PCA Forums

Ok guys, here goes my first attempt at o/c. I have an e-machine (don't laugh please) with and amd xp 1800. I have been doing alot of upgrading to this computer and it plays very well. I am addicted to better performance now and i thought i would start with this little gem. I have noticed everyone is o/cing on aftermaket mobos. Is this a requirement or can i possibly acheive o/cing with an oem board. I have the know how to unlock the multiplier for this processor and am ready to do it, but i figured i better do a little q/a first from those who are the experts. any help or advice will be appreciated.

System specs:
e-Machine
1800+
2x256 pc2100
nividia ti4200 128mb vid card
<waiting for my soundblaster audigy gamer to getin>

eMachines usually don't have a mobo that allows overclocking. Does your bios allow it? What kind of mobo is in it? I couldn't find any way possible to OC it. But good luck!! eGo

Well, looks like my daughter will just have to swap me computers then. I built her one for christmas using an amd t-bird processor. I think i have all the options with her computer. HOWEVER, if anyone has information on the e-machines o/cing possiblilities, PLEASE reply. I am never happy with "It Can't Be Done". I will probably blow it up if it can't be.....I mean what's the point in owning it if i can't tear it apart and play with it..

Yeah, anyone who knows.. Let us know!! heh.. I'd have blown the eMachine I have up a long time ago if I hadn't given it to my mom... heh..

The few emachines i've worked on had no options to overclock in them. Very limited bios options at that. I highly doubt you can tweak it much.

I would at least get into the bios, and look for anything that could increase the FSB. There might be a jumper on the mainboard - go to the E-machines web site (They have one, don't they? This one probably isn't endorsed by E-machines: http://emachinessuck.com/index.html) and look for technical support information.

If you find that something is possible, look for ways to increase your cooling solution and the power supply. I understand that E-machine power supplys are as bad as Dell power supplies - just enough juice to move it out the door. No overclocker would get serious until he / she had installed a decent power supply (Enermax, Antec 350W & up, or similar). Cooling is serious business with the Athlon XP CPU's; use an all-copper heatsink and maybe a 3K to 4K RPM fan for decent cooling here. Make sure air is moving through the case - the good power supplys will have a 2nd fan on the bottom, able to pull warm air away from the CPU area and out the back.

If there are no built-in adjustments possible with the E-machines motherboard, go get another motherboard thats older and cheaper ($75 tops), and use that to control that system. Make sure it's compatible with your RAM and other devices before swapping it out.

First of all, let me welcome you to the PCA family.

Everyone, this is a very good friend of mine, please take good care of him

Now on to your PC, eMachines like most retail PC's will not have the BIOS options for you to adjust the following which are crucial to successful overclocking:
Front Side Bus (FSB)
Multiplier
CPU Voltage
Memory Voltage
FSB/PCI/AGP/Memory bus speed raitios

You're going to be much better off if you swapped processors with your daughters homebuilt PC and try to overclock on that platform. There are 3 rules to overclocking: 1- Cooling 2- Cooling 3- Cooling
I highly recommend you try one of our sponsors (on the right side of our main page) when shopping for cooling equipment. KDC is one of the vendors that I frequent for my cooling needs.

So which motherboard is your daughter's PC using? Provided with that information, we can see what type of overclocking capabilities or options are available to you.

Wow guys, thanks for all the relpies. I have done a little searching amongst the wires and what not in my e-machine, First of all, the power supply is not sufficient at all, 250w. So if i do decide to go with this one, that has to be scrapped. Second, there is little to no cooling this machine. No extra slots for them, however, that is remedied easy enuff, a hole here and there will do jsut fine to add a few fans. However, that leads back to power supply, echhhhh!! Now, for the first trick, i have seen the process of unlocking the multiplier on my amd processor, i can open it up to 2000+ for less than $5.00, nice , however if the bios doesn't allow me to change my voltage settings, there is no point in even doing that. Ok , next is that my daughters computer was built on a cheap jetway board, but it is a nice board to do what it was intended for, it is not what i need for my applications here. So to sum it up, i need reccomendations on cases and mobos. Let me have em guys and it is of to market i go.

THANKS for the warm welcome and I hope to be swapping info with you guys on a regular basis.
In the meantime, it's back to my e-machine and dial-up and do a little gaming.

Motherboard:
NForce2 motherboard from Asus, Epox, or Chaintech.

CPU:
AMD XP CPU - Thoroughbred A or B version (starts as low as $60s)

Memory:
PC2700 DDR333 or higher from Kingmax, Mushkin, Crucial, or Samsung
There's a special at Mushkin right now for 512mb stick of PC3200 DDR400 for $149 free shipping.

Cooling:
Thermalright SLK800 (bare heatsink)
80mm fan from Thermaltake, Antec, or Vantec (preferrably a smartfan type that adjusts speed according to temps)
Arctic Silver or Arctic Alumina thermal compound

Power Supply:
Anything from Antec or Enermax that is over 350w (400w+ recommended)

after all this, take the eMachine's vid card and slap it into new PC

People have been getting 1700+ Tbred B's lately from newegg so it looks like the B's are hitting the market i ordered mine last night

hey welcomes as well!

we'll drive you crazy and try and help at the same time !

pred your order a 1700 or 1800? i saw where the were shipping b's now

1700 B for 51 bucks...

Please give me the strength to wait for the Athlon 64! I can't keep building machines every 6 months.....

Looks like i may need to ask for a pay increase!!!!!!!!
Oh well, time to get busy. Thanks guys for all the advice. Clear up one thing for me. I though the T-Bird and the XP's were two different class processors. NO? And is there a preference to cases? I know i need plenty of fans slots, but am thinking of going liquid cooled. Know of any liquid cooled cases that heve positive reveiws or is it still to new to go with them yet.???

The tbird and the XP's are pretty much the same chip. XP has SSE instructions and .18u or .13u cores... the tbreds are the .13u's while the palamino's are the old .18u XP's