First time Overclocker here, AMD Athlon 64 3200+

[AdRoc]

Old processor, I know. This is a rig I custom-built 7 years ago. I never messed with the BIOS settings except for minor things like the boot order. I'm building a new system soon and I thought I'd practice on this. I've read this thread and I think I understand it. But I wouldn't mind some hand holding as I go through my BIOS settings.

Before I get into that though, I want to ask a question first. Please refer to the CPU-Z pics I took (and let me know if I need to keep posting all 6 tabs when I ask for help):





On the CPU screen it shows my HT link as 800. In the thread I mentioned above, the guru was advising the OP to keep it around 1000. Now, the OP was in the midst of tweaking his settings to overclock his chip. My question is these screenshots show my processor without me having messed with it. Should I do something to get it to 1000 even if I don't want to overclock?

One more question. My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 yet CPU-Z reads it as NF-CK804. Does that matter?

And now on to the overclocking. I do have stock cooling and a Prime95 test run for an hour peaked at 52C. So I know I don't have much room. Nonetheless I wouldn't mind trying to OC my CPU a litte bit.

I would like some help in knowing what settings I should change in my BIOS. Here's the pics I took of the options I have.











Thanks, in advance!

 

[voodoo do'er]

up the cpu frequency in small increments
that will up you cpu's speed, you will need to up you volts as well
you might need to slow down your ram or up it's volts

every system overclocks differently, so I can't give you the 100% right settings
just play around abit. be sure to grab a copy of OCCT or prime95 to test the OC

don't mess whit the pcie clock


edit
BTW
you could get some better parts for that system online for cheap
like a dual core and newer gpu, although it might be better to save the $ for a new system
I my self don't need much more then you have TBH and if your the same, a dual core and better gpu would be better then a new system. (the system in my sig never gets used)


edit 2
unless you have some coolers on the mobo's mosfets, don't go to far
you don't want to burn the out, killer air flow should help out
and keep you cpu under 68~70c. have you re timed the heat sink lately? and what case do you have ?

edit3
how do you have 3gb or ram?
are you using mismatch pares of ram or something, that could hold you back.

edit4
seeing that your running stock, I go no more the 200mhz higher
the thing in cpu-z is ok, should not a prob.

 

[trents]

If the HT Link frequency gets too high it will cause instability. 800 mhz is stock so if you have an adjustment for that in bios you may need to lower it. I think the guy you refer to was advising you to limit it to 1000mhz so it doesn't cause instability. Keep it between 800 and 1000 mhz.

 

[AdRoc]

up the cpu frequency in small increments
that will up you cpu's speed, you will need to up you volts as well
you might need to slow down your ram or up it's volts

every system overclocks differently, so I can't give you the 100% right settings
just play around abit. be sure to grab a copy of OCCT or prime95 to test the OC

don't mess whit the pcie clock


edit
BTW
you could get some better parts for that system online for cheap
like a dual core and newer gpu, although it might be better to save the $ for a new system
I my self don't need much more then you have TBH and if your the same, a dual core and better gpu would be better then a new system. (the system in my sig never gets used)


edit 2
unless you have some coolers on the mobo's mosfets, don't go to far
you don't want to burn the out, killer air flow should help out
and keep you cpu under 68~70c. have you re timed the heat sink lately? and what case do you have ?

edit3
how do you have 3gb or ram?
are you using mismatch pares of ram or something, that could hold you back.

edit4
seeing that your running stock, I go no more the 200mhz higher
the thing in cpu-z is ok, should not a prob.

I couldn't tell you what case I have. I bought it a while ago and there's no brand name on it or anything. I also never heard of "re-timing the heat sink" so I haven't done that lately either. My mobo supports dual channel RAM. So I have one pair 2 x 512 MB and another pair of 2 x 1 GB. And I'm not looking for better parts for my system. Like I said, it's 7 years old. I'm trying to overclock for the first time simply for the sake of learning how to overclock so I'm a bit more prepared when I get the parts for the new system I'm building in the next few days. I thought it prudent to practice on my old machine with the help of OC forums.

I know I am going to have to play around a bit... I just wouldn't mind some advice on which settings to play around with. So my CPU frequency is at 200 right now. And my voltage, currently set to "Normal" is 1.4V. So are you advising I just up each one the next highest increment and then do a Prime95 test?

Also I knew (from reading that other thread, here's the link again) that I would have to slow down my RAM and I couldn't find a setting to do that. But you're saying I need to slow it down OR up it's voltage? So that sounds like the DDR Voltage Control on my BIOS, as per the pics above.

So to sum up, I will up the CPU frequency and the CPU Voltage Control slightly as well as set DDR Voltage Control to +0.1v? Then run a Prime95 test and see how my temps hold up? Does that sound like a good place to start?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[AdRoc]

If the HT Link frequency gets too high it will cause instability. 800 mhz is stock so if you have an adjustment for that in bios you may need to lower it. I think the guy you refer to was advising you to limit it to 1000mhz so it doesn't cause instability. Keep it between 800 and 1000 mhz.

trents! I'm so glad you replied. You know what's funny, you said "the guy" I was referring to was advising to keep the limit to 1000 mhz.. well... that guy was YOU! Take a look at the older thread I mentioned again: link. That was you giving all the advice and like I said I'm glad you replied because I was hoping to get your help for my first time overclocking as well.

So thanks for the reply. I didn't know 800 mhz was stock. All I knew was from what you were advising Crazy_Catz to do which was tryring to keep it between 900 and 1050 MHz. So obviously as I start trying to overclock my CPU that will be my target as well, right?

Also voodoo already gave me some advice on where to start. And from that old thread where you were help Crazy I understand that I need to 1) slow down my RAM (or slightly increase it's voltage, apparently?) 2) up my CPU frequency and 3) increase CPU Voltage. So let me repeat what I asked at the end of my reply to voodoo:

I will up the CPU frequency and the CPU Voltage Control slightly as well as set DDR Voltage Control to +0.1v? Then run a Prime95 test and see how my temps hold up? Does that sound like a good place to start?

What do you think? Is that what I should do to start?

I'm heading to work now so I won't be doing any of this until later today.

 

[trents]

Yeah, I think you have the general idea squared away. Increasing the ram voltage is not necessary perhaps but I genreally do it because it sometimes helsp with stability even at stock frequencies when the CPU is being speeded up.

 

[AdRoc]

Ok so I tweaked the settings as discussed. Here's a pic of what the BIOS settings looked like after:

CPU Frequency 200->210
CPU Voltage Control Normal (1.4V)->1.425V
DDR voltage control Normal -> +0.1v

And here's what CPU-Z showed:




And finally Prime 95 test run for 20 minutes:


So my HT link is way down now. How would I fix that? There's the HT-link voltage control the choices of which are "Normal", "+0.1v", "+0.2v" and "+0.3v".

I probably won't be able to do much more than 2.1 GHz on this overclock since that brought me to a peak of 57C during the stress test, 5 degrees hotter than pre-OC.

But, going back to the HT Link, what can I do to stabilize it? And maybe I'll be content with my extra 0.1 GHz.

Thanks again for the input!

 

[trents]

I don't see an adjustment for the HT Link/NB frequency in the pics from your bios you posted so you may not have one or it may be in a different section of the bios. But those things will "grow" anyway as you increase the fsb.

I wouldn't add any voltage to your ram at this stage because it's running under stock speed. Stock is 400 mhz (See the SPD tab of CPU-z, JEDEC #3) and right now you are only running it at 350 mhz (175x2). CPU-z reports the memory bus frequency which is half the DDR transfer rate. Adding .1v to the ram may be too much anyway.

Don't forget that not only can you manipulate the fsb but you can lower (not raise) the CPU ratio of you need to. This comes in handy when you want to keep increasing the fsb in order to get the ram frequency closer to its rating (and also the HT Link and the NB) but the CPU is already at its max overclock. That motherboard should be capable of 240-250 mhz fsb so keep that in mind. Use that to your advantage in getting the frquencies of the ram and the HT Link/NB back up to snuff.

At 57c your core temps are maxed out. You need better cooling.

 

[AdRoc]

Yeah there wouldn't be anything in another section of the BIOS. I actually went through all the screens before starting this. So I know for sure the one screen of which I've posted pics contains the only OC-related settings.

Before I try this let me make sure I understand you right. You're saying I could increase my fsb (which is the CPU Frequency, in my BIOS?) while lowering the CPU ratio.. so to get 2.1 GHz again, (0.1 GHz extra, whoo but like you said my temps are maxed) I could try CPU Frequency of 300 and a CPU ratio of 7?

And are you recommending I set the DDR voltage control back to normal?

Oh and I'm curious: You said I'm running my RAM at 350 mhz.. I see where you got 175 from.. how did you know to multiply by 2? I don't know if this matters (and I'll update my sig for future posts) but my RAM consists of 2x512 MB and 2x1 GB.

 

[trents]

Yeah there wouldn't be anything in another section of the BIOS. I actually went through all the screens before starting this. So I know for sure the one screen of which I've posted pics contains the only OC-related settings.

Before I try this let me make sure I understand you right. You're saying I could increase my fsb (which is the CPU Frequency, in my BIOS?) while lowering the CPU ratio.. so to get 2.1 GHz again, (0.1 GHz extra, whoo but like you said my temps are maxed) I could try CPU Frequency of 300 and a CPU ratio of 7? Yes to all of that except the part about increasing the CPU frequency to 300 mhz. In theory that is correct. But only high end motherboards are capable of stability at a fsb (aka, CPU frequency) of 300 mhz even if you lower the CPU ratio way down. What I'm trying to get you to do is to get more performance out of your HT Link/NB and your ram even though your CPU overclock is maxed out because of temps.The Memory tab of CPU-z reports your current memroy bus frequency.

And are you recommending I set the DDR voltage control back to normal? Yes. You are currently running it slower than its rated for. See explanation below. The CPU-z tab reports the manufacturer's ratings as well as recommended voltages and timings for different frequency levels it is capable of. The last JEDEC colomn to the right is the max speed rating of the ram, i.e., what it is sold as. You have no need to overvolt the ram at this point.

Oh and I'm curious: You said I'm running my RAM at 350 mhz.. I see where you got 175 from.. how did you know to multiply by 2? If you go back and read my post, I already explained tha. DDR (Double Data Rate) is the data transfer rating of the ram. That is twice what the actual bus frequency of the ram is. CPU-z reports everything in terms of bus frequency. So to get the DDR speed multiply those numbers by 2. In your head I mean. I don't know if this matters (and I'll update my sig for future posts) but my RAM consists of 2x512 MB and 2x1 GB.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Keep in mind that your DDR SDRAM is not DDR2 as well. (You listed DDR2 in your sig)

Your CPU is safe up to ~1.65v with appropriate cooling (however, inch up voltages...1.6v+ is very excessive), you should be safe with your ram up to ~2.7v (2.5v JEDEC + 0.2v) too. No way to tell if you have BH-5, or some generic crap so it's best to play safe.
I'm gonna guess that your ram will not OC much, 400 CL3 is about as weak as it gets.

Lax CAS Latency in BIOS from 2.5 to 3 before pushing any further.