alright. i am at the moment fairly broke... ive got abotu $40 Canadian to my name

Heres my PC:
AMD 1700+
256 MB DDR SDRAM
ATI Radion 9200 SE Atlantis 128 MB DDR
Sound Blaster 16 PCI

i obviously have more than that, but those are the generic detals. im fine for HD space and what not.


Now, thats beginning to look a bit dated in some ways (especially ram)

I was wondering
A: what should my prioritys be
B: say i need a new processor/ram/whatever what would be a good compromise between price and power
C: Also im running up the specs on my Mobo, il grab them in full later. Its an Asus. How fast a chip can i drop in it? (il get more info on my board later)





Thank you

Well for a starters, if you want to stay with AMD I wouldn't bother upgrading just yet until socket 939 prices start to fall a little. As far as I know all socket 939 processors run dual channel DDR3200 ram so you're not going to be getting any real benefit out of buying ram suited to that purpose.

Despite this, considering you've already got 256 RAM, if it's good quality you could purchase an equivalent 256mb stick and try a moderate overclock. Also, you don't mention what core revision your CPU is. Anyways my suspicion is that you'll be running it at FSB333mhz and the AMDs can quite easily be upped to FSB400mhz without much trouble. If you've got an existing stick of PC3200 DDR, I'd just buy another one and try this. If not, consider buying either one stick of 512mb PC32000 (if you can find one with cas rating (2-2-2-5) that's perfect! - I think Corsair make some of these but they're pricey). and up your FSB to 400mhz.

You'll squeeze a little extra juice out of your system and probably not experience any negative side effects.

cheers

I'm in sgreement with Mcelb. At 256meg RAM your using a lot of page file. Doubling that would definatly give you the biggest reurn of investment; overclocking would give you an additional edge for no cost "assuming" your equiptment can handle it.

Peace

Alright... now... <noob> i know what overclocking is, but not how to do it</noob> any pointers?

what speed of ram are you running? the ram will limit how fast you can overclock

also what is your motherboard? depending on your motherboard you may or maynot be able to oc


Jobefx

I've had a bit of a hunt around for articles on the Athlon XP 1700++. It seems it's particularly good at OC'n. Find links below. Hope they're helpful.

Hardware socket to change multiplier
http://www.upgradeware.com/english/product/xptmc/xptmc.htm

and review
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030703/index.html

Other guides on OC'n 1700+
http://www.digital-daily.com/motherboard/t...bred-overclock/

http://www.winhq.net/showdoc.php?dtype=reviews&id=34&page=1

Push beyond 2Ghz
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20030826071248.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20030322034857.html

Hope this gets you started. Make sure you've worked out all the specs etc before dicking around. I find if I've got a good understanding of the theory before I start breaking things I tend to be more successful.

Cheers.

mcelb1200

i'm a n00b as well at ocing but i want to try it

mobo is soyo dragon ultra kt-400
proc is amd athlon xp 1800+
memory is kingston 256mb 2700 ddram + pny 512mb 2700 ddram

anyone can help on the how to's of OCing?

First make sure you have a good heatsink/fan combo before you even consider overclocking. if you burn up your processor, you have no warranty. On those processors, I wouldn't be surprised if they are already unlocked. You may be able to do the whole thing directly through your BIOS.

yup with that chip and a soy dragon all overclocking can be done through your bios.

go get yourself a good heatsink --all copper
buff the bottom of the heatsink with 800 grit sandpaper
spread some arctic silver on it and overclock away.

download mobo monitor so you can watch your temps.

you will have to experiment with your bios settings -- read the pages mcelb posted.

I have seen you same setup oced to around a 2400+ which you may or may not get depending on if you have a a good processor and if you are lucky

good luck and keep us posted and I will try to help if you have problems

Jobefx

you have any recommendations on a heatsink and fan?

I like the cooler master heatsinks. I am using the all copper cooler master with heat pipes and the bigger fan (CPU Cooler(HHC-001)) on my amd rig and I really like it I can get a decent overclock even with crappy memory slowing me down. I would also recomend the all copper with the skived fins (Aero 7+(ASB-V73))

Jobefx

Check out these HSF combos from SilenX. They look very nice.

http://www.silenx.com/productcart/pc/viewC...sp?idCategory=5

Just make sure you check the weight of the HSF and that which your processor supports. If it's too heavy you might find yourself with the lightest, most expensive paper-weight you've ever bought..

Smack,

If that 1800 you got is unlocked mate, the sky's the limit. That chip is widely recognised as a superb overclocker.

Check out some of the great sites mcelb has posted; there's a lot of o/c in that cpu.

Just be sure of all your specs and limitations before going too mad with your o/c though.

it's locked, but i have it to a 2000+ right now, hopefully waiting to get a new HSF so i can go to 1.7ghz.

Thanks guys. I managed to pull a great deal on an extra 128 MB of RAM (not all i need, but such a great price i pounced - 29$ CDN) and am now overclocking up to 1.77 ghz

w00t! Way to go man. A bit of extra performance is always greatly enjoyed isn't it?

Now you need to consider water cooling... a little heavy water perhaps?

A water cooling setup that costs about 50% more than an XP3000+ doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me...

Current processors have been at a bit of a wall for about a year, with not much movement occuring, nowdays the RAM quality is making big moves because people are realising that generic ram that does DDR400 at 3-4-4-8 doesn't quite cut it...

In either case, if you need more speed, save up...

As allways, for gaming hit the AMD's, any of the 64bit range is fantastic...

As for overclocking, find a dedicated Overclocking site and read up on there, i tend to visit www.overclockers.com.au a fair bit...

Oh, and BIOS updates are a must!

Don't know a huge amount about AMD clocking, i use a P4 myself...

I'll stop rambling now

Im gonna say your cheapest things to do to get better results...

1. Fresh install of OS
2. double your RAM
3. Video Card (last generation ones are falling in prices now that all the new ones are out! That is if your a gamer)
4. Make sure your BIOS settings are tweaked to get the most speed outtta of what you have to include some overclocking!
5. Adequate cooling...i.e. more fans!

Fresh install = done
ram doubling = half done... im up to 384 now
Video card = im happy with my 9200 for now... i dont need a new one yet
bios = set, and clocked to 1.77
Fans = need a few more prolly ,but im running at 88F right now...