kind and IS made less powerful to save the heat and battery life.

@Perfect Balance: That feature is not really needed, unless you want to save some energy bills. You should look up flashing the bios or even asking a tech expert about it if you can overclock your processor.

Flashing the BIOS to another version (not an update) is not a good idea, period. If you brick it, chances are the warranty isn't going to cover it.

Besides, PB, a 300Mhz overclock is not likely to be noticed at all.