1st time overclocker

[Ryanoffski]

I have an Athlon 1800 running at 1.53GHz. I felt like overclocking it as long as the temps didn't get too high. The default was 11.5x133, temps were 54C for the CPU and 29C for the MB.

So first I changed it down to 6.5x (the lowest) to see how low the temps went. When i rebooted it said Athlon 866MHz.
The temps went down to 48C on the CPU, and still 29C on the MB.

So I took it up to the max (14.0x) and rebooted. It says Athlon 800MHz!?? The temps are still down at 48C and 29C. So I tried the other configurations, but all were slower than the default.

Am I doing something wrong?

[JohnE.]

Motherboard? BIOS revision? OS? Chipset?

JohnE.

[Ryanoffski]

the bios revision is 1001.E
bios version is 6.0
OS- Win XP Pro
MB - ASUS 87N8X w/ nforce2 chipset

[Ryanoffski]

BTW i only have a 300watt power supply. think i'll need a new one?

p.s. MB is A7N8X, not 87n8x

[JohnE.]

A7N8X - regular or deluxe? I have the same board (Deluxe) and a 300W PSU as well... I plan to get a new one (Antec TruePower 380 or 430) ASAP after I add another 256MB stick of PC3200 (only have a single 256MB stick atm). I won't be doing any OC on this machine until I get a better PSU...

Check out nForcersHQ A7N8X FAQ for all sorts of info and troubleshooting tips. I seem to recall a thread describing similar symptoms somewhere in there.

JohnE.

[thekingofpain]

Maybe try setting it back to default and raising JUST the fsb in small increments:
11.5X133= 1.53
11.5X137= 1.57
11.5X140= 1.61
11.5X145= 1.67
etc

(Dont forget to always keep an eye on your temps)

[Ryanoffski]

I can only change it to 100,133, or 166

[thekingofpain]

Get a different mb in that case, unless a bios flash can release the power within...
(Or simply use it "as is")

[andrewsilverman]

Do you have to unlock an Athlon to overclock it?

(I have a 2600)

[Ryanoffski]

i can't check it out tonight, i'll check out that site and change it to 166 tomorrow and see how it works

i didn't have to do any "unlocking" (?)