• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Finally cranking a 940BE ...

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
I was never really worried about HDD speeds. I run RAID1 and RAID5 as a security measure but that's it. Most of my rigs run IDE's, no hassle with O/S installation and no problems anywhere else. KISS works for me.

If I ever do find a game that really needs all that HDD speed I'd probably upgrade RAM instead (more and faster), or failing that, use a single VelociRaptor dedicated to that game and virtual memory only ... :)
 
Last edited:
HDDs cry when you use Vmemory. I hear their pain, and it hurts me so...
 
Exactly! :thup: I really hate the sound of vMemory rattling an HDD - always have. In fact, I generally fix my vMemory file size so Windows can't change it, that's been a performance tweak since Win95. ;)


A VelociRaptor and/or RAID0 might be nice for some things but if you need it just to run a game it's time for Vista and more/faster RAM!! :) There are whole (modern) games that will fit into 4Gb and at this point I can't imagine anything that would hog up 8Gb. :eek:



Back to OC'ing:
I've been fritzing with this all day and have had reboot after reboot. I even went back to the 3600 settings and it would hold! :-/ But I think I've finally figured it out knock-on-wood (HINT: The reboot intervals have been getting shorter all day as the ambient has crept up from 21-23°C.) Details to follow tomorrow if I'm right ... ;)
 
Last edited:
I don't use Raid in my gaming machine, only in my sever. My system has only 160gigs (soon changing it to 1TB) Its all I needed till recently. I'm getting back into making movies with Fraps. ;)

Also I suggest the A-Data or Gskill RAM for the Phenom II. They seem to do a lot better when it comes to high overclocking.

So I loaded up OCCT for the first time. I notice that my 12v rail is currently running at 10v... I'm testing my system as of now. I was pretty sure the BIOS said differently but who knows, things could change from BIOS to OS state.
 
Last edited:
Rocketfish 700, BIOS says that i have 12.09v going to it. So it must be software.
 
Woah woah woah, back it up Dolk, true oc'er uses a multi? I say they are the fakes because oc'ing is to get more out of less and last time I checked, unlocked cpu's cost more :p.
 
I believe that everyday Newegg takes darts to a dart board and throws, and thus the price of that product for the day.
 
The minor instability I had was cured by several small tweaks and who knows which did what?

As the temps went up yesterday the reboots kept getting closer together so I suspected an environmental problem. I rearranged the half-shell so the PSU was pointed differently and added a Scythe fan to blow across the heatpipe radiator. This rig in it's earlier incarnation had a GeminII cooler on it - not the best CPU cooler out there but excellent for table-top rigs. With two 120mm horizontal mount fans the chipsets and RAM get some good cooling. I didn't realize just how much that meant until I stuck my finger down on the heatpipe radiator yesterday. It wasn't scorching by any means but it was too hot for my taste!

Secondly, when I built this rig I had to put the Corsair RAM in the 'B' slots because of their height v the TRUE. This didn't bother me so much but the nearest stick still had a hair of a lean to it - the TRUE was just a tiny bit in the way. I probably could have fixed that by removing the motherboard and adjusting the TRUE's position since there is a little bit of play in the exact mounting position, but once it's clamped down this thing won't budge a micro. Instead of going through all that I dug into my box of goodies and came up with a pair of 2x1Gb Geil DDR2-800CL4 RAM, low profile, and swapped them out for the Dominators. The Geil didn't OC nearly as well as the Corsair but at least they fit under that monster heatsink. :)

As a final tweak I increased the PCIe bus to 115 MHz. When I was cranking up my 9950BE on the 790GX board increasing the PCIe (actually, the on-board video core and GDDR speed) was the only thing that let me raise the clock speed above 210 so I figured I'd throw that in for good measure.

From all that I still had to lower the CPU speed down just a little. Here are the new bench results and a copy of the baseline benches as a reference. :)

3000 MHz
Everest (read/write/lat) 9479/3460/18.7
SuperPi (1M/2M) 23.015/0.55.30
SETI* 3076/6990
3DMark03 3083
Aquamark 4011/14397

3774 MHz
Everest 12455/3888/15.0
SuperPi (1M/2M) 18.406/0.44.359
SETI 3856/9227
3DMark03 4123
Aquamark 3927/17910


This is at 1.25 vddNB under SETI load and unless something radical happens it'll be my last tweak until it's under water:

attachment.php
 
That's 3DMark03. Considering the video card I'm using (7300LE) it seemed the logical choice. I couldn't find a place where the score was split between video and CPU. I know 3DMark05 and up have it but IDK where to look in 3DMark03. Since this rig isn't for gaming (yet! ;)) those benches were added for completion more than anything else. When that board becomes my main rig it'll be under water and have a 7900GTX plugged into it. Then I'll pull out my old 3DMark05 scores from when I built my current sig rig and compare them to the 940BE build ... :)
 
ok the odd question, did lowering the ht give you more room to overclock, I just saw your pics and thought maybe it could help my situation which I have been pondering about in another thread.
 
Hey! :welcome: to my 940BE thread! :)


No, 222 turned out to be the best this Geil RAM could do at CAS 4. The Dominators could run 960+ (240 MHz maybe more) at CAS 4, Geil could only do 888. Just that one little bump from 222 to 223 caused a BSOD in < 5 minutes! :eek: And RAM was the problem. Loosening the timings it would hold at 223 but the extra 17 MHz of CPU speed isn't worth the increased RAM latency IMO.

That's the whole point of using the higher clock speeds, adjusting the clock speed at all for that matter. CAS 5 @ 1066 is better than CAS 4 @ 800 - BUT when you can take CAS 4 beyond 860 (actually I think it's 855) you make up for lost ground and most DDR2-800 RAM will run much faster than that.

I did finally buy a pair of 1066CL5 sticks because, at the time, 2x2Gb of that was the best deal. But they're OCZ Plats and when I get them in the rig I expect to see good OC's. If I'm lucky I can learn to tweak them up to 1200. :) That's my next OC learning experience - tweaking RAM. It's got to be the toughest thing to do because there are a LOT of variables ...
 
I really must say the 940BE is the best chip I have owned. Everything unlocked, tons of settings and voltages to tweak&OC, run everything you throw at it effortlessly.
The price is right now more than ever. Reports of these guys for 160 at ZZF. IMO better off with a newegg mobo combo deal tho.

Keep clocking em up!
 
QuietIce said:
$170 ($167.99) unless they've dropped again - that's where I got mine ... :)
Click to expand...

It was on sale for 200 base when I got mine. Then I got it in a combo with the 130 dollar gigabyte 790gx from sig, which had a -$50 modifier. So I either got the chip for 150 or the mobo for 80.

I'm pleased as it is still a good deal by todays post-955 pricing, and I got it 2 months ago. I bought at a good time heh. I would have loved a 955 for the extra headroom, but once my heatsink arrives I'll have this baby running 3.7-3.8ghz 24/7. Which is nothing to scoff at 955 or not.
I would maybe have had a 4ghz 24/7 oc on a good 955 @Same voltage.

Even if I had a 955, I'd still go with my current mobo & ddr2. Can't beat 8gb of high quality cas5 ddr2-1066 for 100 bucks. The slowest ddr3 I would get would be 1600, which starts at 110@newegg for 4gb of some decent timing sticks. Also love the backup dx10 GPU/additional stream CPU, and the possibility of triple head, that comes with the 790gx chipset + my 4830.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Small voltage difference between two RAM modules from the same kit.
Replies
3
Views
225
Woomack
W
Y
Bought a GPU with scratched PCI-E connector. Chance it lasts?
Replies
14
Views
699
=XAF=AfterShock
=XAF=AfterShock
QuantumCookie
Mushkin Enhanced Redline DDR4 ECC 3600 16 CL, 1.4V, what to expect?
Replies
0
Views
597
QuantumCookie
QuantumCookie
QuantumCookie
Testing some computer fans
Replies
2
Views
443
Evilsizer
Evilsizer
G
Ryzen Only Runs stable on LLC medium
Replies
3
Views
790
trents
trents
Back