[AHolland]

I thought that we could start up a different thread in order to keep the computer conversations going without hijacking other threads, so here I am.

With respect to overclocking, I have done that for 10 years without ever smoking a machine. I build up a lot of computers for friends and family. Maybe 20 a year. I'm slow at it because of the disability, but always get there in the end.

I'm still amazed at the number of people that overclock incorrectly, or for the wrong reasons. For the computer illiterate people in the forums I will expalin overclocking in simple terms.

Overclocking is taking your stock computer and trying to make it run faster than it was engineered to do. It is similar to fixing up your car so it can accelerate or go faster than it was originally intended. Some people do it because they cannot afford a faster computer. Some people do it because they want the most out of their current computer. Finally, some people do it just because they can.

Computers can be overclocked in 2 general manners: CPU (processor) or video card. Yes it is quite common to overclock video cards. So common, that one computer chip manufacturer (nvidia) even makes software to do so, and most video card manufacturers use this to give out overclocking utilities for their cards.

Just like in making your car faster, your computer needs a carefull hand or you will blow up parts of it. Ever hear of a car hopped up and them blown out its differenetial/tranny or engine? Pretty common because the builder does not think of the whole project and exceeds the strength of one part of the car when he beefs up another. Yes, I use to build up cars/engine/motorcycles in my pre-handicapped days.

When you push your computer to go faster than it was engineered, you have to look to use better parts, reduce temperatures, etc or the computer will blow.

If you do not need the extra power, then there is no reason I can think of to overclock a computer. It just stresses the computer more for no good reason. If all you do is email and surf the web, then it is probably not something you should do. If you play cmputer games like I do, then you need all the speed you can get for some games.

Before I ramble on....and I am rambling now...does anyone even give a fig about this topic? Or better yet, is there any computer related questions you have that you need answered, that may make a better topic of discussion? I thought this thread was interesting because a lot of us are house bound and our computers are our link to the outside world.

mmm time to go finish off making a freinds XP machine run old DOS games......But that's another topic..

[Bob Clark]

Hi AHolland,

I'm running an FX-55 on an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo. Its stock or default speed is 2600GHz (13x200). I just upped the external frequency to 215 and have this thing cruising at 2795GHz without any other tweaking. Except for upping the memory voltage from 2.6v to 2.75v and the CPU from 1.5v to 1.65v.

Are you an AMD or Intel person? What's your take on whether to adjust the external frequency or the multiplier. Or both with a combination thereof? I haven't heard a convincing argument either way so I just adjusted the external frequency. I screwed around with the multiplier but didn't notice any difference in my benchmarks.

I have dual GF_6800 Ultra GPUs connected to the same liquid cooling circuit as the CPU so I can't go much further without getting pretty hot. And in any event these GPUs won't OC worth a damn! I don't know why. They default at 425MHz / 1.10GHz and the max I can keep them stable at is 447 and 1.14. Barely worth the effort. No overheating problem... they just won't go any higher without artifacting and becoming unstable. When I get around to it I'm gonna put the 6800s back on air (HSF venting outside the case) so I can use the whole liquid loop just to cool the processor. With the right tweaking combo maybe I'll be able to eke out another 200MHz or so and get this FX-55 up to or perhaps even over 3GHz.

I've been screwing around with the memory timings a bit but that really takes a lot of trial and error (wear and tear) having to restart for every little adjustment. At 1T the tightest I can get this PDP PC3200LL 2.2.2.5 memory is 2.3.3.8. I think it's 8. Now that we're talking about it maybe I'll go in there later today and screw around with it some more. I need to find out what all those other memory settings are for too!

This motherboard has AUTO everything built in. So I'm just screwing around with it manually to have fun. There's probably not a dime's worth of difference in the benchmarks between the best I can do manually and the AUTO settings. But it's fun trying. Especially since my last motherboard was an Intel and everything was locked on it. (Intel G850GB) I felt so impotent!

My first computer was a Mac. But my 1st PC had a P_166Mhz in it. Slightly faster than your P_150MHz in the third drawer! And how about those 5.25 floppys!?

I was gonna build my last computer but in the end decided against it. I don't have a workshop so all the work would have been done on my kitchen table (ain't much room there... important papers piled a foot high!) or here at my computer desk. Not much room here either. So I let the pros build it again this time. How many horror stories have you read at the many OC forums about some idiot having to RMA a mobo or PSU 4 or 5 times! And still not getting the damn thing to POST! I'll just keep this Thunderbox upgraded the best I can. It's easy enough to switch out a PCI/-e card or processor or whatever. I can do that with a butter knife... the mainstay of my toolbelt!

You build almost 2 computers a month!? That's a lot of work. I do tech support for my sister and my cousin and once in awhile for my neighbors. God, it's amazing how much crap people install on their OS. My motto is "Lean, Clean and Mean". Or have sneakily installed from the Internet. I just found 3 hijack programs installed on this computer and I'm very conscious of them. And I don't visit any nefarious porno or warez websites. There they were setting innocently enough in the Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs list popping up ads every few minutes. Sheeesh. It's a jungle out there. Amazing how sneaky the bastards are nowadays. Ad-aware and SpyBot and my AV program didn't pick them up because they thought they were legit programs. I couldn't tell ya how they were installed but everything is so fast with broadband that it can be done in seconds. It's a constant battle needing a vigilant eye to stay clean of all the malware out there.

But even with this computer I can't max out my favorite combat flight simulator Lock On: Modern Air Combat/Flaming Cliffs 1.1. Or even NASCAR SimRacing for that matter. The new games/sims need a LOT of power to run totally maxed out with good graphics and decent framerates. Which I guess is cool... they have room to grow.

Thunderbox PC
Xfuel Liquid SLI
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD FX-55 Processor
2X512MB Dual-Channel PDP PC3200LL
2X EVGA GF 6800 Ultras
21" Sony Multiscan E540/B
Audigy2 Platinum
74GB WD Raptor 10,000RPM
120GB Seagate 7200RPM (storage)
680 Watt Thermaltake PSU
Klipsch 5.1 Ultras
TM Cougar Uber_NXT w/ HE Sensors
Logitech MOMO wheel
3DMark_05 = 10659

[Apparelyzed]

Whoosh!

That was the sound of this topic going straight over my head!

I'm a Mac user by the way, we just plug it in and off we go

Simon.

[wheelie182]

My computer building experience goes way, way back, it must be almost 2 months now,

caugh!!! doesn't time fly......

Yep.... I was going to buy a new computer during the time i had off college, but i thought no, wouldn't it be great to build one, because it would probaly be a hell of a lot cheaper, and i could learn at the same time, and after loads of research and trial and error, i managed to quite easily build one, well i say easy, much easier than i thought it would be, i literally built it without knowing a single thing about insides of computers, but now i know that there really is nothing too them, im sure that anyone could build one, but the skill is building one that works well, and that all of the components work well,

And basiclly since then i have been addicted to computering, i know i haven't been doing it that long, but believe me, these two months have been constant researching and experimenting, i reckon that i have picked up on stuff pretty well to know what im talking about and what im doing,

As i said, it was my first build, so none of the components are that special,

AMD sandiego 3700, 2.2 Stock (2.8 ovc)
Thermalright Xp120
DFI Lanparty Ultra-d
Samsung SpinPoint 200GB Hard Drive SP2004C2
Kingmax PC3500 SuperRAM 433Mhz (512mbx2)
soon to get OCZ PC4000 EL 2x512 MB
soon to get nvidia 6800gt

[kanga2433]

Hey Wheelie, you ought to come along to www.overclockers.co.uk forums. You wioll find lots of discussion and help there! I am Prescott28 there.

Well, as you might guess, I have an Intel P4 2.8 Prescott in my machine and it is still pretending to be a central heating system; the Prescotts run really hot, so no overclocking here. I am going to upgrade soon and this will be to an Athlon 64 3800+ X2, (2 Venice 3200+ cores). I gather this should overclock quite well, but I might just stare for a while at the speed the nmew machine runs at. Well, new machine? I'm just upgrading the CPU, Motherboard and probably a 2GB Ram kit too.

Simon, this is not likely to be of interest to you as it is about
real computers... I'll explain if you like though! Actually,. I think OSX will now run on x86 chips so we could all run it, bt I bet we won't.

[Apparelyzed]

Quote

Simon, this is not likely to be of interest to you as it is about
real computers

Are those the Real Computers which suffer from security holes and viruses?

Yeah, you're right, I'm not interested

Simon

[Joed]

Well, I'm more like Simon with respect to computers. The only computer term I know is 'defragment', and I just like to say the word, regardless of whether I really know what it means.

But, boy, wouldn't I love to have AHolland, Bob, or wheelie as my neighbors! Ever think of living in the beautiful, sometimes progressive , state of Indiana?

[Bob Clark]

Hi Joed,

The easiest way to visualize defragmenting is thinking about the library in grammar or middle school. The books in a library are arranged in a logical order. Well, we can debate the logic of the Dewey Decimal system at a later time! But when the kids come in and start rearranging all the books and not letting the old biddy librarian know they are in effect fragmenting the library. Then when someone comes in looking for a certain book it's nowhere to be found without doing a lot of searching and wasting a lot of precious time.

A computer Operating System keeps all its files in a logical order too so they can be accessed as fast as possible. And when you keep using these files they aren't always put back in their proper place. It takes time to put them back and a lot of files are shared so this isn't realistic. When too many files are out of place your computer (hard drive) needs to work harder and longer to find them. So once in awhile it's a good idea for the librarian to put in some overtime and go through all the shelves and find the wayward books and return them to their proper place. In this way when little Sally comes in looking for "Harry Potter Goes to Hollywood" she won't be late for her next class!

The problem can be, depending on the circumstances, that it may take more effort and can put more wear and tear on your hard drive by defragging it than it does for the time added each time the OS needs to search for certain files. But to keep your computer as fast as possible it's necessary to keep it defragged.

I have my hard drives partitioned so they won't get so fragmented. I keep most stuff on my C:/ active partition but large games and simulators I keep separate on different partitions. And large static files like pictures and movies I keep separate too because there's no sense in mixing these into the active partition usually C:/.

I have my computer organized, now if only I could get my house and life......

If your computer really screws up it's best to back everything up (important stuff) and format and clean install the Operating System onto the hard drive. This wipes the slate clean, gets rid of all the crap you've installed over the years but no longer use or need and gets everything running perfectly. Like brand new. And if a virus has screwed up your OS this is sometimes the remedy of last resort. To keep my computer running smoothly I do this every year or so whether it "needs it or not". Lean, Clean and Mean!

I can't move to Indiana but if things get really bad I can walk you through it over the phone. But I warn you, the last I tried this long distance, Florida to Hawaii, I was on the phone with my cousin for over 12 hours on 2 different days! It's so much easier when the computer is setting in front of the person doing the job. Maybe AHolland can jump on a shuttle and visit you if you need some tech help!

[AHolland]

I'm back. I've been dealing with too many house things to do all the surfing I usually like to do.

I'm also building three computers right now so that is taking up a lot of time. 2 are Intel based machines, one is almost the same as Bob's. Same motherboard etc.

To answer your question bob, I slightly lean towards Intel machines. I have had both AMD and Intel, and will continue to flip flop back and forth. If I was to buy a machine today,mmmm it would probaby be AMD but with an nvidia chipset supporting it. I have to qualify that.

One thing that Intel does fairly well is make supporting chipsets that are stable. AMD does not make the supporting chipsets but leaves that to other companies such as Sis, Via, nvidia etc. Traditionally, those chipsets were not as well integrated in the motherboard and could be pretty flaky under different situations. I will always prefer stability over speed. Most of the top end machines today have far enough power to run all but the toughest applications, so stability wins me over.

I have overclocked tons of machines but will only do it now if I can get at least 15% or more power out of it. At the same time, I don't clock right to the edge because I don't want to have a flakey machine at the worst of times..(like in a online mechwarrior match).

In the good old days you could take some of those celeron's up 50% without doing too much. I remember them because I just threw 3 of them in me discard pile tonight. I have this box of junk that I periodically toss to make space. Sort of like a garage cleaning. Some people still want to make up old machines, but I have enough junk laying around that is better than this so i just give it away. It's not worth much and takes too long to sell.

To touch on another point, yes I could call Joed. I have 3 different phones. Cell phone for those emergency, I fell out of my chair times. A regular phone that the wife and kids use. The third phone is a voice over internet (www.vonage.com) that I use for long distance calling. Basically all my long distance calls are free so calling Joed in littletown usa from up here in "it's snowing today canada" does'nt cost me anything. I could bore her for hours on the subject of computers.

Just so Simon does'nt feel left out, I have also worked on MAC's. Did my masters thesis on one. I never liked the propriety of the system as I like to tinker with the guts and have a choice. In those days you could have it any way you wanted as long as........Nope..... you take it this way, or tough luck. I'm not really sure where they have gone since then.

If I had to point to a forgotten part it is the power supply. I have seen more problems related to power supplies than any other piece. It is not enough that the power supply is rated for 5000 watts. It needs to be from a good manufacturer or it may still not work well.

I have to run for some family stuff, but will check back tomorrow.

Tomorrows topic: Why you should use firewalls/antivirus/spyware/etc. tools to keep your machine, what was that you said bob..clean, mean, stable machine.

[Bob Clark]

Apparelyzed, on Oct 2 2005, 06:38 PM, said:

Quote

Simon, this is not likely to be of interest to you as it is about
real computers

Are those the Real Computers which suffer from security holes and viruses?

Yeah, you're right, I'm not interested

Simon

Hi Simon,

As you know a lot of people (especially young men) who are in wheelchairs are risk takers. That's how many of us got here....we rolled the dice of chance and adventure and lost! Why would we now change our behavior and play it safe with a Mac?

As annoying (and sometimes destructive) as malware is it's always a challenge to try and stay ahead of the latest viruses and adwares etc. And if the creeps who write that stuff didn't have PCs to target they'd be coming after the Macs. My first computer was a Mac and I was always catching hell from the PC users on the Internet. The line that always got me was "When are you gonna buy a real computer?"

I finally relented because I wanted to game over the Internet and there weren't enough games written for Macs back then. Back when getting online with AOL at 14kbps cost $3.00 USD an hour! Ouch... I had monthly bills as high as $300. That's only 100 hours of being online a month. I can do 100 hours in a couple weeks now and with the added speed of broadband there's a lot more content.

Hi AHolland,

My previous 3 computers were all Intel. I jumped ship and went with AMD this time because they were outperforming Intel in all the gaming benchmarks. And there weren't any Intel-based SLI motherboards when I ordered this computer either. And the latest Intel processors were having heat issues so they installed that "throttle-back" feature in them. You pay $1000 for the latest and greatest CPU only to have it throttle-back and run at a $50 P3_1.5GHz speeds!

Quote

Most of the top end machines today have far enough power to run all but the toughest applications, so stability wins me over.

Not Lock On: Modern Air Combat/Flaming Cliffs v1.1. No one at the UBI/ED forums can run this sim full bore/maxxed out without getting unacceptable and even choppy framerates. It's a real resource hog. The game and sim writers are always out in front writing software that really can't be run full bore on even the fastest available machines.

Speaking of power supplies....

When I ordered this computer I wanted to make sure I had plenty of power to run the 2 GF 6800 Ultras. They're known to draw a lot of power compared to the earlier versions. So I upgraded from the Antec True 550 watt to a ThermalTake PurePower 680 watt. Both were designed with SLI in mind so they added an extra rail or whatever to them. But when I stress out this computer running the 3DMark_2005 benchmark program using both video cards in SLI mode my +12 volt reading can dip below 10.88 volts. Most people tell me that whenever they get anywhere under 11.60 volts or so their computers go unstable and blue screen or shut off.

My computer is very stable and has been running flawlessly since I got it but these voltages look awfully erratic to me. Any ideas why the two video cards are putting so much pressure on the PSU?

All the reviews (3 or 4) I've read about the ThermalTake PurePower 680 watt have been stellar. No real complaints at all. And I haven't heard about anyone whose voltages fluctuate as much as mine do.

I guess the sensors on the motherboard could be off a bit or the utility software may not be reading the outputs accurately. As long as it's running stable I shouldn't be worried but the Asus Pc Probe graph voltages really look erratic to me.

Do you have electronic diagnostic equipment that you use to check out the computers you build? Like volt and ohm meters etc?



Man, George Bush is holding a news conference now. He's so bad at them... it's embarrassing!

[Apparelyzed]

Bob,

Quote

"When are you gonna buy a real computer?"

So many of my Windoze friends have been caught out by viruses, and lost data, that's what I say to them!

I'm all for sailing close to the wind, but when the tool I buy to do a job has to be updated so often, and is constantly prone to new vulnerabilities that productivity is affected, that tool is no longer doing it's job.

I bought my computer to comunicate with the world, produce graphics, web content and be a digital lifestyle hub. The last thing I want to worry about is how I'm going to thwart the next generation of "kiddy scripters".

AHolland,

Quote

In those days you could have it any way you wanted as long as........Nope..... you take it this way, or tough luck. I'm not really sure where they have gone since then.

I'm not sure what system you ran when you did your thesis, but the Mac now runs a Unix based system, and next year they will be changing the chips over to IBM.

I agree that the games market is a little less varied than the PC, but as far as everything else goes, the Mac is very good, and very stable. I have only had one system crash in 3 years whilst using OS X, and that was my fault for doing some over zealous housecleaning.

Simon.

[Bob Clark]

My sister was having lots of problems with browser hijackers constantly inundating her with pop-up ads. Invading her space and time whenever she'd get online. And the overall sluggishness of her computer caused by all the other crap secretly and nefariously installed via the Internet. Using email and the phone I was able to track most of them down and help her purge them from the OS. But eventually I convinced her to bring her computer over here for an overnighter and I formatted and clean installed WinXP Pro for her. That's normally a lot of downtime for a computer and could cost a hundred bucks or more if a professional technician were to do it. And most technicians just do the basic 2 hour format and clean install and that's it. It actually takes 10s of hours to install all the programs, apps and utilities that most people need and to personalize and tweak a computer. It takes me a good week to get everything back to the way I like my computer setup.

At that time Mac was running a heavy promotional campaign on TV here with the G-5 and OSX. She was interested in getting one and I had no objection except that she'd be on her own tech-wise because I know nothing about Macs. It's been over 10 years since I owned one. Mine had a 25-35MHz Motorola processor in it. My current computer has the equivalent of a 3800MHz in it. Times they are a'changing and the Drake Equation is alive and well!

EDIT: Oops... I meant Moore's Law... not the Drake Equation. Maybe I've been abducted and am being sub-consciously influenced.

But it got me looking on the Internet for an objective comparison between PCs and Macs and I found this website called Mac vs PC Shootout. It ain't easy finding objective comparisons because it seems that everyone is entrenched in their computer camp. I think this website is fairly objective.... I spent a couple hours there and from the best I can discern the guy who runs the site seems to be an honest fellow and his material reliable. He did however name his website "Mac vs PC" instead of "PC vs Mac" but maybe he flipped a coin and PC lost.

Here's his mission statement:

Quote

"What are the Mac vs. PC System Shootouts?"

Several years ago, when Apple first introduced the $799 entry-level iMac G3, I was curious about just how well it stacked up against the competition, in terms of both hardware, software and other total "user experience" areas such as mobility, bulk, and so on. Eventually, I expanded this into other price points from low to high, as well as laptops. More recently, the Shootouts were expanded to also include some specialized, non-price-based comparisons, and finally evolved into the website you're looking at right now.

I prefer PCs because they're customizable and the hardware isn't proprietary. And you can shop around and keep the vendors honest. With a Mac you're totally reliant upon whatever price Apple charges for their computers and more importantly, at least to me, for their upgrade parts. But I don't think Macs are very upgrade friendly anyway.

The Over Clocking websites have created a cottage industry. I swear the geeks there spend their time building computers just to beat the latest benchmarking programs just for bragging rights and probably do little else with their hot rod machines!

Maybe Bill Gates will figure out a way to make us PC users secure. That's the least we can expect from him for all the damn money he monopolistically picks our pockets for every year.

My sister never did convert. She's still using her 5-7 year old PC and so far, so good. I think she spent the money that was earmarked for a new computer on furniture or some of other "luxury" items. I jokingly told her that as it concerns me "Thousands for a new computer, but not a dime for a washer and dryer". Said to the cadence of Charles Pinckney's famous quote of "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." I know where my priorities lie!

[AHolland]

Sorry I have been busy for a while and I must have missed the last batch of entries.

Bob, I really suspect there is something wrong with either your power supply or more probably the asus probe program. I did'nt see what version of it you were using. There has been quite a few versions of it. Also, you may not have a more recent bios that records the correct temps to probe.

There is no way you should need that much power (680 w), with the rig you have. Even the nvidia site that gives conservative specs only asks for 500 watt range. http://www.slizone.c...wtobuild_2.html
Unless you are running a lot of hard drives/optical drives/etc then you should not need anywhere near where you are at. Make sure you are running at least the latest video drivers. I find that the legacy/archived drivers are usually safer that the latest drivers as they are known good drivers, while the latest and greatest may have bugs that are yet unknown. http://www.nvidia.co...2k_archive.html


ahh, for the record I use to be a production manager at an electronics design/manufacturing house so I had/have access to whatever test equipment I need (friends still work there). We also had the equipment to make circuit boards (robotic pick and place).

The ability to overclock your machine will come hinge on alot of issues such as cooling, stable power, memory etc. We would have to dip into that one bit by bit. I am not up on the latest amd's, but I believe they were clock multiplier limited to stop you from clocking up, but not down, so changing the frequency is the only option you had.

The roll back on the intel chips was a safety feature and usually could be turned off in the bios. If the computer sensed the temp was going too high, it rolled back the speed to save you. ie if the fan failed, your chip would still live. Current amd's are still good candidates for overclocking though. There is a pretty good article over at www.anandtech.com on it. I use that site and tom's hardware page for a lot of info.

[AHolland]

I am still surprised at the number of people who do not adequately protect their computer via virus/spyware/firewalls, so I thought I would put up a post on that.

In my opinion, most PC's (not sure about mac's) should have one firewall, two spyware programs, and an antivirus program. A simple layman's explaination of what these are.

Firewalls are systems that regulate what programs can go out to the internet, or in from the internet. They can be made by a software program, or a hardware device like a router (hardware firewall). People running XP/2000 can use the microsoft built in firewall, or as I prefer something like zonealarm (www.zonealarm.com). Zonealarm has a simple, good free program you can use. There are other free programs like sygate(sp), but I am not familiar with them. In simple terms firewalls stop hackers from out on the internet from accessing your machine for whatever purposes they have. My BIL works for the local cable system here and they say the average time it takesa from when your machine accesses the web until someone notices it is 17 seconds.

A virus program is a program that gets loaded on your computer for the sole purposes of screwing your machine up, stealing vital information, or other destructive reasons. Right now I use a free product from www.grisoft.com. I use to use norton, but always found it intrusive. Even if you use a full time antivirus program, you should still do periodic realtime online scans by a different vendor. It seems that what one vendor misses, another catches. I usually use trendmicro's housecall www.antivirus.com I think mcaffee also has online scans.

Spyware programs are not usually dangerous in themselves, but the shear load of them on a computer can bog it down. Spyware programs are little programs that send information such as topics you look at (bob and his porn again), or sites you visit to a vendor. Spyware may not be destructive, but I have looked at dozens of peoples computers that have had hundreds if not a thousand spyware programs each chewing up some of the memory/cpu/internet bandwidth. Good free programs to use are adaware, www.lavasoftusa.com or spybot search and destroy. Sites like trendmicro will do online scans for you. Some activex spyware type programs can be eliminated by programs like spyblaster.

All of these programs can be had for free and should be used to keep your machine running well. Do a virus search once a week, and ditto for spyware.

Questions?

[Joed]

AHolland....

Well, I'm relieved to know that I'm doing the right thing with my computer. I have Norton, but also use trendmicro...it once caught a virus on my computer, where the Norton didn't, just like you said.

I use Sygate and am happy with it, as far as what I'm able to comprehend, anyway. My sister thought it 'over-kill' to have a firewall, saying that only businesses, etc. really need one. But after a little research, I found this to be untrue. The first day I installed it, it just took a couple of 'pings' and one full out attack on my computer to realize that I had done the right thing.

Now I'm stealthy.

I appreciate all this info...thanks!

[Apparelyzed]

Hi,

The Mac comes with a firewall built in as standard, and it's turned on by default out of the box.

As for viruses, there aren't any yet, but I still have a virus program to check emails so I don't pass any on to PC users, even though the PC viruses will not affect me.

Simon.

[wheelie182]

I have found that with overclocking, and the question of upping the multiplier or lowering the multiplier it all depends on what components you've got,

My first ram was pc3500, drr 433, 2.5,3,3,7 which ment that it could only run at about 216mhz, stock or 225mhz overclocked,

so even at the highest multiplier my cpu gave me which was 11 and overclocking the ram to 2.8v, i still couldn't get that good of overclock, 11x225=2475mhz

so it means upping the clock, , but as my ram could only take 225mhz max, it means using a divider, and by using a divider you can push the system as far as it can go until your cpu maxes out, or lowering the timings, but i wanted to keep those timings and not go any lower

i was able to go as far as 270mhz, x10.5, with good temps, but using a 5/6 divider

which meant i was running my cpu at 270x10.5 giving 2835mhz, which is a big increase of 635mhz, but by using a divider, and i primed it, and it was stable, so i just ran a few benchmarks and my system was considerbly better than stock, so i stuck with it,

although i read somwhere that using half multipliers isn't as good, so i'll have to read more and find out why,

but most people tend to run there components at their highest clocks, and then just fit a cpu multiplier which fits their highest cpu speed,

but my new ram is awsome, im able to run 2,2,2,5 at 250mhz 1/1, and im still pushing it and testing it now,

and AHolland, i know that you dont agree with overclocking until its neccessary, and i agree with you..........but come on its fun !!!! seeing how far your system can go....

[LittleUpsidedownGirl]

I just found this site...... you guys (and gals, of course!) are mega fun, and I absolutely LOVE reading your posts!

Speaking of LOVE... there's just something totally sexy with geek speak (I've yet to drag my guy out here to check you guys out, and HOPEFULLY he'll not read this thread as computers "scare" him, lol)

Simon mentioned his Mac more than once... so I was curious if any other PC users suffer from my "Mac disease?" It's like this: Mum and Dad got a Mac because they're meant to be "user friendly" (blah blah, whatever!) and they're forever asking me for "tech" support...

Thing is, although I'm more than certain what the issue is, it's like - um, how the HECK do I find the solution?? I can't navigate OSX to save my life!

Perhaps the so-called "complication" of Windows has corrupted me, who knows.

Personally, I think Mac's done some serious blasphemy - of course I can't find anything, I can't RIGHT CLICK!! Talk about frustrating!

~ Nadine

[Apparelyzed]

Hi Nadine,

What's the problem with the Mac?, let me know and I'll see if I can help.

Regards

Simon.

[LittleUpsidedownGirl]

Heya Simon,

Egads, sorry I took so long - life just has this vindictive tendency to get in the way more often than not, lol.

And if you're able to offer some pointers, I'm forever in your debt!

My biggest issue with the Mac in the house is the internet configuration settings - where's security set-up?? The Mac is dial up (ho hum, I know, lol)... but how do I verify firewall, etc? I'm assuming it's doable...

Know of any good Mac sites out there, ones tailored specifically for Mac-idiots comme moi?

I'll have to ask you now to forgive my moronic software knowledge base - I'm a hardware junkie at heart (oscilloscope nerd!!)...

Cheers, Simon!

~ Nadine

[wheelie182]

Quote

I'm a hardware junkie at heart (oscilloscope nerd!!)...

ah, im studying electronics in college now, we also use oscilloscopes, but we do most of our work on the computers using crapy Electronics workbench, do you know of any other free or nicly priced software apart from multisim,livewire and crocodile clips, for building circuits with 74--'s etc

and come on, tell the truth, is your oscilloscope the cleanest thing in your house?


..................thought so

[Apparelyzed]

Hi ~ Nadine ,

Ok, I'm going to presume that you are using OS X operating system.

Your security setup is in your preferences, and by default, the firewall should be on.

To check them, do the following:

Go to your preferences panel by clicking the apple at the top left of the screen, and select "System Preferences".

Then selct the "Sharing" icon, it's a folder with a yellow square on it.

There will be three buttons come up on another pane, the middle one says "Firewall", click it.

You can now check your firewall.

Hope this is what you were after.

Simon.

[LittleUpsidedownGirl]

Quote

and come on, tell the truth, is your oscilloscope the cleanest thing in your house?

Um.... may I plead the fifth? LMAO

Let's see... cheapy programs (because lord knows we students are hardly RICH):

Some that I know of are:

LabVIEW

there's another called "FreeSpice" which is both engineering and open source, so it's fairly advanced BUT it's sorta complicated (Engineers designing user friendly UIs? YEAH RIGHT)...

lol, and be sure to google "Free Spice" 'cause I just tried without the space and yeah, lotsa' irrelevant stuff about Australian singles (don't ask ME!)

Hope that helps??

And Simon - YOU ROCK! Thank you... though I'm sure I'll be back within the hour to propose a crapload more ridiculous questions. Yes, you presume correctly, it is OS X... 10. something or the other, I can't remember.

[LittleUpsidedownGirl]

Wheelie,

Here, check this out when ya' got a minute:

SPICE software

Lotsa' nifty little things...

Okay, I'll shut up now!