Easy CPU and GPU Overclocking with SetFSB

If you have an old computer or laptop, it most likely stays pretty cool and does not draw much power from the psu. I have an old 2005 Dell Optiplex 320 with a 3.2ghz Pentium 4 processor and because of these optimal conditions, I wanted to significantly overclock the CPU.

Image from the SetFSB homepage http://www13.plala.or.jp/setfsb/

When booting into the BIOS, I noticed it had very limited capabilities and I was unable to edit any of my processor's settings. I then looked into other methods and discovered SetFSB, a program which allows you to change both the FSB and PCI-E frequencies on your motherboard. Increasing the FSB frequency will overclock your CPU and increasing the PCI-E frequency will essentially overclock any PCI-Express devices such as a graphics card. The benefit to increasing these frequencies is that the voltage going to your hardware is not changed so a bad overclock will result in Windows rebooting itself or a freeze which will require a hard reset.

SetFSB is not for beginners. Use "SetFSB.exe" at your own risk.

In order to use SetFSB you must find the PLL or the Clock Generator of your motherboard. You can either do some research on Google or find your motherboard on the site. You can then press the GetFSB button to retrieve your motherboard's current frequency values. The top slider increases the FSB frequency and the bottom slider increases the PCI-E frequency. I highly recommend increasing the sliders at very slow rates and setting the FSB every 5 or so clicks on the sliders.

In order to find the limits of your overclocking ability, use programs like CPU-Z to very accurately monitor the CPU speed and HWMonitor to make sure your components are not overheating.