overclocking (NON GP RELATED)


E

extremegamer

Guest
I didn't want to put this in off topic even though its not GP32 related because the off topic posts don't show up in the latest posts on the home page anymore and more people would see it here.

My question is, I know the GP can be overclocked but how about PC's? I have a shitty lap top, IBM think pad with 20mb of Ram and 486 66mhz processor. It plays Nesticle(nes emulator) at full speed, but i doubt it would play snes or genesis. But can you overclock pc's?
 
Don't be so selfish. Why do you think no one checks the OT discussion? Because people come here for the GP32, not to read about someone wanting to overclock his computer.
 
oh and I forgot to add, overclocking a laptop isn't very advisable... they already run close to temperature overload anyways... and with a 486 laptop well... overclocking early CPU's is a lot harder in pre Pentium 2 PC's its generally ALL hardware based... meaning you'd have to set a few jumpers, maybe change some pin layouts etc... not nice to be doing not that getting a new 486 processor is expensive... lol... i got one spare if you fry it ;) lol
 
yes you can, you do it in the BIOS options when you boot up your pc.
Yes but not on all computers. It depends on the motherboard you are using.

I don't know about laptops, but on some old computers you can simply switch some sticks on the motherboard and Tada! OC'ed. Works on my 200mHz.
But you need the motherboard instructions to do that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
http://www.overclockers.com ;)

course you can overclock PC's... the best ones for this are intel celerons and AMD's ;)
Well you're a little wrong there, any of the latest Northwood core celerons will overclock well, but the older Willamette core ones are pretty shite. Same with the P4s - Northwood core P4s have twice as much L2 cache (512k vs 256k) and use smaller die than the willamette core. They also use less voltage and are much better for overclocking. Northwood cores are available in 100, 133 and 200 FSB versions (400/533/800 counting it as quadpumped).

My P4 1.6a is clocked nicely at 2.4ghz. :)

It's really not even worth trying to overclock a 486, and you should never ever try to overclock a laptop. A laptop's components are already hot enough without you making them hotter and even more unstable by running them out of spec.

Older motherboards (i'm talking 500mhz or less processor speeds here, so a few years old at least) used jumpers to set CPU multipliers and FSB settings. Intel processors have been multiplier locked since the Pentium II-233, so the only way to overclock an intel processor is the front side bus speed. AMDs used to come unlocked up until a couple of months ago. They are now all locked at the factory, the same as intels. Newer motherboards will have settings in the BIOS for changing the FSB and multiplier. Changing the FSB can be a problem if your motherboard does not enable you to fix your PCI bus at 33mhz, however. Since running the PCI bus out of spec affects your hard drives too, it's a nice way to get hard disk corruption. ;)

Also consider that most pre-built PCs will not come with any kind of decent motherboard or decent cooling configuration, so will be highly unsuitable for overclocking. Build you own PC if you want to overclock.

I'm a member over at http://forums.overclockers.co.uk
 
Last edited by a moderator:
dont forget thet you have a real risc to fry your pc with overclocking.
its not like overclocking a gp32
 
dont forget thet you have a real risc to fry your pc with overclocking.
its not like overclocking a gp32
Do you know anything about overclocking?

The only way you can actually "fry" you PC is if you put too many volts through a component, or you incorrectly install your CPU heatsink and fan. Even then, it's likely to overheat and crash before you do any damage. Unless of course you put 1.75v+ through a P4 and suffer the effects of electron migration.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
486 desktop motherboards were the first generation of motherboards to allow easy overclocking... Change a jumper, cross your fingers and away you go. Before that it would be desolder a crystal, solder in a quicker one, and pray the other components on the board could handle it. Unfortunately that'll probably the only way to get a 486 laptop to go any quicker - you won't have any space in there for jumpers...and the chip won't be socketed.
 
I'm surprised no one here mentioned how the heat from the CPU could affect other components beside the CPU itself. Depending on where your memory sticks are located on the board, overclocking could actually cause memory problems if your sticks are not properly shielded (which most aren't).
 
I'm surprised no one here mentioned how the heat from the CPU could affect other components beside the CPU itself. Depending on where your memory sticks are located on the board, overclocking could actually cause memory problems if your sticks are not properly shielded (which most aren't).

No, you're wrong.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Better use of memory management for that 486 laptop is probably the best way to go. I had a 386 a long time ago and people said it wouldnt run Doom. I proved them wrong. All I needed was a trusty bootdisk and loaded DOS in high memory... the rest is history.

Some jiggery pokery could get SNES working on a 486... after all there was an amstrad with a megadrive built into it. (although that probably had megadrive hardware already present)
 
Back
Top