Help me OC a amd athlon 64 3200+

[Petrusim]

Hy, everyone. I am fairly new to overclocking so if you could help me

I've already oc'ed my cpu for 1o% (just pressed the auto oc in the bios)

The problem I have is that I don't know what values to change in bios.

Also I have stock cooling.

Here are the cpu z screens :











If needed I can go to bios and take a picture of it and than you can maybe tell me what values I should apply and to what I should aplly it.

​

 

[trents]

First of all, we can't help you unless you turn off the Auto OC wizard in bios. To mix auto and manual overclock controls is bad.

The easiest way to help you would be if you were to take pictures of the relevant sections in your bios that pertain to overclocking like the CPU and memory frequency and voltage controls. Then attach them with your next post.

The main things you need to be able to manipulate in bios are:

CPU frequency (also known as FSB or "Front Side Bus" and HT Reference)

CPU voltage (what we call "vcore" for short)

Memory Frequency (may be called DRAM frequency)

and also if possible:

HT Link Frequency

NB frequency (Also known as CPUNB frequency)


The basic idea is to increase the FSB, aka CPU frequency. Stock is 200 mhz and you now have it at 220. This makes the CPU speed up but also the memory and the HT Link and the NB frequency since they are tuned to the FSB.

Right now your memory frequency is exceeding it's rated speed of 400 mhz (CPU-z reports the memory frequency at half of the DDR spec). So right now your memory is actually running at 440 mhz since CPU-z shows the memory bus speed at 220 mhz which is half of the DDR transfer rate. This likely will cause instability since the memory capability is being exceeded. So the first thing you need to do is go into bios and lower the memory speed from 400 to 333 to make some headroom.

Do you have Prime95 and HWMonitor downloaded and installed yet. If not, please do so. They are standard helper tools around here.

 

[Petrusim]

Okay will do so asap.

You are the dude that helped crazy cats right ?

 

[Petrusim]

Here are all the bios settings

https://imgur.com/a/Iy2h1

 

[trents]

I did a little editing in my first post since I realized you were working not with DDR2 memory but DDR so I changed those references from DDR2 to DDR.

Don't remember helping crazy cats. Maybe I did. I have worked a lot of people over the several years I've been participating on this forum and I can't keep track of it all.

 

[Petrusim]

So what should I change in here

https://imgur.com/a/Iy2h1

?

 

[trents]

Don't change anything yet in bios. The first thing you need to do is to run a 20 minute Prime95 blend stress test to check for core and CPU socket temps. Before you start the Prime95 stress test, open up HWMonitor on the desktop and leave it open during the test. Then post back with a pic of the HWMonitor interface so we can look at temps together. Those Athlon 64 90nm fab CPUs ran pretty hot. We need to see if you have any headroom to do much overclocking from a temperature standpoint. You don't want to fry anything.

Are you using the stock CPU cooler or a larger aftermarket jobber? Keeping temps down is critical to overclocking success.

Two other things:

Please attach pics directly with your post instead of linking them. You can attach up to three images per post but you can also group them together and make one image from them. If you have Vista or Win 7 you can use Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories for this. It's easy to crop the images with.

Please create a "Sig" to summarize your system information (hardware and OS version). You can refer to mine if you want guidance as to what we like to see in that. The Sig travels with every post you make and is really helpful to those assisting you. It's a common courtesy on the forum. To create a Sig, click on Quick Links at the top of the page and Edit Signature. You do not have access to this feature right away but will within one hour of your second post. So please keep that in mind. Tell us about your CPU, motherboard, memory, cooler, case, PSU, video card and case and your OS version.

 

[Petrusim]

39 minutes in prime 95, 0 errors and 0 warnings, hmwmonitor is in the attachment

 

[trents]

Just so you'll be aware of this, we know from experience that typically AMD CPUs start to become unstable when the core temp gets into the 55-60c range. Right now at stock yours is maxing out at 50c so there's not a lot of room for bumping up the CPU voltage ("vcore") which causes the temp to rise. Increasing the CPU frequency causes some temp climb but no as much as raising the voltage.

So here's what I suggest you do. First, go into the Advanced Tab and find Max Memclock. Take it off of Auto and set it to DDR 333. Save and reboot. Then increase the CPU Frequency in 10 mhz increments. Make no other changes at this time. After each 10 mhz increase in CPU frequency, run the Prime95 20d minute stress test with HWMonitor already open as before. Repeat this cycle until you cannot pass the Prime95 20 minute stress test, meaning you either get blue screen, spontaneous restart or lockup. Then go back and lower the CPU Frequency by 5 mhz. and repeat the test. Post back with pics of HWMonitor from the last stress test passed and CPU-z tabs: CPU and Memory. Then we'll go from there. Watch core temps and don't let them exceed 65c, though I doubt you'll still be stable at that temp.

 

[Petrusim]

Stable at 2.45 ghz fsb is 245 cpu frequency is 115 and voltage is 1.52 max.

Max temp is 63 degrees and i've run prime for 1 and a half hour, the max was 63...

Should I change something or is this a sucess

 

[trents]

From a temperature standpoint you are about to the limit. I would not add anymore vcore. And from a memory frequency standpoint you are now back up to the rated frequency of your ram plus a little more. I'd say you are at the sweet spot for your system and I would call it good. Is a bigger better cooler in your budget?

 

[||Console||]

Even with better cooling you are getting to the end of those chips . I was playing with one last night on water and Delidded with that same Mb I was maxing out @ 2.5ish with 1.66v.

I ended up killing that chip this morning so been playing with a old 4400+ today =)

 

[trents]

Yeah, he's probably close to the end of the CPU's capability but just to get the temps down for the sake of reducing the wear and tear on the system would seem to have value as long as you don't have to sink much into a cooler.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rocketfish-...?pt=US_CPU_Fans_Heatsinks&hash=item3ccbd05c7f

 

[Tech Tweaker]

I did a little editing in my first post since I realized you were working not with DDR2 memory but DDR so I changed those references from DDR2 to DDR.

Don't remember helping crazy cats. Maybe I did. I have worked a lot of people over the several years I've been participating on this forum and I can't keep track of it all.

He's referring to this thread.

Oh, and on the topic of this thread, I'm a little concerned about the wild voltage variation I'm seeing in your Hardware Monitor screen shot (1.38-1.47V). The 1.49-1.54V is better, but still more Vdroop (Voltage Droop) than I'd like to see. Don't recall my A8N SLI Deluxes' doing that. Hmm...

Do you have Cool 'n Quiet enabled, or have some sort of software overclocking going on?

Is your CPU voltage/CPU Vcore set to Auto or Default? If so, you should set it manually to your desired voltage. EDIT: saw your second set of screen shots, looks like you're setting them manually.

Oh, and as others have mentioned if you want to go much further you'll want to upgrade your CPU cooler/heatsink to something higher-end. Jeez, those temps are scary-high, anytime I get much past 54°C it's time to shut the system down and re-evaluate the overclock, voltage, or cooling in use.

 

[trents]

I think those 90nm A 64's would take heat a little better than the newer AMD CPUs . . . and they would certainly put it out, too.

 

[Petrusim]

Nah I am getting a new intel core 2 duo e6750 so I just wanted to max this pc a bit better.

25 % is great everything is running faster.