2 questions about OCing and ram

[jcon891]

questions about OCing and ram

Hi, i recently built my new computer, and i was thinking about overclocking my CPU. It is an Athlon 64 3200+ processor. I have never overclocked and i know that there are many risks involved, so i wanted your opinions...

Is a 3200+ worth overclocking?

Another question, I am working on making a video with Gamecam for World of Warcraft, but even with the 2 gigs of ram, my computer lags like hell when i start recording... is there a way i can prevent this?

My computer has 4 ram slots, and i have 2x 1GB sticks... i have them set up in the 1st and 3rd slots... would it make a difference if i set them up in the 1st and 2nd? or 1st and 4th? im not quite sure exactly what this changes, but i heard it uses your ram differently, please explain if you know what im talking about.

 

[THEpiGUY]

Hi, i recently built my new computer, and i was thinking about overclocking my CPU. It is an Athlon 64 3200+ processor. I have never overclocked and i know that there are many risks involved, so i wanted your opinions...

Is a 3200+ worth overclocking?

I'd say yes, if you have temperature monitoring software. That's the main risk in overclocking. The best software you can get would be whatever comes/came with your motherboard, if anything at all. You could possibly get as high as 2.4-2.6 GHz with proper cooling. Though 2.6 would kinda be pushing it, but I know it's been done, by Alvino I think (don't kill me if I'm wrong, Alvino ). Depending on your computer, you should just be able to hit "Delete" or "F2" on your keyboard while it's at the boot screen; there, you should be able to change the FSB of your processor. You can read up on the overclocking thread, I can't give too much detail...

Another question, I am working on making a video with Gamecam for World of Warcraft, but even with the 2 gigs of ram, my computer lags like hell when i start recording... is there a way i can prevent this?

I'd say it's probably because of your hard drive write speed. I'm not sure of this, but I did some recording after overclocking my CPU nearly 20% and didn't notice a difference in the lag. I'd suggest getting an identical hard drive to put in RAID mode, unless you don't have a RAID controller. If you don't, get a WD Raptor, assuming that you have the money >_>. Sorry if you don't have the money, because if it is indeed hard drive writing lag, then there's not much you can do as far as overclocking goes. Now I'm not all too sure about this, it could just be immense CPU strain, but I didn't notice a difference when I overclocked, that's all I'm saying. Or it could just be faulty software, because reading all that over again, I've been recording with Gamecam a little as well. But it does the same thing for FRAPS, so I'm assuming it's not just the software.

My computer has 4 ram slots, and i have 2x 1GB sticks... i have them set up in the 1st and 3rd slots... would it make a difference if i set them up in the 1st and 2nd? or 1st and 4th? im not quite sure exactly what this changes, but i heard it uses your ram differently, please explain if you know what im talking about.

I think having one in the 1st slot and the 3rd slot is the best configuration. It may depend on your motherboard once again, but in mine (ASUS A8N32) it says to have them in slots 1 and 3.


I hope you might find some of this information useful. Don't go out and buy a new hard drive immediately; wait for some other comments/suggestions. I don't want you to waste unnecessary money on stuff you don't need. And if you decide to do so, good luck with your overclock.

 

[Ronco Rox]

with OC'ing your 3200+, i doubt it will show any difference in performance or speed.

i'm not sure if picking different slots for ram makes a difference, even if there were a difference between speed/performance it would probably be very very small.

 

[jcon891]

Thank you guys for the replies, they are helping me out a lot i assure you, but i think ill leave this thread up for a little while before making any decisions

 

[mammikoura]

check how the dual channel configuration is for ur mobo. Usually it's 1st & 3rd and then 2nd & 4th. But sometimes it's 1st & 2nd and 3rd & 4th. So make sure that u are running that ram in dual channel, dual channel would probably give u like 10-15% increase in ram performance.

And yes I'd say it's worth overclocking, though I don't know if it's really needed yet. U could atleast try recording when oc'd and see if there is a difference. But I always start oc'ing my hardware when it just isn't powerfull enough to run the new games.

 

[Anubis1980]

i was also going to mention dual channel ram as well, on my MSI i have to have them in slot 1 and 2 to make them work so check this out, and yes i think oc is worth it. i have my AMD X2 4200 @ 2475 and runs perfect plus in things like aquamark my score rises by about 10k because of this oc. As has been said, temperature control is very important. Another thing to mention, underclocking ram to achieve a higher CPU score is daft (or i believe so). my ram runs fine at ddr450, but if i try to oc my cpu any more it crashes, so i COULD reduce the ram speed to 333, but then the benchmarks i run r so much slower, never understood why people underclock their ram to get an extra 100-200mhz from the cpu when in fact it slows the pc down. Well does on mine anyway lol. ( and if ur after extra performance u cant do wrong with just tweaking the bios,. ie ram timings i get an extra 2000mb/s by spending a day tweaking the factory defaults)

anyway good luck if u decide to do it

 

[ownage]

A 3200+ will take about 1.55V on air. So just keep it below that. Make sure you have some good cooling, ie TT BT, Scythe NInja, Tuniq Tower 120, and hsf from Thermalright, Scythe Infinity, etc.