The Twin Towers (Two Identical Opty 165 Overclocks)

[Amrathe]

Here's an update on my new Opteron 165 build. For those of you who didn't see my first post, I bought 2 identical systems. (One for me, one for my wife)

Parts Used
CPU - Opteron 165 CCBBE 0616XPMW
Memory - OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K (2x1GB 3200 [email protected])
Motherboard - DFI LanParty uT-D (For $86 each I couldn't pass it up)
Video Card - ATI X1950 Pro PCI-E
Power Supply - OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W
Case - NZXT Zero Black/Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case (yes, 8 FANS!!!! Mmmmmmmmmmmm OC Goodness!)
Sound Card - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 70SB073A00000 7.1
Heatsink - Stock (That thing looks like a BEAST)

Let me make a few comments about my components overall.

The first thing that struck me was the high gloss paint job on the case. The only downside is FINGERPRINTS.

7 120mm fans (4 side panel, 2 rear, 1 front) and 1 80mm fan (top) come preinstalled with the standard 4 pin 12v connector. As expected in a Full Tower case there was alot of room to work in and ample space for my fan controller (which wasn't needed as I'll explain shortly) The only downside is one of the rear 120mm fans blocks the installation of the DFI audio module. This isn't a problem for those of us who add a sound card, but for others it will be a consideration.

The Case has front panel connectors for Headphone, Microphone, USB, and Firewire. The internal connectors support 3 different pin configurations. HD audio, AC97 audio, and the standard loose pins.

The OCZ Powersupply had cables, cables, and more cables. There is a nice 120mm Blue LED fan mounted on the bottom and it has a nice flat black paint job.


The stock AMD heatsink on BOTH Opterons was pretty ugly, so I had to lap them before installation.

I was shocked when I finally got it all assembled and powered the system on. It was nearly SILENT. Those 120mm fans barely even made a whisper (my DVD burner makes more noise) and with 4 of them on the side blowing fresh air into the case temps were not even remotely a problem. Even the OCZ PSU is nearly silent. It's one hell of a change after my old 120mm Sunom Configuration.

Initial Specs
[email protected] = 1.8Ghz (x5)2000HT
2-3-2-5@200 1T 2.6v (Ram)
26c Idle
30c Load
One note on Room temps - I don't have the exact room temps for a baseline. I know the room is warm enough for short sleeves, even in the winter. (The wife blames it on the 5 Desktops and 1 Laptop I always have running)


First thing I did was crank up the CPU and tweak the memory to run 1:1 (Both Systems)
[email protected] = 2.25Ghz (x4)2000HT
3-3-3-8@250 1T 2.7v (Ram)
27c Idle
32c Load
Everything booted fine and I did 12 hours of solid gaming with no failures. (FEAR with all details max'd, Oblivion all details Max'd, Neverwinter Nights 2 all details Max'd). Ran a nice 14 hour MemTest86 when I was done and came up with no errors.

Next step was cranking my CPU higher leaving the ram alone for now, I want to see where this CPU Caps. My wife wants me to leave her overclock alone until I finish mine. (She doesn't want me to split my attention and mess something up.. lol)
[email protected] = 2.7Ghz (x3)1800HT
3-3-3-8@270 1T 2.7v (Ram)
29c Idle
36c Load
3DMark05 (Ran it for grins) - 10900 Vid/8400 CPU
Wow!! This thing is a champ with Stock Volts and Cooling! (I am convinced it is the 4x120mm Side fans keeping it nice and low) Ran a few hours of prime with these settings, no problems. Then ran another few hours of solid gaming. (Once again with all settings max'd). Not one glitch, crash, or problem. MemTest once again before bed to verify those memory settings. (14 hours with no errors as of this morning)



So far this system has been nothing but impressive! That OCZ ram seems to handle the abuse like a CHAMP. And the CPU is NUTS. 2.7 on air with stock voltage and only 36c load. Of course I don't call it fully stable until I do 24 hours of Prime95 and 24 Hours of Memtest, but so far so good. (I will do full stability testing when I feel I am near the upper limit)

I've set myself a limit of 1.45v or 50c (load) on the core. I figure I don't want to exceed either of those on air. (I wonder which one I will hit first).



I welcome everybodies comments, questions, concerns and will keep people updated on both systems.

 

[||Console||]

Nice job . 2.7 on stock volts . Seeing nice ocs liek that on stock volts makes me wish i had got a opti over the x2 i desided on.

The stock HSF's are they the heat pipe versions or the reg AMD hsf's ?

Have you try to post @ 3ghz ? =) I found on my old 3200+ that if i took the stock fan off the hsf used a 60 to 80mm adapter it droped my temps so i wonder if you could do somthing liek that only jump up to a 120mm fan ( since you seen to like the low noise aspect)

 

[Amrathe]

The stock cooler that came with my Opty's both had heat pipes.

It's actually a beast of a Stock HS.

 

[||Console||]

Yea my 4400+ came with that hsf ( I never installed it ) it looked pretty good. I gave it to my friend to run on his am2 system .

 

[ryboto]

if those fans are spinning above 1k rpm, i really doubt the system is quiet. Then again, it's all relative, you'd probably think my system is silent, but I can still hear wooshing from the hardrives enclosed in scythe Quiet Drive's. And 700W psu??? Talk about overkill. To each his own. Nice initial OC btw.

 

[benbaked]

Awesome builds, cool name. I want to see pics.

Have you pushed the CPU any higher? 2.7 at stock voltage is good, you might be able to net another 150 MHz with the stock heatpipe sink.

EDIT: I think you'll be close to 50c load temps at 1.45v, if not hotter. These dual cores heat up a bit more quickly then singles when fed additional voltage.

 

[Amrathe]

I don't have any of the 120's hooked into the board for Fan speed monitoring. They are all hooked to my Controller.

True, noise levels are relative but those fans are REALLY quiet. My DVD spinning up and HD writing are much louder than those 8 fans. (I would bet they are low RPM).

And the 700w was the wifes choice of PSU's. She would rather have the extra power than come up short. (It also allows us to add a second video card later + power to spare). Plus you can bet when the DX10 vid cards come out they will need beefy PSU's, especially if you put 2.

I haven't tried any higher than 2.7 yet. I am taking it slow.

Tonight after work I plan to try 310x9 and see how it goes. I will keep upping the CPU until I hit 1.45v or 50c under load. (gives me another 13c to play with)


Pictures will be forthcoming when the wife's new camera comes in (SLR)

 

[Amrathe]

Now here is a question for all of you Opteron 165 Veterans. (This is my first A64 overclock)

Right now I am running 270@3-3-3-8 on the memory.. Would I get more real world results lowering the divider until I could get back to 2-3-2-5? Or stick with the higher memory clock?

I've searched around and some say the memory speed doesn't really matter much and it is CPU speed that counts.. and others say get the memory as high as possible?

I technically could try both, but I am stuck at work (That damn paycheck again) and can't tweak my box to find out. (and it always helps to do your homework)

 

[ryboto]

Now here is a question for all of you Opteron 165 Veterans. (This is my first A64 overclock)

Right now I am running 270@3-3-3-8 on the memory.. Would I get more real world results lowering the divider until I could get back to 2-3-2-5? Or stick with the higher memory clock?

I've searched around and some say the memory speed doesn't really matter much and it is CPU speed that counts.. and others say get the memory as high as possible?

I technically could try both, but I am stuck at work (That damn paycheck again) and can't tweak my box to find out. (and it always helps to do your homework)

Do you have memtest? you can use that program to test your ram, but it also tells you the bandwidth of your ram at the speeds you have it set to. More bandwidth is the key. For instance, if you can increase the frequency of the ram, and keep somewhat lowered latencies, and you might see increased bandwidth compared to lower latencies at stock speeds. Well, then again, it depends on how much faster you can push the ram. Try memtest, you can get an iso for a cdrom, make the cd, reboot, and memtest will load, just make sure cd-rom has boot priority. This is the only way I know how to quickly see theoretical memory bandwidth, I haven't seen a calculator for it. If i'm curious how fast my ram oc is, i'll put in my memtest cd, see the bandwidth, and reboot.

 

[Amrathe]

. Try memtest,.

Mmmmm.. Got to love the DFI lanparty boards..

MemTest86 is built into the BIOS. Just enable it and it boots right in!

 

[Amrathe]

UPDATE

Okay.. An update on The Twin Towers..

I made a mistake on my stock voltage.. it was 1.35 instead of 1.3 (I hate doing things from memory.. lol)

Last night I upped the Overclock again. I had to up the voltage this time because Orthos kept crashing.

New Speed
[email protected] = 2.88Ghz (x3)1920HT
3-3-3-8@265 1T 2.7v (Ram) (5/6 Divider)
29c Idle
40c Load

As of this morning when I left for work it was 8 Hours Orthos stable at 40c. I will check it when I get home and see about overclocking from there.


Anyone think I will make 3Ghz on air and still have voltage under 1.45 and 50c load?

 

[InfiniteThought]

I have a similar system.

My memory will run 270Mhz at 3-3-2-5 timing. I get around 7 GB of bandwidth, but it has no signifigant impact on practical benchmarks, like photoshop or 3Dmark.

Max out your Opties that's where you'll find the maximum performance.

 

[Amrathe]

Another Update!

I've pushed my chip even higher, but it looks like I am at the end of my overclock.

Current Speed
[email protected] = 2.925Ghz.
3-3-3-8@270 1T 2.7v (5/6 Divider)
32c Idle
42c Load

It ran stable all weekend but I didn't have time to do a true stability test until last night. As of this morning I had 10 hours of Orthos Stable and if it is still running after work I will call those settings good.

I had to booting to windows at 3Ghz (333x9)@1.45v but it would only do 2 hours of Orthos before Core 1 failed. I might be able to make it stable at that speed if I pushed the voltage higher, but that would exceed my self imposed limit of 1.45v. (Don't want to risk fried processor). The temps at 1.45v under load only reached about 42-44c.

Once the orthos shows it is stable I will post screenshots with full benchmarks/settings/temps and some Pics.

Then it will be time to start overclocking my wifes Tower (LAW). We are aiming for 2.7Ghz with hers. (should be quite possible since she has the same exact parts I do)

 

[Amrathe]

Well, I only made 20 hours 58 Minutes of Orthos before failing..

So I upped the voltage again. Running another Orthos test. Hopefully I can make 24 hours and call it stable.

Then I will get all the benchies, screenshots, and temps for everybody.

 

[||Console||]

nice oc's I would say worry about temps more tham volts even when I run @ 1.6v as long as load is under 55 then I feal that im ok . 1.5-1.55 might make 3ghz stable for you = )

 

[satandole666]

Just curious, but what are you using to get your temps? nTune for me says about 43-44c load at 2.7...but Core Temp Beta says 54-55c. A big difference, and I trust Core Temp Beta just a bit more. If you're temps are THAT low I'll have to rethink my case's airflow, as I'm using an XP-90c (I "hope" that's better than the stock cooler) and I'm significantly warmer than you depending on the source.

BTW, nice OCs.

 

[Amrathe]

I use Speedfan and MBM to get my temps generally.

The advantage on my airflow is the 4 120mm fans on the side panel that blow cool air directly onto the motherboard.

 

[benbaked]

You should try CoreTemp and see what it displays your temps as.