Troubles overclocking a K7N2 Delta with AMD Athlon XP 3000+

[moishetherabbi]

So, I've had my setup for a while now:
MSI K7N2 Delta
AMD Athlon XP 3000+
Two sticks of 512mb PC3200 DDRAM
More than adequate cooling with fans (I have lots of fans and my temps are always reasonable, CPU averaging 30 degrees celcius and case temp around 40-45)
GeForce FX5200 graphics card (128mb DDR)

Recently I've been messing around with overclocking. I started off by upping the FSB speed from its default 166mhz to 177mhz (my mobo lets me go up to 200 in intervals of 1mhz). But if I brought it any further, my system would become unstable and either crash in windows or simply not boot. Thinking I wasn't giving the processor enough voltage, I tried increasing the VCore voltage from it's standard 1.65v to 1.70v, but even such a small jump resulted in instability. Next I tried to bring the multiplier clock lower to increase FSB, but again more instability. I've been tampering with some of the other setting in BIOS, including memory timing, but seem to only end up causing more crashing and trouble booting. At the moment I'm running with my FSB at 177mhz, my CAS Latency at 3, and my other memory timings pretty relaxed. Everything seems to be running fine, however, when I run a stress test on Prime95, it immediately finds a hardware error and if I try to play any demanding game it will crash.

Is there anybody out there who can help guide me through the process of overclocking this system? I've gone through quite a bit of experimentation and have only been able to up my clocking speed from 2166mhz to 2303mhz, and with problems at that. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rseven]

I am not familiar with your particular board, but I do own an Asus A7N8x, which is an NF2 Ultra board. First, do you have your PCI/AGP bus locked. You would do this in the bios changing the default auto setting of your AGP bus to 66. Since you are underclocking your ram it can surely go higher. NF2 boards don't like timings to tight. You said you are running at CL3, but what are the rest of the timings? I would go very loose to star, 3-4-4-10, and you can always tighten them later. Also your temps sound backwards. How could your system temp be over 40 and your CPU is only 30. (My XP2500 doesn't even idle that low) What are you using to monitor temps? I suggest you use Motherboard Monitor. Also, what are you using to cool your CPU? Okay, I had more questions than answers. Good luck with it and report back.

 

[moishetherabbi]

temps and timings

So, I've been using PC Alert to monitor my system temps, but since those temps don't seem very normal I decided to try out motherboard monitor. But when I intalled mobo monitor, it read the same temps, 31C for my CPU and 41C for my system. Don't know what the problem is there, but when I reboot and check in BIOS it says 47C for my CPU and 45C for my case.
Anyways, I checked out my timings and it's 3-3-3-7, so you would recommend loosening those up more?
Also, I had tried unlocking the AGP bus. Its default is at 66 so I had tried bringing it up to 67, but this again seemed to cause instability. Should I be leaving it at 66 then or bringing it up?
To cool my CPU I still have the stock AMD heatsink (I know, not the greatest). It has never given me any problems, and I've read online that AMD actually included a pretty decent heatsink. I'm not really looking to push my PC to the very limit right now, I don't think my cooling equipment could really handle that, but I am looking to squeeze out whatever extra power I can without compromising the system.
Thanks for the quick response by the way.

 

[rseven]

So, I've been using PC Alert to monitor my system temps, but since those temps don't seem very normal I decided to try out motherboard monitor. But when I intalled mobo monitor, it read the same temps, 31C for my CPU and 41C for my system. Don't know what the problem is there, but when I reboot and check in BIOS it says 47C for my CPU and 45C for my case.
Anyways, I checked out my timings and it's 3-3-3-7, so you would recommend loosening those up more?
Also, I had tried unlocking the AGP bus. Its default is at 66 so I had tried bringing it up to 67, but this again seemed to cause instability. Should I be leaving it at 66 then or bringing it up?
To cool my CPU I still have the stock AMD heatsink (I know, not the greatest). It has never given me any problems, and I've read online that AMD actually included a pretty decent heatsink. I'm not really looking to push my PC to the very limit right now, I don't think my cooling equipment could really handle that, but I am looking to squeeze out whatever extra power I can without compromising the system.
Thanks for the quick response by the way.

I run my ram, which is HyperX with stock timings of 2-3-2-6, at 3-3-3-8. So, yes I would loosen them at first, at least to 3-3-3-8. I have heard many people going to 10 and 12 on the last timing.That 47 in your bios sounds like the real deal. Remember that your system is at idle and it's 47 so, it's probably hitting near 60 at load. That does not leave you much wiggle room. With those temps I would not add any voltage, but only OC the FSB a bit for a little more juice. You may get more bang out of your system using a lower multi and a higher FSB. NF@ systems run faster with with the FSB maxed. The later xp3000's ran at 10.5 x 200. I suggest trying an 11 multi and see how high the fsb will go without instability on stock voltage. Even if your overall CPU clock stays the same your system will run faster with the higher FSB.
Leave your PCI at 66 as there is no reason to OC the bus speed.
Good luck.

 

[moishetherabbi]

Sounds good, thanks. I've been thinking about looking into some better cooling for my comp. Any suggestions on a good heatsink and maybe slot fan?

 

[rseven]

Sounds good, thanks. I've been thinking about looking into some better cooling for my comp. Any suggestions on a good heatsink and maybe slot fan?

I never thought you'd ask.
The best solution is a Termalright SI97A.
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/thsiforamdat.html
You could pair it with a 92mm Delta 3 Blade low speed or a Panaflo. It's not cheap but it can be used on a lt of CPU's so, there is no need to discard it if you upgrade your system.

 

[moishetherabbi]

Ok, so I went back into BIOS and made the changes you suggested. When I dropped the clock multiplier, however, my monitor wouldn't turn on at boot and there was no beep to show that it was posting. I tried 11 at first, then 10, with the same results. As we speak I'm running my FSB at 175mhz. I know there must be some way to get the FSB all the way up to 200...

 

[rseven]

Ok, so I went back into BIOS and made the changes you suggested. When I dropped the clock multiplier, however, my monitor wouldn't turn on at boot and there was no beep to show that it was posting. I tried 11 at first, then 10, with the same results. As we speak I'm running my FSB at 175mhz. I know there must be some way to get the FSB all the way up to 200...

Stupid me, I never 'd you to the Forum.
It looks like your multi is locked. I had thought because it's a 166fsb 3000 that it was older and unlocked. That only leaves the FSB as your only alternative. That 177 may represent your CPU's limits on stock voltage.

 

[moishetherabbi]

Hmm, ok. So hopefully if I can get some better cooling on there I can up the voltage. Right now I've got the FSB at 175mhz, but when I run the stability test on Prime95 it finds a hardware error. As far as I can tell everything else is running pretty well. Any ideas of what its finding?

 

[moishetherabbi]

thanks for the welcome by the way

 

[rseven]

Hmm, ok. So hopefully if I can get some better cooling on there I can up the voltage. Right now I've got the FSB at 175mhz, but when I run the stability test on Prime95 it finds a hardware error. As far as I can tell everything else is running pretty well. Any ideas of what its finding?

Most likely the CPU can't handle it without extra voltage. There is really not hat much headroom in xp3000's and 3200's. They were already torqued up to get to their rated speed. I would caution you about investing money thinking you will get a greatreturn. Yes, you may get it to be stable at 175 to 180mhz, but I doubt you will get too much more out of it.

 

[moishetherabbi]

So even better cooling on the processor wouldn't be worth it in the long run?

 

[rseven]

So even better cooling on the processor wouldn't be worth it in the long run?

It depends what you are looking for. No, you will not get a huge performance increasefor your dollars, but people OC for the fun of it and aren't too concerned about the cost. Spending $45 for a cooler and a fan for 100 to 200MHz of clock speed? It's basically up to you. I have done stuff like that a few times, but I figure it's just money spent on a hobby and as long as I can afford it, it's okay.

 

[moishetherabbi]

Alright, I understand. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[rseven]

You are quite welcome, Moishetherabbi. Have a nice holiday.

 

[AlabamaCajun]

I know a lot of people dislike TT on this board but there Silent Boost is a super cooler as well as the Big Typhoon is better.

I'm glad to see this thread running. I'm trying to get my 3000XP to OC above 2.2 with little luck. I have not tried higher CPU voltages yet but I believe most of the problems are with the HyperX memory. I'm going to try to get 180FSB, 2.5-3-3-11 and 2.7 volts on the memory but I don't know what to hit the proc voltage.

 

[rseven]

Hey, AlabamaCajun. Your HyperX should not hold you back. With mine, even now that I'm running my board at stock, I still have the timings at the same 2-3-3-8 they were at when I OC'd it. Even though it's PC3200 running at PC333 speeds I can't tighten he timings more. As for my vcore, my board overvolts 0.07 volts so, when I'm at stock my voltage still reads 1.72. When I ran my rig at 11x200 I had to up the settings to 1.725, which gave me in reality 1.80 volts. Most of the Barton cores can hit XP3200 speeds, but from there they don't have much headroom. Good luck.

 

[AlabamaCajun]

What did you have your Hyperx voltage at?

 

[AlabamaCajun]

I'm realy surprised at how lousy the OC is on these Bartons. I've got that p4 at 3.2G/245FSB and my 64 at 225FSB. I just tried 180 fsb with 1.7V and it ran for 2 mins and locked up. Iv'e backed to 172 and memory as 2-3-3-8 and 2.75V. If this fails, I'll just leave it at 169 and call it a night.

edit: Finally dropped to 166 and set memory at 2-2-2-8, even at 172 it froze. I used to run it at 169 with loose memory timings but thats useless due to the wait states in the memory eating up he extra 50mhg I gained

Does'nt that statement go "Never eat on a (dry) stomach"

 

[rseven]

I have and had the ram voltage at stock. However, I used this ram with my A64 rig and got better clocks out of it at 2.85 vdimm. This isn't the tccd hyperx rated at 2-2-2-5, but rather it's the CH5 rated at 2-3-2-6.