Update BIOS To Overclock

[poser]

I have an ABIT VT6X4 motherboard that I think only supports up to an 800mhz processor. I have changed the bus speed in the bios from 133mhz to 150mhz. This seems to be the only thing that I can do which will change the speed from 800 to 900. I have more than enough cooling, so I'm not worried about over heating. How can I overclock it even more? Would updating the bios allow me to change it to higher settings? Thanks for any help!

 

[Phantom_24]

Many factors for overclocking !

One of the main things you'll see is that each CPU is different! You can have two of the same speed CPU's and each will o/c to a different max speed. One other thing you could do (I have the Abit BF6 and have yet to do this myself) is put on an active heatsink/fan on your motherboard northbridge chipset...this one should already have a heatsink on it, but active cooling (a fan) should help a bit more !
A Bios will only really fix any problems and make it a bit more stable under normal conditions, as well as maybe increase the max cpu speed since bus/multiplier speed is controlled in the Soft Menu. What cpu/memory type are you using?
Name brand RAM also helps a bit...as well as making sure your using the right CAS settings for the RAM.....ESPECIALLY if you have more than one brand of Ram module !!

 

[poser]

Thanks for your reply! I have an Intel Pentium III EB 800mhz. As for ram, I have a stick 128mb and a 256mb, I don't know what brand it is tho. Sorry if I sound too much like a newbie, but why would I put a heatsink/fan on the motherboard northbridge chipset? Does that part get the hot when overclocking? How does everyone overclock? I thought the only settings you could change was just in the bios. Also what are CAS settings? Is that the 10ns thing in the bios? I have mine set to Turbo. How can I determine the right settings? Also if you have any links to web pages that will help me understand better, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Qumahlin]

If your mobo only support a 150mhz bus max thats as high as you can go. A new bios might not change that what you can do is goto your mobo makers site and see if on the newest bios they list what has been changed.

So other then that the only way to change it higher is to unlock the cpu multiplier which on a p3 is a weeeeee bit of a difficult operation (difficult as in don't bother)

As for the cas of your ram it should say on the actual ram chip either CAS or CL 2, 2.5, or 3. Then you can set the bios to whatever number it says. most ram is 2,5 and 2 is the best. some ram will run at cas 2 even if it's 2.5 but alot won't

 

[Phantom_24]

This looks like a good start !

You can also run a search in www.google.com, just search under overclocking and you should get a ton of choices. I find it MOST reliable by not going by just ONE opinion.....gather a consensus of methods and go with the average technique!! Try the safer methods first.

Here's a start.....go to the articles/reviews link on the left !!

http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/

Also, the forums here at XP-erience are also a great help!! The guys who run this forum are top notch in tech help !!