Overclocking question for athlon 64 3500

[Goldstandard]

Hi, this is my first post, and I just got this new socket 939 system with an athlon 3500 and ASUS A8V. (Heck, are there any other mobos for 939...) I got the retail box with a stock heatsink and fan, I used that but removed the preapplied paste, using artic silver 5 instead. I have it at vcore 1.6 oc'd to 2420MHz with 220 fsb. It idles at 47c and in prime95 it runs at 60c. I am new to building computers and overclocking and I was wondering if my temps are safe or if I should get a better fan, because I will stop at this speed for now. I think it is cool to get my cpu up to the level of a 3800 for the price of a 3500, but I am afraid of breaking something if I push too hard.

 

[Sjaak]

I dont know if the readings are correct (asus differences?) but 60 is a bit on the high side, but no danger imo.

 

[Goldstandard]

Ok, cool. Any heatsink recommendations?

One more thing I notice though is that when I use the BIOS of my A8V mobo to manually change vcore I always get an oc failed message on reboot. However, when I leave the vcore setting on auto it works fine, and selects 1.6 which doesn't work when I set it manually. Anyone experience this too?

 

[Goldstandard]

holy crap!

After setting my vcore back to auto the computer set it automatically to 1.8! I had a cpu temp of 84! I caught it before it was too late though, it is back at default speeds for now, maybe it is a bug in the bios.

 

[Sjaak]

Do you have the latest BIOS? also, do you have a PSU with enough power?

 

[Goldstandard]

figured it out

It turns out that I had to set the starting cpu speed to get the manual vcore settings to work right. I now have it set at stock 1.5v vcore and the temps are down to 46 idle 56 load.

I got it at 210 fsb now, and I will start pushing it again. I got an antec 480 psu and haven't updated the bios just yet. Need to reread the manual for flashing the bios through a boot disk because I can't get the stupid ASUS liveupdate to work. I definitely want a new heatsink now.

 

[9mmCensor]

Welcome to the forums.

 

[Goldstandard]

Thank you for the welcome!



I have now pushed it to 225 fsb. Still 46 idle 57 load, I think I lucked out getting this processor, it is overclocking quite well so far. Ok, now I MUST get a new heatsink, I want to see what this baby can do. I think the software monitoring is a bit off though.

 

[Yuriman]

I suggest an Slk-948, its one of the best A64 heatsinks right now. Try svc.com, they should have it. Grab an 80 or 92mm fan and slap it on top.

Btw, the 3200+ socket 754 outperforms the 3500+ in some tests, because they are the same clock speed but the 3200+ has more L2 cache. It should be interesting how having less cache affects your overclock though.

 

[Goldstandard]

Alright, I maxed out

On standard 1.5vcore, though. I find that if I push the fsb past 128Mhz it won't boot, which is odd because I was able to boot at 130 on stock voltage but got errors, and when I tried going back on a higher vcore it wouldn't boot.

Thanks for the heatsink tip, is it easy to install? They recommend a delta fan but I want something quieter. Does a higher FSB reduce a processors lifespan or just vcore?

 

[Yuriman]

To my knowlege, higher fsb does not kill your cpu. The heatsink is fairly easy to install, but it takes more than the stock sink. You dont have to worry about crushing your core, so dont worry. For fans, I would suggest a 92mm Enermax adjustable fan.

Btw, when you say 128fsb, you mean 228 right? And A64's realy dont have fsb. People call it the HTT bus now, or hyper transport bus.

 

[Goldstandard]

Oh, right. I did mean 228. I have been up all night working on this rig...

 

[Yuriman]

I bet. When I set up my shuttle, the orange juice I had placed a curse on me and my friend. Long story short, all 4 of my PC's went down at the same time for no reason, and I couldnt get my XPC to work. Took me 18 solid hours of work to fix it all. Has your day beem similar?

 

[Goldstandard]

Well, my day hasn't been that bad. Most of my trouble was figuring out how to work the BIOS. I finally got it, so I was able to configure vcore manually. The stupid auto mode set vcore too high, and made my cpu hotter than it needed to be. It now runs cooler overclocked than it did at stock speeds with automatic settings. I also spent time getting benchmarks up and running. The sandra benchmark had me doing better then an FX53 overclocked (Though I think it was for the 940 not 939.) I had to kick the speed down a notch because ut2003 crashed. I could have raised vcore but I want to wait till I get a new heatsink.

BTW, with that slk948 do I have to install a new mounting bracket and backplate or does it just mount on the stock one?

 

[Yuriman]

Im not sure if it can work with the stock mounting bracket, but it does have a backplate. Just take the current mounting bracket off if it doesnt and use the backplate.

Btw, what programs are you using to test stability? I suggest prime95 as a temporary tester, use it for a few hours, or Folding@Home which is something you run all the time. FAH helps find cures for diseases, we have a section of the forums dedicated to it. Anyway after about 2 hours if it doesnt fail, I think your safe.

 

[trueplaya4ever8]

I suggest an Slk-948, its one of the best A64 heatsinks right now. Try svc.com, they should have it. Grab an 80 or 92mm fan and slap it on top.

Btw, the 3200+ socket 754 outperforms the 3500+ in some tests, because they are the same clock speed but the 3200+ has more L2 cache. It should be interesting how having less cache affects your overclock though.

ahh a 3200+ is 2.0ghz if it has 1mb of cache and the 3500+ is 2.2ghz stock with 512 cache.. just thought i would let you kno.

 

[CandymanCan]

I have now pushed it to 225 fsb. Still 46 idle 57 load, I think I lucked out getting this processor, it is overclocking quite well so far. Ok, now I MUST get a new heatsink, I want to see what this baby can do. I think the software monitoring is a bit off though.

How can you have lucked out on the thing when no one here has a socket 939 we have no idea how they all overclock.

Run some benchies like sandra and stuff and post the pics i wanna see how much better they are over the 754's

 

[Goldstandard]

Here you go then.

Ok, I attached two sandra benchmarks. I had to resize because of the limits on this forum but I think they are still legible. Couldn't find data for athlon 64's so I used opterons as references.

 

[nycxandy]

What memory are you using with the 3500+?

 

[Goldstandard]

My memory is kinda weak, it is Corsair but it is the older kind of 3200 with cas 3 latencies. The timings are 3-2-2-5 and I let my mobo set them for me. I am not really in the mood to buy new ones for a while, at least they are stable when overclocking.