OK i been putting this off for a long time but now i fancy a little dabble if anyone can help?
I want to overclock my CPU , GPU and my Ram i have heard about soft modding before and my bits are as follows = A 3.06Ghz ht P4 with 1 Gb of PC2700 Memory and a X800XL ATI Card now the reason i want to do this is because i KNOW this should be a good system and i have exhausted all the other avenues to speed up the ruddy thing and still seem to be no better off than my daughters P4 1.5Ghz 768 mem 9700Pro System.
So anyone up to a challenge to get my PC up to speed?
Techy 
Run a spyware checker such as Adaware and defrag your hard drive before you do anything.
Also, what settings have you got in IL2?
Ok i got AVG and search and destroy all ok and i defragged yesterday,
My settings in IL2 are perfect but it keeps bogging down i am just getting the latest Driver from ATI at the moment i was wondering if anyone has prefs on Open GL or Direct X ?
Techy
I don’t recommend overclocking anything until you are pretty sure what is involved. Things like resetting CMOS when it goes tits up, acceptable temp ranges for your CPU, etc.
You also need a good motherboard, as the motherboard plays a big part in a good overclock.
O/C CPU/Ram via your bios is best and there are a couple of utilities to OC your GPU.
Check some O/C websites for info on what works and what doesn’t. Overclocking is a long drawn out affair finding what works and what doesn’t. It can be both rewarding and frustrating and some times not even get any where near the performance boost you’d expect.
You should be running in OpenGL.
I’ve an ATI card (9800 Pro) which you’re should beat hands down. I run perfect, water 0. 3d Gunners Off.
What resolution are you running in? And how much AA and AF have you got switched on?
Yeah i think thats where my PC is falling over at the motherboard as its crap but i am going into bios at the moment putting 5Mhz increments on at this time all the while checking my volt modding box in system.
I have so far got 20Mhz out of it so far with a tiny increase constantly saving and rechecking also hoping this may give a small boost to my Ram.
I have PC Format in front of me at the moment with lots of hints and tips and have been to overclockers website.
Never seem to have stability with open gl and my TFT only goes upto 1024x768 will check AA and AF now.
Techy
i am going into bios at the moment putting 5Mhz increments on at this time all the while checking my volt modding box in system
I hope your smoke alarm works ok in your house. 
Instability in OpenGL points to a driver problem. Did you previously have an Nvidia or other graphics card?
Have you tried drivercleaner to completely remove your old drivers, prior to installing the latest ATI ones?
What drivers for the ati are you using…that can make a difference.
To notice any real performance boost you’ll need to be hitting at least a 15-20% increase on your CPU. Your Target should be around the 3.6 mark to get a real boost
Always used ATI and i un-installed everything as per removing from registry and now i have the latest ATI driver 6.7
Smoke alarm working fine mate (i think)
Gawd am i going a tad to far :eek: knowledge base is tiny like me brain.
Techy
Smoke alarm working fine mate (i think)
You’ll soon find out, if you push it too far
Techy, have you looked at http://www.tweakguides.com/ , especially the Tweaking Companion (follow that link)?
There’s a lot in there that you can do to speed thing up, not just clocking.
That Tweaking Companion contains info about bench-marking - essential if you want to know you’re making progress.
I know it’s a noob question but … you have backed up your system?
A back-up now wont prevent an accident later, but could help with the cure 
Thx Painter great site and very informative :o
I found this little utility for ATI cards anyone using it?
Please let me know?
http://www.overclock.net/faqs/22164-how-mod-your-x800-x850.html
Techy