Overclocking Dv9000t

I have the 120gb hdd, core 2 duo, and 512mb go7600. I've run a few searches on overclocking and I haven't found the basic questions I need answers to. I did find a post about overclocking the GPU and the program used and I just bought 3D mark 06. What I really need to know is what to look for as far as reading the temp goes. Does 3d mark give me this information or do I need to look elsewhere? What temp is unsafe and what intervals should I be testing within? What kind of performance gains will I see in oc'ng the gpu core, gpu memory, cpu core, and can I even OC Ram?

 

gpu performance gains are minimal u may gain 1-3fps at the most. ocing the cpu isnt easy, i think u can use clockgen for it but so far in my trials i keep getting BSODs.

 

Use Rivatuner to OC the video card [a great guide on how to use it is somewhere in the forum] and ATI tool to test for stability and check GPU temps. You are going to have to do some research on your own because the whole process is a bit complicated. HP REALLY underclocks the 7600 from what is can safelty be run at.

 

That is an understatement if I ever saw one...

OCing the gpu can net you some sizeable returns, but at the cost of reducing the lifetime of the component and increasing the heat. You can take it up high clocks and sacrifice the two things above, or you can OC conservatively and only get 10-15fps increase.

On and old radeon 9000, OCing it gave me up to 25 more fps, and the ability to bump it up a notch in resolution, so it's definitely not just 3fps gains, otherwise noone would be bothering to OC and companies would not sell OCed cards for a price premium (if extra speed won't net results)

 

Correct, moderate overclocking will yield significant fps increase, varying from user to user but certainly more than 1-3 fps. I did this playing Oblivion and it helped me tremendously in battles. However do be aware that 1) this voids your warranty (although manufacturers have virtually no way of identifying damage due to software overclocking) and 2) you will increase the amount of heat generated inside of a very compact environment which will accelerate the aging of everything inside that environment.

As far as operating at faster than stock speeds, it should not "damage" your hardware---it will either run fine, or glitch out in the form of artifacts or BSOD's. In other words, the hardware will either handle it or it won't, there's no in-between and no slow degradation of the hardware due to the increased speeds over time (you physics majors out there, lets not drag electron migration into this). As I mentioned, the shortened lifespan should only come from the increased amount of heat generated, which could be considerable.