First Overclocking Experiments with EP-8RGA+. Advice welcome.

Sorry to cross post; this ended up in the wrong newsgroup.

I have a AMD Athelon XP 2400+ on an EP-8RGA+ board with Kingston PC2700 RAM
(2 x 256).

When I first assembled the machine I set FBS = 166 and dropped the
multiplier from 14.5 to 11.5 as suggested by Bas Ruiter here to avoid
overclocking of the processor. Got the system up and running beautifully.

Next, with stock voltage (core CPU 1.65) I raised the multiplier cautiously
to 12.5 withoug difficulty. But at a multiplier of 13 the system crashed.
Even at 12.5 the processor was getting a little
hot ... mid 50's C. So I upgraded to a Vantec Aeroflow, and installed a case
fan control unit to bring the processor below 50 C.

By gradually increasing core voltage from 1.65 to 1.75 I have been able to
bring the multiplier up to 13.5, but the system reboots while trying to load
WinXP at 14.0.

I have not tried changing memory timings or vdd which is possible with the
bios. My goal is to reach a multiplier of 14.5 at FBS 166. Should I just
keep pushing vcore or make some other adjustments? What are the pros/cons of
reducing the memory timings? I am being rather cautious because I don't want
to distroy my first homebuilt computer!

Thanks,

Wayne

Your words are prophetic, this morning I thought I had fried my system
completely... turns out there was a problem with the PCU to HD connector so
I'm up and running so I guess I'll leave well enough alone.

I did manage to set my memory timings to 2-2-2-5 however. :-)

Wayne

"philo" wrote in message
...

snip
reducing the memory timings? I am being rather cautious because I don't
want
to distroy my first homebuilt computer!



don't worry, if you continue playing with over-clocking you'll soon enough
end up with a nice pile of carbon where there used to be a cpu !!!!

"Wayne Phillips" wrote in message
...
Your words are prophetic, this morning I thought I had fried my system
completely... turns out there was a problem with the PCU to HD connector
so
I'm up and running so I guess I'll leave well enough alone.

I did manage to set my memory timings to 2-2-2-5 however. :-)

Wayne

"philo" wrote in message
...

snip
reducing the memory timings? I am being rather cautious because I
don't
want
to distroy my first homebuilt computer!



don't worry, if you continue playing with over-clocking you'll soon
enough
end up with a nice pile of carbon where there used to be a cpu !!!!



my feeling is that overclocking is too risky...
why take a chance blowing your cpu for only a small increase in
performance...

with good maintenance such as keeping apps out of startup,
doing defrags, etc even a fairly low end machine can run pretty well...

"philo" wrote in message
...

"Wayne Phillips" wrote in message
...
Your words are prophetic, this morning I thought I had fried my system
completely... turns out there was a problem with the PCU to HD connector
so
I'm up and running so I guess I'll leave well enough alone.

I did manage to set my memory timings to 2-2-2-5 however. :-)

Wayne

"philo" wrote in message
...

snip
reducing the memory timings? I am being rather cautious because I
don't
want
to distroy my first homebuilt computer!



don't worry, if you continue playing with over-clocking you'll soon
enough
end up with a nice pile of carbon where there used to be a cpu !!!!



my feeling is that overclocking is too risky...
why take a chance blowing your cpu for only a small increase in
performance...

with good maintenance such as keeping apps out of startup,
doing defrags, etc even a fairly low end machine can run pretty well...

I have never damaged memory or CPU by overclocking. The worst that can
happen is that the system won't boot. Just clear the CMOS.

I currently have taken an XP1700 B core and PC2100 from stock 133x11=1463 to
145x12.5=1812 with no fuss. Memory is maxed out but CPU is probably far from
its top end. It'll run Prime95 all day in a hot room at standard V-core.
Performance increase is indeed noticeable. We're only talking about a $45
chip, folks.