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Please offer your suggested settings for my hardware configuration

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M E G A N O O B

Registered
Joined
May 8, 2004
Location
Boston
Hey Gang,

I would like to squeeze more out of my current setup by over clocking it and I was wondering if any of you had any experience with my exact setup (or something really close) and could offer suggestions for settings on the FSB, Vcore, Multipliers, etc.

I know my way around the BIOS prety well, but am still learning about things like the Voltage settings, and multipliers.

Without further ado...

Chip........... AMD 2700+ (Athlon XP)
Mem............ Kingston PC2700 DDR333
MB............... Asus A7N8X-Delux (updated to 1.07 i belive)
Heat snyc.... Volcano 7 @ 3500RPM

My current MB/CPU settings:
V Core: 1.632
External Clock: 166 - BIOS says I can set it to 200 but do I need DDR 400 for this?
*CPU currently hovers around 45 degrees C
*Says current speed is 2166 MHz, and supports up to 3000MHz! Yea- how the hell do I get that? ;)

So please give me mabey some starter settings, and something more maxed out that still runs pretty stable.

Let me know if you need more info to help, and I would be more than happy to tell you what I know.
 
hmm....with the slower ram, ur still gonna run 1:1, or synchronous mode, meaning the same fsb speed as the memory. just try and shoot for a high multiplier. ive got a 2700+ and an a7n8x deluxe as well. raise ur vcore for a higher overclock, but dont push it too far on air. id stop at about 1.825, depending on how hot it gets with ur heatsink. i think 2.3ghz is manageable.
 
Well, I messed around more with my settings last night, and came up with a rating of : 2324 MHz. Which if I have the same setup as you is faster with slower RAM???

Here are my settings

V Core: 1.75
Multiplier: 14 X 166FSB = 2324

So if my chip is running at a higher Overall MHz than yours with a lower FSB and a higher multiplier, is it really running faster... Because a higher FSB is like having a wider pipline is it not?

Should I get DDR400 RAM, will it make my system faster even if I have to lower the multiplier and end up with a lower overall MHz setting?

I'm confused... :(
 
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Start increasing your FSB settings ... you can overclock your RAM as well as your CPU.

And just because you run a higher FSB doesn't mean you have to have a lower overall MHz. Like this:

13 x 166 = 2158Mhz
10.5 x 200 = 2100Mhz

But the second will actually be faster than the first with the larger FSB setting. If you RAM can hack it (probably be pushing it with PC2700), you can go over 200FSB on the ASUS board, too ... though they don't support as high of a FSB overclock as some other boards out there.

But even at 11 x 196, you'd still have 1256Mhz, and be faster than 13 x 166.
 
If I get PC3200 RAM @ 400MHz, will I be able to set my FSB to 200 with this board and chip combo?

Asus a7n8x-Delux
(the 200 FSB setting is in the bios)
AMD Athlon PC2700+


I was told by Asus the fastest chip I could run with this board/chipst (nforce2) is the AMD Athlon XP3000/333

Wouldn't I have to get a ship that runs a 400MHz FSB to set the FSB in the BIOS to 200?

Mabey I am confusing the Chip to Chip-set MHz settings with the Chip to memory MHz settings?

Set me straight here,

Thanks!
 
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PerlAddict said:

13 x 166 = 2158Mhz
10.5 x 200 = 2100Mhz

But the second will actually be faster than the first with the larger FSB setting.

No offence to you, but I am not too sure about that. I think this has to depend on the type of application. With higher FSB, you will have a wider memory bandwidth. But if FSB is all the matters, Intell CPUs will be faster than all AMD processors already.

I think its per application. Personally, I think you won't even see much of a difference at all.
 
Meganoob, you did not bad. But having a higher FSB and lower multiplier to reach a given clockspeed is better than low FSB and higher multiplier, but you knew that.

If you do get DDR 400 memory then yes, you will get a 200 MHz FSB (external clock). Bear in mind that I've never had an A7N8X, but don't you have the option of setting the external clock to something between 166 and 200? My NF7-S does 167, 168 etc all the way up to and beyond 200 MHz.

If you can increment the FSB in smaller steps, then keep pushing it up as far as you can until you find where the RAM won't go any faster. Just because it is rated at 166 MHz FSB, doesn't mean it won't go faster, this is overclocking after all!

But so you know that it is the RAM's limit you find, drop the multiplier down to say 8 whilst you do that. And less volts, for just now anyway, you won't need them at say 170*8.

So find the highest frequency for the RAM. Then loosen the timings of the RAM to see if it can go higher again. Then when that runs into a wall speed wise, up the voltage. You might be able to go faster, or at least faster with better timings.

Now you've found the max FSB you can do, so now try and find max CPU speed. Gradually up the multiplier until it fails to work, then raise the voltage a touch and try again. Keep doing this until you find the maximum speed the CPU will work at.

Just make sure the temps don't go outrageously high at any point.
 
Kenshiro said:


No offence to you, but I am not too sure about that. I think this has to depend on the type of application. With higher FSB, you will have a wider memory bandwidth. But if FSB is all the matters, Intell CPUs will be faster than all AMD processors already.

I think its per application. Personally, I think you won't even see much of a difference at all.

FSB isn't all that matters, but this is the AMD section, and Intel doesn't take advantage of the low timings AMD does for RAM, which is why it's raw FSB speed doesn't necessarily beat out AMDs.

A high FSB with a lower multiplier is going to be faster and more efficient than just raw Mhz with a high multiplier and low FSB anyway you look at it (and even more so if you can keep your memory timings low).
 
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