Just got ATItool. Q: What to watch out for?

[gar_aka_thedude]

Heya.. new to OCing? and i got plenty of questions.

1. What do i watch out for when i start OCing?
2. What's a good temperature to keep below?
3. Is this ATITool using Celcius or Feirenheit temperatures? It doesn.t say. If it does, i missed it.
4. What do i watch out for when tweaking with the Memory Timings?
5. How long to i run benchmark tests to determine stability?
6. What games / programs do i use to determine this stability?
7. Will i have to worry about exploding PSUs or Cards catching on fire?

Comp Specs...

Intel Pentium 4 Processor - 2.8 ghz, 800MHZ FSB, 1mb L2 Cache
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb
MSI Neo2 865PE Intel Chipset Motherboard
420 Watt PurePower Thermal Take III PSU
1GB (2x512mb) PC-3200 RAM

Need any more info?

 

[nightelf84]

You've downloaded AtiTool, now read through the manual: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/doc/

Does your card come with a monitoring chip?
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/94
If it does, temps are read in degrees celcius

If using AtiTool, some have recommended that you run Find Max for both core and mem till it reaches 3600secs artifact free. Feel free to run it for several hours....gives you peace of mind dats for sure...

Loop 3DMark03 or 05 for several hours. If it hangs = unstable, artifacts = unstable. Play DOOM3, FarCry, or any graphics intensive games for several hours and look out for artifacts.

Provided you have proper cooling, there's minimal risk of fireworks...note that i said minimal bcos there's no such thing as 0 risk when OCing.

anything i left out....please consult AtiTool's documentation and also the FAQ...