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ASUS A8V Deluxe Overclocking Guide -- Discussion

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OK, small update.

I've managed to get 2.74GHz stable by adding in a dedicated soundcard. I was lucky enough to find an old Audigy 2 ZS at work and was able to have it, whacked it in and it's been stable at 2.74GHz for weeks. ^^

However, 2.75 and higher isn't. :( I might try and tighten timings at 2.74GHz instead of trying to push for a higher OC. Would be nice if I could get the same timings as my Shuttle 3-3-3-8 instead of the 3-4-4-10 I'm currently at now.

I'll keep you all posted with what my final outcome is. Gutted I couldn't hit 2.8GHz, but 740MHz for free is something to be very proud and pleased with.
 
So what is the workaround to solve the problem? I mean I can o/c the CPU using the FSB, but I cannot o/c the ram. I have a 4000+ San Diego running at 2.8 GHz (255 x 11) using 166 (4/3) divider. This has the ram running at 200 MHz, but if I go much over that I get errors. I'm using Orthos to test.
 
So what is the workaround to solve the problem? I mean I can o/c the CPU using the FSB, but I cannot o/c the ram. I have a 4000+ San Diego running at 2.8 GHz (255 x 11) using 166 (4/3) divider. This has the ram running at 200 MHz, but if I go much over that I get errors. I'm using Orthos to test.
What BIOS version are you running? What memory divider have you selected in the BIOS? The 166 divider is actually called 5:3 IIRC. With your current settings, 200 MHz is the proper speed for the memory if the motherboard is correctly applying the 5/6 (166/200) divider. There are no dividers between 5/6 and 1, so you don't have many options. What is your RAM rated for? Do you know its capabilities? If not, I would suggest starting with a 1:1 divider and seeing how far you can push your memory. Right now, there are way too many unknowns based on what you have told us.
 
Thanks for the reply. This is an old thread, but the MB is still very good for older games and the Internet. I am running bios version 1017. I'm using memory divider 166 (I believe it is 3/2 in the bios, I'm at work and cannot look at it right now to be sure). The ram (Mushkin) has been tested to run at PC3700 on my MSI Neo2 in my sig. I think I figured out the dividers a while back and thought it was just a weird setup that ASUS had for their bios, but now I know it is screwed up. Anyway I have it o/c to 2.8 GHz (255 x 11) with the ram running at 200 Mhz. This setup is very stable, over 14 hours of Orthos without an error. I can overclock my ram and test it with Memtest and it passes up to 240 MHz, but in Windows the ram will not even test much passed 200 without errors using Orthos.
 
Okay, so you're using the divider labeled 3:2 in the BIOS, which actually applies a 166/200 divider. I'm still unsure what your goal is in terms of overclocking the memory. Your CPU is probably near its limit at 2.8 GHz, so when you push up the FSB how do you know it's not the CPU that is causing your errors in Orthos? Your ultimate goal with a 939 system (for best performance) should be to get the CPU speed as high as possible. (Running your memory at stock speeds isn't really hurting performance too much.) I think your current settings probably come closest to achieving that.

You could try switching to a lower multiplier and a higher FSB to push up your memory frequency without sacrificing CPU speed, but the board may not be able to handle it.
 
I'm looking to get the most out of this system I can. I might make it my main system if I can get it figured out. But, if I cannot figure out why my ram will not o/c then it will just end up being a backup system. The max the CPU will go without too much overvolting (1.45v) the core is 2.9 GHz (242 x 12, 166). This has the ram running at only 207 MHz (DDR~415). Memtest tests good all day long, but Orthos errors out after anywhere from 2-6 hrs. Also I had the Athlon 4000+ on my Neo2 running 234 x 12 (1:1) with no problems at all, same CPU and same ram, but the ram will not o/c for nothing on the Asus A8V. It has to be a setting or something I am missing. Oh, I know it is not my CPU because I tested it with ram and HTT below spec.
 
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I had the Athlon 4000+ on my Neo2 running 234 x 12 (1:1) with no problems at all, same CPU and same ram, but the ram will not o/c for nothing on the Asus A8V.
I'm not sure how you're drawing the conclusion that the RAM is not overclocking well on the A8V. You have the CPU pretty much maxed out, yet you're assuming it's the RAM that's holding you back when you get errors in Orthos? If I had to guess, I'd say it's the CPU.

Why not try 233x12 and use the 1:1 divider? That would put both the CPU and the memory at settings close to what you were running on the Neo2 board.
 
OK, got ya. I will try that and see maybe the combo of ram and cpu being o/c is causing errors.

On a different note do you know which dividers work? I know the 166 (3/2) and 200 work, how about any of the others? 183 (think it is labled 5/3 in bios) does it work? Seems unstable to me.
 
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This thread is the one I made about the memory divider issues. Just to clarify, when you set the divider to [3:2] in the BIOS, it is actually behaving like the [5:3 DDR333] setting. (333/400 = 166/200 = 5/6 diver). If you choose [5:3 DDR333] in the BIOS, you will get very unstable operation. If I remember correctly, the other dividers all worked fine, although they won't be of much help to you. Your best bet is to run 1:1 ([2:1 DDR400] setting in BIOS).

Note: Your other option is to revert to the 1009 BIOS where all the dividers actually worked properly, but I can't remember which CPUs were supported by that BIOS, and as I mentioned before you probably want the 1:1 setting anyway.
 
Thanks, I read that thread yesterday and that is when I realized that the strange things that were happening were not idiosyncrasies but actual problems with the bios. Thanks for all the research you did. Amazing that ASUS did not fix these problems. It is no wonder I have heard a lot of bad things about ASUS customer support.

Yes, I would like to use 1:1 and I will try that and see.
 
No problem. Yeah, I really can't believe how badly they botched the BIOS and never bothered to fix it despite 3 or 4 updated versions. It's still a decent board though. I'm using it in my wife's computer, and my only complaint is the SATA controllers that require drivers to be loaded for Windows XP installation. I recently tried to reinstall Windows XP on a SATA drive attached to this board, and I had all kinds of trouble. After 4 hours of unsuccessful attempts, I finally decided to install Windows to a PATA drive and then used Acronis True Image bootable CD to copy the partition back to the SATA drive.
 
Really did not have much time today to work on overclocking, but I did find out it will not run at 234 x 12 (1:1)...the ram that is. I get errors in Memtest right away. I'm going to have more time to o/c in a few days...these things take time as I'm sure you know. Anyway on a different note, I'm using VIA SATA with RAID 0. I was able to get Windows XP installed from the CD, but yes I did have to use a floppy to install the SATA drivers. I had all kind of problems with the Promise SATA ports running RAID 0. As a matter of fact it would not boot after trying to run the harddrive file system benchmark on Sandra. Even on the VIA SATA the harddrive file system benchmark will not finish, very strange, but windows loads very fast and runs great. All other benches run great. Other HDD benches show my file system running at about 110 MB per second.
 
I have tested and tested to see what I can get out of the A8V deluxe and the FSB just will not overclock at all. I'm using my Mushkin ram and do know a bit more about the ram now. It is Infineon 5ns (remarked by AENEON), AED93t500 DDR DBED with BE-5 chips. From what I have read the A8V does not like some ram and this may very well be the case here, the best I can get out of the ram is 201~202 where in my MSI Neo2 I can get 234 Mhz easy. Now the AMD A64 4000+ overclocks great, up to 2900 MHz and a bit more if I like, but 2.8 Ghz is the sweet spot and that is where I'm going to leave it. The computer is pretty fast for as old as it is and I'm happy with it, but I would like to know if it is a compatibility issue or not with the ram not able to o/c at all. Is there any data on these memory chips and this MB having issue with each other?
 
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Don't know about the board compatibility issue but my Corsair XMS 2x1 Gb sticks have Infineon BE-5's as well and clocks very good - 226 MHz at the rated 2-3-2-6-1T and 265+ MHz at 3-3-2-6-1T. That's on an ASUS board but using an nVidia chipset. Never did like VIA much ...
 
Thanks QuietIce for the info. So what are your memory settings? Could you post all of them please and any other settings you think could be holding me back. On my MSI Neo2 I can get 234 MHz at 2.5-3-2-6-1T with my Mushkin 2x1 Gb sticks. Thanks again
 
I was never able to clock my Crucial Ballistix PC3200 (2x512MB) much above 210 MHz on this board. I ended up using the 5/6 divider to enable a moderate overclock on my old Venice CPU while keeping the memory near its stock speeds. Later on when I switched to the A8N-SLI Deluxe board, the same memory could easily reach 270 MHz IIRC (although it kept dying every 3-4 months). I'm not sure if you're trying to run 1T, but if you are I would suggest switching to 2T. I never had any luck running 1T on this board.
 
Thanks QuietIce for the info. So what are your memory settings? Could you post all of them please and any other settings you think could be holding me back. On my MSI Neo2 I can get 234 MHz at 2.5-3-2-6-1T with my Mushkin 2x1 Gb sticks. Thanks again
That's the timings I would use as well for that speed. I'm currently running 246 MHz with 2.5-3-2-6-1T-12-16 (tRC & tRFC) @ 2.80vDIMM. I also disable everything on-board that I'm not using - serial port, parallel port, sound (if you've got a sound card), USB Legacy support (if you don't need it), etc. - every little bit helps streamline the system. Set the HT Link to 8 Up/Down and make sure it's running at or below 1000 MHz. If you've got ECC on, turn it off. That's everything I can think of offhand.

If all else fails turn your RAM down to 166 (5/6 as KillrBuckeye suggested) and try pushing the clock that way. If it's the RAM hanging you up that'll let you know ...
 
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Been a while, but I have been testing and troubleshooting why I could not run my Mushkin ram at settings above 200 MHz. When I googled ‘memory configuration’ I came across someone suggesting disabling ‘Bank Interleaving’ if you have two gig of ram and also set ‘Burst Length’ to 4. After doing this I was able to run Orthos all night (two rounds, about 8 hours) without any errors at 2910 MHz (253 x 11.5, 166/208). Before this Orthos would error out within about 2-3 hours. These settings seem to have been the problem all along. I also tried bios 09, 17 and I’m now using the latest beta 18. All bios acted pretty much the same except 09 was a bit more stable with the dividers correct (we all know about that). Sandra memory bandwidth test shows the memory bandwidth above 6000 meg per sec, which is right where it should be.
 
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