id like to overclock my video card and maybe my CPU but find the whole overclocking process very confussing.ive read some guides but i still find it a little hard to understand so i was wondering if anyone could help me out.
my system is:
OS-windows XP sp2
motherboard-K8NF4G-SATA2
AMD athlon 64 3400+ 2.4ghz
2gig RAM
200gig HDD
7900GT/GTO
is there safe or optimum clock speed anyone knows about that i can set my GPU to or does this card differ from system to system?
also is there a safe clock speed for my CPU too and if so would you be kind enough to try and explain it to someone who knows little about pc's.
i know this may sound like a silly question to some people but i really dont know much about computers.hope someone can help me,many thanks

The basic procedures are outlined in your manual:

http://download.asrock.com/manual/K8NF4G-SATA2.pdf

WARNING
Please realize that there is a certain risk involved with overclocking, including adjusting the setting in the BIOS, applying Untied Overclocking Technology, or using the third-party overclocking tools. Overclocking may affect your system stability, or even cause damage to the components and devices of your system. It should be done at your own risk and expense. We are not responsible for possible damage caused by overclocking.

2.12 Untied Overclocking Technology
This motherboard supports Untied Overclocking Technology, which means during
overclocking, FSB enjoys better margin due to fixed PCI / PCIE buses. Before you
enable Untied Overclocking function, please enter “Overclock Mode” option of BIOS
setup to set the selection from [Auto] to [CPU, PCIE, Async.]. Therefore, CPU FSB is
untied during overclocking, but PCI and PCIE buses are in the fixed mode so that FSB
can operate under a more stable overclocking environment.

http://www.asrock.com/product/K8NF4G-SATA2.htm

As to specific limits I can add nothing but just thought I'd post the above. I do find that in general a 10% increase is usually stable. Another consideration is always heat. Monitor your temperatures before and after any change.

In my own experience if the BIOS or motherboard cannot handle the settings it will either reject them and or not clear the BIOS POST. In this case going back into the BIOS Setup and resetting or readjusting the settings should be possible. However note the disclaimer above provided by ASRock.

Hopefully someone else will have more details for you.

hi thanks for reply,i managed to raise my cpu from 2.4ghz to just over 2.6ghz(this is the most i could achieve,any more than that and it just wouldnt boot up)it seemed quite stable at first but after about 10-15 mins my pc freezed and i had to restart(this happened a couple of times),i looked at the cpu temp and it was at 64 degrees by what ive read on forums this seems to be quite a high temp.i changed back to default settings and it was ok again.i assume the high temp is what caused my pc to crash.im still getting temperatures in the mid 50's when playing games this still seems to be quite high for default settings.ive got 5 fans in my case and i would thought that would cool it quite well but i guess not.when i take the side of the case off the temp comes down to around 45-47 degrees but i dont really want to keep the side of the case off just to keep it cool.is there any cooling tips you could help me out with?many thanks

I have a AMD Duron 1333MHz overlocked to 1500MHz and it runs fine, with only one fan :shock:

Well I've thrown out one of my fans and use a portable fan instead (cools much better although positioning and setup is not nice to l0ok at)

The temps I get are 30-40C most of the time..obviously when the table fan is started the temps fall to 25-30C

And my PC runs ALL day long, so I've no idea how with 5 fans you can achieve 64C!!

Wow.

Overlocking is easy.. You just need to be very careful and do some good testing at every SMALL increment you go up by... you also need BETTER cooling after every increment as your motherboard will be working much much harder than it is supposed to.