dell motherboard help.

[comp-man]

Hey guys I am overclocking my cpu ( no worries i have read all of the guides i know what im doing, plus i got a friend thats used to overclock for a living helping me.) But i cannot seem to find any guides to see if there are jumpers on the motherboard,and if so where? Im sure i do because i cannot for the life of me find anything in bios on cpu sppeds or such. heres the specs:
SMBIOS info:
Manufacturer : Dell Computer Corp.
Product Name : 0WF887
Version :
Serial Number: ..CN70821669070K.

also any info on a good overclocking speed for intel celeron 2.5 Ghz cpu would be helpfull.

[bookworm]

Originally Posted by comp-man

Hey guys I am overclocking my cpu ( no worries i have read all of the guides i know what im doing, plus i got a friend thats used to overclock for a living helping me.) But i cannot seem to find any guides to see if there are jumpers on the motherboard,and if so where? Im sure i do because i cannot for the life of me find anything in bios on cpu sppeds or such. heres the specs:
SMBIOS info:
Manufacturer : Dell Computer Corp.
Product Name : 0WF887
Version :
Serial Number: ..CN70821669070K.

also any info on a good overclocking speed for intel celeron 2.5 Ghz cpu would be helpfull.

Have a word with these guys, they are wizards http://www.h-kon.net/forums/

Cheers

[psharkauburn]

Overclocks for a living??? That's just too funny.

On a serious note - overclocking comes down to increasing transport speed (FSB frequency / cpu voltage) and memory speed (dividers/timings) and these are the duties of the motherboard to perform. 99% of the time these are only adjustable in the BIOS, I have seen older computers with jumpers for moving FSB from 100mhz to 133mhz, but those are pretty outdated nowadays. Dell uses a propriatary BIOS which does not allow tampering in *most* of its models. Some of the higher end models (XPS line) allow some frequency changing but usually within certain tolerance ranges. Based on your cpu I can pretty much assure you that you do not have a model capable of this. So, your options are pretty few - find a hacked bios that's compatible (very much a long shot and very very risky) or replace the motherboard with a overclocker friendly one. The upside is that a MB compatible with your CPU can be found for very very cheap ($30-$50 range) and often with more features than your current board. Look at brands like Abit, Asus, etc.. (overclocker friendly boards) with very configurable BIOS. I do most of my inventory shopping from tigerdirect.com or newegg.com and i'm constantly sent emails about barebones packages in the $200 range w/ very decent cpu/mb/case/ps/ram - worth thinking about if you're finding your current celeron system limiting.

[comp-man]

Hey thanks guys thats really good info.. Although i think i might wait a while because replacing my motherboard sound kindof hard.. If i do will it change and thing. will i have to install new drivers? how hard is it? and do
i just simply transfer every part (fans, hdd ect.) to the new mb? Will i need a new case? and is it dangerous? sry for all the questions about the "for a living" thing sry i have no clue what i was thinking. OK Later,

comp-man

[psharkauburn]

Changing your motherboard, while its a major update to your system, really isn't that difficult - just kind of time consuming. Any board you get will come with detailed instructions on where everything gets plugged into. The nice thing about motherboards is that there is a standard size (ATX) so you don't have to replace your case. Its a matter of disconnecting everything attached to your current one, pulling it out, putting the new one in, and reconnecting everything. The other nice thing is that cpu/mothreboard/memory/video tend to progress at the same rate technology wise - eg. newer processor requires a newer motherboard and newer memory, etc... but this works in your favor because finding a motherboard compatible with your processor means the chance of it working well with your other components is very high (so you don't have to upgrade anything else, just the MB).

Most manufactured systems (dell, gateway, hp, etc...) use the tamper proof BIOS as a safety and stability measure. They get far fewer tech support calls and warranty replacement issues when they know that people can't push their machines farther than they were designed to go. Overclocking results can be pretty processor specific - a celeron 2.5 may be able to push to 3.0g while a 2.6 may only go up to a 2.75 (these are made up but the idea is solid). www.tomshardware.com is a great resource for speed comparisons and OC info. Successfully overclocking your current cpu will definitely require a new motherboard, and you may see results in the range of a 15%-20% gain. I'd recommend taking a look at a new barebone system tigerdirect were for a pretty modest price you'll get a new computer that out of the box is 100%+ faster, with potential to be OC'd even further. Its just a recommendation though, money is always an issue for everyone. Again, a new MB for you should be pretty inexpensive, and the boost may keep you happy for another year or so which could really make it worth it. If you're trying to OC for a specific reason like gameplay isn't very good - that's much more dependant on your video card, so perhaps an upgrade in that department would be more worth your while. Just a thought.

[comp-man]

OK thanks... yea i wanted to overclock for game play. I didnt know that the video card had such an affect on it? i acctually bought a 80$ ATI graphics card . but im getting a free cooling system from a friend, will that help its preformence? (there is no cooling system right now). So yea i think ill just upgrade my graphics card later. How much is a good fast graphics card? 100? 200?. Thanks the help

[pazsion]

well first off, i hope u didn't listen to these guys. It doesn't seem to me that they are even knowledgable about this.

The celeron is not OCable. why? because intel has its own speed step process in these chips and many others. But the celerons are locked. for good reason. They just do not handle it well. And lack many instructions to help this. The chip will OC itself when it is cooled. maximum of .5% to 2% increase in speeds. the 2.5 will be maxed at 2.6 to 2.8. Cooling the cely has been the only way i've oced it. If you desire a gameing pc a celeron is not the way to go. I would suggest upgrading the CPU.

any intel core 2 or pentium 4 will be much better then a cely. and most of the time is very much supporting OCing, with software. I like setfsb.

Getting a video card with the celey still installed will improve performance greatly. any card even a pci video card will give 5x more performance. This also will increase with a cpu upgrade. Other processors will be able to handle more info and have extra instructions or code to help take advantage of your new video card.

This board is a socket 478. which has been discontiued due to lead contant in the board. possibly also a marketing ploy to push new technology where this set would drive the costs down if it were still produced.

fortuneately finding a 478 processor will be cheaper untill it becomes more rare to find one. only problem is most major distributors are restricted by law from selling them. In the USA, So you'll be stuck buying from e-bay, or other auction sites or close friends and refrences.

Or you can do what intel is trying to convince us to do, and buy a new MB with a socket 775 or chipsets 915 or 945 or 965. This is a good choice since it will be more upgradable in the near future and is well supported.

And there is very little support for adding pci-e board to the 478 line up. The 3 manufacturers i've known of. Have either stopped selling because intel asked them to. or claim to be sold out all the time.

Which 775 can do for u. A gaming pc will definately be needing a pci-e board. if you want to be certain you can play the latest games. like crysis, and many others.

abit, asus, gigabyte, elite, are usually very good for OCers. and there is even a standard called ESA. And gigabyte is one of the few manufacturers of MB that i know of that has ultra-durable boards for sale.

These boards are beefed up to handle more voltages, clock speeds, and temps for longer periods of time.

nvidia fx and quadro series VC are pretty good cards. And nvidia as far as benchmarks suggest are still the top dogs in this arena.

ATI HD 38xx Is the closest in comparision and some version exceed nvidia. Espeacially when OCed.

So far as i know ATI is the best supported OCable video cards.
nvidia has taken certain measures to prevent OCing on older boards and new alike. Unless you are paying booku bucks for a "high-end" Gpu which in alot of cases is the same as less expensive models. Its just they are sold under clocked and without certain codes and features.

Performance drivers for nvidia are provided and are more powerful then stock or normal driver sets.

I hope this clears things up a bit for you and other dell users.

And yes, the better cooling u can provide. the better your system will perform. Areas to consider for cooling.

CPU- this will generally run at 80f - 120f no load with stock heatsink and fan. NOT GOOD! it should never go over 80f getting it to stay below this can be difficult. but i've been able to do so with stock heatsink and a 14v fan directly on top of it. Make sure it is a fan thats made for computers, they have shielding over the magnets so not to distort the information and electrical fields inside your computer. on this board there are no sensors dell wants you to know about. but they are there. I used a meat thermo placed at the base of the heatsink. give it about a min before u judge what it says.

Video card- this should have a heatsink with a fan. if it doesn't, get one or have one blowing on it. this should also be below 80F (it should not feel like it would burn u while touching it) and most have sensors to detect this. Given software. there are loads for nvidia and ati alike. guru3d is a nice place.

Hard DRives- these will also run 80f - 120f or more under load (like in a game) also a source of lag. The time it takes to recall and write info increases as the temps rise. A fan blowing on them is helpful. But if you can get a heatsink/fan combo, the heatsink should wrap half or all of the HD and make contact with the tops of the chips. Heatsinks help extract the heat from internal components as well. And cool it off much better while under load. There is a liquid type of gel pad heatsink that is at newegg and tiger. So far user reviews have been positive and i've seen positive reviews in pc mags as well.

Liquid cooling of these componants is the best way to cool it off.
kits are available for booku bux. some are less expensive but prone to leaks and failures or don't cool properly. Companies like mine fabricate custom cooling systems for a more reasonable cost.

take care!
Paul,
Gabrielsangel.4t.com