Overclocking a CPU

[ditchdj]

Anyone know anything about doing this???? I have a Nvidia card and just found out that Nvidia has a program that lets you overclock the CPU as well as the GPU on your graphics card. I decided to overclock the CPU from 2.2Ghz to 2.4. If I'm just surfing the internet and not using the CPU a lot it runs a little faster and smoother. Open up a 3D graphics game and then I get the blue screen of death a couple minutes later. I'm guessing the CPU may have gotten too hot for its settings and shut the computer down. Any ideas on how to keep that from happening???

[Broomjockey]

Get an aftermarket cooler for your CPU and swap it for the stock heatsink. Also, the problem with doing it the way you did is it probably didn't up the voltages either, so when it starts to need more power for more intense calcualtions, it becomes unstable. I'd suggest going to a site like tomshardware.com to check out their overclocking guides.

[ditchdj]

I have a small cooling fan that I think I'm gonna hook and see if that helps. Right now I've got it clocked at 2.4 and my computer does pull up web pages and news streams faster now and more smoothly. It's only when I start running 3D games that the "Blue Screen of Death" pops up. The program that I'm using is part of NVidia and it incorpoates itself into the Nvidia control panel. There's a reference clock and memory timings that are on that same page and there's just a single bar that you can use to underclock it down to 1.8 Ghz and overclock it up to 2.7.

[Broomjockey]

Yes. Like I said, it's probably overheating, and the program's not touching the voltages. Get a temperature monitoring software, and see what it goes up to (run a game in windowed mode). That'll tell you if it's overheating. And you should still look at an overclocking guide for your particular processor at tomshardware. They're very detailed over there, so they'll probably already have something up.

[lordlundar]

And please do it one step at a time. I have seen WAY too many CPUs destroyed by some idiot going "Let's crank everything and see what happens"

[ditchdj]

Oh no I'm not doing that!

I just installed a system temperature monitor and I'm watching it as I start different games. The CPU temp's now at 37C. I just took the CPU fan off and vacuumed all the dust off of it as well as the heat sinker. I also cleared all the dust off the graphics card too. I now have the computer case off and am blowing cool air directly on the inside. After I played "Need For Speed Carbon" the CPU temp climbed to 43C with it overclocked at 2.43 from its original 2.2 setting. No crash. So, as Broomjockey said, looks like I'm gonna have to get a better CPU cooler, perhaps a water coolant?

Update: I now got my overclocked CPU down to 36C. So I'm gonna get another cooling fan for the case for now....

[Naaman]

Shouldn't need water cooling for a modest clock, just better heatsinks and fans for to replace the current factory stuff. While you're at it it's probably worth getting a bag of cable ties and (depending on the age of your PC) replacement case fans. Cable ties to neaten up the inside of the case, increasing air flow around the case and case fans as I've found it's far easier to replace the case fans every couple of years than run maintenance on them any more than an air duster and an old paintbrush.

For the graphics card this* is probably the sort of thing to be looking at and for the CPU, this is my favourite as it's efficient and quiet. The other important thing to remember is thermal paste, Arctic Silver is generally one of the best ones, and some lighter fluid (naptha) to clean the old stuff off.

*Obviously without knowing what card or CPU you have these items may not be right, check with the manufacturers blurb first