Hardware Help

[realdeal2006]

Hi there. First post.

I am interested in overclocking my CPU. I have limited knowledge in this area and am looking for some advice. My specs (limited) are listed below:

HP m470n Media Center
3.20 GHZ Pentium HT
512 MB Ram

Can someone give me advice on what type of heat sink to purchase that will work well with this model of HP? I was looking for a website that would give that type of advice similar to some of the RAM sites that are out there and haven't had much luck i.e. type in your model number and it recommends RAM.

Thanks in advance,
Patrick

[MONKEYMAN]

Welcome to AOA!

If you can find a link with more detailed specifications for you pc then we will be able to help you better, also you will need to consider the options available in your boards bios and the type and quality of you other system components, as for heatsinks there are many currently available and they depend on socket type, budget and available space, what sort of budget are you looking to stick within?

Your pc seems to be based on the 848p chipset and is in a smaller(possibly matx its hard to tell from pics) case, you should have some overclocking options available.

[realdeal2006]

Thanks for the quick reply. Well...I am not sure about the remaining tech specs. Is there somewhere I can find that information on the computer itself? Or can you recommend a free software that will enable me to determine that type of information? The product specifications online at HP are limited at best.

I am not to sure about budget. It depends on how much performance I can get from it i.e. GHZ per $. Can you give me a range on what they typically cost (min to max)?

Thanks again!

[MONKEYMAN]

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

run that and then post the results, its a good little app


EDIT: remember to blank out you windows license key on the results!!!!

[realdeal2006]

Thanks. I will run the belarc program and post results when I get home this evening. In the meantime, I will do a little more reading on overclocking.

[cloasters]

Welcome to AOA Forums, realdeal2006!

The most dramatic improvement in performance that is easy to accomplish is simply buying more RAM. 1 Gig of RAM is considered "normal" nowadays. OEM PC's are notoriously difficult to "hotrod." Finding the info you need to overclock on this mainboard may be impossible. Dell, Gateway and HP's idea of an upgrade is quite simple and asinine: Throw your present machine into the garbage, order a new one from us.

[realdeal2006]

I finally had a chance to run the Belarc advisor. Here are my specs:

OS: Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600)

System Model: HP Pavilion 061 DQ170A-ABA M470N 0qq1114RE101OXFOR10

Processor 3.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4; 16 kilobyte primary memory cache; 1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Oxford 1.xx
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 3.28 08/27/2004

Memory: 512 MB

Let me know if you would need anything else. Again, I would love to be able to overclock this PC. I have been a little disappointed lately with performance. I will also be purchasing more RAM in the future.

Thanks!

[aghastpumpkin]

Get another 1GB.
Alternatively, throw out the 512MB you've got and get some decent overclockers ram, to work with the cpu better.
I still can't really see anything myself from those specs, try SiSoft Sandra.

[realdeal2006]

Will try the software you recommended. Maybe it would help me out if someone told me what specs I should post. I really have no idea. I posted what I thought was important, but obviously am missing something.

[Pitch]

You have an ASUS board so you should have some overclocking options open here.

[madcatmk3]

I have found asus not to OC to well but better then what I would expect from an HP.

[Seperah]

Hey, I had an older P4PE-X, although being 4X AGP and having no support for dual channel, I was able to get my friends Celeron D 310 from 2.13 to 2.66 with the stock cooler and not having to relax ram timings, 2-3-3-6.

Maybe not the best overclockers, but ASUS can make a pretty solid board.

[hoinar]

Many Intel based Asus motherboards are very stable and I really like them. We used 20 or more at the company I work for..and in 2 years we never had any problem. And they were used every day for testing...developing I tried to OC one but it didn't raise my Cpu voltage even after I bad mouthed it

[realdeal2006]

Well...I bought this RAM -- hopefully I did well. Let me know your thoughts.

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820211014

A-DATA Vitesta 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory

[Seperah]

Never heard of that company. Had some decent reviews, also a lifetime warranty. Timings arent all that though...should work out fine.

[weldzilla]

That bios is locked down tight!! American megatrends = No OC that is an Asus LA board built specifically for HP no bios options what so ever for Overclocking. For the last 5 years every p-4 board on an hp computer was made by Asus no oc'ing cuz the last thing hp needs is for 10,000 screwed units a year from people trying to OC them. that would kill them on their warranty service. They are in the business to sell them not fix them. Adata makes great memory and has for a long time. They don't get the hoopla but they get the results. In their price range they are really great!!!

Read this thread maybe you can oc that board in windows. http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/intel...oem-tough.html
Now here is one about A-data memory
http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/intel...ry-scores.html It starts at about post 8 as you will see A-data can compete!!
There are many threads on here that answer a lot of today's questions if you take the time to look.

WZ