Is it my CPU or motherboard that is holding me back?

My system temp is usually in the 30's (2x 120mm 1600rpm 35cfm), while the CPU is usually in the high 40's- low 50's (Smart fan II @ 3500rpm). Since the CPU is so hot, maybe I put too much or not enough AS3, it was my first time to put a heatsink on after all.
Also if this helps, i can run 166 x 13 perfectly stable with 7-3-3-2, but its 166 x 13 is unstable at 5-2-2-2.

Thanks

just because your ram is rated at high fsb doesn't mean it can do tight timings even at lower fsb

Oh, are you saying my ram is holding me back?

I would say not!!!

Ways to find out what's holding you back.

after changing the following setting run prime 95 to test stability.

Set the muiltipler to 8x or 6 x then try pushing your ram to about 185. With timing set @ 7 3 3 2.5 After checking to see if it's stable then start uipping the fsb by 2 untill you find your max fsb after doing so start uping the muiltipler to like 9x then 9.5 x then 10x untill it is unstable. You may need to up the vcore or the vddm I wouldn't suggest more then 1.95 volts on the cpu and 2.77 on the ram. I have read that the 8rda love the timing 3 3 2 2 I myself have tried it and didn't notice a difference except in benchs. I run 203 with vddm @ 2.77 5 2 2 2 and 100%

Have you tried running with the side odd of your case?Your ram should do well over 200 fsb at 100%.
was the nb stepping a1?
If you remove the sk7 is there a complete square imprint left on the bottom of the sk7 and is it in the center of the hs?I use less than a drop on my finger and use a light tapping motion to apply as so that the die is all white and cannot be read through.have you tried 2000 mhz to be sure it's not the cpu causing instability?
have you tried 200x10 with 7-3-3-2 at default voltage settings?

gogetadbl said:

My system temp is usually in the 30's (2x 120mm 1600rpm 35cfm), while the CPU is usually in the high 40's- low 50's (Smart fan II @ 3500rpm). Since the CPU is so hot, maybe I put too much or not enough AS3, it was my first time to put a heatsink on after all.
Also if this helps, i can run 166 x 13 perfectly stable with 7-3-3-2, but its 166 x 13 is unstable at 5-2-2-2.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Your sig says your using Twinmos ram. Thats usually good ram so I would set your ram voltage to 2.6v and leave it alone, you shouldnt need 2.7v unless your really pushing the upper limits. You didnt say what the rams stock timings are, CAS 2 ? CAS 2.5? A lot of PC3200+ ram is CAS 2.5/3 parts that do not like CAS 2 at all so you might want to check that and make sure your not using the ram SPD if your below "offical" supported timings.
You dont say what voltage your CPU is at. I would set it to stock and then raise it slowly by.05v until you either hit 1.9 (were you need to STOP without serious cooling) or you get stable. By the way I would remove, clean and reinstall your CPU cooler...low 50's is too hot for that chip. Im not familiar with your cooler but mine runs a 2500 rpm fan (I hate noise) and I only hit the low 40's after extended gaming @1.75v. Good luck.

Re: Re: Is it my CPU or motherboard that is holding me back?

Dragonprince said:

Your sig says your using Twinmos ram. Thats usually good ram so I would set your ram voltage to 2.6v and leave it alone, you shouldnt need 2.7v unless your really pushing the upper limits. You didnt say what the rams stock timings are, CAS 2 ? CAS 2.5? A lot of PC3200+ ram is CAS 2.5/3 parts that do not like CAS 2 at all so you might want to check that and make sure your not using the ram SPD if your below "offical" supported timings.
You dont say what voltage your CPU is at. I would set it to stock and then raise it slowly by.05v until you either hit 1.9 (were you need to STOP without serious cooling) or you get stable. By the way I would remove, clean and reinstall your CPU cooler...low 50's is too hot for that chip. Im not familiar with your cooler but mine runs a 2500 rpm fan (I hate noise) and I only hit the low 40's after extended gaming @1.75v. Good luck.

Click to expand...

Yes it is Twinmos ram. The default timings are 8-3-3-2.5. I left it at SPD and running 10x200 FSB now to see how stable it is.

shadowdr said:

Have you tried running with the side odd of your case?Your ram should do well over 200 fsb at 100%.
was the nb stepping a1?
If you remove the sk7 is there a complete square imprint left on the bottom of the sk7 and is it in the center of the hs?I use less than a drop on my finger and use a light tapping motion to apply as so that the die is all white and cannot be read through.have you tried 2000 mhz to be sure it's not the cpu causing instability?
have you tried 200x10 with 7-3-3-2 at default voltage settings?

Click to expand...

With the side out, my cooling stays under 50 (usually). My revision is 1.1 , so I'm pretty sure its a1. I'll go remove the SK-7 later tonight when I get home.

Thanks again everyone

EDIT : Just tried out 200x9.5 and works fine with 2.75Vcore, 200x10 crashed too much .

gogetadbl said:

With the side out, my cooling stays under 50 (usually). My revision is 1.1 , so I'm pretty sure its a1. I'll go remove the SK-7 later tonight when I get home.

Thanks again everyone

EDIT : Just tried out 200x9.5 and works fine with 2.75Vcore, 200x10 crashed too much .

Click to expand...

I'd be interested to know if you get better performance with your system @200 x 9.5 or @ your SIG settings....
Do you have 3DMarks2001SE ? Can you run it and post your results at both ?

At 166x13:11488
At 200x9.5:11715

Would you guys go for the 9.5x200FSB over the 13x166 due to the better benchies but lower clock?

the one with the higher fsb.

gogetadbl said:

Would you guys go for the 9.5x200FSB over the 13x166 due to the better benchies but lower clock?

Click to expand...

I dont know, it looks pretty darn close. Maybe make a few runs with some game benchmarks like UT2003 and see if you get any worthwhile gains at the higher (stressed) fsb. I decided to stay at 166 fsb with the fastest ram timings myself because I didnt see any noticable gains running a faster fsb with relaxed mem timings, and I didnt think the performance gain was worth the stress to the CPU.
Historicaly giant gains in performance have come by running a faster fsb but unfortunately I think the Athlon XP's are finally hitting a design ceiling that keeps the data pipes full above 180 to 200 Mhz....you just cant jam anything more into the CPU's data pathways so the gain in performance is getting smaller and smaller. I think the real gains come from getting the fastest possible graphics card....no other way to get high scores in the benches

I just got 213x9.5 , seems i can't up the multiplier, but I can up the FSB more.

gogetadbl said:

At 166x13:11488
At 200x9.5:11715

Click to expand...

Go to 8RDA.com & compair your bios settings with what thay siggest , somethings not right you should be scoring alot higher then that, check my sig . are you overclocking the card at all ?

I have not overclocked the card at all. It is at its default, 324/290. I think the reason I can't get a higher multiplier is because I have twinmos pc3700 ram, which i hear is not good with epox motherboards . Even generic ram is better than this on Epox boards.

gogetadbl said:

I have not overclocked the card at all. It is at its default, 324/290. I think the reason I can't get a higher multiplier is because I have twinmos pc3700 ram, which i hear is not good with epox motherboards . Even generic ram is better than this on Epox boards.

Click to expand...

the twinmos isnt your problem unless you got a bum stick, try each stick by itself . my A7V8X wouldnt go above 180 fsb w/ 2 sticks but would go 194fsb w/ 1 (relaxed) , also play with the timings & voltage (mem & cpu) . check what your power supply is doing . I picked up an cheiftec knockoff w/ a cheep ps for my overclocking rig & couldnt go above 170fsb , i put the asus probe on record & benchmarked. the voltage was all over the place, i had the same board in my everyday rig w/ an enermax ps & the volts were rock steady, i had friends telling me it was the EXtreme DDR , one said he had the same mem & he couldnt get above 166fsb w/ his RDA (a little on that in a min,) i replaced the ps w/antec 480w ps & no more problem. back to that friend w/ the RDA , when i told him i was thinking on going to an RDA he said try his , to make a long story short he could only go to 166fsb w/ 2 sticks & 200fsb w/ 1 @ (2.2.2.5) same board same mem i went to 200fsb w/ 2 & all i did is change to 2.2.2.7 because thats what worked in my V8X . he said EXtreme said it should go [email protected] & thats all he tryed. let me know what happens & crank that puppy up(97pro) what are you waiting for ? HAHA just kidding im an old drag racer & i always like to push sh*t till its about to blowup. Happy OCing.