- Joined
- Jan 3, 2012
Wakirimas Forum Brothers,
I am ready to start the overclocking of my XP3200. As my mutliplier (11) is locked my only option is the FSB. See my rig sig below for the particulars. I have read a great deal in these forums and believe I have the "standard" overclocking protocols down. I would like to adress them here to make sure I understand correctly and do not have any misconceptions.
My FSB allows a maximum selection of 233MHz which would translate to a max overclock of 2.563 GHz (even by modern standards a 16% increase shouldn't be too shabby). I realize that by raising the FSB I'll also be raising the memory speed. With the cpu and ram both overclocked that could make troubleshooting a problem as one or both could have caused an overclock failure (reboot etc.). So this is my plan:
1.) I programmed an excel spread sheet that shows my effective cpu FSB overclock speed (406-466) with my effective ram speed for each of my DRAM ratio settings (1.20/1.25/1.33/1.50/1.67/2.00). Ideally I would need a 1.17 to be 1:1 with my max cpu overclock of 466MHz. However the lowest I can go is 1.20. This means that my RAM will run just a little slower at 388.34 instead of it's rated 400. Am I correct in assuming that since the RAM is underclocked that would remove it as a possible source of failure when overclocking?
2.) Assuming that I have RAM removed as a factor per the above I can now start raising the FSB (once I've set my DRAM ratio to 1.20). The standard method is to tick up the FSB one increment at a time and then test. If there are no failures then repeat the process until there are failures.
3.) As I want to go all the way to 233MHz I do no want to drop the FSB back down so I need to add voltage to my VCore to achieve stability. My VCore settings range from 1.550V to 1.800V in .25 Volt increments. Standard practice is to raise the VCore one increment at a time until stability is reached. I also have a VCore option "H/W" (hardware). This allows the motherboard (I assume) to regulate the voltage. Does this H/W adjust for the overclock or is it useful only for non-overclock settings? It would be nice if it did the overvolting for me.
4.) If stability is achieved in #3 then it's back to raising the FSB and repeating the steps over and over until maximum overclock is reached. This assumes that temps are within acceptable range. My office is in the garage and as such it stays pretty chilly out here this time of year. My CPU is typically 36C at idle and can climb to 60C under stressfull load (this is at the rate 2.2 GHz) and that's using a Thermaltake Copper Air Cooler. The max temp listed for my XP3200 is 89C. According to my manual my motherboard has a Thermal Protection Mechanism that works on a Thermal Sensor signal:
"If the mechanism senses an abnormal temperature rise, it will automatically shut down the system and the CPU temperature will drop down and resume normal."
Yes, you read that last bit right "and resume normal.". Normal what? Operation I assume - when you turn the PC back on. Seems to me this "abnormal temperature rise" could be semantically important. Does this mean overclocking temps or does this mean the rate of increase? This feature is only available with the Athlon XP series chips.
5.) Finally about the voltages themselves. I have been using MSI's PCAlert4 (no longer supported by MSI) to view my temps, voltages, and fan speeds. I have read commentary from some PCAlert4 users that the readings are not exact or true. Is there a utility that you guys would recommend for montioring those statistics?
PCAlert never came with any documentation - I guess they felt it was intuitive. There are sliders above each category that change the values (displayed on the slider). The left one says VCore min. threshold and the right one says VCore max. threshold. If you move the max. threshold higher the displayed number goes higher. The max. threshold goes all the way up to three volts. All voltage, temp, and fan speed readings have these slider readings for threshold. There is a sound warning that is connected to these. My guess is these sliders serve no function other than to sound the alarm when a parameter is outside of the slider ranges you've set. I don't think I can adjust any BIOS values in PCAlert4. If anyone knows more about this program I'd like your input.
FYI current PCAlert4 values are VCore=1.63, 3.3V=3.31, +5V=5.0, +12V=11.88. These voltages do fluctate a tiny amount when I'm idle which I assume is normal.
As always gentlemen I welcome confirmation or correction as my post may require.
Sincerely,
Old School Ninja
So if I overclock to my max FSB of 466MHz to maintain
I am ready to start the overclocking of my XP3200. As my mutliplier (11) is locked my only option is the FSB. See my rig sig below for the particulars. I have read a great deal in these forums and believe I have the "standard" overclocking protocols down. I would like to adress them here to make sure I understand correctly and do not have any misconceptions.
My FSB allows a maximum selection of 233MHz which would translate to a max overclock of 2.563 GHz (even by modern standards a 16% increase shouldn't be too shabby). I realize that by raising the FSB I'll also be raising the memory speed. With the cpu and ram both overclocked that could make troubleshooting a problem as one or both could have caused an overclock failure (reboot etc.). So this is my plan:
1.) I programmed an excel spread sheet that shows my effective cpu FSB overclock speed (406-466) with my effective ram speed for each of my DRAM ratio settings (1.20/1.25/1.33/1.50/1.67/2.00). Ideally I would need a 1.17 to be 1:1 with my max cpu overclock of 466MHz. However the lowest I can go is 1.20. This means that my RAM will run just a little slower at 388.34 instead of it's rated 400. Am I correct in assuming that since the RAM is underclocked that would remove it as a possible source of failure when overclocking?
2.) Assuming that I have RAM removed as a factor per the above I can now start raising the FSB (once I've set my DRAM ratio to 1.20). The standard method is to tick up the FSB one increment at a time and then test. If there are no failures then repeat the process until there are failures.
3.) As I want to go all the way to 233MHz I do no want to drop the FSB back down so I need to add voltage to my VCore to achieve stability. My VCore settings range from 1.550V to 1.800V in .25 Volt increments. Standard practice is to raise the VCore one increment at a time until stability is reached. I also have a VCore option "H/W" (hardware). This allows the motherboard (I assume) to regulate the voltage. Does this H/W adjust for the overclock or is it useful only for non-overclock settings? It would be nice if it did the overvolting for me.
4.) If stability is achieved in #3 then it's back to raising the FSB and repeating the steps over and over until maximum overclock is reached. This assumes that temps are within acceptable range. My office is in the garage and as such it stays pretty chilly out here this time of year. My CPU is typically 36C at idle and can climb to 60C under stressfull load (this is at the rate 2.2 GHz) and that's using a Thermaltake Copper Air Cooler. The max temp listed for my XP3200 is 89C. According to my manual my motherboard has a Thermal Protection Mechanism that works on a Thermal Sensor signal:
"If the mechanism senses an abnormal temperature rise, it will automatically shut down the system and the CPU temperature will drop down and resume normal."
Yes, you read that last bit right "and resume normal.". Normal what? Operation I assume - when you turn the PC back on. Seems to me this "abnormal temperature rise" could be semantically important. Does this mean overclocking temps or does this mean the rate of increase? This feature is only available with the Athlon XP series chips.
5.) Finally about the voltages themselves. I have been using MSI's PCAlert4 (no longer supported by MSI) to view my temps, voltages, and fan speeds. I have read commentary from some PCAlert4 users that the readings are not exact or true. Is there a utility that you guys would recommend for montioring those statistics?
PCAlert never came with any documentation - I guess they felt it was intuitive. There are sliders above each category that change the values (displayed on the slider). The left one says VCore min. threshold and the right one says VCore max. threshold. If you move the max. threshold higher the displayed number goes higher. The max. threshold goes all the way up to three volts. All voltage, temp, and fan speed readings have these slider readings for threshold. There is a sound warning that is connected to these. My guess is these sliders serve no function other than to sound the alarm when a parameter is outside of the slider ranges you've set. I don't think I can adjust any BIOS values in PCAlert4. If anyone knows more about this program I'd like your input.
FYI current PCAlert4 values are VCore=1.63, 3.3V=3.31, +5V=5.0, +12V=11.88. These voltages do fluctate a tiny amount when I'm idle which I assume is normal.
As always gentlemen I welcome confirmation or correction as my post may require.
Sincerely,
Old School Ninja
So if I overclock to my max FSB of 466MHz to maintain
