SOLVED Overclocking an AMD Athlon 64 3200+

[Crazy_Catz]

Looking good! The only thing I see I would like to change would be the memory speed (Dram frequency). Its pretty low at 160 mhz. Can you change some setting somewhere to get that closer to 200 mhz without blowing the lid off your HT Link speed?

Oh yeah, forgot about the memory. I'll see about that. I've got a fair amount of HTlink speed to work with.

Crazy

 

[trents]

So what setting are you using to adjust HT Link speed now? What is your ram speed set to in bios? Maybe you could just move the ram speed up to the next notch like from 166 back to 200 or whatever.

 

[Crazy_Catz]

So what setting are you using to adjust HT Link speed now? What is your ram speed set to in bios? Maybe you could just move the ram speed up to the next notch like from 166 back to 200 or whatever.

Yeah I should be able to just bump it back to 200. K8 to NB is what changes my HTlink speed.

Crazy

 

[trents]

The newer boards all use the HT Link terminology in bios so when you get your build done somewhere down the road it won't be so confusing.

At some point when you feel you've reached your max overclock you would do well to run a longer Prime95 test to check for true stability, at least 1 hr. The "10 minute" tests you have been doing are designed to give you a ball park idea of what your max temps will be during a longer stress test. I find the 10 minute test will give me max temps within about 2 C of what they will hit during a 1 hr. Prime stress test. You want to make sure your overclock settings are truly stable so that your rig doesn't let you down at some critical moment. We say a max of 55 C but don't obsess if it gets to say, 57 C as long as its stable. If not stable doing the long test, back off a tad on our CPU frequency if you're already at the temp wall or if not at the temp wall then bump the vcore up.

 

[Crazy_Catz]

The newer boards all use the HT Link terminology in bios so when you get your build done somewhere down the road it won't be so confusing.

At some point when you feel you've reached your max overclock you would do well to run a longer Prime95 test to check for true stability, at least 1 hr. The "10 minute" tests you have been doing are designed to give you a ball park idea of what your max temps will be during a longer stress test. I find the 10 minute test will give me max temps within about 2 C of what they will hit during a 1 hr. Prime stress test. You want to make sure your overclock settings are truly stable so that your rig doesn't let you down at some critical moment. We say a max of 55 C but don't obsess if it gets to say, 57 C as long as its stable. If not stable doing the long test, back off a tad on our CPU frequency if you're already at the temp wall or if not at the temp wall then bump the vcore up.

Hmm, good to know. I had this going for about 3 hours on 2.4. Hasn't been doing Prime though. Might just let it go overnight or somthing. Thanks again for all your help.

Crazy

 

[trents]

Hey, its been challenging but satisfying! I think it sort of clicked for you. Keep me posted as to the final outcome.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Ok, upped the voltage to the next increment in BIOS and everything seems good running at 2.4GHz. Prime is running now, will see how high my temp gets.

Looks like that may be about as high as I can go, with CPU at 50-52 whilst running Prime. Might be able to get it to 2.45, but right now I'm really happy, 2.4 was better then I thought I would be able to get.

Thanks for all your help on this trents

Crazy

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that voltage kind of high for being on stock cooling ( I think he said he was on stock cooling). I believe the recommended range for that chip is 1.35-1.4V, but he's showing 1.5V in the last screen shot.

Oh, and congrats if you managed to get it stable at 2.4GHz, I tried everything on mine but just couldn't get it stable enough to run Prime95 at that speed. Though oddly it loaded Windows just fine, gave me weird errors when I tried to go into programs though (graphic errors mainly, weird colors on the screen and parts of the dialog boxes not loading fully so I'd have areas of the program where the screen would just be either blank or some odd shade).

 

[trents]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that voltage kind of high for being on stock cooling ( I think he said he was on stock cooling). I believe the recommended range for that chip is 1.35-1.4V, but he's showing 1.5V in the last screen shot.

Oh, and congrats if you managed to get it stable at 2.4GHz, I tried everything on mine but just couldn't get it stable enough to run Prime95 at that speed. Though oddly it loaded Windows just fine, gave me weird errors when I tried to go into programs though (graphic errors mainly, weird colors on the screen and parts of the dialog boxes not loading fully so I'd have areas of the program where the screen would just be either blank or some odd shade).

Yeah, the voltage is higher than the AMD factory recommendation but how many of us here at OC forums stick to factory specs. That is what we are about here, regardless of what cooler we are using. The kind of cooler and the volts (to a point) is irrelevant anyway as long as your core temps are good. And Crazy has never stated he is using the stock factory cooler.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Yeah, the voltage is higher than the AMD factory recommendation but how many of us here at OC forums stick to factory specs. That is what we are about here, regardless of what cooler we are using. The kind of cooler and the volts (to a point) is irrelevant anyway as long as your core temps are good. And Crazy has never stated he is using the stock factory cooler.

Guess I'm slightly different then, as I try to get as much speed as I can without having to increase the voltage above stock by too much. Got mine to do 2200 MHz on 1.35V and stable at that voltage.

Actually he did, in his very first post:

Using the stock cooler and Coretemp is reading about 35 idle and 40-45ish load.

Any help/links appreciated

Crazy

 

[trents]

You're correct on the cooler question. I stand corrected.

 

[Crazy_Catz]

Well, got it up too 2.5 now Going to do a Prime test now to see if its stable though. Temps are fairly cool(currently at 45 with a load of 11%)

*EDIT* Prime is Fine (this piuc was taken five minutes in, its still going though. No crashes yet)
*EDIT02* Wow, cut my rendering time of a 3D object roughly in half! Used to 5 minutes now I'm going about 2-3.

Crazy

 

[Crazy_Catz]

Guess I'm slightly different then, as I try to get as much speed as I can without having to increase the voltage above stock by too much.

Might be why you could only get yours to go to 2.2?

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

(graphic errors mainly, weird colors on the screen and parts of the dialog boxes not loading fully so I'd have areas of the program where the screen would just be either blank or some odd shade).

That may be from the PCI-E or AGP clock being too high.

Especially if you get those symptoms and you see 3D Mark get killed.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

That may be from the PCI-E or AGP clock being too high.

Especially if you get those symptoms and you see 3D Mark get killed.

Doubtful, the PCI-E clock is locked in at the default 100MHz and I haven't overclocked the card at all.

I think it's at least partially due to the fact that my NB cooling fan is going out, after I replace that I think it will improve. Or it could be a limitation of the processor, not sure.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Might be why you could only get yours to go to 2.2?

Actually, I got it to boot at 2.4GHz, but it was acting funny and didn't seem entirely stable. That was after I had raised the default voltage up from 1.35 to 1.4V.

Also, it tried to boot at 2.45GHz, but blue screened shortly after starting to load windows.

I didn't have to raise the voltage until 2.35GHz, it booted fine at the stock 1.35V all the way up to 2.3GHz.

The only reason why I mentioned 2.2GHz was because it was one of the only speeds at which I ran Prime (I only ran it at stock, 2.2, and 2.4 to be precise). I wanted to see if it would boot first, so I didn't run Prime until I got it to boot at 2.4GHz.

My basic rule on voltage is I don't raise the voltage unless I encounter instability, that way I don't give it more volts than necessary to be stable. I think that's a good logical way to approach this from.

 

[Crazy_Catz]

I feel tempted to try and go to 2.6GHz

 

[Crazy_Catz]

2.6GHz So far everything looking good. Prime has been going for a few minutes with no problems. Looks like I'll have to turn my K8 to N8 multiplier down again if I want to go any higher though it looks like. HT is up to 1040.

 

[trents]

Well, got it up too 2.5 now Going to do a Prime test now to see if its stable though. Temps are fairly cool(currently at 45 with a load of 11%)

11%? Prime95 should put your CPU under virtually 100% load. If its already 45C at only 11% usage, what's it at 100%?

 

[Crazy_Catz]

Well, got it up too 2.5 now Going to do a Prime test now to see if its stable though. Temps are fairly cool(currently at 45 with a load of 11%)

11%? Prime95 should put your CPU under virtually 100% load. If its already 45C at only 11% usage, what's it at 100%?

No you misunderstood, that was the temp before look at the pic for the temp whilst running Prime.

 

[trents]

Boy, your dram fequency at 260 is high! But if its stable at that, why not go with it. Your HT Link may be okay at somewhat more than 1000. May go 1100. Who knows. Your system has already surprised me!