help me trouble shoot my OC

supposively i'm a bit low for my system specs.

have an 1800 JIUHB DUT3C. abit NF7-S rev 2 with "C14" bios. OCZ PC3500 2x256 @ 214FSB 3-3-3-11 2.8v in dual channel. SLK 800a with 40CFM fan. chieftec dragon series with 53CFM stealth and OEM fan in window for intake and two of the OEM's in the rear for exhaust. i have heat sinks on my NB SB and mosfets all passively cooled. usesd an old coolermaster sink from when i was running my palomino.

voltages;
Vcore: 1.9
Vdimm: 2.8
Vdd: 1.7(full whack)

CPU interface is disabled i beleive, have it set to use OC'd parameters. it's not stable with it enabled.

my clock is 214*10. and i'm giving the CPU 1.9v. i've used folding for stability testing which seems to be lots better then prime as i'll be stable in prime for hours yet fail to fold a gromacs work unit for more then 5 minutes. this is the most stable clock i've been able to acheive and it does take this voltage.

so my theories are, first of all i'm in dual channel. would this be limiting me another 10Mhz FSB? also the CPU interface setting. i don't know what that does so i set it to whatever gave me the highest FSB. and finally my BIOS. alot of people are saying the newer BIOS's for this board are a little better.

help please?

CPU interface is said to change the tightness of the motherboards internal timings... Or something like that. So it all depends on how many mhz you gain by disabling it to say if it's worth it.

As for finding what's limiting you, I would first make sure it's not your memory by setting the timing and devider to "Auto". Then seeing if you can go any higher.
If you've already done that then... I'm not sure what's limiting you. There are alot of things to try, first go ahead and list all your SoftMenu and advanced chipset settings.

alright but that would recquire a reboot. should i try switching out of dual channel memory while the machine is down? i'm folding, would like to kill as many birds as i can with as few stones as possible. to say the cliche' the long way.

OMG i'm so0o0o dr seuess.

From my experience and what I saw in many posts, the NF7-S rev 2.0 should do average 220 MHz FSB w/ stock chipset cooling w/o chipset Vdd mod. Some go higher near 230 and some go lower around 210 MHz. Assuming memory modules are not the limiting factor, with enough Vdimm (say 2.8 - 2.9 V if needed).

Do not just aiming for highest FSB which should mainly be measured by the effective memory bandwidth. Memory bandwidth affects application performance. Look at the memory efficiency in combination with the highest FSB, i.e. FSB x memory_efficiency, instead of just FSB. For this motherboard, with good PC3200/3500 CAS2 memory modules, I found that

CPU interface enable (fast decode) and dual channel, memory efficiency ~ 95 - 96%

CPU interface disable and dual channel, memory efficiency ~ 88 - 89%

For single channel, memory efficiency would drop by 2-3% but FSB may go few MHz higher, hence single channel and dual channel is roughly a wash on effective memory bandwidth.

Main emphasis for performance should be getting CPU interface enable to work. Since the 6-8% gain of memory efficiency (as described earlier) for memory bandwidth w/ CPU interface enable would be equivalent to 12-16 MHz at the level of 200 MHz FSB. A lower FSB with higher memory efficiency may be better than a higher FSB with lower memory efficiency for both memory bandwidth performance and stability (chipset, memory controller, memory, CPU FSB interface).

Memory bandwidth (MB/s) and memory efficiency can be obtained from the latest Sandra (MAX3) memory bandwidth test, or calculated by

memory_efficiency = measured_memory_bandwidth / (16 x FSB)

first of al whats the production date of yer CPU? i had a JIUHB 0326 1800+ that did 220x12 @ 2.00v and after this i tried my friends JIUHB 0203 and it couldnt get past 207x12 @ 2.20v so its possible the limit of the CPU drop the multiplier to see if its a limit on the CPU. dual DDR doesnt make any difference on OC on my board so i doubt its that.. good luck

1800 JIUHB DUT3C?? whats the dating on that cpu?

i think it's a 305. i bought it back in february. when i reboot i'll post it. i think i'm gonna do my AS3 over and switch to single channel.

my bandwidth efficiency is like 95-96% cause i'm in dual channel. if i drop to single it goes to 91%

when i switch to single channel i'll write down my BIOS settings.

i'm more concerned with bandwidth in volume (MB) rather then efficiency. if i can gain a higher clock and acheive an equal or greater bandwidth in volume with less efficiency then that's cool with me.

In some cases for the NF7-S rev 2.0, one could get a higher FSB by disable CPU interface, but then the memory efficiency would drop by 6-9%. As a result, the effective memory bandwidth (MB/s) would be even lower despite the higher FSB.

I watch both the FSB and memory efficiency closely, and FSB x memory_efficiency gives the memory bandwidth which is the number one would want to maximize, instead just the FSB MHz.

ok i'm in single channel and i'm running 9*223. situation hasn't changed much and i think it'd be safe to go back to DC since i had to lower the multi to get this far. vdimm is 2.9 and timings are still laxed. so memory isn't holding me back. i'm going to go ahead and blame the CPU.

i could post over at 235 and i ran sandra's mem bench at 233 but it BSOD's all the way down to here. i already have 1.9 volts going in this CPU so i don't think it's going much further. least not on air cooling.

going to switch back to DC and come back and see if it's stable. if it is i'll try 9.5*223. right now she's at 2030.

is anyone else having an issue with their NF7 not reporting the right FSB. i have it set to 223 but in W/G CPUID, AIDA and sandra it says 225.

scratch that it crashed before i got to far. 220's seems to be my ceiling. normally i'd be happy with that but my total clock went down. not by alot though. iano. gonna let it fold awhile and burn in this new OC. see if it crashes. i don't think it will though.

do you think it's the CPU letting me down or what? i'm interested in a new chip and the 2100 AIUHB's are looking sweet.

btw CPU interface has been enabled the whole time. so that's a non issue. should i maybe flash to a newer BIOS? i'm using C14 (1.4?)

also what about FSB spread spectrum? should that be on or disabled? i have that and AGP spread spectrum disabled.

For this motherboard, 220 MHz FSB, dual channel w/ CPU Interface enable is the norm. It should give 3300+ MB/s integer memory bandwidth. So even without getting higher FSB and memory bandwidth, it is respectful.

I found that those settings for spread spectrum are not crucial and determining factors.

You should look at the CPU overclocking and work on its overclocking, if there is more room to go. If you are using a SLK-800a, try it with the highest CFM fan you have and enough Vcore to see where the CPU max out. I think a 1800+ DUT3C Tbred B might be able to do at least 2.0 - 2.2 GHz stable, with 1.9 V and good air cooling under 60 C.