• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Easy as 1, 2, 3, Overclocking the A64, Opteron, X2

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
Thx, I'm presuming you mean for an all round system test after overclocking is finished. I should have mentioned that I was referring to quick-testing my HTT/FSB to find its limits, my graphics card doesnt run the 3dmark 2003 tests. Anyway I've read through a few of the stickies and have visited some other sites so I'm more sure of what I'm doing now. Sorry about the noob questions and thanks for your help, this is a great little thread for someone who is new to oc'ing :)

edit: 1 more quick question, you said to set your processor multiplier to its lowest setting and recommended 6x, my clock goes down to 4x with a maximum of 9x and I have been using 4x while testing HTT/FSB and memory should this be ok or should I still use 6x?
 
Last edited:
It should make no difference, but 4x is fine for testing htt and mem, you may find that you cannot achive the highest overall overclock because the memory controler is not getting stressed quite as much, but this is unlikly.
 
I definately needed this. After being away for 2 years, everything has changed it seems. I've read alot of guides, but many were still a bit over my head.

Very simple, but I got the point. I was actually dreading the time when it came to go home and begin putting the system I have waiting on me together. I feel quite a bit more at ease over it.

Thanks :]
 
"1. Test the limits of your HyperTransport bus (HTT).

To do this set your CPU to its lowest multiplier. Generally 6x is good enough for this test.

Now set your memory to its lowest divider, 133 is general recommend.

Begin your testing by raising the FSB with the FSB/HTT multiplier set to 5x. Push your HTT up in 5mhz increments until it becomes unstable, generally you back off 5mhz from the last unstable speed. As Quailane pointed out its also a good idea to test with the 3x multi to ensure that your motherboard is not FSB limited, using the same steps test at both 5x for max HTT and 3x for max FSB. Testing should then be done, boot to windows and run a few loops of 3DMark03 or 05, if the system does not create any errors then you know its OK to move on to step 2. If it does fail out then reboot and back off the FSB another 5mhz, and retest.

Once your done note your max HTT number, a pad of paper is your friend so write it down if you think you might forget."

Now this part of the tutorial says to set the cpu multiplier to 6 x
I have found a part of the bios I think corresponds to that, it appears in the guru utility in my bios and was currently set to 10 X.
I couldn't find anything to do with the memory divider, so I suppose you are calling memory divider something different to abit, I have no clue where the "fsb multi" was either, the only thing I could find that was multiplier was set to 10x in guru and I think thats the cpu multiplier.
I tried lowering it from 10 to 5x anyway and managed to raise the fsb to 215, of course the actual clock speed is lower than default this way.
 
Jon said:
I definately needed this. After being away for 2 years, everything has changed it seems. I've read alot of guides, but many were still a bit over my head.

Very simple, but I got the point. I was actually dreading the time when it came to go home and begin putting the system I have waiting on me together. I feel quite a bit more at ease over it.

Thanks :]
My feelings EXACTLY! Wonderful guide, it filled in my knowledge gaps, thanks!
 
Very good guide cos it is simple and small size suitable for anyone. :thup:
As about HyperTransport in general should be < 1GHz.
Hyper Transport Speed = HT multiplier X FSB.

But my previous 754 Gigabyte did not achieve high FSBs (over 250 MHz) with HT=1X, 2X, 4X. :rolleyes:
For a 754 Epox I set HT=1X LOL for HT=2X, 3X, 4X max FSB for chipset was 220 - 230 MHz only.. :cool:
This means that sometimes you need to play in the beggining to find the best setting. :)

More advanced stuff --> look here posts 6,7,8 for I.M.C. (939 system).
That's why I choose a fixed multiplier from beggining to find MSFs for CPU+for RAM. :)
But it is my personal view.

Here ishttp://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83501 A64 basics & processor guide.
Focus to 10th post.
It analyzes the effect of using half multipliers.
More advanced o/c guides for A64s click here
 
Last edited:
When I first installed windows i tryed this method and it led to driver corruption. Obviously I didn't follow it well but would anyone know what could cause this so that it doesn't happen in the future? Not that it was a big deal then as I had nothing on my desktop yet.
 
If your using a MSI K8 Neo with the NF3 chipset, then you need to put the SATA drives on the #3 or #4 SATA port up by the graphics card. The #1 and #2 ports are not locked.
 
is there a program that can be used to O/C a CPU? if not how? i posted a thread but no one is replying :( im a BIG nOOb when it comes to O/Cing, never done it in my life, but have a sempron 2400+ i experiment on until my killer 3200+ (after o/cing it will be a killer) :D
 
yes there are....i was using clockgen w/my abit for awhile.

however, my experience, i could push it further in windows than from bios. the problem i had was when i would reboot, it wouldn't go into windows since the settings were too high, so it really wasn't stable.

whereas, when i oc in my bios, part of deteriming stability for me was running memtest and then boot into windows and then prime, 3dmark0?, etc. well, if i can't boot into windows, i know right away the settings are too aggressive.

others were saying that the windows based oc tools weren't good for oc'ing.

maybe some of the programs have changed since last year when i was doing testing.
 
I'm using a default LanParty SLI-DR bios.

>>To do this set your CPU to its lowest multiplier. Generally 6x is good enough for this test.

This is the CPU/FSB ratio right?

>>Begin your testing by raising the FSB with the FSB/HTT multiplier set to 5x.

And is this the same as the LDT/FSB ratio?

>>Push your HTT up in 5mhz increments until it becomes unstable...

Now this is the confusing part is this the same as the FSB frequency? Or maybe its in some peripheral part of the bios I can't find?

Thanks for any insights.
 
In A64 land there really is no such thing as FSB any more only HTT. Your LTD/FSB should be 5x to start with see how far you can get it, you might also want to test at like 2x or 3x just to see how far you can take your board. As for the cpu/fsb set that to 6x so your not limmiting yourself with the cpu.
 
Hmmm... good guide. Sept my PC died at my first attempt lol. Oh well.. quick reset of the bios and it ran again lol.
 
peterrastall said:
Hmmm... good guide. Sept my PC died at my first attempt lol. Oh well.. quick reset of the bios and it ran again lol.

All the more reason to shed the fear, and keep going. Start small, work up in increments until it's unstable. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. The extra performance, and knowledge you'll gain from it will be worth it.
 
If you have RAM rated for higher FSB/HTT (like DDR500), and a motherboard that you know can handle high FSB/HTT, is it safe to say you can simply raise the HTT in small increments until it becomes unstable. At that point, bump up the vcore slightly as long as temperatures are within a reasonable range until it becomes stable (making sure not to go anything over 1.55-1.6ish)?

Do I have my facts straight or am I way off... ;) I have a system on the way that I plan to overclock. Just want to make sure I'm on the right track. Thanks fellas.
 
Back