3700 OC at a wall

[Tiro Afila]

Hi all. New to this forum, and fairly new to overclocking. I think I have a good basic understanding, but I am up against a bit of a wall and need help.
I am currently OC'ing my 3700 sandy. I have been able to get a stable 2.6 Ghz (10 x 260)with my ram at 1:1 and my core voltage at 1.52.
I have 2 x 1gb OCZ EB Platinum and a DFI Lanparty UT Ultra-D, powered by a
600W OCZ GamerXtreme PSU. I am running the latest official bios release.
Last night I tried to get a new stable run at 2700, with the following specs
-10X270MHZ ht
-ram set on a 180 divider(also tried 166)
-3 3 8 3 11 timings 1T (tried 2T as well) ( I loosened everything up so as to not worry about my ram, but it will run up to 270 without memtest errors)
-Core Voltage 1.52V all the way up to 1.64V
-I tried both auto htt and manaul 3X htt
-My heat peaks at 52 degrees under full load at 1.62V.
I have my Chipset voltage bumped up 1 notch, to I think 1.3V, and my ht voltage up one notch as well(I think 1.6). I am running my ram at 2.78 volts.
I dont really want to run 24/7 at that voltage, but I was able to get a nice 30 second 1M Pi run, and a 27 minute full Pi run, but only about 40 minutes of Prime, and it fails.
I am out of ideas. I have toyed with the idea of a new bios, but am not really sure why this would make a difference on the CPU OC (fill me in if you know better, cause Im new to this), but other then that, I am not sure what I can try.
My CPU stepping is a KAB2E, and I am sure that I will be able to get more out of this system yet, but I just need some help. Thanks in advance...
__________________
DFI LanpartyUT nF4 Ultra-D (not yet modded)
AMD Athlon 64 3700 SanDiego
2x 1GB OCZ EB Platinum Edition PC-4000
eVGA GeForce 7900GS 256mb PCI-E x16
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 (driver version 5.12.1.512)
2X WD Raptor 36gb - SATA Raid
Samsung Black DVD+/-RW
OCZ GameXStream 600W
Arctic Cooler Pro 64

 

[LiveSideways]

Do you have any extra cooling on your NB? I run my SLI-D at 1.4v htt and 1.7v chipset, which made 2.7Ghz + possible. My chip is pretty much like yours, and I'm running 1.55v cpu, 1.4v htt, 1.7v chipset, 2.7v vdimm for 10x300.

I've got a Forcetake on my chipset though, with the stock aluminum one it would get to 60-65c and it was unstable.

 

[Tiro Afila]

NB Cooling

What kind of cooling do you have for NB.(duh, I just seen Forcetake) I cannot fit a normal cooler on mine, cause my 7900 ends up going right over the NB with about 3mm to spare? Also, what is the limit temp for NB's. Mine runs at full load at about 45c 46c, and 60 65 seems kinda crazy high???

 

[LiveSideways]

This thing is made for clearence issues, it avoids all my obsticles quite nicely.

http://www.hardwarexl.com/reviews/cooling/forcetake_jts-0006_heatpipe_chipset_cooler_from_jingting/

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=197&products_id=4638

Mine runs at about 43c load (with 1.7v) now, I guess 1.7v just makes it warm

 

[fabulouscoops]

If you can hit 260 fsb then why use the 10x multiplier? All your voltages and temps look OK.

I am using the highest CPU multi (11) and a 1:1 CPU:Mem ratio to get to 2.9 GHz at 264 fsb and 3x Htt.

 

[Tiro Afila]

Multiplier

I dont know if its my board/CPU, or if this is normal, but I cant seem to hit even 245*11 as easy as I hit 260*10. I will have to try messing around a bit more with my system and see if I cant find some settings that allow me to run Prime Stable as the 11X multi, cause your right 2.8ghz+ would be nice, if I could only get that 11x multi to be my friend. BTW...thats a nice OC!
Also, about the cooler..I live in canada, and some stuff I find hard to get.Do you think this would work, if I put a fan on it??
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=20568&vpn=HR-05-SLI&manufacture=THERMALRIGHT

 

[albynomonk]

Is that DDR2 RAM you're using?

 

[LiveSideways]

Is that DDR2 RAM you're using?

No, its (his) a 939 setup.

 

[albynomonk]

No, its (his) a 939 setup.

The one in his sig?

DFI LanpartyUT nF4 Ultra-D (not yet modded)
AMD Athlon 64 3700 SanDiego
2x 1GB OCZ EB Platinum Edition PC-4000
eVGA GeForce 7900GS 256mb PCI-E x16
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 (driver version 5.12.1.512)
2X WD Raptor 36gb - SATA Raid
Samsung Black DVD+/-RW
OCZ GameXStream 600W
Arctic Cooler Pro 64

Wouldn't that affect the OC? The timings on DDR2 RAM are way higher than DDR.

 

[Tiro Afila]

Memory

EB platinums PC4000 is DDR rated at 250MHZ and I have memchecked it up to 270mhz 3 3 2 8 1T stable. Otherwise, yes you would proly be right.
After thinking about the 11x multi a bit more, I think I will try it. I was having memory probems before, and was not having any luck at all above 250mhz. Now that I have my memory problems figured out, maybe the 11x multi will help. 11x246 at either 1:1 or a 180 divider will at least get me to 2.7ghz. Does relaxing the timing on your memory take a bit of load of the CPU/memory controller. Maybe running my ram at 3 3 3 8 2t will allow me to get 1:1 even higher...yah...now I have something to do for the weekend. Hopefully my family doesnt miss me to much...hehe

 

[LiveSideways]

The one in his sig?

How many 939 boards you know of use DDR2

 

[albynomonk]

How many 939 boards you know of use DDR2

That's what I meant... I thought PC4000 was DDR2 RAM, and PC3200 was DDR RAM.

 

[Tiro Afila]

confusing

PC4200 is DDR2 I believe. Its not the speed that makes it DDR2, its a completely different type of ram..more pins etc...

 

[albynomonk]

PC4200 is DDR2 I believe. Its not the speed that makes it DDR2, its a completely different type of ram..more pins etc...

Ahh... having never actually seen DDR2 RAM, I didn't realize that.

 

[Tiro Afila]

I think I will ask again, cause my question proly got lost in my edit...and the ram confusion..

Does relaxing the timing on your memory take a bit of load of the CPU/memory controller. Maybe running my ram at 3 3 3 8 2t will allow me to get 1:1 even higher at 11x multi

 

[albynomonk]

As I understand it, yes. I had to relax my RAM timings a bit to hit 2.8GHZ. My stock timings are 2-3-2-6.

My RAM ran fine at 220MHZ at 2-3-2-6 without the divider, but with the divider it only runs at 212MHZ, and I need to relax the timings to 2.5-3-3-7.

 

[Tiro Afila]

New OC info for my system

Hi, thanks for your input guys. I have tried the TONYS 704bt-2 bios from OCZ, but it did not seem to help. Before I tried the new bios, I was able to get my CPU to 2700mhz(9x300) with my memory at 249mhz 9hrs prime stable ( I stopped prime, no errors ), but after that my internet explorer kept crashing (so I guess I wasnt stable) To get to 2700, I had to have my voltage at 1.62.
I am pretty sure that I have a CPU with a week memory controller. I can OC this sucker over 2.8, almost 2.9 prime stable, as long as I have my memory running at 100mhz divider, and I can overclock my memory to 285mhz as long as I have my CPU underclocked to 1.8, and I can OC my htt to 320 as long as the other 2 are underclocked, but as soon as I get above 2700mhz with my memory anywhere over 200mhz I crash. I have tried 11x 10x 9x, and they all get to 2700 and then I loose stable. At 2600, I can run my cpu at 1.52 volts, but at 2700 I need 1.62+ volts to keep stable. Unless someone else has some great Ideas, I think I have found the somewhat underwhelming limit of my CPU. Thanks again for all your help.

BTW the stepping is E4 (KAB2E 0545CPCW)

 

[pak]

This post kinda opened my eyes a lil. Im somewhat in the same situation.

I run my cpu at this 24/7
10x260
memory runs on a divider 166 @ 216
Ht multi down to 4x making it run at 1040
vcore at 1.392

what sux for me is my memory sux. [email protected] 3 3 7 seems to be its max. I loosened it up to 3 4 4 8 once and my games ran all messed up. Kinda looked like my video card was artifacting, but from my memory.

Now that aside, if I turn my ht multi down along with my memory down so neither is over clocked, I cant seem to even boot higher than 275x10. I would ideally like to be able to run at 2800mhz cpu and I can still keep my memory at 215.

Now what interests me are the HT and chipset voltage you guys are talking about. At what point do you want to adjust those. I have never adjust them. Would possibly adjusting them make it possible for me to hit 2800mhz on the cpu?

--pak

 

[Neuromancer]

PC4200 is DDR2 I believe. Its not the speed that makes it DDR2, its a completely different type of ram..more pins etc...

DDR2 will have a 2 after the PC in the bandwidth listing. Fer instance PC2-3200 is 3200MB/s (400MHz) DDR2

Yah defintley with good ram dont drop your multi. 2.6 seems a little low for a 3700 and vcore seems a little high.

Although all chips are differnet

 

[WonderingSoul]

Could be a bad stepping like mine? CABGE