Power
up your PC
For AMD processor owners, there is a simple trick you can perform to confer your chip with the potential to run at speeds a lot higher than you ever thought possible. Of course, you can overclock by increasing the FSB, but the fun would pale in comparison to what you could enjoy by going all the way. All you need to 'unlock' an Athlon or a Duron CPU is something very simple-a pencil, preferably a 0.5 mm clutch pencil. Do it as we spell it here:
· Remove your CPU and place it on a flat surface as shown in the picture. Observe the CPU closely and look out for four electrical contacts, or bridges, labeled L1. If the contacts are broken, pick up the pencil and fill in the gaps. If the contacts are in place, skip the following steps and directly attempt to overclock the chip.
· With a steady hand, work your way across the bridges and connect them by rubbing the pencil back and forth about a dozen times or until the bridges are dark black and not the usual gold colour. Do the same for all L1 bridges and make sure that the pencil marks do not overlap each other, otherwise the trick won't work.
· Now that you have this licked, you're ready to overclock the chip to its limits. Instead of using the feeble FSB method, you can now increase clock speed by stepping up the multiplier.
A typical Duron 600 runs at a 100 MHz FSB with a multiplier of 6, which gives you its 600 MHz clock speed. Now if you were to increase the multiplier to 9, do the math and you'll come up with a 900 MHz overclock. That's a 50 per cent increase in clock speed.
Remember, in order to carry out this procedure, your motherboard must support multiplier adjustments. Some models let you change it through DIP switches while others have it in the system BIOS. You must refer to your motherboard's manual on how to change the multiplier value.
If you're the owner of a PC with 'Intel Inside', the only avenue you have in order to overclock the chip is driving up FSB speeds. Unfortunately, each and every chip made by Intel comes multiplier locked with no avenue to circumvent it. But unlike AMD, processors from Intel score high marks when overclocked through the front side bus.
When tweaking the BIOS settings, experimenting with the possibilities are the best way to tune your PC for peak performance. But during this process, you might end up pushing it a bit too far-enough to prevent your PC from booting. If this happens, turn off the computer and wait for at least 7 seconds before switching it back on again. Just as soon as you do this, simply hold down the [Insert] key for a few seconds and the BIOS settings will revert back to their factory set values.
Getting cool air to warm components is the most fundamental cooling principle to adhere to. A traditional ATX cabinet has two fans, one to suck in cool air and the other to expel hot air. But the purpose can be defeated by the presence of loose connectors and cables inside. To maximise the flow of air within the cabinet, carefully twist, tie or tape up all loose cables and place them away from components such as the CPU, hard disk and RAM.
Overclocking is no mean task. You've got to be on your toes and keep heat levels in check when you do it. Two of the leading utilities-Rain (www.benchtest.com/rain.html) and Waterfall (www.benchtest.com/wfp.html)-help by cooling your CPU during periods of inactivity. It works for all x86-based processors from Intel, AMD and VIA. The cooling process works by the software issuing commands that put the chip in a digital state of slumber when not in use. They only work for the Windows 9x/Me line because other flavours of Windows do the same thing automatically.
When system memory runs short, Windows uses the available hard disk space as virtual memory. It's a lot slower than actual RAM but at the same time, it is necessary. If you have a surplus of RAM in the region of 512 MB or more, you can disable the swap file altogether, thereby boosting system performance. To do this, go to Control Panel > System. Click on the 'Performance' tab and select 'Virtual Memory'. Click the radio box that lets you specify your own settings and subsequently check the box next to 'Disable virtual memory'.
The other route is to fix upon a swap file size so that Windows doesn't waste any time resizing it. Click Control Panel > System and go to the 'Performance' tab. Click the 'Virtual Memory' button and select the option that lets you specify your own settings. For an average computer with 128 MB RAM, keep the minimum and maximum size to approximately 200 MB-any more would be a waste of free hard disk space.
Upgrading your BIOS to the latest version increases speed and stability. It also offers new features and more compatibility to your system. Go to the manufacturer's Web site and download a BIOS flashing utility and a copy of the latest BIOS version specific to your PC. After downloading, make a boot disk and extract the files onto it. To do this, right-click on the floppy drive in Windows Explorer and select Format. Under Format options, click 'Create an MS-DOS startup disk'. Restart the system and boot from the floppy.
Before flashing, eliminate all possible electrical disruptions. Think twice about this procedure if you live in an area prone to electrical outages. If the flashing process is interrupted, you might have to replace your motherboard.
Minimise the time it takes for your computer to boot by changing a few basic settings. Enter the BIOS by holding down the [Delete] key once you switch on your computer and go to the Advanced BIOS options of the main BIOS menu.
Begin by ensuring that the Quick POST (Power-On Self Test) is enabled. If the option is available, disable the selection that performs a floppy drive seek during boot up. Furthermore, in the same Advanced BIOS screen, set your first boot device as your hard disk, or the system will waste several moments in attempting to boot from another device such as the floppy, CD-ROM or Zip drive.
These steps alone can cast off up to 15 seconds of boot time.
If you enable this option, your games will normally run faster as the screen is redrawn irrespective of the monitor's refresh rate. Leaving VSYNC on will result in frames being rendered at a slower rate. Disable VSYNC by clicking on an empty area on the desktop and select 'Properties'. Under the 'Settings' tab, click the 'Advanced' button. Look out for an OpenGL or Direct3D tab if available (not all drivers are designed with similar front ends) and turn off vertical sync.
Among the biggest performance boosters within Windows is the tool that converts your hard disk partitions from FAT16 to FAT32. Not only will you recover tons of wasted space, but your PC will also run quicker. Run the Drive Converter if you're using a FAT16 partition. Don't worry if you aren't sure; the tool will tell you if your hard disk is already converted.