# Overclocking An Old ATHLON XP 3200+



## jack-o-bytes (Dec 2, 2009)

Hey everyone,

I was just wondering if it is possible to overclock an Athlon XP 3200+ using and ASUS A7N8X-X?

Any help and any settings that poeple could give would be a great help. I have a Zalman Copper and Aluminium cooler (can't remember model number though) It is the one on the second photo on this link. I also have used Arctic Silver as well.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/re.../dp/B00032CWPQ

Any way and help would be great.
Thanking in advance Jack


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

what you need to do is post your full specs including amount of ram and make, motherboard make and type and power supply make and type etc then we can help you further.

depending on how good a power supply and how good your cooling is then you will be able to overclock no problem


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

please read this http://www.techsupportforum.com/f27...erclocking-read-here-for-starters-232382.html


----------



## jack-o-bytes (Dec 2, 2009)

Well I have....

Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-X
RAM: 1GB 400MHz Crucial I think (chaging to Corsair Pro Soon hopefully)
PSU: Dragon 500w (which I will be changing to a 450w Corsair or coolermaster soon)
GPU: Nvidia 5700LE 256MB

Cooling:
2x 80mm fan near PCI and AGP slot(s)
1x 120mm Fan on the top sucking the warm air out
1x 80mm fan on the front by hard drive.
1x 92mm Zalman CU cooler with arctic silver thermal paste.


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

I suggest you go for a cosair power supply and go for a vx550 or 650TX if you are going to venture into overclocking. You will also get better results if you go for atleast 2GB ram even better if you went for 4 but make sure it is in a 2 x 2GB kit and not 4 1GB kit.


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

your system looks pretty decent but this is not a critism just some advice, as you you are probably aware overclocking increases heat regardless of how little you overclock so airflow is very important. If possible try and tidy your cables up a bit so you have maximum air flow. Try to make it so no cables are infront or behined the cpu and heat sink it sounds strange but even the thinest cable like a SATA cable can impede air flow.


----------



## jack-o-bytes (Dec 2, 2009)

OK then I will tidy my case soon then. I have an issue with the A7N8X-X board though because it won't accept any memory bigger that 512mb per module. It will only take 1.5GB even though it says it can have 3GB but also says that it cannot have more than 512mb modules installed. In 3 slots this is. 

Could I get a power supply like this one. because I am on a limited budget.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167200/show_product_reviews

Also is this RAM ok to use

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1gb-Corsair-D...erComponents_MemoryRAM_JN?hash=item3ca7e7b073


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

coolermaster power supplies are not very good. I used to test power supplies for a living. The best power supplies to go for are: Seasonic, Corsair, CWT, PC power and cooling and Thermaltake toughpower series only.

you need to check with your motherboard manufacturer on their website to see if it will accept that make and type of ram but I am pretty certain it will.


----------



## jack-o-bytes (Dec 2, 2009)

They all are either hard to find or expensive though bearing in mind that this is a 5-6 year old computer and that I wouldn't want to spend to much money on it. Could I put my 650w Atrix PSU in it that is in my other computer at the moment?


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Atrix are about as bad as they come, I wouldn't recommend it. If you really are stuck for cash then you could try that coolermaster that you said before but you may run into issues.


----------



## jack-o-bytes (Dec 2, 2009)

OK Then. Any way What would be a good overclock then. Should I go for Multiplyer or FSB Overclock. My motherboard offers the option to change the FSB to RAM ration so if I make it 220MHz I can lower the ram ration to keep it 200MHz.


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

always start with the FSB. I always overclock my PCs and have never once changed the multiplier. Always start with low increases say 5MHz then save and reboot and if you get into windows and everything seems ok go back and increase by another 5MHz once you have done a 20 or 30MHz increase you then need to stress test the cpu whilst monitoring the temps. For a 1hout stress test I recommend using OCCT and for monitoring the temps you should get core temp.

Your temps should not go above 60 degrees whilst the cpu is at full load during the stress test.

Once you are happy with your overclock you need to download prime 95 or Orthos and run atleast a 7 hour stress test whilst monitoring the temps.

you will notice that your ram speed will also change when you increase the FSB depending on what you have it may go up or down the trick is to keep the ram speed within the normal speed of the ram.

so for example my FSB is 443 x 9 giving me 3.91GHz and my ram speed is 1064 (1066MHz ram)


----------



## jack-o-bytes (Dec 2, 2009)

That sounds a nice overclock on your computer. Any way I think I will have a go at cable tidying tonight and then check the voltages on the PSU and the MHz of the memory. I will then start to raise the FSB. I tried to change the Multiplyer once but it failed and wouldn't even post I had to take the bios battery out.


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

don't bother with the multiplier just keep it on its highest one which it should be, you will have to disable throttling too which will keep it at your overclock setting.


----------



## jack-o-bytes (Dec 2, 2009)

ok cool thanks. I will have a go later then and I will report back with what I manage to get.


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

cool, good luck


----------



## jack-o-bytes (Dec 2, 2009)

Hello,

I have decided that I am not going to overclock the cpu until I have got my self a better PSU. I ran prime95 on the standard 2.2GHz with a full blend so that a lot of RAM was used and the 5v dropped to 4.65v and the 12v was ranging between 11.90v and 12.20v. So I am going to get my self a nice stable PSU first. Do you know where I could get a good quality one fairly cheaply. Such as a good internet site.


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

depends where you are I am in the UK I always buy my stuff from overclockers.com or Scan

with PSU voltages you are ok upto 10% + or - but I think thats too high anything above 5% would worry me.


----------



## jack-o-bytes (Dec 2, 2009)

Yeah,

I have asked my friend what he thinks about his coolermaster on that he has and he says that his computer is running well. To be honest I think they have made some good stuff so I think I may get one of theirs.


----------

