Newb Overclocking: Athlon 64.

[DeathMonk]

Here goes my first post:

My setup:

A64 3200+
Asus K8V
512MB Corsair XMS PC3700
R9800 Pro
120Gb SATA Barracuda HDD
Zalman CNPS7000-Cu

I got it to 2.1 stable by just changing the FSB to 210--nothing else, no voltage, no memory settings, etc.

When I read this:

http://www.overclockers.com/tips00457/

I really don't get what he's saying by knocking down the memory to 333Mhz then getting a multiplier of 12..

I tried it anyway. I set the mem to 333mhz (5:3) then the fsb to 220mhz. Then tried with VCORE offset of 100mv. Froze in 3dmark quickly. Then I tried 200mv... Got a lot further, but still no luck. I havent tried 300mv because I still don't really know what i'm doing. I can't find anywhere in this bios to change the VCORE besides the "VCORE Offset" (or is this the same?).

I also didn't mess with agp or v-link voltage (what the hell is v-link voltage?)--don't know if I need to do this.

Lastly, tbreak's infamous "AMD 64 3200+ is here" thread shows 3d mark 01 scores of 24000+ @ 2.2 and an overclocked radeon.. On the second page he shows the stock A64 and stock radeon 3d mark score and it was like 20000.. I get 19008 at stock speeds. At any rate, this was another question that I had.. How are these scores 1000 off? The only difference would be RAM latency and motherboard.

[dropadrop]

The differance in points could also come from basic os and bios tweaks, and a driver that gives a higher score. What ram are you using for your system? You should be able to get alot higher then 210fsb even while running 1:1, atleast if you raise the voltage a bit.

There's alot of people running athlon64's at xtremesystems (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/) so if you don't find awnsers here you should be sure to find them there.

[Severian]

Keen 3DMarks generally have a disc image of a fresh install, with nothing but the OS, service packs and required drivers on them in order to maximize the speed. There are also a number of tips about other ways to increase the speed (various settings in the registry, closing explorer before you run 3Dmark and a whole load of others) which would affect it.

Gerenally, 3DMark is useful for trying to gauge how much your computer has improved, or whether various tweaks work. On the other hand, trying to compete with the top 3Dmarkers won't get you a better computer - it will merely get you a better benchmark.

[DeathMonk]

Originally posted by dropadrop
What ram are you using for your system?

Corsair XMS PC3700

[Feuerkampf]

Mine is coming soon, I can't wait :(

[DeathMonk]

Don't worry. be happy:)

I love this chip so far..