Good voltage for Athlon 1700+ JIUHB week 0319

[enobiko]

I have an Athlon 1700+ JIUHB week 0319, that is currently overclocked to an easy 2GHz. That's 2400+ territory at 1.55 volts, as I want to keep the heat down. I am putting in an ATI 9800 Pro, and could maybe benefit from pushing my CPU further. I have an Epox 8RDA+, so can adjust voltages and etc... I can run about 190 fsb, but can't quite get it to 200, or Prime95 crashes. This is not the CPU, as it runs fine at 2.0 GHz at other fsb settings. Anyhow, I don't want to run the CPU on the ragged edge, requiring ever-higher voltages for just a few MHz more, but is there a sweet spot I should shoot for? I've done a lot of testing, and will probably do more, of course, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel.
So, nothing too high that would add stress to the mobo and heat (although I have a nice copper heat sink and fan, I like to run the fan slow and quiet.) Plus, the 300W Antec PS will probably be pushed pretty far with just the video card, I don't wanna add too much strain with goosing the CPU, etc. This motherboard doesn't have a whole lot of cooling capacity, no fan on the North Bridge, and I don't have the money to do so.

 

[Golflad]

I would run the cpus @ 11*200 for 2.2 for the cpu and the memory at its native speed. You could then possably lower the multiplier if you want and try to oc the ram beyond 200 fsb and push your components even faster unfortunately you will be the one to have to do all of the testing to find the "sweet spot" you can probably get these results @ arounf 1.6 to 1.65 on the cpu if you can hit 2.0 @1.55 maybe one step up on the ram I just push my thornton core 2200 to 2.2 Ghz and am happy plus for me to personally hit 200 fsb I would have to have my cpu @ like 2.2 V that is the problem with a super locked multiplier on a thornton. or reset my mem divider and get some ddr 400... but that is another story for another time.

 

[enobiko]

Preliminary results

My preliminary results are:
11.5X190 gives 2185MHz, or about 2600+ territory, at 1.5 volts. I ran Prime95 for 10 hours without error. The average temp in MotherboardMonitor 5 was 46 degrees.
12X190 gives 2280 MHz, and ran Prime95 for 2 hours before it crashed, at 1.625 volts. I think I MIGHT be able to get it to go at 1.65 volts, but it was running 52 degrees max temp with the CPU fan on high at 1.625 volts, extra voltage means more heat. So, that may be close to my max overclock.
So, the "sweet spot" for me seems to be around the 11.5X190. I can't get the memory error free at 200, I suppose I could now try for 195 (or 193 or 197) to see how far I can push the memory/motherboard. Then, see whether the CPU can take the extra few MHz, maybe adding another .25 volts IF necessary. BTW, the computer will NOT boot at the default 1.5 volts when overclocked, I found out when I tried dropping my memory timings from 8-3-3 2.5 to 7-3-3 2.5. The computer would not post and I had to reset the CMOS, which returned the voltages back to default! I suppose I could also try to move the FSB down to 183 and see whether I can get it to run with 7-3-3 2.5 timings, and run the multiplier at 12, whic would result in a slightly faster 2196MHz CPU speed. I could get the same speed by increasing my current fsb to 191... I don't know whether the lower memory timings would offset the fsb or vice versa. But, I'm happy, this is over a 50% overclock!

 

[johan851]

I have one of those chips, I think...my week might be 0310, I'm not quite sure. I always watercooled it, so I don't know what to tell you for the aircooling sweet spot, but I do have some data that might help.

My chip was a 1.5v chip, not a 1.6v, so it ran a little cooler to begin with. I could do 2000 easy at 1.6v, and 2.2-2.3 at anywhere from 1.65 to 1.7. After that I got pretty diminishing returns. 2550ish was ok at 1.95v, and I almost got it stable at 2.6ghz using 2.00v or so. If I were you, I would say to set your voltages (if temps were no issue) at 1.7, and see how high you can get it from there.

How old is your PC3200? Some of the older Corsair C2 stuff was BH-6 chips. If that's the case, you're in luck, and should be able to run 2-2-2-6 or so with it. Post the version # and we'll see. The ideal tRAS setting is 11 on an nForce2 board due to some oddity I can't fully remember. Don't worry about trying to get from 8 to 7 to 6...just set it at 11 and you should be fine. Double check with a memory bench program like Sandra and see if 11 gives you a boost over 7.

Your FSB problems are most likely related to your 8RDA+ board. Those were one of the earlier nForce chipset revisions, and the FSB didn't overclock well without a northbridge voltmod.