OC'ing an AM2: An update to Easy 1, 2, 3, Overclocking ...

[QuietIce]

Damn glue bottle slipped out of my hands and fell all on this poor old thread.

Thanks!

 

[mrbobc]

i was just wondering, you say use just 2 sticks of ram when oc'ing, can i put the other 2 sticks back in when finished and do i set them to allow oc in bios or not??

 

[Dolk]

not exactly. It doesn't work like that lols. It really depends on the OC. If its a very high end OC, you will probably do better with just 2 sticks. Its always best to stay with 2 and have them as large as you can.

 

[QuietIce]

i was just wondering, you say use just 2 sticks of ram when oc'ing, can i put the other 2 sticks back in when finished and do i set them to allow oc in bios or not??

You should always set all RAM sticks the same.

Most K8 OC's are slightly lower with four sticks compared to two sticks. The reason for only using two sticks for OC'ing (in this thread) is to test the limits of the CPU and RAM by itself. IMO, you should performance test your system with two sticks then add the other two sticks and test again. It depends on the app you're using but sometimes the extra RAM doesn't really help, especially if your CPU speed has to be lowered to accommodate four sticks ...

 

[neo1138]

"Increase the clock 5 MHz and reboot to Windows. Run P95 for a couple of minutes and, if it runs OK, reboot and enter BIOS."

lol
Who does that?
dumb O.C guides.


Easier to read a few setting of people who have the same chip and go for it with a decent first go.

or put in the the v.core you want then go for a high overclcok and back it down till you can boot into windows. once in windows run prime95 or left4dead(i find steam games will crash if not stable), it all just about ****ing around with some settings till stable and getting to know what your chip will handle.

I can usually work out what my chip is capable of with in a few days. its a good thing I never bothered to read these guides, I just search forums and see others results if I get stuck.


better then all this **** arsing around of 5 hertz steps.

 

[nzaneb]

"Increase the clock 5 MHz and reboot to Windows. Run P95 for a couple of minutes and, if it runs OK, reboot and enter BIOS."

lol
Who does that?
dumb O.C guides.

A lot of people...

Easier to read a few setting of people who have the same chip and go for it with a decent first go.

or put in the the v.core you want then go for a high overclcok and back it down till you can boot into windows. once in windows run prime95 or left4dead(i find steam games will crash if not stable), it all just about ****ing around with some settings till stable and getting to know what your chip will handle.

This guide is for people NEW to OCing, and following it's steps will facilitate if someone should need help. That way if an experienced Overclocker asks, they can answer. For instance... if someone were to ask what your maximum FSB is, you probably couldn't answer if you just went and tried a couple of settings that someone else had come up with.

In my book there are two types of overclockers: Those that do it just because it's COOL and all their friends are doing it. They set their systems to someone elses settings, and call it good. Can you really call yourself an overclocker if you simply take a couple of settings from someone elses work? And then there are those that Overclock because they want to KNOW every little nuance about their setup, they are compelled to extract every last bit of speed and stability from it. And to do that... you have to be METICULOUS about your work. With slow methodical steps you can find the ABSOLUTE limit of your setup, and easily trouble shoot issues. With experience you can jump a few steps to a stable setting, and continue slowly from there. I for one wouldn't be satisfied, if I just took a couple of settings from someones results and left it at that. I also know that the OP of this guide put alot of work into it. If you don't agree with his scientific, methodical approach, then you could simply hit the back button on your browser, instead of leaving a rather rude post.

I can usually work out what my chip is capable of with in a few days. its a good thing I never bothered to read these guides, I just search forums and see others results if I get stuck.
better then all this **** arsing around of 5 hertz steps.

Good for you... see example #1 from previous answer.

 

[QuietIce]

nzaneb, thanks for the comments.

Easier to read a few setting of people who have the same chip and go for it with a decent first go.

Nothing wrong with that IF you know what you're doing ...

 

[Jeebuz91]

Hey man great post! I will most definitely refer to this guide when doing my first overclock! Thank you!

 

[fidesdefensor]

You should always set all RAM sticks the same.

Most K8 OC's are slightly lower with four sticks compared to two sticks. The reason for only using two sticks for OC'ing (in this thread) is to test the limits of the CPU and RAM by itself. IMO, you should performance test your system with two sticks then add the other two sticks and test again. It depends on the app you're using but sometimes the extra RAM doesn't really help, especially if your CPU speed has to be lowered to accommodate four sticks ...

I used to do that sort of thing, and I found I really didn't no my limits and never got stable overclocks. Once I started taking the time to do thing right, I found I got much stable overclocks. Turns out, I ended up using more voltage than was needed for a given speed, just based off other peoples findings and had instability due to too much heat. It takes time, but incrementing then testing is the way to get real speeds.

 

[cold.nut]

Here were my final results, for today =D

Stock : Overclock:

Will the FSB x (HT) being lowered affect performance? I am new to the athlon 64 OC

Thanks for the guide BTW!

 

[cold.nut]

ok i have and amd prcoessor....i remeber when i just changed the multiplier freom 14 to 15 in the bios when i tunred on my computer screen was blank......does AMD cool n quiet have to be off to overclock was tht the reason my screen was blank?

yes it does

make sure all of those extra goodies are turned off

 

[QuietIce]

ok i have and amd prcoessor....i remeber when i just changed the multiplier freom 14 to 15 in the bios when i tunred on my computer screen was blank......does AMD cool n quiet have to be off to overclock was tht the reason my screen was blank?

Manual Entry and BIOS

While in the BIOS also turn off CoolnQuiet (CnQ) and any CPU or system fan regulators. CnQ is found in a number of places in BIOS and allows the BIOS to change the CPU multiplier and vCore depending on the CPU load. It might be good for future use after over-clocking but not during. CPU and system fan regulators aren't a bad thing either, but it's better to keep the components as cool as possible right now so turn them off and turn them on afterwords if desired.

I don't know if that's the reason your screen was blank but that's the whole point of overclocking this way - you don't know. Narrowing down the variables is what it's all about so you can concentrate on the overclock and not play guessing games about what's wrong. By turning off everything not needed and setting the critical variables manually in BIOS you limit what the BIOS and computer can do to your system while you're testing the overclock. That way if something does go wrong, like a blank screen or BSOD, you have a better idea of where to look for the problem.

BTW - What CPU are we talking about???


PS: Posting the same question 20 times in 20 different threads got you the same answer 20 times. You should limit your questions to 1 (2 threads at most) and keep it that way. Trying to "mix and match" answers from different people will more than likely confuse rather than help and may lead you into problems that wouldn't normally arise.

Will the FSB x (HT) being lowered affect performance? I am new to the athlon 64 OC

The HT Link being turned down that low will probably effect video performance (especially with SLI). With that board (the ASUS '32' boards are excellent OC'ers!) at a 215 MHz clock you can probably run the HT Link at 5x (1075 MHz) without a problem. If that effects your CPU overclock then I'd run some 3dMark tests to find out where the best settings are. You might be better off lowering your CPU OC a little to gain a lot of HT Link speed or you might be better off where you are. Until you run the tests you'll never know ...

 

[umarrehman187]

well trents ive tried everything to overclock my asrock n68 even tho it has untied overclock technology whenever i overclock it never works, pc is on but screen is off, so i have to do all the cmos thing....question is i got a software asrock oc tuner wich came with my motherboard can i use that you guys think its safe?

 

[cold.nut]

Explain this RAM ratio etc.. better. For a beginner like me, seeing the "Cheat Sheet" it told me to set my RAM ratio to 1:1, I have DDR2-800 rated RAM (In My Sig) so I set it to DDR2-800 in my bios, but that is not a 1:1 ratio, for every increase in FSB my DRAM Frequency does not increase 1 with it, you need to explain this better I guess.

I don't quite bet the formulas behind the RAM if I set my RAM to DDR2-400 then it increases the same with my FSB, but if I set it to DDR2-800 then it goes all funky on me.

Please explain better

 

[QuietIce]

When I first wrote this a year and a half ago I stuck with 1:1 for DDR2-800 (400 MHz) because CPU-Z listed it as 1:1 at the time and people were getting confused over the ratios.

I just changed them all (at least I hope I caught them all!) to what they really are. With CPU-Z reporting the correct ratios now there shouldn't be a problem with it anymore ...

 

[Tiltowait]

OK so my motherboard magically set a password for itself. I don't understand either. Anyway, I popped out the battery to get at it, and since my settings were already all screwed up, I decided to give this guide a shot:
Original:
Athlon x2 5400+ @ 2.8Ghz
g.Skill 1100 running at 800Mhz because old stuff is dumb

OC:
CPU speed: 3.288 Ghz
Bus Speed: 263
RAM: 1052 MHz
HT Link: 1052 MHz (My motherboard really wanted this to be at 1300 Mhz.)

The final stress tests still need to occur, but the first 5 minutes of Prime95 have gone without a hitch for the second time in a row so far. Last time I had this thing sort of OC'ed, it would fail in the second run of Lucas-Lehmer iterations (despite being pretty dang stable).

Anyway, I started doing this as a complete and total noob. So if you think I've done well, you've done well!

 

[QuietIce]

Nice! So seldom do people go back and balance the RAM after getting a good CPU OC ...

 

[Flawless]

well trents ive tried everything to overclock my asrock n68 even tho it has untied overclock technology whenever i overclock it never works, pc is on but screen is off, so i have to do all the cmos thing....question is i got a software asrock oc tuner wich came with my motherboard can i use that you guys think its safe?

I too have an ASRock n68 (in a couple of weeks anyhow) Anything come of this? I know it is a little old.

 

[QuietIce]

to Overclockers.com!


Everything in this thread still holds but I guess I missed your question. If you're asking about using OC Tuner I'd recommend against it if you can use the BIOS at all. Software OC'ing never works very well ...

 

[Dholmblad]

hello,I having a issue fallowing the guide I go to try to change the System Clock to 210 and i restart but when i do the screen will not turn on forcing me to push the restart botten. here is my specs