1st overclock on sempron 145 is this right?

hey 1st time i have done this, trial and error i guess eh.

Anyways i went through my bios and my asus m4a78lt-m le motherboard had an overclock setting going from 2 to 10%, naturally i jumped to ten.

Only thing is should i be actually changing any other settings? as ive gone from 2.7 to 3.08ghz would this extra speed not be useable as its bottle necking somewhere?

I have this if its any good to anyone, just after i closed a quick session of prime.
Temperatures actually top at 50 not 46 as it says there though

Thanks in advance

http://s796.photobucket.com/albums/yy244/TheGears0121/?action=view&current=systemreadings.jpg

First tip: Don't use the auto overclocking feature (5%, 10%, etc.). Commit to overclocking with individual manual bios controls. We will show you which ones.

Second, tip: Provide us with more information about your system. All we know about is your CPU and your motherboard. We need to know about your CPU cooler, your ram, your PSU, your video card, your case and your OS. Refer to my "Sig" for the kind of info we would want to know.

Please place this information in your "Sig" so that it travels with every post you make. This is a common forum courtesy and very helpful as the thread gets longer and and any number of people join in who want to be able to look at your system info at a glance. You have access to the Sig feature within one hour after your second post. Click on Quick Links and Edit Signature at the top of the page.

Third tip: Please use the built in forum tool instead of links to provide pictorial information. First, crop the images and save them to disc. Windows Accessories Snipping Tool is great for this in Vista and Windows 7. Then click on Go Advanced at the bottom of any new post window. When the Advanced post window pops up, click on the little paperclip tool at the top and use the file browser/upload tool to attach the images. You can attach up to three images at a time.

Fourth tip: Download and install these three programs which are standard helper tools we constantly employ around here: Prime95, CPU-z and HWMonitor.


Welcome!

Thanks for the help trents

Ive only managed to pop on briefly this morning Uk timing.

Ive updated my signature with my components and ill grab a picture of my bios options later.

Quick question is there a "like" or "thank you" button anywhere for your post?
Just to show appreciation to your help.
Arron

Hmm my signature wont come up even though i have saved it, anyways this is what im running as of now

AMD Sempron145 (2nd core failure)
Stock CPU Cooler
120mm CaseFan
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE
Radeon HD5450
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) TW3X4G1333C9A G
Seagate Interno 500GB sata ST3500413
Xigmatech black edition case
CIT 750UB 750watt power supply

My available bios settings

Try the Signature again. A moderator told me it's supposed to work within one hour after making the second post.

The first thing to do is to open HWMonitor on the desktop and leave it open while you run the Prime95 blend test for 20 minutes to check for CPU socket temps and core temps with all frequencies and voltages at stock levels. Core temps are normally the most critical but it helps to have bot for comparison sake in case the core temps sensor is not calibrated correctly. Doing this test will reveal the adequacy of your cooling and give an idea of how much headroom you have for overclocking. Temp is key in all this. When you're done with that test please attach a pic of the HWMonitor interface with your next post.

Does your motherboard have core unlocking ability? It might be labeled "ACC" (Advanced Clock Calibration) or something like that. The Semprons like yours would often unlock to a dual core.

The other thing you want to do now is to disable Cool N Quiet and C1E in bios and then go into Windows Control Panel Power Options and configure it to High Performance to turn off the "green" power-saving, down-throttling stuff that messes with overclocking.

I'll check this this evening after work.

I do have Advanced clock calibration i can get it to tell me i have an Athlon II.
But it wont boot up with the 2nd core turned on, wont get past the "Press Del to enter bios" screen.

I have Disabled everything else you mentioned and changed my power mode to high performance or whatever it was.

And here are my enclosed HWmonitor results after a Blend test for 40 minutes as i was walking the dog.
What exact things should i be looking at/for here?

Temps are good. You want to monitor core temps with HWMonitor anytime you run the Prime95 stress test. You want to keep core temps from exceeding about 55-60c, somwhere in that range.

Now, lower your memory divider so that you are starting the memory at 533/1066 instead of 666/1333 (Memory Clock Mode, take it off Auto). The memory frequency will grow with the increasing FSB so you need to make room for it.

Also, adjust the HT Link Speed from 2000 to 16000 mhz. (maybe expressed as a multiplier and if so, lower the multiplier to 8x). Take it off Auto. This frequency, like the ram frequency will grow with the increasing FSB so we also need to make headroom for it. We want it to wind up somewhere between 1800-2000 mhz when the final overclock is achieved.

Repost with the CPU-z tabs: CPU, Memory, and SPD so I can take a look see.

Pardner did you typ0 ? >> adjust the HT Link Speed from 2000 to 16000 mhz.

Thanks for catching that RGone. I meant 1600 mhz, not 16000.

This is my enclosed CPU-Z information for you Trents

At a glance increasing the speed of the cpu on its own will increase the overall running speed of my ram and motherboard, so what we are doing now is slowing them down so that when the cpu is set to run higher my ram and motherboard they have room to catch up rather than overcooking themselves?


Many thanks again Trents, Really appreciate the help.

Gears said:

At a glance increasing the speed of the cpu on its own will increase the overall running speed of my ram and motherboard, so what we are doing now is slowing them down so that when the cpu is set to run higher my ram and motherboard they have room to catch up rather than overcooking themselves?.

Click to expand...

Somewhat but not quite. The motherboard BCLK/REF CLK/FSB ect is the speed which other components reference to determine how fast they are supposed to run. IE your HT Link has a stock multiplier of 10x and your mobo a stock BCLK of 200MHZ, this results in an effective 2000mhz HT Link speed. If you increase the BCLK to say 250MHZ(A good even OC) and use the 10x multiplier the HT Link would run at 25000MHZ which is good because its able to move info to ram and video card faster BUT is likely to cause ALOT of instability. Your RAM works the same way. It uses a ratio to the BCLK to determine speed. The for example DDR 1600 opperates at 800 MHZ and uses a 4x multiplier from the BCLK to get that. 200 x 4 = 800 X DDR = DDR 1600MHZ. Now if you wanted to up your BCLK to 250 you would be at 1000MHZ x DDR = DDR 2000MHZ which is again likely to be very unstable.

Since your CPU has a fixed multiplier raising the BCLK is the only way to OC it, and to combat those scaling instabilities we lower the multipliers as we push the BCLK higher and higher to boost CPU speed. The result in your case of using the 1066 multiplier with a BCLK of 250MHZ would result in a RAM speed of DDR3-1333 which is its rated speed, and would put your CPU around 3.5GHZ.

Gears, you sort of got it. The HT Link and the NB (Or actually, it's really the "CPUNB") you see in CPU-z pics are not on the motherboard but built onto the CPU die. They are all tuned to the master frequency we commonly call the front side bus (FSB) and that is why the want to climb along with the overclocking of the FSB. By the way, the FSB is also called the Hyper Transport frequency (that's AMD's technical name) and in a lot of bioses it shows up as the line item, "CPU Frequency". Don't confuse the HT frequency with the HT Link frequency. Unlike the HT Link, the NB (or CPUNB) will take a fair amount of overclocking and this helps improve cache memory performance. On the other hand, testing has shown there is no performance benefit to overclocking the HT Link and because it is so tempermental anyway we try to keep it at or near stock frequencies.

Okay, CPU-z shows you are now set to begin overclocking. So here's the plan:
1. Increase the CPU (core) voltage to 1.4. It now shows 1.344 in CPU-z. Note that it will show a little different in CPU-z than what you set it to in bios. This is true for for at least a couple of reasons but whatever it's set to now in bios, give it about a .05 voltage bump so that in CPU-z it shows up as approximately 1.4.
2. Start increasing your FSB (aka, CPU frequency) in 10 mhz increments. You will need to take the "CPU Overclocking" off of Auto to change this. Stock is 200 mhz so the first increase would be 210.
3. Always have HWMonitor open on the desktop when you do this but after each 10 mhz increase in the FSB run a 20 minute Prime95 blend test. Watch HWMonitor and don't allow the core temp to exceed 60c. If it does, stop the test and post back with an update.
4. Repeat this these steps until you cannot pass the Prime95 stress test, meaning blue screen, spontaneous reboot, lock up, or Prime quits working.
5. At that point reduce the FSB by 5 mhz and retest. If you pass, attach pics of CPU-z tabs CPU and Memory and HWMonitor. If you still fail, cut back the FSB by another 5 mhz which would put you back to the previous speed which allowed you to pass the test.

At that point post back with pics, as I say, and we'll look at the numbers and evaulate what to do next.

@Gears
Before you do anything trents said, manually set your primary ram timings to 1066 9-9-9-27 in the DRAM configuration page of your BIOS, should be located in the Advanced tab/JumperFree Configuration

Thanks again for all this help.
You've been making this alot easyer than I thought it would be to understand.

I'm currently adjusting my FSB/CPU frequency to 10mhz increments then testing as I type.

I have noticed the increase in HT link speed and Dram (according to CPU-Z).

I now more understand why we lowered those the other day.
I feel like I'm learning, anyways I'll update with the results when they are in.

BeepBeep2 said:

@Gears
Before you do anything trents said, manually set your primary ram timings to 1066 9-9-9-27 in the DRAM configuration page of your BIOS, should be located in the Advanced tab/JumperFree Configuration

Click to expand...

Now, lower your memory divider so that you are starting the memory at 533/1066 instead of 666/1333 (Memory Clock Mode, take it off Auto).


Something Trents said^^^

is this what you mean? all the different names for 1 thing get me confused sometimes

His main point was that you need to manually set the timings on the ram so that the motherboard doesnt assign something unreasonable on its own.

Oh I get his point I was just making sure what I changed what what he meant I thought it was but wanted to double check.

Otherwise my ram would be reading a lot quicker than necessary if we didn't change it? Or faster than it is capable?

Motherboards are notoriously bad at picking RAM timings especially when overclocking is involved. If your memory can handle 9-9-9-24 you should set that to ensure it stays at the right speed. The motherboard would probably detect something CL 7/8 on the 1066 divisor OR us some terrible sloppy timings cl 11/12. Trick is you never know what its going to pick and it CAN change every time you reboot if left on auto.

Cheers ill doulbe check that tomorow in my settings now, im nackered so im off to bed, anyways after bumping up the fsb ten at a time im now on 270Mhz ill whack the pictures up and try to have a look again in the morning.

I haven't crashed or had anylockups yet on this speed, Prime95 has been on for 40 minutes and while typing this.

Appreciate the help everyone whos posted so far, im somewhat enjoying this

Hey, you're doing good! Some frequencies are starting to get pretty high and may soon cause instability:
1. Bus: 270. Every motherboard has a limit for this. The more expensive motherboards can often go past 300 mhz FSB and cheap ones often will not tolerate more than 240-250 mhz fsb. There is not much you can do to change this as you do not have a "Black Edition" CPU and so you are forced to overclock only with the FSB. Black edition CPUs have unlocked core multipliers and can overclock without touching the FSB.
2. HT Link is at 2160 mhz. Lower that another notch in bios to keep it between 1800-2000 mhz.
3. NB is at 2700 mhz. It will overclock nicely but there is a limit. You may need to take that down a notch in bios if you become unstable. Bumping your CPU/NB voltage up to about 1.225 can also help that.
4. Your ram is only rated for 666/1333 but you can see it's up to 720/1440 already. You may need to change that divider again soon if you become unstable.
5. Your ram timings are pretty aggressive (aka, "tight") for your ram frequency. The timings you are currently employing are appropriate for the frequency range under JEDEC #2 in the CPU-z SPD tab. Your current frequency and timings show up in the CPU-z Memory tab and what he maker recommends is shown in the SPD tab. Higher frequencies demand more relaxed timings (bigger numbers). These would have to be set manually in bios so you would have to take that bios setting off of Auto to see the individual timings.