- Joined
- Jan 31, 2007
Hello, ocforums. I am new to overclocking, but not to computers in general (for instance, I built the box I'm typing this on). After reading several hours worth of overclocking guides and lurking on various overclocking forums, I've decided that I might be interested in overclocking my machine. Unfortunately, some of my sources seem to offer conflicting data. So, I wish to ask you guys how overclockable my hardware is, and if there are any problems specifically associated with overclocking any specific component that I need to know about.
Below, I list my hardware and the details as CPU-Z gave them to me.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Newcastle socket 754 processor, clocked at ~2400 MHz.
Cache:
L1 Data Cache-64 KBytes, 2-way set associative/64-byte line size
L1 Instruction Cache-64 KBytes, 2-way set associative/64-byte line size
L2 Cache-512 KBytes, 16-way set associative/64-byte line size.
Motherboard: ASUS K8VSE Deluxe
This is where I'm a little concerned. Today, I read somewhere (http://wiki.extremeoverclocking.com/wiki/Athlon_64_Overclocking_Guide) that a PCI/AGP lock is crucial to overclocking, because you risk corrupting hard drive data if your PCI speed is too fast. While most motherboards have this lock, Via chipsets (like my mobo has) have been known to have faulty PCI locks. They said that anything from KT800 or lower has this problem. According to CPU-Z, my chipset is "K8T800 (VT8383)". Do you think this one is still a trouble-maker?
Also, my BIOS seems to fully support overclocking. Under the "jumper free config" section, I can change all sorts of settings from the FSB to the CPU Speed/voltage. I can also change all sorts of memory clock and voltage settings. Based on what I've read thus far, this is a good thing.
Memory: I have 2 gigs of PC3200 DDR RAM. Overall, it's running at 133.6 MHz. In depth, this is what CPU-Z says:
Slot 1: 1024 MByte module
Slot 2: 512 MByte module
Slot 3: 512 MByte module.
All 3 of these chips come from different manufacturers, but I made sure that all the numbers matched up (this was a year ago, before I was interested in overclocking). The thing I'm concerned about is the fact that each of these modules shows different values on the timings table. Module 1 shows results for 133 MHz, 166MHz, and 200 MHz. Modules 2 and 3 only have 166 MHz and 200 MHz, and each of those chips shows different timings. Will this cause problems with overclocking?
I also have an ATI Radeon x850 Pro AGP graphics card. I haven't fully tweaked it yet (i.e. bought an after market VGA cooler, flashed the XT Bios, overclocked it completely, etc.). Seeing as how your CPU and RAM have to be in sync for an AMD overclock (or so I read), will it be necessary to somehow synchronize the graphics card overclock with the RAM and CPU? For instance, I can mess with the AGP settings (4x or 8x, I can change the memory size from 64-256 MB, and I can also change the AGP voltage). Anything I need to do?
I've researched this topic extensively, but I want to double and triple check everything before I actually make any changes. Thanks in advance for reading this, and for possibly posting replies
Below, I list my hardware and the details as CPU-Z gave them to me.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Newcastle socket 754 processor, clocked at ~2400 MHz.
Cache:
L1 Data Cache-64 KBytes, 2-way set associative/64-byte line size
L1 Instruction Cache-64 KBytes, 2-way set associative/64-byte line size
L2 Cache-512 KBytes, 16-way set associative/64-byte line size.
Motherboard: ASUS K8VSE Deluxe
This is where I'm a little concerned. Today, I read somewhere (http://wiki.extremeoverclocking.com/wiki/Athlon_64_Overclocking_Guide) that a PCI/AGP lock is crucial to overclocking, because you risk corrupting hard drive data if your PCI speed is too fast. While most motherboards have this lock, Via chipsets (like my mobo has) have been known to have faulty PCI locks. They said that anything from KT800 or lower has this problem. According to CPU-Z, my chipset is "K8T800 (VT8383)". Do you think this one is still a trouble-maker?
Also, my BIOS seems to fully support overclocking. Under the "jumper free config" section, I can change all sorts of settings from the FSB to the CPU Speed/voltage. I can also change all sorts of memory clock and voltage settings. Based on what I've read thus far, this is a good thing.
Memory: I have 2 gigs of PC3200 DDR RAM. Overall, it's running at 133.6 MHz. In depth, this is what CPU-Z says:
Slot 1: 1024 MByte module
Slot 2: 512 MByte module
Slot 3: 512 MByte module.
All 3 of these chips come from different manufacturers, but I made sure that all the numbers matched up (this was a year ago, before I was interested in overclocking). The thing I'm concerned about is the fact that each of these modules shows different values on the timings table. Module 1 shows results for 133 MHz, 166MHz, and 200 MHz. Modules 2 and 3 only have 166 MHz and 200 MHz, and each of those chips shows different timings. Will this cause problems with overclocking?
I also have an ATI Radeon x850 Pro AGP graphics card. I haven't fully tweaked it yet (i.e. bought an after market VGA cooler, flashed the XT Bios, overclocked it completely, etc.). Seeing as how your CPU and RAM have to be in sync for an AMD overclock (or so I read), will it be necessary to somehow synchronize the graphics card overclock with the RAM and CPU? For instance, I can mess with the AGP settings (4x or 8x, I can change the memory size from 64-256 MB, and I can also change the AGP voltage). Anything I need to do?
I've researched this topic extensively, but I want to double and triple check everything before I actually make any changes. Thanks in advance for reading this, and for possibly posting replies
