In response to Ian Porters post on video card overclocking, I just wanted to
add some additional info for anyone interested. Tomshardware.com is a great
place for finding all sorts of info and comparisons. I recently used the info
provided there to find some specs on cpu fans and heatsink combos to help a
slightly overclocked AMD K62 chip keep its cool. On an interesting note, there is
an article posted that shows how to lap the base of the heatsink to make it
flatter. In essence, the more contact area with the cpu the greater the heat
transfer. I was surprised to find the base of my original heatsink was actually
concave in shape!
Back on track with the purpose of this post, another easy and inexpensive way
to overclock your video card can be found at www.entechtaiwan.com. The
program is called Powerstrip.exe and it has an easy gui interface with a variety of
options, settings and controls for overclocking most brands of video cards. A
lot of the tweaking options are actually carried over from built in Windows
functions, but allows an easier path to the majority of them. Also, an interview
with the author has him saying to effect that alot of card manufacturers
actually have a little room built in to their cards for such a purpose, but use
settings that allow for the best stability and life expectancy of the card. I
have used a shareware version of the program (version 3.3) for some time with no
problems, but I have added additional custom case and card cooling just as a
precaution.
I'd like to thank Ian for the additional option for updating the video bios.
That's an approach I had read about, but in your explanation it seemed to make
a litle more sense.
Good luck!

Chris Ryan
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