Tweaking Optimizing Windows.pdf - GEGeek

AMD's and Intel's chips generally run much faster than this speed but they are in such a heated price war that it serves them
economically to sell some chips at these slower speeds. If you can find one for yourself, you could run it at a faster speed and save
yourself the expense of buying the faster chip.
Why would you do it ?
As a PC owner, you've probably lamented over the fact that the second you bought your shiny new system with all its state of the
art components, even faster ones became available as if the guys at the store had them hidden in back and were just waiting for
you to leave. If you've owned your system for a few years, you've also most likely been irritated that some of the newest games,
apps and other software goodies have minimum system requirements that prevent them from running on your machine properly--if
at all. Sometimes, even the applications that your system should handle won't run quite as well as the glowing reviews lead you to
believe.
The most obvious benefit of successfully overclocking a CPU is simple: it runs faster. By running faster, the processor is able to
perform its tasks more quickly, resulting in faster application execution. That's not the only reason why overclockers do their thing.
The very act of overclocking is embraced by the most passionate PC gearheads--the computer society equivalent of auto enthusiasts
who craft holes in their hoods for modified engine blocks. As such, successfully overclocking a processor is sort of a cottage industry
hobby to the world of PC power users. The rush and satisfaction that results from successfully pushing a processor beyond what
should have been its very limits is often more rewarding than any performance gain. Overclocking may appeal even to those who
aren't well versed in the intricacies of their PCs, but who are interested in hands-on learning. In fact, there are few performance
tweaks that will cause users to learn more about their equipment and its limits than overclocking.
Basics of overclocking
There are several ways of going about increasing the core speed of your processor. First you must understand how the speed of the
CPU is determined. Many years ago, processors such as the 486 ran the same speed as the majority of the components in the
system. When you increased the bus speed of the motherboard, the memory, PCI slots and processor were all scaled by the exact
same amount. Since the 486 DX2, however, the CPU speed has been set as a multiple of the front side bus speed (FSB) which is the
speed the motherboard is running. The DX2 ran at twice the speed of the motherboard (2x) and thus, a 486 DX2 66MHz has a
motherboard that runs only 33MHz..
Starting with the 486 DX2 and continuing onto the original Pentium and early Pentium II chips, it was much easier to overclock your
processor. You could change both the FSB and the bus multiplier. The Pentium 75 was a great example of this. It ran with a 50MHz
FSB and a 1.5x multiplier. Many people had success changing the multiplier to 2x, resulting in a 25MHz overclock to 100MHz. Those
more sure of their system components might change their system to a 66MHz FSB with a 1.5x multiplier (also 200MHz). Keep in
mind that running a faster FSB (and thus faster memory and other components) results in higher performance. Some of the better
chips were able to run 120MHz with a 60MHz FSB and a 2x multiplier. You can see the flexibility offered by being able to change the
multiplier and the FSB speeds.
Chip examples
Since late 1998, starting with the PII-333 and 350, all Intel processors (except engineering samples) have their multiplier internally
locked. AMD used to preach strongly against multiplier locking back in the days of the K6-2 (which is unlocked), however upon
releasing their hugely successful Athlon, AMD decided the problems they were having with Re-markers warranted instituting a
multiplier lock. (Re-markers are people who sell overclocked CPUs that are actually "re-marked" at the higher speed for a profit).
While there is nothing illegal about overclocking, nor is there anything illegal about selling overclocked chips, you must mention that
they are overclocked.
With these "locked" chips, there are two ways to overclock. The first is to "unlock" them. This can be tricky and may require some
experience but is generally the method of choice for AMD chips. We will cover this in the 'advanced overclocking' section. The
easiest way to overclock a processor is simply to increase the FSB speed and as such, this is generally the method of choice for
Intel CPUs. This is controlled by the motherboard. You will have to check your motherboard documentation to see exactly how to
change this speed, however I will go over several common methods.
Historically, CPU's such as the P2-350 and P2-400 came multiplier locked at 3.5x and 4x limiting our overclocking potential
somewhat. This is why the old P2-333 was so popular - it used the same core (more or less) than its faster brothers, but had a
multiplier (which could be changed by the user) of up to 5.5x, offering us lots of potential for MHz. for free :) Like I said, since
around 19th August 1998, all new Intel CPU's were supplied locked with ONE multiplier only. ANY new Intel etc. made after that
date, will not step down a multiplier. That means the old trick of reducing the multiplier and increasing the bus speed no longer
works!!
The Celeron 266, was also extremely popular because its multiplier was a low multiplier; 4 x 100 seemed almost guaranteed, with
many running successfully at 4 x 112! However, this CPU was plagued by its lack of L2 cache. Its successor, the Celeron 300a
included 128KB of on-die L2 cache, improving performance while maintaining the overclockability of its predecessor. The Celeron
300a is generally considered the most 'famous' overclocking chip ever and is still found in a great number of systems. Virtually
every 300a chip made was capable of running 4.5x100MHz and some even ran 4.5x112=504MHz. At the time, this $100 CPU was
beating Intel's flagship, the PII-450, which cost a hefty £450. The P2-300 SL2W8 was another CPU's of choice for those seeking to
simply increase their 66MHz FSB to 100MHz and leave it at that. The P2-333 SL2TV also produced good results at 5 x 100 or
beyond!
Shortly later, the Celeron 366 found its way into the limelight. A new stepping on the Celeron core allowed greater clock speeds and
the majority of Celeron 366 CPUs manufactured during 1999 could run 5x5x100=550MHz. Nowadays, the world has moved on, and
the battleground has been drawn between Intel and AMD. In one corner sits the AMD Duron and Thunderbird chips, which are
currently doing battle with Intel's flagship "Coppermine" line. Right now unlocked Duron 600 CPUs are doing 900MHz-1.1Ghz very
nicely, with the Intel P3-750e sometimes running quite happily at 1Ghz also.
As it stands now (Dec 2000) in the ThunderBird vs Coppermine battle, Intel is taking a beating. The Coppermine can almost never
run faster than 1.1GHz without extreme measures whereas the ThunderBird Athlon is shipping with factory marked 1.2GHz units,
often able to run near 1.3GHz. Athlon 1Ghz parts often run 1.1Ghz or 1.2Ghz and even lower clocked Athlons can sometimes cross
the 1GHz threshold. Intel's Celeron can often run above 900MHz, however it is plagued by poor performance. Current consensus is
that a Duron 1Ghz can equal or match a Pentium III running at 1Ghz.