XP-M 2500+ o/c Maturation

[Borgod]

Hey guys.
Ive managed to put some hard yards into overclocking my XP-M 2500+ from excaliberpc.com (IQYHA 0348XPMW)
Following is my experience with it, and comments/suggestions are welcomed.

My system –
Antec 1080AMG, 420 TruePower
Abit NF7-S v2.0
AMD XP-M 2500+
2x256 Corsair PC3500c2 BH-5
HIS Excaliber 9800Pro IceQ
160gig WD PATA

Firstly did some burning in with prime95 at stock speeds… no problems.
Then I set vdimm to 2.8 and vcore to 1.85 as I knew these were my limits I wanted and I wanted to fast track the process.

Set it to 9x200 and started increasing the FSB. The absolutely highest I could get the FSB to was 223. I had multiplier at 8 and my RAM timings were 2-2-2-11 and I even fully relaxed the RAM to 2.5-3-3-11 and also put vdimm to 2.9v and Windows still spat it above 223. So 223 was the magical number.

Then I started increasing the multiplier and started having troubles around 10x223. I lowered the FSB bit by bit until it would boot and run 3dmark01, 3dmark03, aquamark3 and a couple of sandra benchmarks complete. Everytime I had problems I would lower the FSB a little and it would usually solve the problem.

Right now, I had it Prime95 stable for 9 hours 15mins until I stopped it thismorning. 12x215= 2580Mhz
Im very happy with that, however I still feel I can get it over 2600Mhz, and closer to 2700Mhz with a little more work.
Tonight Im going to increase vcore to 1.9v, vdimm to 2.9v and relax the RAM timings a little to see if I can get that FSB up closer to 220. If it doesn’t make any difference I’ll try things with a multiplier of 12.5 and even 13 and lower the FSB even further to get more performance out of it.

Very happy with the heat aswell, no issues there. I have a Thermalright SP-97 with a 92mm Panaflo on top.
With a case temp of about 28degrees, at 1.85v its idling at around 38 degrees and has a full load temp of 45/46 degrees so happy with that.

I also installed tictacs modded BIOS lastnight, and at stock 133x14 there was an increase in all benchmarks.

I cant remember my exact benchmark results cause they’re at home, but for 3dmark01 I get about 18000 and 3dmark around 5600. Not bad with my stock 9800Pro that I think is underclocking it stock rated speed a fraction. Once I have the CPU oc’d to its maximum performance I’ll start playing with that too.

Any suggestions or comments to get it overclocked that little bit more?

 

[unreal]

cewl sounds like you have some good setup there, i hope mine does the same when i get it,

 

[wicked-one]

IMO, burn-in is a waste of time. Logically, it makes no sense and improper analogies are all you hear. Have tried it multiple times and never seen any improvements.

Then I started increasing the multiplier and started having troubles around 10x223. I lowered the FSB bit by bit until it would boot and run 3dmark01, 3dmark03, aquamark3 and a couple of sandra benchmarks complete. Everytime I had problems I would lower the FSB a little and it would usually solve the problem.

L12 mod should help you clear the 223fsb hurdle.

 

[mata2974]

Right now, I had it Prime95 stable for 9 hours 15mins until I stopped it thismorning. 12x215= 2580Mhz
Im very happy with that, however I still feel I can get it over 2600Mhz, and closer to 2700Mhz with a little more work

Good setup you have there. The hump you need to to overcome to go into the 2600-2700 range is WATER. In my opinion (humble) you have just maxed out all you can get from that CPU, plus that BH-5 ram, anything you will do now is just wasting your efforts. Go water and you will be cruising. I have the kinda same staff, except water gives me an edge, and with summer approaching, you will be happy.

 

[Biggles 266]

Obviously water cooling would be better, but by the same token liquid nitrogen really kicks water cooling's ***. It depends on how much you want to spend.

You probably have plenty you can do to tweak it a bit further. BH5 likes volts, lots of volts. As somebody mentioned, the L12 mod may well help you with your FSB. Some people get an extra 20 MHz or so on the FSB. That would take you to your 2.7 GHz then so it may be well worth the effort. Stickies in the Abit section of the Mobo forum.

Well done so far though.

 

[Borgod]

Thanks guys!
Im in Perth, Western Australia and about to head into Winter so I dont have to worry about the heat for another 6 or so months Its only gonna get better for me until then!

I decided long ago not to go water. Im going to stick to air and go as far as I can and then stop.

As of lastnight I am Prime95stable for 9 hours and still going, on 13x200 - 2600Mhz @ 1.875vcore.

Hopefully that will still be cranking along when I get home tonight and from there I'll incrementally increase the FSB and stop.

The L12 mod would be damn nice. I decided not to go that route a few weeks ago but Im thinking I wish I did... its a shame not to use the full capabilities of the BH-5.

I'll keep at it... Im determined to get closer to 2700Mhz at no more than 1.9vcore! Thats my absolute (revised) limit! hehe

 

[JigPu]

IMO, burn-in is a waste of time. Logically, it makes no sense and improper analogies are all you hear. Have tried it multiple times and never seen any improvements.

Likewise, and have seen some rather nice (not astounding) improvments.

As with all things, your milage may vary
JigPu

 

[mcoleg]

very nice o/c man

a couple of things:

bh5 can take more voltage than 2.8 safely, go for 2.9, that should give you around 3.0v in bios, which is a good 0.5 volt lower than most ppl run it at with volt mods.

do the L12 mod to gane some fsb. it's simple, safe, and reversable. should get you to about 235-240 fsb, which is worth it. vdd can go to 1.7 safely as well.

 

[Borgod]

Thanks mate

Im not convinced of the L12 mod just yet. Is it just the 2 wires?
From what Ive heard the L12 mod isn't that effective with mobile XP's.

Doesnt the NF7-S overvolt the ram? Motherboard Monitor reports 2.85v whereas BIOS is set to 2.8v.
The highest stable FSB I could get to was 8x223 @ 2-2-2-11 @ 2.8vdimm and I fealt the ram could go higher still, as when I fully relaxed the timing to 2.5-3-3-11 the FSB would still not go higher. Mobo limiting me there. The RAM has been unstopable
I also put vdimm to 2.9 and it made no difference.

I dont know anything about chipset voltage, will increasing this help me aswell do you think?

 

[mcoleg]

Borgod, you have an nf7s that goes to 223fsb, that means it has potential. some of the newer ones have problems going 201 .

L12 mode is a must on such a m/b. it's not the board that's limiting you, it's the way chipset reads the cpu. and it's ONLY good for the mobiles. to be honest, what's the point of setting desktop chips at 166 default fsb when they ARE 166 or even 200? mobiles are 133 by default.

ok, i couldn't break 227 on mine. i did L12 mode, it goes all the way to 244 stable now (i think memory is a limiting factor, i can post up to 262 and boot into windows at 251.)

and yah, it is just a thin wire that you put in two holes in the socket. here:

http://www.logan.eclipse.co.uk/abit_nf7_(s)_v2_0.htm

scroll down a bit.

increasing chipset voltage will help to get higher fsb as well. it's limited in bios to 1.6 or 1.7v, depending on what bios you are using. it's only .1 or .2 from the default, totally safe.

nf7s does overvolt ram a little but i would think it's a good thing seeing that the ram you are using is bh5 that really thrives on voltage.

 

[Borgod]

OK mate I'll give L12 mod some thought.
The thing is Im really happy with what I have now, although I know I'll be wondering what else it can do with higher FSB capability.

I might try to increase chipset voltage too, I havent touched that.
I am using tictac BIOS, from brief benchmark tests that has increased all scores at stock settings.

 

[CandymanCan]

Looking good, i just wish i had awsome overclocking memory, cuss before whe ni orderd a Geil Golden dragon pc3200 duel channle kit, one stick was broken, but the other i got to 241fsb and it was stable also.

With my current mem i can only get 215fsb max, But hey whe ni got my $200 back from the geil ram i got this samsung ram for only $120

 

[mcoleg]

one thing amd boards lack as compared to intel conterparts is a bus throughput so yah, when you are ready, you can get more speed out of your setup while cpu speed stays the same. it must be a good feeling to know that you actually CAN get more speed if only you want it, isn't it?
well, good luck man, if you get to high fsb let us know how went it

 

[elec999]

My xp2400+ is only booting at 200x11 max, no more. Is there any guides on the l12 mod and what it does. Any modding guides for Asus a7n8x-x. Sorry for getting in your thread.
Thanks

 

[mcoleg]

elec999, there's a large section on mods for asus here:

http://www.ocforums.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=44

seems it's a common problem, not getting over 200 fsb nowadays...

i am not sure L12 mode would work on asus as well as on nf7s though. i doubt it would hurt either so you just might go ahead and try.

this guide is for nf7s, it explains what L12 mod is:

http://www.logan.eclipse.co.uk/abit_nf7_(s)_v2_0.htm

 

[Borgod]

Update - Got home lastnight and was pleasantly surprised that it was still running with Prime95 at 13x200=2600Mhz for 19hours @ 1.875v. This is the highest Primestable overclock so far, but the lack of FSB is killing some of my benchmarks.

At its hottest it reached 50degrees at full load (by Motherboard Monitor, my thermal probe I placed millimitres away from the core read around 48) with case temp of about 33 I think. Not too bad, but I didnt think it would reach 50.

Lastnight I tried to prime stable it at 12x220 but crashed after 15mins.
Similarly thismorning at 13x205 it crashed right away, so I have set it to 13x202 and its running at home, hopefully still be going when I get home.

It seems like with my current configuration it wont clock any higher than about 2620Mhz and be stable.
Im still working on it but. I have a few things to try, like switch the dimms around and if Im feeling lucky I MIGHT try the L12 mod. Not sure about that one but.

 

[wicked-one]

I think OCForums would really benefit from some more stickies...

L12 mod will without a doubt will improve your fsb, borgod. To the best of my knowledge, I was the first to try it on the mobile, though definitely not the first to suggest it. NF7s will typically max out @ 220-223 without one. Mine will run 222 stable and 223 is the highest it will do period. Was initially found to work for the NF7s, but the mod does work on all nForce2 boards with the Ultra 400 chipset using default 133fsb cpus. Even DFIs may notice a slight increase. (only 1 - 3)

Was never able to test on my NF7, but it cleared up the same 10/10.5 multi issue on an Albatron KX18D Pro & 2400+ XP-M. Board would not run stable above 220 at those multis, but after the mod, the multi issues cleared up and was able to hit 252fsb stable!

Trust me, it's a proven solution, not voodoo. Suggest reading about it on a few other forums if you're not convinced. xtremesys has a sticky on it:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15300

 

[Borgod]

Big points to you for getting closer to convincing me to do it

Thanks for the link, I'll read up on what experience others have had with the mod.

 

[Borgod]

OK...

My highest overclocks without going overboard on voltage and thus heat is 1.876vcore. Lastnight I tried 12x218 and Prime95 crashed after 1 hour 15mins.
Ive now got it at 12x217 and it was going all night, so far Prime95 stable almost 10 hours
So looks like thats my absolute limit.

2604Mhz aint too shabby

Case temps are good. Prime95 Torture test for 10+ hours, and case temp=30deg, CPU temp=48deg
delta 18degrees aint too bad at 2604Mhz full load for 10 hours

If I get home tonight and its still going I'll be content to leave it at that, declaring 2604Mhz as my max overclock. 2700Mhz would of been nice but ahwell, not bad for my first ever build

Benchmarks lastnight on stock (slightly underclocked) HIS Excalibur 9800 Pro IceQ yielded 18900marks in 3Dmark01 and about 5900 in 3dmark03.

Now I'll start on the vid card and hopefully get deep into the 20,000's