Advice on this overclock

I have a dual sata2 with a 64bit 3700+ and 1 gig of matched buffalo PC3200 512x2....At the moment I'm running this successful overclock (first attempt) .. CPU Freq=2.75 250x11....PCIE Freq=100....memclock is at 166/ddr333....cas, tras, trp, trcp, trrd, trc, all on auto.......... MA is 1T.......dram voltage is High...It's running at 37C off load and 45 under load with stock cooling and stock voltage...My question is Does this seem to be a good overclock/ Or should i back it down till i get the ram running at it's ddr400 setting...I game so I'm wondering what would be the best way for me to go at this point.....thanks in advance.

Sully_PA said:

I have a dual sata2 with a 64bit 3700+ and 1 gig of matched buffalo PC3200 512x2....At the moment I'm running this successful overclock (first attempt) .. CPU Freq=2.75 250x11....PCIE Freq=100....memclock is at 166/ddr333....cas, tras, trp, trcp, trrd, trc, all on auto.......... MA is 1T.......dram voltage is High...It's running at 37C off load and 45 under load with stock cooling and stock voltage...My question is Does this seem to be a good overclock/ Or should i back it down till i get the ram running at it's ddr400 setting...I game so I'm wondering what would be the best way for me to go at this point.....thanks in advance.

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Sully,

This board does not put out much stock vcore and vdimm stock (~ 1.45v & ~ 2.7v) for overclocking. Your CPU OC is nice. I would back that off and work your RAMs up 1:1 divider to see what they will do so you have a maximum baseline for both.

Leave vcore set to 1.45 (highest) and leave vdimm to "high." Be careful. Some guys get good OCs on stock voltage, some don't. Write it all down. Eventually the low vcore and vdimm output usually catches up with you.

Run Memtest86 from a boot disk to check for errors then Prime95. Back up your operating system. I wouldn't access your operating system unless Memtest86 passes for a few hours with no errors. If you start to get errors try running cmd at 2T.

Here's a good post for a guideline:

http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=4129175&postcount=490

Sully_PA,

Nice looking clocks for sure. Your ram frequency is about perfect, as 250mhz x 11 cpu multi x 166 divider = 196 mhz on the ram. If you are not gonna go over 250 mhz on the cpu, you could have your HT settings at 800 (4x) to maximize overall performance.

Well I'm now at 2.8 11x254.......So i went to 600HT as I'm over the 250....but now I'm thinking that I should go back to the 250 so I can run at 800 and run a little shy of the 2.8 (1.75)...AS you can see I'm trying to get the best setup for gaming performance without increasing voltages at this time. Thanks for all the help so far guys its appreciated.

Even at 11x254, you should be able to run at 800HT as 254x4= 1016... I have read that some have run this board upwards of 1100 HT with no probs. Looking really good overall so far

Sully_PA said:

Well I'm now at 2.8 11x254.......So i went to 600HT as I'm over the 250....but now I'm thinking that I should go back to the 250 so I can run at 800 and run a little shy of the 2.8 (1.75)...AS you can see I'm trying to get the best setup for gaming performance without increasing voltages at this time. Thanks for all the help so far guys its appreciated.

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do 4x(800) up to 300mhz cpu fsb. its ok, this board's chipset can handle up to 1200mhz

OK right now my board is stable at [email protected] ....Ram checks out good with that....If i go to [email protected] the memory is showing some errors in memtest but not other memory testers like Rightmark memory stability tester....but in an IL2 benchmark it freezes after awhile I'm assuming it's the ram as the cpu passes prime at that speed.....I'm thinking of doing the voltage mod to see if she will go to 3.0 but I'm not sure about the math equations I should be using to get there....I'm looking to keep my ram at 193-200 but increase the cpu....any suggestions? Thanks....

Sully_PA said:

.If i go to [email protected] the memory is showing some errors in memtest but not other memory testers like Rightmark memory stability tester........

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Sully,

When you say "memtest," are you using the small Windows Memtest or Memtest86 from a boot disk?

Memtest86 from a boot disk...oh and my stepping according to everest is SH-E4.....

Sully_PA said:

Memtest86 from a boot disk...oh and my stepping acording to everest is SH-E4.....

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Sully,

I'm not an expert on benchmark/stability programs, I just use what the experienced guys recommend here.

I always use Memtest86 as you did, then SuperPi (32mb test) and finish it all off with Prime95. If they all pass then I'm good to go. I'll occasionally use the little Windows Memtest too.

These all seem to be the standard most use. I'm sure if you ran 10 other programs you may find one that shows an error. It may be the law of probability or it may be a software bug and I don't know how reliable other programs are. If you passed Prime95 and SuperPi 32mb, in my opinion from a lot of previous testing on my machine and the advice of many here, you're probably good to go.

You may have reached your maximum with the voltage, I don't know. Still a very good OC! Either way, one of the programs is telling you that your peak is at hand. There is very little difference from 250 to 254 MHz.

If you want to tweak on your RAM, you can use this calculator to figure out your ram clock speed and appropriate divider, and this utility to apply windows- based dividers that your bios may not contain.

Thanks guys.....