New at overclocking, need suggestions please

Hello,

I'm new to overclocking, and I just built a new box. Here are the specs. It's running real stable right now, but I want to further.
I'm not exactly sure what to do with my voltage settings.

Epox 8rda3+ Motherboard
XP2800 running @ 2250mhz 180x12.5
Corsair 512 PC3500 XMS
Geforce FX 5950 Ultra
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
Thermaltake 480w silent purepower w/ pfc
Creative T7700 7.1 surround speakers
Thermaltake Volcano 11+ Hsf
5 Powmax Case Fans
cpu temp 40C idle 45C Load

Right now I have my dimm voltage set on auto. My question is what should it be set at to get the most from my ram?

also my vcore is set to default. Is this ok?
agp set to 1.5v, vdd set atr 1.6v. Not sure what to do with these either.

What Do I have to do next? Thanks for your time.

Your temps seem a bit high for stock Vcore. I'm afraid you may be into the 50ºC and higher range if you turn it up much. Most people will agree that, while still within specs for the cpu, 50º and above should be avoided. Double check your hsf mounting, it's probably fine, but it never hurts to be sure. What kind of thermal compound are you using? If your using the stock AMD white goop, you may want to try AS3 or better. I'm not entirely familiar with the Volcano 11, but with a SmartFan II and an SLK-800A my temps matched yours at 1.825 VCore 205*11. You may want to look into different cooling. Another thing to check is case ventilation. It doesn't matter how many fans you have if the air isn't going where it's needed. Make sure your cables aren't restricting airflow around the HSF and that you have positive case pressure.
Once you have the cooling under control a little better, you might try turning up the FSB. Your ram should do 200+ easily and as high as 225 isn't out of the question. Of course, you will have to raise VDimm accordingly. I personally run mine at 2.9V. Also make sure your run the ram in sync (100%) this increases performance.
What many people will do is find the max FSB for their machine by lowering the multi way down and turning up the fsb a little at a time until instability occures. The trick is to select a FSB then divide your cpu's rated speed by that. The resulting answer is where you should set the multi. This way, you keep the Vcore at stock, and the cpu runs at its rated speed, practically eliminating it from any instability issues. Once you find the FSB stable max, you begin turning up the multi until you get errors, then turn up the Vcore and Vdd (make sure you have active cooling on the NB, and lapping the chip helps a lot too) a little until there are no errors. You keep doing this until you hit the max Vcore and temps you are willing to bear. On many 8rda models, you may find the 10 and 10.5 multis don't work, so you have make a trade off. Either lower the FSB to allow the multi to jump to 11, or stay with the high FSB and go with the lower multi.
Other things to consider are ram sinks, mosfet sinks, active SB cooling (not really needed, but some people do it for piece of mind).
It looks like you have a good rig there and you should be able to do nicely with it. Just cool the parts that need cooled and watch your temps.

Good luck and...

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!

Thanks for replying! And thanks for the great information!

I'm starting to get a clearer picture about overclocking. I have arctic silver 5 on the chip right now, and there's nothing blocking my airflow. I checked and the hsf seems like it's seated properly, so I guess I need to get a better heatsink fan. I guess i'll pick up a smart fan II for the fan. What's the best heatsink out right now? What do you recommend I put on the north bridge? And also what about the south bridge? What are mosfets? Right now when I tried to go to 200 fsb, the damn thing wouldn't boot up. I'm guessing it's a heat issue. Anyone have any input on stuff to get? Thanks for your time.

There are several good heat sinks on the market right now. Thermaltake makes a number of proven performers such as the slk-800A (what I use) as well as the slk-947U, and others.

The stock north bridge heatsink is what I use, but I lapped the chip and installed a stock amd cpu fan over it (and as3 of course). As far as the south bridge goes, I am still using the stock h/s. I am planning another cooling mod in the spring and will move the n/b hsf combo to the s/b once the n/b is water cooled.

Mosfets are the six little square things on the top left corner of your board. They will be surrounded by some fairly tall capicitors. These regulate power to the motherboard and can become pretty hot when overclocking due to the additional power needed by the mobo/cpu, etc. Many people will go to Radio Shack and buy small heat sinks (they're like .99 cents or so) and glue them onto the mosfets with artic silver adhesive.

As far as 200 fsb, what multi are you using? Your Epox mobo locks the pci and agp busses so that isn't the problem. Check your VDimm and also post what all of your voltage settings are as well as multi. We can go from there.

Thanks again for replying!

Right now my multiplier is set on default, but I see it's reading at 12.5, and i'm running at 180 fsb. My agp voltage is set at 1.5v. not sure if I have to do anything with that. My vdimm is set on auto, and my vdd voltage is set at 1.6v. The only thing I touched so far was raising the fsb. It loaded up fine at 166, so I tried 200 and the police siren came on and I had to reset the jumper to get back into my system. so then I gradually moved the fsb up until I got to 180, And that's where i'm at right now. I have Not tried going any higher than that as of yet.

I just picked up a 120mm evercool aluminum case fan. It's rated at 80 cfm, and 2000 rpm. I'm gonna throw that on the front of my case on the bottom as a monster intake. It's only got a 3 pin connector, so I think I'm gonna use a 3-4 adapter to hook it right into the power supply. I don't think the motherboard will handle it. I could be wrong though.

I also picked up a chipset cooler bundle which comes with 2 nice square heatsinks, and a little 40x40x16mm fan that is rated at 5.3 cfm and 5300 rpm, but I'm not sure what i'm gonna do with it.


Thanks for your time!