Computer Overclocking, Customizing and Hardware

1.
Do not bump your hard disk at all. The HDD may be mostly made of

metal but you have to handle them like eggs;

2.
If you dont want bad sectors, never move your PC while it is on.

Never. Shutdown. Shutoff. Move the PC. Then turn it on.

3.
Do not put anything on top of your HDD. If your gonna store it, make

sure they are in proper packaging (anti-static bags and clamshells o

styro boxes).

4.
Only hold or handle your HDDs by their edges, never touch the printed

circuit boards or electronic parts.

5.
If you have to put the HDD down on, lay it down on an anti-static bag

6.
When mounting HDDs use the proper screws (coarse thread and

shorter screw) as opposed to the screws for CDROM drives and Floppy

Drives which are fine thread, and the case screws which are coarse

thread but longer.

7.
Use as many screws to mount your HDD as possible, usually 4, some

techs will use only 3, I have seen HDDs mounted using only 1 screw.

Why? The 4 screws will ensure proper heat transfer from the HDD to

the case and will handle the vibration properly.

8.
Tighten but not over tighten the screws. Your screws are steel, the

HDD case is aluminum, you endanger or damaging the thread in you

HDD if you over tighten.

9.
You may mount the HDD in any way (level, un-level, upwards,

downwards, vertical) whatever it takes to make it fit your casing. There

will be no problem performance-wise.

But keep in mind, in the, future say 2 years, you have to unmount and

reinstall the HDD in a configuration different to what it has been

accustomed to, the HDD might die on you just like that. Example ?

vertically mounted for 2 years, then i-reinstall mo horizontally. Probably

on the startup, your hdd possibly die. It happened to me 3X already.

Perfectly working HDD, then remounted in a different way, then my

hard disk just gave up . Most probably the bearings have gotten used

to the old mounting and seize up when mounted differently.

10.
Keep your HDDs cool. Blow fans on them, use coolers. At the very

least make sure your casing is properly ventilated. Heat shortens the

life of HDDs. But Choose carefully on what fans you will use, choose

the fan which produce less vibration.

11.
Cables? Make sure your cables are good and connected correctly. It

may cause damage to the HDD

12.
Power Supply? Make sure your power supply is up to snuff. This is

where most HDDs fail after serving you for a long time. Low 12-volt

rails kill HDD motors. Bad 5V kill HDD electronics.

13.
Power connectors. Make sure your power connectors (those white

plugs with yellow, black and red wires) fit well. Loose connectors

provide bad power. After running your PC for a while, say 15-30

minutes, touch your connectors, if they are hot, then there?s

something loose, replace with a spare connector and label the bad

connector. If you do system checkups, it is good to take note of heat

discoloration on power connectors and replace those bad ones;

14.
Black outs do not just kill lights, they kill HDDs. Black outs are

sometimes accompanied by bad power spikes and deadly voltage

fluctuations. If you can afford a good UPS, buy one.

15.
When transferring HDDs between systems don't just take one and

install into another and fire it up just like that. Please make sure you

get into BIOS first and make sure that your new system is set to auto.

If your old system detected the HDD using manual or non-standard

parameters, then duplicate the parameters first in BIOS in the new

system before booting up. You might scramble all your data if you

new system tries to read the HDD using wrong parameters.

16.
If you use your PC a lot, defrag your partitions once a month. If not,

defrag once every 3 months will be fine. For those of you who think

that defragmention speeds up your HDDs death, may I give a small

explanation. If your partition is quite fragmented, your HDD will be

doing a lot of unnecessary work by default, its head going back and

forth trying to get to the different parts of your files scattered all ove

your disk. Besides with a defragmented disk, you will have a more

responsive PC.

17.
Install enough RAM. You don't want your HDD swapping files back and

forth from system RAM and the swap file. Lots of work for the HDD,

slow PC.

18.
Partition your HDD. At least 2 partitions. One partition for you

Operating System. The other one for your data. This way if your OS

gets corrupted (and it happens) you don't have to perform PC

acrobatics to get your data back. You can reformat your OS partition

and be assured that your data is safe in a separate partition.

(In case your hard disk had a bad sector, use HDD Regenerator by dposoft. It Can Recover Damaged Sectors. I prefer it than Spinrite.)

Hello new builder, I have seen many people posting requesting help/tips/how-to build a computer. Chances are if you are reading this you are one of those people anyways, lets get started.

First off lets start off with if you actually need a custom built PC or is a pre-built machine such as a dell or hp a better value for you.

Some of the questions I recommend you ask your self are:
What am I going to be using my computer for?
How often do I use my computer?
Do I plan on using my computer for anything more advanced in the near future?

If you are using your computer for music and the occasional game of solitare with some web browsing mixed in; perhaps you should consider a pre-built machine t will most likely be a better value because they buy there parts in massive quantities and are able to sell them way cheaper than you can ever buy them.

If your planning on a more intensive computer experience such as editing, gaming, or hacking (lol) you may want to consider building your own machine. It will be way higher quality product and a much better value than any pre-built system. It is also more "future-proof" since when you build your own you are most likely purchasing some of the highest quality parts on the market its safe to say you wont see it in any computer at best buy for at least two more years. Like 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM with a 890(AMD) series chipset or a x58(intel) series chipset on the motherboard.

Dont be afraid though just because a custom built PC is so much better doesn't mean you have to break the bank.
You can get away with 600 USD easy
you can be proud with 900-1100 USD
and you can brag your ass off to just about everyone for 1200-2400 USD.

I will be teaching you the basics of everything you should look out for when first building a computer.

How to Overcklock Your Graphic Card.


You will get about 10-15% more performance for free.
The only bad thing is that the temperature will increase and life of the hardware will decrease.


I know this work whit Nvidia but I think it works whit ATI to.

Start to download RivaTuner, Furmark and GPU-Z. Install the programs and follow the instructions.

Download GPU-Z: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
Download Furmark: http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/
Download RivaTuner: http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

Start Riva Tuner. At the moment Riva tuner doesn't support the latest Nvidia drivers.
This is done under the tab "Power User". Navigate there and expand the list "System". A bit down in this list, a parameter called "Force Driver Version". This value will be changed to 18585, ie the driver's version number. Save the settings, click "OK". Restart the program.
Always keep an eye for the new version of Riva Tuner.

Although the program will still say that the drivers are not supported, but we can access the overclocking menu. Click on the small arrow to the right under Driver Settings. In the four icons that pup up you will choose the one to the left, that looks like an graphic card.

Click on "detect now" in the window.

The upper lever controls graphics processor (GPU) clock frequency, the middle takes care of the stream processors and the bottom changes the memory clock. Move the slider to the right to increase the frequency.

Now is the time to trim the clock frequencies. Start Furmark and GPU-Z. The first program is used to check if the clock frequencies is working and what temperature the graphics card reaches, and the other to see which clock frequencies used at the moment.

With Furmark and GPU-Z running, we return to overclocking tab in Riva Tuner and start raising the clock frequencies. It is easiest to start with only the GPU and then take care of the stream processors and memory by hand. Raise the clock gradually by 10-15 MHz at a time. Furmark ensures that the graphics card is under full load, which will appear when the temperatures shoots away.

Depending on the graphics card is used, sooner or later encounter a limit where graphics error occur. This is usually seen in Furmark as small dots or nails projecting from the hairy ball. When this occurs, lower the clock rate slightly and try again.

When you know the clock frequency GPU is capable of, just apply the same method on the stream processors and graphics memory, with small incremental increases in time. Should your computer freeze because of too high overclocking, just reboot, then the default settings will be loaded.

Let Furmark runing a moment to make sure that the clock frequencies are stable. Between 45 minutes and two hours will do it. When you are satisfied, it is possible to let the Riva Tuner apply the settings each time Windows boots. To do this, tick the option "Apply Overclocking at Windows startup" in the overclocking menu.

Now you are done. You can see how much the performance have increased by running 3Dmark before and after.

First of all, you need the following programs :

CPUz:
Displays your current vcore, FSB, multiplier, RAM settings. You'll need it all the time.
RealTemp:
Displays the temperatures of the cores. Must have.
OCCT:
Used to check stability of the system.
Prime95:
Used to check stability of the system. Use this for 12h or OCCT for 2h.
Intel Burn Test:
Not for beginning overclockers. This program WILL stress the CPU, Memory, North Bridge, and other system components to their highest extent! Make sure your PC is properly cooled and ventilated! I prefer the beginners to use it after their system passes OCCT or prime95 test.

What is overclocking?

Overclocking is the process of making your hardware run faster then originally intended by the manufacturer. It is operating hardware (particularly CPU, RAM, motherboard, and video card) above the specs to which a piece of hardware is expected to, has been tested to, and is warranted to perform.

Overclocking is more of an art than a science. There is no combination of settings that will yield the best results for every system. it is and will be a trial and error process. Don't be afraid to experiment, but I suggest to always go slow. Experience can make overclocking easier.


What is FSB?

FSB is Front Side Bus also known as System BUS and connects the CPU with the main memory and is used to connect to other components within the computer. Depending on different processors, the FSB can range from 66MHz to 500MHZ and beyond. That means Rated FSB the quad pumped processors will range from 476MHz to 2000MHz and above.

Remember, throughout this tutorial and throughout all the tuts and overclocking discussions, try to think about external clock speed as FSB. Because, the latest processors are quad pumped. That means, the Rated FSB of these processors are 4 times the original FSB [I mean the external clock speed, that how intel owners name the original FSB]. Suppose, I say that the FSB is 333MHz, then the Rated FSB is 333MHz*4=1333MHz. But you don't need to worry about the rated FSB. All you need to know about the "FSB". Because the BIOS will allow you to edit the FSB, not the rated FSB.