Hardware Overclocking a Pentium 4

[James B.]

Well. My computer fell behind.

. My graphics card, an ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro ( I bought it a week ago), that I stuck into my 3 or 4 year old Dell Dimension 9100.

Well, I tried putting up some settings on Call of Duty 4... and BAM. Not much improvement. A bit of messing told me it was the 3.0 Ghz single core pentium 4 sitting on my motherboard.

So, I want it faster. How far do you think I could push it without losing reliability...

Or, an alternative, a new motherboard with a new pc. Of course, I'll need to buy new RAM too, right?

 

[coolbho3000]

Depends on what kind of PSU and cooling you have. With stock cooling, I think you'll be able to push it to at least to 3.2ghz. P4s run really hot so monitor the temps carefully.

 

[James B.]

dang. Thats pretty slow... What do you reccomend i get, probably limited only to water cooling

.

 

[cubin']

Over clocking probably won't be worth it for you. Overclockers go for improvements most other people wouldn't even notice..unless you have really good cooling but you'd be better putting the money towards a new computer.


COD4 runs pretty nice on my Athlon 3000+ with a 7800GT. Are you looking to turn up the graphics all the way? How much RAM do you have?

Let us know your budget and we'll work out what the best upgrade is for you. In the end you're looking at a new PC if your wanting to play new games on high graphics.

 

[ben_r_]

I say forget the overclocking, stick with what you have how you have it and save your money!

 

[James B.]

well. 1 gig of ram, but thats enough for the recommended.

My ram runs at 533 Mhz. (or whatever is closest to that, can't remember exact nubmers).

I think my best bet would be to buy a whole new MoBo... Anyone have any recommendations? It'd be nice to keep as many things as possible...

Also, while were on the subject, Quad or Dual cores?

.

 

[ZeWarrior]

You can't overclock a Dimension 9100, the BIOS locks that out.

 

[coolbho3000]

Ooh, a Dell... ZeWarrior is right it's not overclockable. The only overclock you can do is your video card.

 

[ZeminkoX]

Which is why you should just take the case to bits and replace the motherboard. That'll more or less "unlock" your machine.

I had a Dell Dimension a year or two ago, and through periodic updating my computer is more or less completely different except from the hard drive that I still use.

 

[Awdofgum]

Which reminds me, some guy overclocked his pentium 4 to 8.3 ghz

 

[ZeWarrior]

Which reminds me, some guy overclocked his pentium 4 to 8.3 ghz

And a QX9650@ only 3Ghz would kill it. Not to mention the QX9650 is one of the only CPUs to get to over 4Ghz on stock cooling.

 

[amptor]

you'll notice a whole world of difference if you get simply a 2.4ghz core2duo system for gaming. a 3.2ghz northwood can't stand up to a 2.4ghz core2duo in Crysis at all. It's like night and day, you're talking P4 ~10fps on all LOW settings vs E6600 ~24-35fps on all MEDIUM settings. I'd suggest ditching the P4 and getting a Core2duo main board and cpu maybe this spec: 2gb corsair ram, E6600 or even E6750 cpu, Asus P5B main board. That's pretty cheap, and video you'd need at least something like 8600GT in there.

 

[cubin']

Which reminds me, some guy overclocked his pentium 4 to 8.3 ghz

It would have been with liquid nitrogen cooling

 

[amptor]

I can overclock my 2.6ghz to 3.2ghz with stock cooling with no problems... P4 overclocks a lot. but I just run it at 2.6 actually I'm on it right now. My laptop is core2duo 2.0ghz like 7300T model cpu or something with 4 megabyte cache, it literally smokes this P4 in games. Halflife2 runs with all details on the highest at a real smooth framerate, as does battlefield 2 and I'd imagine COD4 and battlefield 2142 or whatever runs great on it as well. Also crysis runs fine on it. I think laptops are the way to go right now..mobility, speed, flexibility. This northwood system takes up so much space with monitor keyboard mouse... tower... big sucker compared to my laptop and not even close to as good

I think I paid about $1100 for the laptop including sales tax. A comperable macbook pro costs about $1600-$1800 before tax.

 

[ZeWarrior]

I can overclock my 2.6ghz to 3.2ghz with stock cooling with no problems... P4 overclocks a lot. but I just run it at 2.6 actually I'm on it right now. My laptop is core2duo 2.0ghz like 7300T model cpu or something with 4 megabyte cache, it literally smokes this P4 in games. Halflife2 runs with all details on the highest at a real smooth framerate, as does battlefield 2 and I'd imagine COD4 and battlefield 2142 or whatever runs great on it as well. Also crysis runs fine on it. I think laptops are the way to go right now..mobility, speed, flexibility. This northwood system takes up so much space with monitor keyboard mouse... tower... big sucker compared to my laptop and not even close to as good

 I think I paid about $1100 for the laptop including sales tax. A comperable macbook pro costs about $1600-$1800 before tax.

What's it's GPU, and then again A MBP has a much better CPU, ( starts at 2.2Ghz and goes up to 2.6Ghz IIRC )

 

[cubin']

Wow amptor crysis runs well on your laptop? what are the specs?

 

[James B.]

Well, no graphics card can run Crysis at full graphics...

And whoever said "Dimension 9100s can't be overclocked", thanks for the info. Just wondering where you found it, because I can find nothing on this old and decrepit motherboard

.

 

[Neko]

Well, no graphics card can run Crysis at full graphics...

And whoever said "Dimension 9100s can't be overclocked", thanks for the info. Just wondering where you found it, because I can find nothing on this old and decrepit motherboard

.

Thanks sir , but thats wrong.

A 8800 GTX can run the game with very high graphics.
But you also need a very good processor for it to work.

http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewforum.php?id=2

There you should find some guys which play at very high.

 

[ZeWarrior]

Well, no graphics card can run Crysis at full graphics...

And whoever said "Dimension 9100s can't be overclocked", thanks for the info. Just wondering where you found it, because I can find nothing on this old and decrepit motherboard

.


Thanks sir , but thats wrong.

A 8800 GTX can run the game with very high graphics.
But you also need a very good processor for it to work.

http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewforum.php?id=2

There you should find some guys which play at very high.

No. An 8800 Ultra which is better than the GTX can't, how can a weaker model max crysis? Also Guess what there is a difference from Very High and Max in Crysis o.O No card on the Market currently can max out crysis. Period.

 

[Neko]

Well, no graphics card can run Crysis at full graphics...

And whoever said "Dimension 9100s can't be overclocked", thanks for the info. Just wondering where you found it, because I can find nothing on this old and decrepit motherboard

.


Thanks sir , but thats wrong.

A 8800 GTX can run the game with very high graphics.
But you also need a very good processor for it to work.

http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewforum.php?id=2

There you should find some guys which play at very high.

No. An 8800 Ultra which is better than the GTX can't, how can a weaker model max crysis? Also Guess what there is a difference from Very High and Max in Crysis o.O No card on the Market currently can max out crysis. Period.

Are you like stupid ?
very high is the highest setting you can set in Crysis. there is no such max setting.
And a 8800 Ultra can play the game , maybe you are just too stupid to configurate your system.

(Don't tell me you want

PRESS HERE and this is not the only topic which states that it runs quite well.
The resolution he has set is quite low , but others have the game running at higher resolutions.