Trying to get athlon II X3 425 stable at 4ghz

[Angry]

You might also try getting your HTlink up to match with the CPU-NB speed...it might allow a bit more room.

 

[keny]

Thanks QuietIce & Angry , that clears up the Nb issue , im going to crack on with your suggestions and see how i get on . Just hopeing the heat keeps off...

Edit : i raised the NB voltage .025 and it started ot 1.2v so plenty of room for that to go up .

 

[QuietIce]

So, just to get it straight, your CPU NB VID is set to +0.025 and that gives you a cpuNB voltage of 1.225v?

 

[keny]

So, just to get it straight, your CPU NB VID is set to +0.025 and that gives you a cpuNB voltage of 1.225v?

Yes thats correct , i tried loads of things last night (up til 2 am) and still could not get it to run stable , even raised the fsb and dropped the multipier , still no good . It was cold last night so my temps were never a problem. I was plagued with blue screen if you prime stayed running

 

[QuietIce]

Then my guess is your board is giving out on you. With so many BE chips available board manufacturers have little need to emphasize clock speed in their design/construction model. Have you tested this by lowering the CPU and raising the clock? If you can raise the clock and everything is stable then it's the CPU hitting it's top-end but if it's unstable even at a lower CPU speed then it's most likely the board hitting it's top-end.

Of course, that's the simple theory. In reality, you will have only eliminated the CPU as the source of the problem.

 

[keny]

Then my guess is your board is giving out on you. With so many BE chips available board manufacturers have little need to emphasize clock speed in their design/construction model. Have you tested this by lowering the CPU and raising the clock? If you can raise the clock and everything is stable then it's the CPU hitting it's top-end but if it's unstable even at a lower CPU speed then it's most likely the board hitting it's top-end.

Of course, that's the simple theory. In reality, you will have only eliminated the CPU as the source of the problem.

Before i started i checked my board and got it to boot up at a max 335 FSB before it gave up , any more ideas lol

 

[QuietIce]

A couple I'm not sure you've tried yet. You mentioned increasing the cpuNB speed but then we got side-tracked on the cpuNB voltage issue. Did you ever go back and try the faster cpuNB speed?

When you finally got the cpuNB voltage issue resolved did you go back and set the NB chipset voltage back to Auto?

You mentioned trying lots of HT Link speed options. Is lowering it to ~1400 (BIOS setting of 5X/1000 MHz) and increasing to match the cpuNB speed included in those options you tried?


Is the Row Cycle Time of your RAM still set to 21T? You might try loosening that to the 25T spec.

One more option you might try. With four sticks of RAM (you did increase the RAM voltage to 1.9v???) you're putting a lot of stress on that whole system. You might try increasing the Trfc to 126 ns or whatever the next option up from 105 ns is. Start by changing all but the first stick (Trfc0) then change it, too, if that doesn't work.

 

[Angry]

QuietIce, you need more stars....

May also try pulling two sticks of ram (while still keep dual channel) just to see if you are able to get the FSB up any higher.

It could be the CPUs limit, or cpu+board combo limit. Ive had single+ dualcores upwards of 350fsb on my board, but my 620 gets hairy around 310, even under subzero temps and no matter the multi or voltage.

 

[keny]

Thanks for your help guys , finaly got it to run stable at just over 4ghz , took me ages to find a setting that would run it but eventually got it cracked , but holy sh*t it gets hot fast , i had to run the FSB at 297 and the multiplier at 13.5 and changed the row cycle like you suggested ,and 127.5 for the last 3 sticks i ran my ht low at x6. I will probably knock it back down to 3.9ghz later to prolong its life as the vcore is loads higher (1.45v)to run 100mhz faster but just wanted to get it over 4ghz mark (cant let it beat me).Thanks again

 

[keny]

just a quick update on this one guys , new psu and cooler installed and got it to 4.1 ghz stable running 39 degs during prime . Is the max recommended vcore 1.5v for this cpu , as im at 1.475 to get it stable for longer than 15 mins on p95 , wonder if 1.5 would give another 100mhz (if my ram will take the overclock) .

 

[QuietIce]

just a quick update on this one guys , new psu and cooler installed and got it to 4.1 ghz stable running 39 degs during prime . Is the max recommended vcore 1.5v for this cpu , as im at 1.475 to get it stable for longer than 15 mins on p95 , wonder if 1.5 would give another 100mhz (if my ram will take the overclock) .

The 445 and 450 are both "AMD safe" at 1.50 vCore. No specific information on your 425 but I can't imagine it being much different.