Can you overclock Pentium 4?

[Patrick Y.]

Just curious, is it possible to overclock PCs? If you can overclock pocket pcs with Pocket HAck Master, why not PCs?

[Darius Wey]

You can. These days it's easily done in the BIOS, but note that you void your warranty by doing this. Most Pentium 4 class processors are easily scalable in increments as long as your case is well-ventilated. The Pentium IV 2.60c GHz is actually one of the best to overclock, but if you're unsure of what you're doing, I'd suggest you not go ahead with the overclock. You really don't want to end up with a fried CPU if something goes wrong. Besides, scaling a processor that's already high in processor speed will deliver only small enhancements in performance. You'd probably only notice the difference if you were a heavy gamer. For everything else, the performance gain is minimal.

[Patrick Y.]

Thank for replying, Darius. If you don't mind, can you explain the process in detail? I know almost nothing about this kind of stuffs. Also, what is BIOS? The reason I want to overclock the processor is because that my computer is just SOOOO slow even though it is Pentium 4 2GHz. Again, thanks. :D

[Mitchybums]

The bios is the hardware setup of your computer. This is where you end up in when you turn on your computer and in the black screen you see "press f1(or something) for setup" search for overclocking information in google or something. I'm not going to explain the fiull process on how it all works, since there are numerous tutorials about this on the web.

My p4 2ghz is overclocked to 2.4 ghz, and it runs faster for video conversion and stuff. I doubt that the issues you are having with the slowness of your computer is processor speed though.

For normal usage of a computer, the processor speed is the least important to gain speed increase. Mainly the amount pof memory can make a big difference. From your previous posts, I am asuming you have a "brand name" computer. Like a Dell, Gateway, HP or something like that. Most of their "Cheap" computers come with a limited amount of memory, and I have seen new "Brand Name" computers that run Windows XP and have only 128mb memory.

Currently WindowsXP requires for normal usage at least 256mb, but most people recommend 512mb or more.

Based on my previous asumption as well, I think the slowness of your computer has more something to do with spyware/addware running on your computer. Have a look at the amount of icons you have next to your clock, and count the amount of toolbars you have in Internet Explorer, and you probably also have a lot of popups when you are browsing the internet as well.

Go to www.lavasoft.com and download the free version of Add-aware and run that on your computer. It doesnt clean your PC 100% from spyware, but I'm fully confident that you will gain a bigger performance increase from that then to overclock your processor a few 100 mhz.

Overclocking has risks as well. If you dont have sufficient cooling, it can KILL your processor. It's better to tweak your system, and keeping it clean from spyware and other stuff that you dont use.

[Patrick Y.]

My p4 2ghz is overclocked to 2.4 ghz, and it runs faster for video conversion and stuff. I doubt that the issues you are having with the slowness of your computer is processor speed though.

For normal usage of a computer, the processor speed is the least important to gain speed increase. Mainly the amount pof memory can make a big difference. From your previous posts, I am asuming you have a "brand name" computer. Like a Dell, Gateway, HP or something like that. Most of their "Cheap" computers come with a limited amount of memory, and I have seen new "Brand Name" computers that run Windows XP and have only 128mb memory.

(My computer is emachines T4060 with 256MB of RAM.)
You are quite correct that the performance of my computer is depended on other factors instead of processor. I've post here several weeks ago about the problem. I've Microsoft Spyware and Macfee Virus scan/firewall installed, so I don't think virus is a problem. Also, I've tried defragment, pop-up block, etc., but there aren't any major improvements.

I'm not sure, but I think the problem is due to restoration CD. This computer was the sample on display when my dad bought it from Bestbuy. So, I restore the computer to its original factory status with emachines restoration CD(Norton Ghost). After the restoration, I feel that it is already a little crabby and unstable. Anyway, it is not this slow when I tried it in BestBuy.

I hope that overclocking will improve the performance a little......... Though, what are the chance of frying the processor?

Thanks.

[Darius Wey]

I'm not sure, but I think the problem is due to restoration CD. This computer was the sample on display when my dad bought it from Bestbuy. So, I restore the computer to its original factory status with emachines restoration CD(Norton Ghost). After the restoration, I feel that it is already a little crabby and unstable. Anyway, it is not this slow when I tried it in BestBuy.

Did you just do a standard restore (i.e. reinstallation of Windows over your existing state) or a full restore (i.e. format, and restore)? I think you'd probably get more performance gains by doing a format than an overclock.

I hope that overclocking will improve the performance a little......... Though, what are the chance of frying the processor?

For standard day-to-day applications, you won't get a *huge* performance gain. The chances of frying your processor depend on the state of cooling in your box. Just generalising here, pre-packaged desktops tend not to be the best systems to overclock. A lot of components inside the box tend to be the bare minimum.

[Patrick Y.]

Did you just do a standard restore (i.e. reinstallation of Windows over your existing state) or a full restore (i.e. format, and restore)? I think you'd probably get more performance gains by doing a format than an overclock.
Sorry, but I don't really get what you mean. :oops: Though, I remember that the restoration process doesn't have any configurable option. I just follow the instructions on the screen.

[Darius Wey]

Did you just do a standard restore (i.e. reinstallation of Windows over your existing state) or a full restore (i.e. format, and restore)? I think you'd probably get more performance gains by doing a format than an overclock.
Sorry, but I don't really get what you mean. :oops: Though, I remember that the restoration process doesn't have any configurable option. I just follow the instructions on the screen.

Oh okay. Usually some restores allow you to do a standard reinstall or a complete reformat + install. When you restored it, was it back to the factory default settings and did you have to go through the arduous task of installing all your programs again?

[Janak Parekh]

(My computer is emachines T4060 with 256MB of RAM.)
RAM is probably the biggest bottleneck of your machine, then. I'd suggest that you not bother with overclocking and look into investing into some additional RAM for your machine; you'll notice a speed boost, especially when you have more than a few programs open at the same time.

--janak

[Mitchybums]

I've Microsoft Spyware and Macfee Virus scan/firewall installed

together with Windows XP, that takes up pretty much your 256mb memory.

I recall a website from BlackViper for windows XP tweaks, but it's not there anymore, but a cached version might assist you in tweaking.

http://www.dead-eye.net/WinXP%20Services.htm

also http://www.tweakxp.com/ has some tricks you can use to speed up your computer.

If you only have 256mb, I'd defenately turn off all the eye-candy, and make the desktop look like windows 98/2000 again, without the fancy colors etc.

[Patrick Y.]

Did you just do a standard restore (i.e. reinstallation of Windows over your existing state) or a full restore (i.e. format, and restore)? I think you'd probably get more performance gains by doing a format than an overclock.
Sorry, but I don't really get what you mean. :oops: Though, I remember that the restoration process doesn't have any configurable option. I just follow the instructions on the screen.

Oh okay. Usually some restores allow you to do a standard reinstall or a complete reformat + install. When you restored it, was it back to the factory default settings and did you have to go through the arduous task of installing all your programs again?

When I restore it, it was back to the factory default setting.

[Patrick Y.]

I've Microsoft Spyware and Macfee Virus scan/firewall installed

together with Windows XP, that takes up pretty much your 256mb memory.

I recall a website from BlackViper for windows XP tweaks, but it's not there anymore, but a cached version might assist you in tweaking.

http://www.dead-eye.net/WinXP%20Services.htm

also http://www.tweakxp.com/ has some tricks you can use to speed up your computer.

If you only have 256mb, I'd defenately turn off all the eye-candy, and make the desktop look like windows 98/2000 again, without the fancy colors etc.

Thanks. The site you provided proves to be very useful. As for the RAM usage, I don't think that other computers with similar amount of is as slow as my. I'm not sure, but I think eMac (ONLY 128 MB of RAM) is known to be very SLOW and unstable. Though, the eMac I use in school is even a little faster than my computer.