2600+ @2,3GHz I need more!!

Greetz @ All!

1st of all: I´m new to the field of OC, but due to the fact of messing around with hardware ever since, it turned out to be quite easy to get my 2600+ running at 2,3GHz stable. But I want more! Have read specs of 2,5GHz!

Specs:
MOBO: ASUS A7N8X-X
CPU: Athlon XP 2600+ Barton (locked, but don´t know the stepping)
RAM: 512MB Corsair CL2.5 PC400 ValueSelect VS512MB400
Cooling: one Thermaltake on the CPU and PSU-Fans
Rest: To old to be mentioned, lol

I only boosted the FSB of the CPU to 200MHz. The rest was left at default! RAM is running synchroniously at 200MHz as well. No voltage-tuning or anything alike. (no aggressive mods for RAM etc…..)

IF I get the Memory higher then 200MHz, the sys wont even boot.
IF I get higher on the FSB, the systemn wont boot as well.
IF I rise the voltage for CPU and RAM, the system wont boot.

- Could it be, that memory is only supportet up to 200MHz?
- Could my Gforce2 be the problem, that it does not support such high BUS- speed? (As it is known that the internal clock also tweaks the AGP-BUS)
- Could the PSU be the problem? (e.g.: does not supply enough power?)


Cooling even with only the CPU fans and the PSU-Fans is accorat. (idle 33 load 48) But I will add components to get better air flow and velocities.

I would be happy for every hint about how to go higher. If you have suggestions about PSU and RAM, plese feel free to give me all you got on mind!J


P.S.: I appologize for my english, but it´s not my mothertongue!

Greetz

I think you may have found the limit of your rig.
Try adding a fan to your north-bridge.
Otherwise, your gonna need a different mobo or CPU.

In answer to your questions; Your RAM is now running as its designed to, that stuff should be able to do 220 at least, I doubt your GF2 is efecting your CPU & FSB. The PSU is only a problem if its a cheap no-name one.

Your corsair RAM should be capable of at least a bit over its 200Mhz stock (210 or something). As you mentioned already, its probably your PCI / AGP bus freaking out. Does your motherboard have any other divider / locked options for it?

How are your temps and voltage lines?

@Sjaak:

well, then i´ll ceep the memory, if it´s ok. (honestly it would have brought me to through that thing out of the window, if that one could not take some what more! It was not as cheep as some others!)

My voltages:
Vcore:1,65
Ram: apologize! please! i did not take a look this morning, and now i´m at work! I´ll tell you later on!

temps: between 32 and 48 (idle and load)
goal for temps: keep it under 30 at load without water-cooling! (Thats a ambition of my own, cause im working with air conditioning professionaly, and i want to figure out, how far i can gow with air)

@Steelpuma:
well, if it´s not the AGP, i can not figure out, why that thing is booting but does not give me a screen? is there a prob with my TFT perhaps? (Would serprise me like hell, but who knows)
The thing is as follows:
booting up normally (@2,3GHz) the sys gives me all the normal screens, boots into win and then the fan for the CPU speeds up for a minute or so, then gets "quiet" at
about 3500RPM.
If i boot with higher FSB for CPU ore RAM, the sys boots just like normal (can hear the drives and even the speeding up CPU Fan when win is loaded) but there is no screen! And the TFT does not even tell me, that there is no signal arriving, which would be normal.)
I´m really confused! Gonna try a Gforce4 the next days to figure out!


THANXS for the advice "NORTHBRIDGE"!!!!!!!!!!!! gonna get a cooler this week!


greetz! gotta work again!

@loked options for AGP / PCI: did not check!
But am going to flash BIOS during this week.

BTW: PSU is over 4 years old, no name ad was about 30 bugs at that time. So i´d say it is cheep, no name and allmost rotten, but it still works!

Gonna get a new one, but without cash, there is no such thing as going shopping! (*cry)*)

n2 has pci/agp lock on all the time so thats not a factor,your ps is holding you back if its that old,plus cooling will do that as well.but it could be you hit the wall of what that cpu will do.you could try a mobile xp with multis unlocked should be a good match with your stuff.

There was a time when desktop Bartons such as yours did 2.2 on average setups with Thermaltake cooling.

2.3 GHz is what your CPU is expected to do under the circuimstances.

For 2.5 GHz, a mobile Barton (not desktop) is needed.

Even my mobile 2400+ can't hit 2.5 stable. You'd need a new 2500+ mobile or 2600+ mobile to hit 2.5 GHz with some sort of realistic expectations.



_____________________
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ mobile 35 watt AXMD 2400 FJQ4C
IQYHA 0402 SPMW
3 x 256MB Kingston PC2700 @ 6 3 3 2.5
[186] FSB x 13 = 2418 MHz @ 1.85 Vcore with memory frequency at 100% [186 FSB] @ 2.90 Vdimm
Epox 8RDA+ v1.1
Thermalright SLK-947U with variable speed 80x25mm Thermaltake Smart Fan 2
BFG GeForce4 Ti4200 8X 128MB; Antec SX-835II case ; 380W Antec TruePower TP380
Four 80x25mm Case Fans + 1 Variable speed 80x25mm Fan YS-Tech FD1281259B-2F

My mobile I thought was stable at 2.4-2.5 (200x 12/12.5) but when I just primed yesterday, I instantly got an error. Now I'm testing at 2.3 (200x11.5) at 1.65v. Remember, perfect stable system is always desirable than higher performing crashing computer.

1.65 or 1.7 volts is very low for average chips, you need quite a bit more + cooling to compensate for major overclocks...

Also, you probably will not get the most out of any chip with that 250 W PSU. I know they say it's safe but I wouldn't bet the farm on it...

I just got my 2600+ mobile yesterday. Its a week 28 04. Right now I'm at 12x210 @ 1.7V.

My current temp is 75F (watercooling) under full load. I think after I get some sleep I'll see how high I can get at 1.7V, highest I'll go is 1.75V so just maybe I can get to 2.7ghz....

Greetz!

Well, as already mentioned: PCI/AGP is locked
Concerning the ability to go higher than 2,3, i had yesterday the nice surprise to hit 2.450GHz booting into windows. Running Prime (for about 2 hours) gave no errors, but the temp got at somwhat over 50°C, so is stopped and turned back to lower values.

@Voltag: thanx for the tipp of rising the voltage! (Running Vcore at 1,70 and Ram on default, i could boot at 2.450)

Settings:
FSB at 213
Multi 11,5
Vcore 1,70
Ram default voltage
Ram at 83% (results in 177MHz)

mayby i could get higher there, but i think i´m starting to hit cooling probs!;-(
Will keep the 2,3 for the moment, but am going to think about far better cooling!

Regarding the Mobile version:
I just got that CPU since two weeks. My old sys (Athlon 1,3GhZ @1,54GHz crashed, so i had to get a new one.) So i´ll stick to that one for a while!
But i´ll keep mobile vor the next shopping tour on my list!

@2.510GHz, my sys is starting the Win-Boot-screen, but than crashes with blue-screen. Is this because of to high frequenzies or is this a tem-prob? Or should i have to rise the voltage even higher, which would lead to temp-probs at once? Questions over questions, and the major problem to me is: it´s a trial and error procedure!

Well, i think i´ll test the performance tonight with some different RAM-Settings @2,3GHz, to have some kind of basic performance to go higher. I´ll post some of the results tomorrow!

Meenwhile: Go on clocking!

Greetz

You an go into 50s C under load but I think in your case, the desktop Barton is supposed to do 2.3 GHz. It can do more with top notch cooling to compensate for a a lot more voltage which is needed for more but if you can't even boot at 2510, that means that you can probably boot with a lot lower frequency and still (!) not be stable.

You would fail Prime95 Torture Test which should run 12-24 hours without displaying any errors. 2.5 GHz may be a little unrealistic for your specific setup.


As for DragonFire's mobile Barton, 75 F is like 23.8 C and dude, my CASE temp hits 40 C with 5 fans running in the summer (!!)

You have so much room there that I wouldn't be afraid going over 1.75 volts eventually (I run my mobile at 1.8 to 1.85 volts...)

I went through prime at 2.3GHz about 15 hours without errors. Torture test was fine. shortly: everything was fine. (exept temp at 48°C)

regarding 2.5GHz: i did not puch the voltage of the RAM. Would it help to do so? i´d like to know, if it starts up propperly. I guess that the major problem is the temp. (bridges, RAM and CPU besides Case and PSU; my video card should not be any heat-prob)
IF the sys starts properly into win, i´d guess that everything should be fine! (assuming perfect cooling)

As you mentioned before: my cpu seems to run perfectly at 2.3GHz, for further tweaking i´ll need perfect cooling! I read a few things about liquid cooling, but i´m not really convinced, that the cooling capacities of liquids are much higher than of conventional air. (surely, the physical resistance of water is far better than for air, but does this really hit the goal i´d like to have?)

@ your case with 5 fans: I guess in a while i´ll do similar modding to my case!

greetz

I can almost guarentee you its your board. I had 2 x-xs and since the NB is only at 1.6 volts, you can't get much of an FSB going. I think my limit on that board was 204 fsb and thats it. IT was awful. As usual, I thought it was my memory. I thought it was ****ty. I threw in some OCZ and still couldn't get much out of it. Finally I realized that it was my board. I got an NF7-S, and can jack it up to 240 no problem.

ITs your board. Really. Best you can do for now is wiremod your socket, put it on 13X (or it will read 6X in your bios I think) and hope you can handle that.

You might be right with the guess of my board @Cheator!

I thought the same, but i will not buy a new one now. Better get some cooling. Am thinking of Vacochiller, but it´s quite expensive. Alternatively watercooling might be good as well.

@memory: same with me) had some OEM RAM-modules, and thought they might be the prob! But with corsair it´s the same! ......

BTW i can hit FSB 213 (*11.5; can´t change multi) and there it´s stable!

Thats good. 213 is nice compared to what I ever got with it. And yeah it really isn't worth it right now. I only gained 100 mhz with the nf7-s, though I DID get like 1000 more in 3dmark 03. I went from 10000 to 11000 at least. And now of course I am at 12000.

As i just read the benchmarks: Thats a thing i did not test in the past. (At least in the last few days)
I´ll bench my sys, and then ißll try out ram-settings.

But CPU will stay at 2.3 until better cooling is at home! And cooling can be $-killing! (Was thinking of chillers, but they are little expensive)

Greetz and in the next days i´l post some benches!

i´ll be off for today!

n8!

You can increase Vdimm RAM voltage, but make sure you run it at 100% 1:1 in sync, not 83% lilke you said you were runing it at!

c627627 said:

As for DragonFire's mobile Barton, 75 F is like 23.8 C and dude, my CASE temp hits 40 C with 5 fans running in the summer (!!)

You have so much room there that I wouldn't be afraid going over 1.75 volts eventually (I run my mobile at 1.8 to 1.85 volts...)

Click to expand...

Like I said I watercool and I have my res and rad setup outside. The 75F temp was eailer this morning when it was about 30-36F outside. Right now my temp is 34C idel. I'm running at 12x215 @ 1.78volts. I was running at 1.75 volts but my computer restarted while I trying to type this.

Im not sure about what the max FSB is that I can get on the Abit AN7 but I do know that my Corsair Pc2700 ram is holding the FSB back.

MY 2200+ has only reached 2173 Mhz from it's original 1800 and all at 1.70 vcore (that's an increase of almost 400 mhz), so I know for a fact yours can get up much higher.

In fact a 2100+ can go up to 1.7 Ghz with the right motherboard and more importantly voltage. My board is the limiting facting here since it only supplies a max of 1.70.

The 2.7 Ghz Example runs at 1.93 vcore by the way (by Tekkoid).

And since your's is a 2600+ you may be able to surpass that clock quite easily.
Good luck!