How to overclock an Amd Athlon64 X2 dual core processor

Hi,

I have buy this processor from one of colleague at very lower cost and now I wanted to overclock it,so how do i overclock an amd athlon 64 X2 dual core
processor 5500+ and how could i gain maximum output from it, its run at 2.6 ghz at the moment but want to gain as much as possible out of this system as possible.

Suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks

if your FSB is 200, and your Multiplier is 10, you get 200 x 10 = 2000. Thus your CPU is at 2000 MHz. Were you to change your FSB to 220, you would get 220 x 10 = 2200. Thus your CPU would now be at 2200 MHz.

So that's the simplicity of it. Go turn your FSB up 5 points, and congrats, you would have an overclock. However, you would not get far. There are many other things to take in consideration if you want to get a good overclock. The more you take into consideration, the higher the overclock you are likely to achieve.

Here are the main points, we will elaborate them.

1. When you overclock your CPU, you are overclocking your RAM too. Your RAM has to be able to handle the speeds you are forcing through it, otherwise your system will blue screen.
   
2. You may need to raise the voltage of your CPU in order to get a good overclock. Raising the voltage will raise the temperature of the CPU. High temperatures may damage the CPU. So keep an eye on your temperatures. Anything under 45*C is safe. Anything under 55*C is acceptable. Anything over that should be avoided.
   
3. Not all chips were created equal. Just because your friend gets 2.5Ghz does not mean you will with the exact same setup.
   
4. All A64 motherboards have a "hypertransport" speed. This is 5x your FSB normally. (aka 1000, as 5x 200 = 1000) This must be kept at 1000 or less. If you bring your FSB up to 210 and leave your hypertransport at 5x your FSB, then your hypertransport will try and run at 1050. This will make your computer unstable. This is the most common mistake made by people trying to overclock the A64. You can change it so its only 4x your FSB.
   
5. Not all motherboards will let you overclock. If you have a cheap motherboard, or one bought from a major company such a Dell, you won't be able to overclock.

The manufacturers of the parts that we are using are also not accountable for any loss/damage that may occur - most companies void your warranty for overclocking. It's a risk, and it's your risk - proceed with caution.

There are basically five things that are affected by overclocking (increasing the FSB);

CPU
HTT (on AMD Athlon)
RAM
Mobo/Chipset
AGP/PCI-e/PCI

Overclocking the AGP/PCI-e/PCI bus isn't worth doing so this needs to be "locked" before you start messing with the others. The freq. that you need are 66/100/33

You need to find the max FSB for the rest of these individually. Start with the mobo/chipset;

1. Set the CPU at a low multiplier (x6)
2. Set HTT to a low multiplier (x3)
3. Set RAM to low divider DDR266

Crank up the FSB by small increments testing with the torture test in Prime95, running Folding@Home, Seti@Home etc. as well will help. Note down the max stable FSB

Now try the max FSB for the HTT;

1. Set the CPU at a low multiplier (x6)
2. Set RAM to low divider DDR266
3. Leave HTT multiplier at x5

Crank up the FSB by small increments testing with your favourite 3D game (thanks to mupets_revenge). Note down the max stable FSB. Multiply it by x5 this is the max freq. that the HTT will run at. Note it down

Now try the max FSB for the RAM;

1. Set the CPU at a low multiplier (x6)
2. Set HTT to a low multiplier (x3)
3. Set RAM to 1:1 (normally known as DDR400)

Now try the max FSB for the CPU;

1. Set HTT to a low multiplier (x3)
2. Set RAM to low divider DDR266
3. Set CPU to a multiplier that is a bit lower than normal but not too low. (x9?)

Crank up the FSB by small increments testing with the torture test in Prime95, running Folding@Home, Seti@Home etc. as well will help. When the CPU fails, give it a bit more volts starting at 1.5V, it should now be OK. Up the FSB until it fails again. Carry on until more volts have no effect, best not to exceed 1.65V. Note down the max stable FSB. Multiply it by x9? this is the max freq. that the CPU will run at. Note it down. This will depend on the cooling you have on your CPU. 1.65V with the stock cooler isn't a good idea, for this you'll need a good aftermarket cooler or preferably watercooling.

The Speed of the HTT does really make much diffrence, it has the same performance at 200Mhz(LDT) *2 as with 200MHz*5. So you may be able to simplifie even more by saying just set the HTT bus mulitplier to 3.