New 3700+ Advice, thoughts please from you veteran AMD 64'ers

Heheh, wasup guys.

Yesterday i upgraded from a Mobile Barton at 2.2ghz, to a 3700+ AMD 64, and DFI NF3 250Gb.

Everything seems great so far. Ran 3dmark 2001, got over 27,000, 03 gets me nearly 12,500, everything stock, using Cat 4.9's.

Temps in the BIOS say 50c though, and they also said 35c for the system temp, when the room temp is only 22C with both side panels off? Must be a problem? I have 6 case fans, so good ventilation. Iam using the stock heatsink/fan combo, and i applied some Arctic Silver Ceramique.

Few other questions, queries, etc:

I don't know much about the mobo, in terms off getting the best out of it. All of the BIOS is stock. Only things i have changed are on board stuff, like turning off SATA support, etc, etc.

What ram timmings should i be using?? I always used 11-3-3-2 for my NF2, suppose it's different now? anything else i need to know about?

How about overclocking. Ive read a bit of the guides, and iam no noob to overclocking, but iam to A64's. I wanna shoot for 12x220, which would give me 2.6ghz would it not? Should i try 12x205 first, and go from there, adding small amounts of voltage and vdimm if it needs it???

How can i tell my real temps, ive got MBM 5, but surely that will use the same sensor as mobo?
So many questions i know guys, but i wanna get this right, spent a lot of money on this, heheeh.

Thanks for any replies in advance.

2.6 should be possible, but you'd probably need a better HSF.. some thermalright like an XP90 or XP120. The corsair should do 220 easy, and that board can do waaaaaay over 220, so it just depends on you CPU.

If you've already used your memory before and know its limits, you can usually follow them with the A64. There's a chance it may not overclock as well in your new system, but I doubt it. 12x220 would be 2640MHz, a reasonable goal for your processor, although I'd agree with Zac in that you should consider upgrading your HSF. Core voltage either way should be around 1.65-1.7 as a max, not the near 2v that was possible with AthlonXP's. You might be able to get away with only 1.6v or even less at 2.6 gigs, if you've got good enough cooling and are lucky enough.

Ok thanks guys, i have been thinking of a new sink, as i don't like stock heatsinks, but i heard the stock amd64 sinks were quite good.

What about my questions on the BIOS, etc? timmings? or do i need some DFI owners in here?

Also i just installed and checked mbm 5 and it said 72c, i think i set it up ok to read temps. WTF?????? 72C???

Also a fan seems to speed up then slow down every so often, must be CPU fan???

Thing is though, the heatsink is pretty warm, so wouldn't that mean good contact, thought these amd 64's were cooler than AXP's?

About memory timings:

On athlon 64s, because of built in mem controller, mem timings mean less on an amd64 then any other cpu. going from 3 5 5 11 to 2 2 2 11 would not be noticable ANYWHERE except on benchmarks with an amd64. On a P4 or athlon xp, its another story, they can have as much as a 10% boost.

I have the same chip in my Epox board and I can't do 2500mhz stable

I know that neither of my memory is the issue, and I am hoping that it is my Epox. My DFI is arriving shortly and I'll know for sure.

I'm using a SLK 948U with a Vantec stealth. Temps are well below 40 most of the time (currently running 10x240).

So, good luck to you. Maybe we can help each other

Odie

Hey Bro,

The Higher tempature reading is a bios/Hardware moniter issue. I assue your using the stock bios? Is so you might wanna upgread to the 9/12(3.1vdimm version). you can get it in the link in my signature. It also has some other fixes, like it fixed, when you set "CPU Thermal Trottleing" to disable, that it wouldnt POST.

i think* that 2600mhz is possible for a 3700+ on air.

as for just starting out, some things i would do, after a bios flash, is

1. disable CPU theraml throttling, and Cool'n'Quiet

2. up votages, here is a good place to start

CPU VID Control= 1.55v
CPU VID Special= 104%( resulting in 1.61vcore, for later testing 1.7vcore(1.55+110%) would be ok for Good are cooling(slk-948u or greater )

Vdimm= 2.8 - 2.9
Chipset Votage Control= 1.6v
vAPG= 1.6
3. set LDT/FSB Ratio to 3x



Your ram timings should land about the same on a64, as on your NFII, execpt the tRAS(the number you set to 11) you can use 10 for the greatest stability, bu i would say that in the 200-230mhz range, you could use a lower tRAS that 10, if you wish.


GL
-Jess-

Jess1313 said:

1. disable CPU theraml throttling, and Cool'n'Quiet

Click to expand...

Exactly what is happening with your fan, is when it doesn't use the full cpu and it isn't super hot, then it will slow down and at idle at times stop. So if you disable the throttling, then it should run at full speed all the time (as far as I understand with my brothers, who owns one).

Thanks for the tip on the fan, it's also stopped, as i changed this thing in the BIOS about spinning faster at certain temps or somet.

Anyways i would be a little hesitant to do a BIOS flash, it can wreck your board can't it???? ive never done it.

The BIOS was reporting 50-52C, and this was after a quick re-boot after seurfing the internet, so iot's idle.

Have a sat the heatisnk right, this is getting me down a bit, should i invest in a SP90? i have a 92mm fan?

So for timings should i leave it at auto?

Theres so many options, and there all on auto, there some wierd one's to like HTT or somet similar and other stuff?

Jess:

set LDT/FSB Ratio to 4x what does this do.

Grov said:

Thanks for the tip on the fan, it's also stopped, as i changed this thing in the BIOS about spinning faster at certain temps or somet.

Anyways i would be a little hesitant to do a BIOS flash, it can wreck your board can't it???? ive never done it.

The BIOS was reporting 50-52C, and this was after a quick re-boot after seurfing the internet, so iot's idle.

Have a sat the heatisnk right, this is getting me down a bit, should i invest in a SP90? i have a 92mm fan?

So for timings should i leave it at auto?

Theres so many options, and there all on auto, there some wierd one's to like HTT or somet similar and other stuff?

Jess:

set LDT/FSB Ratio to 4x what does this do.

Click to expand...

the temp reading high is a bios issue. you should be find w/ a bios flash, just be careful, and make sure, that you dont accidently kill the power, or turn the comp off in any way.

you can use winflash to update it. you can download winflash here. http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/winFlash.html. PM me if you need help w/ the flash.

Your idles shouldnt be anything above 40-44 max. you could reset your HSF, just to be sure.

well i would set
CAS=2, or 2.5
tRP=3
tRCD=3
tRAS=10
tREF=3120

just for starters

well scrach 4x, lol, i ment to say 3x. this sets your HTT speed. you multipy this time your "FSB Bus Frequency" for example , 200(stock)x4 would give 800mhz. All this Bus is, is the bus between the CPU, and the chipset. usually, you would want to keep it at, or below 800mhz, but if its alittle under 800, i wouldnt worry about it, it has VERY little affect on performance.

for 220, i would try 3x, giving, 220x3=660mhz. if it runs stable there, then go for 4x, giveing 220x4=880mhz.

GL
-Jess-

Heh. I don't think i want to flash BIOS, but i think i might have to. I have just got the PC back up from not working. I tryed to save changes i had made to the BIOS, just disabling onboard stuff i don't need, and setting the throtling to disabled like you said, and the PC is on and working, but there is no signal to the monitor??? Huh? Problems already.

As for timmings, are lower generally better? ill try whgat you sais then, but not at the mo, with this BIOS problem.

Also regarding the overclocking you say HTT speed, where exactly is this.

I go into the Genie Bios bit, and it a says this at the top:
FSB Bus
AGP Bus
Clock Spread...
LDT Downstream
LDT Upstream
LDT/FSB freq
CPU/fsb freq

SO what on earth do i change? this is nothing like axp's.

dguy6789 said:

going from 3 5 5 11 to 2 2 2 11 would not be noticable ANYWHERE except on benchmarks with an amd64.

Click to expand...

I'm tired of reading this. It BS:

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=1&artpage=662&articID=167

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=5&artpage=666&articID=167

Considering what many people around here spend to increase their system speed by just 5%, aren't you splitting hairs by saying better memory timings result in "unnoticeable" increases? There are a lot of things done around here that result in small increases by themselves. The big jumps happen when all of these small optimizations are tied together.

When it says make sure you check the update option you want, for using winflash which one do i check? thanks.

Grov said:

When it says make sure you check the update option you want, for using winflash which one do i check? thanks.

Click to expand...

When you flash your bios, make sure you check ALL of the boxes or you'll have problems. Otherwise, this is a sweet little program.

Good luck!

set your ram timings to ras-cas2, this is the only timing that really matters for a64s. the 3700+ are expensive stuff too, so I hope you pull at least 2.6GHz, my cheapo 3200+ does that LOL. If you have windows 2000 and your cpu does 2.6GHz you should break 30k then

Yeah, thanks flashed it ok, changed a few things, mainly turning off onboard stuff.

Ill venture into a bit of overclocking i think now. Still unsure though, noone has really answerd my post from earlier.

I flashed mine to the new bios and it cut 10 degrees of my idle and 18 degrees off my load.

Heheh, sweet you have the same CPU and mobo, cool.

What temps you getting now?

With stock sink it was showing as 43-44c, much much better than close to 50c, but not as bigger drop as your's.

You tryed overclocking yet????

I just had a go, and got a wierd loading error, after the lanparty screen, and it just booted itself again, and did the same over and over.

I changed the FSB Bus frequency to 210
changed the LDT fsb frequencey ratio to x3
dram voltage to 2.8volts (6-3-3-2)

What am i doing wrong? somet else need changing? thanks? lower FSB???

I haven't tried overclocking yet and i'm still on the stock heatsink. My temps are 39 C idle and 54 C load. I still dont quite trust the readings on the new bios. They bounce around too much too fast.

Grov said:

Also regarding the overclocking you say HTT speed, where exactly is this.

I go into the Genie Bios bit, and it a says this at the top:
FSB Bus
AGP Bus
Clock Spread...
LDT Downstream
LDT Upstream
LDT/FSB freq
CPU/fsb freq

SO what on earth do i change? this is nothing like axp's.

Click to expand...

its the one i highlighted in read. set it to 3x.

i believe your ram is whats holding you back man, and i think that its timings, but just to varify that its the ram, set your ram back on a ratio.

Dram Frequency ratio to "166mhz(5:06).

GL
-Jess-