OC AMD 4200 X2 (Manchester)

I'm new to these forums and to overclocking. I have OC'd my CPU, but need verifications/suggestions.

Here's my PC specs:
OS: XP Pro 32-bit
MB: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium (BIOS v1008)
CPU: AMD 4200+ X2 (Manchester) 2.2 GHz
DDR: Corsair 3200 (400 MHz) 4 GB total
Video: (2) eVGA 7800 GT CO in SLI w/Nvidia 613.71 driver
Case: ABS w/4 fans
PS: 550W
HD Cooling: 2-fan aftermarket cooler
CPU Cooling: Scythe (huge) w/120mm side fan
Video Cooling: Arctic Cooling Accelero X1

I have OC'd my CPU using the following BIOS settings:
CPU FSB: 240 (up from stock 200)
CPU Multiplier: X11 (stock)
OC CPU Speed: 2640 (2.64 GHz) (up from stock 2.2 GHz)
HT Multiplier: X4
HT Link: 960

Idle CPU Temp: 26 Deg C

Idle MB Temp: 36 Deg C

Idle Video Card Temp: 42 Deg C

I left CPU Voltage and all DDR settings in BIOS to Auto. The main reason I left DDR settings in Auto is that when I tried to set the DDR to the Corsair spec sheet timings, the PC won't boot and I had to clear CMOS and try to OC again.

Question: Will the CPU adjust its own voltage and DDR settings when they're left in Auto or set to Manual in the BIOS?

All tasks run normally with the OC. The PC boots and shuts down normally. I ran a Sandra benchmark test 3 times in succession with no errors.

When playing the Hellgate: London beta, everything runs as smooth as butter with the OC. When using stock CPU settings, there is a bit of lag.

Same thing with Far Cry. When selecting the highest settings using stock CPU settings, the game will soon lock up and push out to the desktop. With the OC, I can select the highest settings without locking up, but there is still a small constant hesitation.

I'm looking for any suggestions to improve the OC, especially involving memory. I know my system can do better than I have it, given the cooling solutions installed.

Thanks.

Nope you pretty much have to set everything in bios manually if your gonna be overclocking. You may have some memory or ht setting set-up wrong for the game part of things. Also SLI is alittle fishy sometimes.

BTW I Forgot to say WELCOME TO OUR FORUMS

Thanks for the welcome.

I think I may have answered my own question, and have also pushed the OC to 2.75 GHz.

CPU FSB: 250 (Up from 200)
CPU Multiplier: X11 (No change)
New OC CPU Speed: CPU FSB (250) X 11 = 2750 (Up from 2200)
HT Multiplier: X4 (Down from X5)
HT Link: CPU FSB (250) X HT Multiplier (X4) = 1000 (No change)
Memory (Auto): CPU Speed (2750) / Memory Divider (14) = 196

So what I've done is keep the stock CPU Multiplier (X11), the stock HT Link (1000), and the stock DDR400 (200 -- actually 196) with these settings.

With the stock CPU Voltage of 1.35, I was experiencing screen lockups in high-end games like Far Cry and the HGL beta. I then bumped up to 1.385 which negated the screen lockups, but there was some jitteriness to the screens and slight hesitations. Right now the CPU Voltage is set to 1.40 and there are no apparent problems with lagging, hang-ups, etc.

I need to download some stress S/W and put my PC through some shock testing.

I CANNOT understand why some people with the exact same or very similar systems than mine can over-clock like that, when my 4400+ REFUSES to remain stable over 2.48 Ghz whatever I try.

Very nice OC man, very nice, I am extremely jealous right now.

screenshot of system in sig ...

ftp://oberon.gotdns.com/toledo1.jpg

sometimes it's just luck

Zenoth said:

I CANNOT understand why some people with the exact same or very similar systems than mine can over-clock like that, when my 4400+ REFUSES to remain stable over 2.48 Ghz whatever I try.

Very nice OC man, very nice, I am extremely jealous right now.

Click to expand...

My 4600+ X2 is a very poor overclocker. To the point where I gave up, and run it at stock. Even at stock, with both cores running FAH, it stays around 50C. This is with some Thermalwright with heatpipes, and a 90MM fan.

I just picked up an X2 3800 for cheap for a folding machine. I'm going to try and overclock it in my main machine first.

Zenoth said:

I CANNOT understand why some people with the exact same or very similar systems than mine can over-clock like that, when my 4400+ REFUSES to remain stable over 2.48 Ghz whatever I try.

Very nice OC man, very nice, I am extremely jealous right now.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the vote of confidence; however, at 2.75 GHz my rig failed Orthos after about 10 minutes, and while playing it would get KO'd after about an hour of intense gaming.

So I backed off to 2.64 GHz, set the CPU Voltage at 3.685, and it runs a lot better.

I've read some reviews in which the CPU Voltage was finally set to around 5V for stability, but I'm wary of going that high.

My next OC attempt will be to mess with the memory settings. I've had no luck with this in the past.

Final thought: I believe that AMD over-hyped the X2 processors regarding OC ability, judging by my results and what I've read in the forums. It's the luck of the draw.