Help on O/C a GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P

Hello to all

I am new here and pretty new into o/c. I have a 2 year old watercooled system and i would like to ger some more juice out of it (if possible). After googling alot reading alot and playing with the BIOS settings alot i couldn't get a stable system so i am asking for your help.

This is my systems specs:

M/B: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P
CPU: AMD PHENOM II X4 810 (2.6GHZ QUAD-CORE LOCKED)
PSU: ENERMAX 450W
MEM: CORSAIR TW3X4G1333C9A 4GB (2X2GB) 1333MHz, 9-9-9-24, 1.5V
GFX: SAPPHIRE RADEON HD4850 512MB DDR3 PCI-E

CPU runs idle at 27-30 Degrees celcius chipset (also watercooled) at 38 celcius.

What should i change in the bios settings in order to get a faster system?

Thank you!

1. Lower the HT Link speed to 1600 mhz (8x) and the ram speed to 1066.
2. Increase CPU Frequency in small 5 mhz increments until you encounter instability (e.g. won't boot all the way into Windows, BSOD, lockups). The increase the CPU VID (core voltage) in small increments until stability returns.
3. Download "CPU-z", "HWMonitor" and "Prime95"
4. Start running Prime95 blend tests for 20 minutes with HWMonitor open. Watch core temps. You don't want them to exceed mid 50s C.
5. If you can't pass a Prime 20 minute test, go into bios and bump up the CPU VID a little. Repeat the Prime95 stress test while monitoring core temps. Add a little vcore as if necessary to restore stability.
6. Post back with attached pics of CPU-z tabs: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD". To attach pics go to "Go Advanced" button and use the Paper Clip tool. "Snipping Tool" in Windows Accessories is great for framing and capturing screen shots.
7. After you post the pics of CPU-z tabs we will advise you further.

First i would like to say a BIG THANK you for taking the time to reply.

I did as you told me to. At this point the system runs at 3.3GHz for more than 30 minutes on PRIME95 with max CPU Temp 53c and chipset 42c

Settings:

Vcore: 1.32
FSB: 256
HT: 8x (1600)

I am not quite sure i got the memory speed correct though.

I am posting pictures as requested









I couldn't find on the forum:

Post back with attached pics of CPU-z tabs: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD". To attach pics go to "Go Advanced" button and use the Paper Clip tool. "Snipping Tool" in Windows Accessories is great for framing and capturing screen shots.

Thank you!

The Paper Clip tool is very small and hard to spot unless you know where to look.

Your memory speed setting is correct. CPU-z reports memory speeds in terms of the DDR2 bus speed, not the DDR3 double rate. Just multiply those CPU-z values by two. Your bios seems to be locking down the ram speed so that it is not changing as you have increased the CPU frequency from 200 to 257. That being the case then go ahead and return your memory speed to 666/1333. At 533/1066 you are sacrificing some memory performance. I would also bump the memory voltage up to 1.55. Post back pics of the three CPU tabs after resetting the memory speed as I want to see what effect that has on your HT Link speed which is maxed out already. When HT Link speed exceeds the stock 2000 mhz by very much instability sets in quickly.

I note that your are using AMDOverdrive to monotor temps. Are you also using it to manipulate the bios settings themselves? I would discourage you from doing that as AMDOD is famous for inaccurately reporting bios values and its stability testing tool is pretty wimpy.

Your are looking real good so far. That you passed Prime95 blend for over 30 minutes is a good sign but not adequate to demonstrate true stability. I would ask you to run it for at least two hours and have hardware monitor open while you are doing it. If it fails that longer test however, then you need to bump up the CPU voltage to make it stable. At 1.328 it is still quite low so don't be timid. Up to 1.5v is generally considered safe as long as core temps are not climbing too high. At this point your temps are fine but not much more room there.

Hello again!

All settings were applied on BIOS directly. I used AMDoverdrive only to read temperatures

I left the system running on PRIME95 for more than 2.30 hours without any issues and as the temperature in my room drooped (sun went down) the temperatures on the cores dropped a bit as well (50c).

When you said that temperatures shouldn't climp above mid 50s you meant the core temperatures or the cpu temperatures?

I downloaded HWmonitor and as i am running now with PRIME for the past 10 minutes it shows:

System: 39c
CPU: 55c (already!)

core0: 48
core1: 48
core2: 48
core3: 48

The temperatures i meantioned yesterday were those of the core!

I also changed the memory settings as instructed and posting the pics:

Core temps are the important ones and should not exceed mid-50s C or instability will set in with AMD CPUs. Core temps look good at this point. Actually, after about 10-15 minutes of Prime95 you will attain max core temps within about 2 C. of what they would reach during a much longer test. Let me know how the current stress test turns out with the new memory settings. If it passes I have a couple more tweaks I want you to try.

More than 2 hours now and core temps are between 53-54c

System looks steady will leave it on for a at least 1 more hour and then i will hit the bed!

something funny is going on with your ram, between post 3 and post 6 the size of your ram has gone from 4096 to 3328mb?

TheQuadFather said:

something funny is going on with your ram, between post 3 and post 6 the size of your ram has gone from 4096 to 3328mb?

Click to expand...

Could it be because i am running a tweaked 32bit xp prof. version and cannot see the whole ram?

Yeah, but you were seeing all of it before with the same OS, right?

trents said:

Yeah, but you were seeing all of it before with the same OS, right?

Click to expand...

nope! never! on "system properties" displays 3.25GB of RAM and task manager 3406252 Kb. I never saw anything else other than these numbers except now on CPUZ which is though weird!!!

Don't worry about it. We all know 32-bit OSes can't use all of 4 gb of ram anyway, regardless of what the OS reports. Microsoft got tired of hearing that question so I think they pushed some mods that now force the OS to report total ram instead of total available ram in certain places anyway.

Almost 4 hours running on PRIME95 and system is rock solid. I added 2x12cm fans on the radiator (it is a big one and takes up to three 12cm fans) and temperatures dropped a bit.

CPU is now at 56c and cores at 47c

and it is rather quiet!!!

Again a BIG thank you to TRENTS!!!!

You're welcome! You did good! The only other thing you might consider is bumping up your CPUNB frequency to about 2400 mhz and the CPUNB voltage to about 1.235 to support that frequency increase. That will help a little with memory performance.

I am back! I am trying to explore how high i can get with my CPU and my watercooled system.

At this moment the system runs at 3,5GHz under PRIME95 for more than an hour which is quite impressive. Core temperatures never exceeded 50c and cpu temperature is at 59c.

Any comments?

PS: Is there a benchmark i can try to compare my cpu with others?

With your CPU frequency/fsb at 270 mhz you may soon run into a barrier with the motherboard electronics. Your chipset is not a high end one.

Your core temps are still good.

Watch your HT Link speed. At 2160 mhz its approaching the point of instability. I would lower that multiplier in bios if I were you. You want to keep that one around 1800-2000. You're NB could stand some increase, however. 2400-2500 mhz would be appropriate with a small voltage increase to support it.

Also, look at your RAM speed. Its at 720/1440 mhz and its only rated at 666/1333. That could give you problems if you continue to increase the bus speed. Corsair makes good stuff, however and it may go some more with a little extra voltage to support it.

SiSoft Sandra will enable you to benchmark your CPU and compare it to others.

I terms of temperature i have hit the wall at 3.6GHz. Although my system is watercooled when i had it designed i emphasized on noise rather than overclocking. I believe though that this is a satisfactory result on a hot summer day like this (outside temperature was 32c and 27c inside the room).

I will try and increase the NB as you suggested and post back

You have achieved a 1 ghz overclock. Not many can boast of that. Well done. My only suggestions would be looking at increasing the ram clock and the NB frequency. The NB has significant impact on ram and cache performance.

On my mobo there are 2 NB voltage controls. Which one should i increase?

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/985/3/