Crosshair IV Extreme - Extreme FSB

[I.M.O.G.]

I'm interested in hitting the highest FSB possible on the Crosshair IV Extreme, hopefully around 400MHz. At least a few people have done it, so its possible but I don't know much about running especially high FSB. Has anyone tried this, or read any guides or accounts of people running FSB this high on an 890FX motherboard?

I have a sempron 145 I just picked up from Newegg. It was only $40. It is a single core processor, and has a locked multi at 14x, and I'm looking to run some benches as close to 6GHz as possible on it (liquid nitrogen). To hit 5.6GHz, I'll need to do at least 400MHz FSB.

Any tips to help this board pump this sort of FSB? Voltages or settings I should look at that might help high FSB? Other than running LN2 on the CPU, I'll be pointing my blower at the NB/PWM area.

I'm heading over to the ROG forums to reference their bios guide for the CVF, while the bios is very different from the CIVE bios, many of the options are the same.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

These settings are the ones that are possibly relevant, these all exist on the CVF, but may not all apply to the CIVE:

CPU VDDA Voltage: This rail does not normally need adjustment unless running very high bus clocks – up to 2.6V or so can help.

NB Voltage: Sets the voltage for the external Northbridge (on the motherboard). For most overclocking this voltage can be left on AUTO. Increase only as a last resort when no other setting helps improve 3D benchmark/game stability.

NB HT Voltage: Sets Northbridge HT IO voltage. For maximum HT speeds (board and processor dependent), a setting of 1.275~1.30V is advised as a?guideline.

NB 1.8V Voltage: Change only as a last ditch attempt to stabilise high HT bus clocks.

NB Voltage Switching Frequency: Sets the on/off switching frequency of the Northbridge VRM. A setting of 2X provides a faster transient response (recovery from load conditions) at the expense of power consumption and heat.

NB 1.8V Voltage Switching Frequency: Sets the FET on/off switching frequency of the Northbridge VRM. A setting of 2X provides a faster transient response (recovery from load conditions) at the expense of power consumption and heat.

 

[xsuperbgx]

That is way more settings than my 790x board has. I have never gone up to 1.8 on nb! Maybe that is why I have no WR.....

I have a feeling that I may try though.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Actually that isn't saying to set the NB to 1.8V, that is actually a separate NB voltage setting that is available on the CVF - I'm not sure what the difference really is between NB voltage and NB 1.8V voltage.

I'm about to find out how many of these settings are available on the 890FX CIVE, some of them are, but maybe not all of them - I forget.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Dropped the CPU multi, and 330 FSB is the highest I can get it to boot at so far on air. 332 is a no post. I dropped the ram multi to its lowest, and dropped both cpu-nb and htlink to 1650, but it made no difference in the no post. I also increased NB voltage from 1.11 to 1.2V and that didn't make 332 work either. Not sure whats up with that.

Fixing up my windows install currently, then I will I'm going to freeze the bejeebers out of it, and see if I can get it to post at a higher FSB, then if not I'll see if I can increase it further in windows.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Got it to 350FSB in windows, still on air. Freezing now.

 

[Convicted1]

Sweet! Get after it!

Remember!.. Healthy disrespect for the hardware! LOL

 

[I.M.O.G.]

366 was the highest FSB I could hit for the night, 367 would lock up usually immediately. Took NB voltage up to 1.7V, vcore to 1.85V, CPU-NB to 1.45V, but just couldn't get any further.

I was having memory problems of some sort. I need to sort that out. I was able to run wprime1024m faster than I was able to run superpi1m or superpi32m, kept getting rounding errors, couldn't get sp32m finished, but only tried running that a couple times. I also couldn't run wp32m any faster than I could run wp1024m, so I know I haven't maxed the chip yet - I'm held back by something other than core frequency.

I know I could get the chip higher, just not sure if I'll figure it out on this board, or if I'll need to try a different board. That said... It is benchable above 5GHz, which means once I get my storage setup, it should meet my needs to go after the single core PCMark05 world record.

Here's all my scores from tonight: http://hwbot.org/search/submissions/permalink?username=I.M.O.G.&cpuId=2195

 

[Woomack]

I have only UD5 and CHV so I doubt that I pass 400FSB . For sure I won't make it on UD5 as its max is about 325MHz that can make on standard voltages ( already made the same max on 3 cpus ).
If you want to make more than ~360FSB then try ROG connect or boot on lower clock and set higher in windows. The same is on some other boards. Most have problems to boot above ~330MHz.
I'm 5th now http://hwbot.org/submission/2239109_woomack_pcmark_2005_sempron_145_16635_marks/
and couple of things to correct ...

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Nice score woomack, I saw the team points jump but didn't know why until now!

I checked your pcm05 link, but I couldn't see details scores - got them from your screenshot though, nice stuff.!

 

[sumonpathak]

^^^^what proccy are you using?
was tinkering with my CHV..and i think my Athlon is limiting me

 

[I.M.O.G.]

He's using the sempron 145, it says near the top of his page if you click his link. It is one of the most recently released single core processors, and scores very well on hwbot for single core performance. The sempron 140, 145, and 150 all are similar in that way.

 

[sumonpathak]

^^^ya...noticed now...was looking through my contacts...not available in india

EDIT: i was asking you too...

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I am using the sempron 145 as well. The 150 is generally unavailable as its OEM only - best way to get one is to buy a whole computer. When you can get a 145 for $40, most people aren't motivated exceptionally enough to buy an entire rig to strip out the 150 and put it in a good benchmarking rig - but some are that motivated.

The 140 is relatively available I believe, but sometimes I fear buying lower marketed chips when there are several higher marketed chips - if their manufacturing and marketing process is working as it should, then the higher rated chips should be the better performers, so you'd be less likely to get a great 140 chip than you would be to get a great 145 or 150.

 

[Woomack]

My sempron 145 was running quite stable @4.2GHz/unlocked on FX8120 stock cooler Later I went for SS but it didn't help with max FSB. I'm almost sure that I can make 1 spot higher but I can't beat top 3 with my RAID controller.
When I finish with UD5 I will move to CHV.

 

[sumonpathak]

I am using the sempron 145 as well. The 150 is generally unavailable as its OEM only - best way to get one is to buy a whole computer. When you can get a 145 for $40, most people aren't motivated exceptionally enough to buy an entire rig to strip out the 150 and put it in a good benchmarking rig - but some are that motivated.

The 140 is relatively available I believe, but sometimes I fear buying lower marketed chips when there are several higher marketed chips - if their manufacturing and marketing process is working as it should, then the higher rated chips should be the better performers, so you'd be less likely to get a great 140 chip than you would be to get a great 145 or 150.

i wish the oem guys in India were that motivated