Need help overclock my 3200+ with nf7-s v2

Hey guys ive never overclocked before and from what I understand I bought the perfect board to do it with. Could someone give me some basic steps to reach a safe starting speed. I look forward to learning more about it. Also what speeds do most people achieve with a 3200+? WHat is a safe operating temperature? thanks a lot

Yes, for socket A platforms you've bought what most people rank the No.1 OC-board. Your CPU however, does not compare to the OCability of the mobile Bartons.

Your OC will depend greatly on your RAM (if you want max FSB and/or tight timings), your power supply and your CPU-cooling. NF7s often achieve FSB speeds of around 250, but in that case you'll most likely have to compromise a bit core speed. It is very important to run the memory and FSB at the same speed (in sync), and your memory could be the limiting factor. Most OCers find that low latencies are better than high FSB and high latencies.

Please give more system specs:

CPU-cooler/fan, Memory (capacity, brand, model, certified timings), PSU (brand, model, rails)

the specs for my processor are:Specifications:
Model: AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Core: Barton
Operating Frequency: 2.2GHz
FSB: 400MHz
Cache: L1/64K+64K; L2/512K
Voltage: 1.65V
Process: 0.13Micron
Socket: Socket A
cooled by a volcano 9 heatsink and fan
------
ram:
512 mb of micron ddr pc3200 400mhz with heatsink

I am using a 425W powersupply from tigerdirect. I also have one more question, When I installed the processor I didnt use the copper shim that came with it. Is that a big problem? Should i put it on? thanks

I forgot to ask wether your CPU has locked multiplier. If it's manufactured after week 30-40 2003 it's probably locked, meaning your only OC-option is to raise the FSB (and thus memory and CPU-speeds). Is the CPU multiplier accessible in the BIOS (upper left line in the BIOS main menu). If so, it is unlocked.

Yes it is locked thanks

Maxing out the VDD (chipset voltage) should be safe, so you might as well do it right from the beginning.

The CPU-temp basically relies on four factors:

cooling
voltage
frequency
degree of load


There are certain BIOS-settings to be aware of. Disable the following:

thermal throttling
system BIOS cachable
Video RAM cachable
FSB spread spectrum
AGP spread spectrum


Your cooler isn't that great, I think. Pay attention to the temperature - it shouldn't exceed 50 C during load. Personally I'd try to raise the vCore to the 1.75 - 1.80 range. Relax your memory timings for now, you can try to tighten them later. Also make sure the memory runs in sync with FSB, which you now should be ready to raise gradually.

You're gonna need to stability test your computer. You may have heard of Prime95, a renowned OC-program that stresses your system to the max in order to check wether or not it is stable. There are called torture tests. This program also has a benchmark which is great for stability testing. If your rig doesn't crash during this benchmark, you should be safe to increase the speed further (unless your temps go wild).

Prime95 is also useful in the sense that it raises the CPU-temp alot, especially one of the tests (it's described in the program). Let this test run for some time, as you monitor the temperature. You see, it's good to know how high the temp will get before settling down and gaming for hours (while temps are possibly getting too high). If the CPU-temp stays reasonably low during say 30 minutes of Primetesting, and the ambient temperature is fairly stable, you should be on the safe side no matter what application you run. Please note that Prime is designed to run for hours straight, but you'll find out pretty quickly when the system is beginning to get unstable, therefore I recommend you use the benchmark first (takes 30 secs or so).

Finally there are tons of details I haven't gone into, but as long as you don't melt your CPU or something, no harm is done. OCing takes a lot of experimenting, and you shouldn't try to find more than one component's limit at a time.

Anyway I hope this will help you getting started. When you have new dilemmas or questions you can always ask the guys at the forum.

thanks a lot i really appreciate the help

very good info... but my cpu is locked and its was was made 0334
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=349655

could i have a little more detailed instructions i trtied playing arround with the fsb rations and I had to reset the bios b/c the comp wouldnt boot. What kind of ratio should i start out with, my cpu is running at 49 degrees C right now. what memory and cpu voltages should I be using to get a modest overclock? thanks

FSB/Mem ratio must be in sync, any other setting will cause performance issues (and often stability problems as well).

49 C is pretty much the highest temp I would regard as safe, as the policy is to keep it below 50. Is this the LOAD or IDLE temp? With this temp, I wouldn't increase vCore any further. You could perhaps achieve a significant OC without raising the vCore at all (using the stock 1.65v), depending on your PSU. And again, your CPU-temp is already getting a bit high.

I don't know much about your RAM, but it's basically the type of RAM chips used, that makes the difference in how much voltage they need. Anyway I'd say 2.8 is probably safe (put your fingers on the heatspreaders if you're in doubt). Could you post your RAM's product code, maybe I'd be able to find out more about them.

My guess would be that either your CPU-cooler or your RAM would make you hit the wall.

Be careful increasing the vCore!

"Maxing out the VDD (chipset voltage) should be safe, so you might as well do it right from the beginning."

*SHOULD BE* SAFE? Well, if it IS NOT SAFE you instantly toast your CPU, DUH? You spent a lot of money on that fine CPU and I'd tread lightly there because that will send your CPU temps through the roof and if you don't have a good aftermarket cooler, BEWARE!

Shark, before you get into this OC'ing to heavy, go here and click OC'ing and read, read, read. http://www.lvcoyote.com/ All there for you so do your reading BEFORE you start OC'ong and avoid a disaster. Huney.

huneycutt said:

*SHOULD BE* SAFE? Well, if it IS NOT SAFE you instantly toast your CPU, DUH?

Click to expand...

I clearly stated VDD, meaning chipset voltage.

vCore is the CPU voltage, which is something completely different. I have already warned him about his CPU temps, damn it !!!

The only connection between vCore and VDD is that when overclocking the FSB alot, you'll need to up the vCore as well (eg. 200x12.5 requires lower vCore than 250x10 even though core speed would be the same).

What are you really trying to tell us?

I've owned two of these mobos myself, and I've barely even tried any VDD setting BUT the highest available, even with stock cooling!
Sure, they went up in smoke after a few minutes... Really

I was able to trade cpu's with another computer and now I have an unlocked cpu. I just increased the mult from 11.0 to 11.5 and now I am running at 2300 mhz. To get it to boot windows I had to increase the cpu volatage to 1.7 and i also increased the ram up one notch. should this cause any problems? what is the fastest I can reasonable achieve? thanks a lot

leave the ratio at 1:1 (or 3:3 in the BIOS, it's the same thing), and start raising your FSB speed, keep the multi at like, 10, and keep raising the fsb (and the chipset and ram voltage) until you reach your max fsb. then, start raising the multi.