but how do i actually do it?

[jtbjustin]

Overclocking...from what I gather it makes the selected hardware say a processor work harder than it is normally set to do.. this requires extra cooling, because of the extra work the device tends to heat above its normal temperature... ok sure I understand all that..but how do you actually do it? how do I actually get it to overclock? im using a, HP media center pc 873n:
intel pentium 4 2.53 ghz processor... thats the first thing i want to overclock...
after that i would like to overclock my graphics card:
Nvidia Geforce4 mx420
and now i read the basics up there i have to set the multipier and the FSB speed... but how do i do it?where are they?
can anyone help me? thanks.

 

[TheMajor]

get in your BIOS (press DEL during boot) then see if there's an option to change the FSB....but make sure your CPU has sufficient cooling

 

[jtbjustin]

well i opened my bios and under the advanced tab my only options that had anything to do w/ a processer were:
CPU type
CPU speed
CPU cache ram

and those are all grayed out.. but those are more like information anyways... but is there another way besides using my bios?

 

[TheMajor]

yes, there are some applications wich can be run from windows, but I don't know their names and they don't support all motheboards.

they are greyed out because you have to select "custom" or something like that. look for some setting wich is "auto' or default and set it to custom. Then you can change the grey items.

RivaTuner is great for OC'ing your graphics card and it works with almost every card (ATI & Nvidia)

 

[Gl\l0m!$h]

wut are ur specs? mobo, processor?

 

[jtbjustin]

they are greyed out because you have to select "custom" or something like that. look for some setting wich is "auto' or default and set it to custom. Then you can change the grey items.

i didnt see any options like that.. but i will look agian, the only things i saw that were processor related were those 3.. type speed and cache....

and my specs are.. a hp media center pc 373n
and my mobo is the one that came bundled w/ it a FIC VG31.. complet information on it can be found at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&docname=bph07722
im running a pentium 4 processor at 2.5ghz... thanks for ur help!

 

[Musjunk22]

Usually Store bought systems are locked which means you cannot overclock them. You will be able to overclock your videocard but definitely mnot your cpu. Also I just wanted to say on Intel cpu's you cannot change the multiplier, only on AMD's.

 

[Gl\l0m!$h]

o really? i didnt no that, hmm

 

[jtbjustin]

Usually Store bought systems are locked which means you cannot overclock them. You will be able to overclock your videocard but definitely mnot your cpu. Also I just wanted to say on Intel cpu's you cannot change the multiplier, only on AMD's.

well ok, thats to bad.. so in other words i should just give up trying to overclock my CPU.. becuse it just cannont be done.. but i can overclock my graphics card.. ok next step! lol, thanks for ur help

 

[geo3tech]

it's because it's a hp computer. Company comps don't allow you to overclock cuz it's "dangerous".

It's not a good idea to get retail comp if you were going to overclock it because they practically erased that option for ya