Newbie's Overclocking Guide

<DIV class=vb_postbit><SPAN name="KonaBody" udHBz="2" HMLiY="true"><B udHBz="2">I noticed many of our members are into overclocking so I thought it would be a good Idea to get a little overclocking thread going. Feel free to edit or add to anything on here:[/B]</SPAN></DIV><DIV class=vb_postbit><SPAN name="KonaBody" udHBz="2" HMLiY="true"></SPAN></DIV><DIV class=vb_postbit><SPAN name="KonaBody" udHBz="2" HMLiY="true"><B udHBz="2">[/B]</SPAN></DIV><DIV class=vb_postbit><SPAN name="KonaBody" udHBz="2" HMLiY="true"><B udHBz="2">Reasons to not Overclock[/B] <BR udHBz="2"><BR udHBz="2">1) Protection - Warranties are voided on almost all <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: #000080! important; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; POSITION: relative">CPUs</SPAN>, and some motherboards as well.<BR udHBz="2">2) Stress - More Stress on the CPU (and on all devices if you increase the FSB), can lead to a shorter CPU Life<BR udHBz="2">3) Heat - More Heat Generation from CPU (and RAM if you increase the FSB)<BR udHBz="2">4) Sensitivity - The heat sensitivity of your <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: #000080! important; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; POSITION: relative">system</SPAN> will be greatly effected. If you o/c in the winter and summer comes around, you might be forced to reduce your speeds because your system cannot work stably with the large change in ambient temperature.<BR udHBz="2">5) Efficiency - Increasing your cpu with overclocking doesn't increase it's efficiency at processing data. simply because some CPU's have many more optimizations, such as a full HT.<BR udHBz="2"><BR udHBz="2"><BR udHBz="2"><B udHBz="2">Reasons to Overclock[/B] <BR udHBz="2"><BR udHBz="2">1) Speed - Your CPU will perform more operations per second (and your <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: #000080! important; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; POSITION: relative">RAM</SPAN> if you increase the FSB)<BR udHBz="2">2) Ca$h - Who needs a to buy a "pricey" 1900+ when you can get a 1600+ for half the price and overclock it to the same speed?!<BR udHBz="2"><BR udHBz="2"><B udHBz="2">Safety Procedures[/B]<BR udHBz="2"><BR udHBz="2"><B udHBz="2">KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE[/B] - If you are trying to overclock, and you come in and post a thread saying "Help me overclock", we will only be able to help you if WE KNOW what motherboard, CPU, heatsink/fan, RAM, <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: #000080! important; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; POSITION: relative">operating </SPAN><SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: #000080! important; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; POSITION: relative">system</SPAN>, video card, and add-on devices you have. And the only way WE can know this is, obviously, if YOU tell us. So KNOW what you have.<BR udHBz="2"><BR udHBz="2"><B udHBz="2">UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE DOING[/B] - The term "Overclocking" is actually very general. There are several ways to overclock a CPU and other components. </SPAN></DIV><DIV class=vb_postbit><SPAN name="KonaBody" udHBz="2" HMLiY="true"><FONT face=Ve

 

<P align=center>AMD K8 Processors and the HT Factor<P align=left>UPDATED 7/12/2007-When overclocking K8 processors (socket 754,939,AM2) it is possible to achieve significant overclocks by manipulating the HT (Hyper Transport ) speed. The HT speed is determined by multiplying the FSB by the HT multiplier whichis set at a maximum of 4x or 800MHz for socket 754 and 5x or 1000MHz for 939 and AM2.Using my AMD 64 X2 3800+ socket 939 as an example we will examine how this is done. My first attempt at overclocking this CPU was successful but not paticulary impressive, by raising the FSB alone i was able to get it to 2.4MHz however no matter what i attempted thereafter i could not break the mark! No amount of voltage manipulation or CPUClock multiplier fiddlingdid a bit of good. At one time i had the FSB turned up to 300 with a 10x CPU Clock multiplier but still could not get over 2.4MHz. It was not unstable above that it just would not go. Finally i turned down the HT multiplier to 4x or 800MHzbacked down the memory timings to 2.5-3-3-7 pushed my Core Voltage up to 1.4 and using the default CPU Clock multiplier of 10x i was able to crank my FSB up to 275 then 285! I should also mention that this is onlow budgetcooling a $20 MassCool fan/sink (a big sink however i think it outweighs my case) 1-120mm fan out the back and a 80mm blowing through a tunnel right onto the CPU. No fancy watercooling or heat pipes.<P align=left>Currently my little $85.00 3800+ dual core is running nice and stable at 2.85Ghz and 36 degrees Celsius! That's a pretty decent overclock for an amatuer like myself. Remember take your time increase your FSB slowly and do your homework not all CPU's are created equal! Just because you have a 5000+ dual core w/a 333FSB stock DOES NOT mean you can crank it up from 2.6 to 3.0MHz without frying it!<P align=left>Rather thaneating up space in this topic i added some attachments at the bottom of this post containingimages ofcurrent benchmarks and specs.

 

<P align=left>7/12/2007 6:28 PM <P align=left>You got to pay to play an overclocking tragedy!-Today i managed to burn up4 perfectly good but fairly inexpensivesticks of RAM by pushing the envelope so be warned kids this is as first hand as you can get it overclocking can be risky! Never fear however this intrepid overclocker was not daunted and threw himself on the mercy of the "shade tree" computer tech. the next town over and was able to pick up 2 sticks of 256 and 2 of 512 for the money i had in my pocket. Not great but better than nothing for now. <P align=left>My current OC as of now - http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=216888<P align=left>Ran 40 passes of SiSoft Sandras burn-inthis morning and got up to 52C under full load pretty hot but she stayed steady. I doubt i will ever have herthat stressed again unless i am doing another burn-in so i'm keepin her there, may drop the voltage to 3.75 and see what happens.

 

Unfotunate to hear that - its always a risk when pushing harware to its limits.

Heres my current overclock:

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=smalltxt vAlign=top>


General Information :
Real Frequency :2410.16 MHz
FSB Frequency:241 MHz
Multiplier :10x

Initial Frequencies :
Frequency :2200 MHz
FSB Frequency :200 MHz
Multiplier :11x

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=smalltxt vAlign=top>

PC wizard 07 score:

Whetstone (x87 - Float.) :7292 MFlops
Whetstone (iSSE3 - Float.) :13792 MFlops
Dhrystone (iSSE3 - Int.) :19556 Mips

Computation of "Mandelbrot" (iSSE3) :11.762 sec.

To AmericanNightmare: I tried putting the multiplier back up to to 11x but vista would fail to start without a significant voltage increase. At which point the cpu fan was louder than normal trying to dissapate the excess heat. My system also became unstable and crashed. Reduced it back down to 10x multiplier where i'm most likely going to keep it.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

I have read a few places that the 4400+ and 5000+ plus tend to get unstable when trying to overclock them past 10% or so. But don't take that as gospel i go to the Newegg forum and there was some talk about people having problems pushing them very far. That's one reason i bought the 3800 they are very overclockable as is the 3600. I'm still at 2.85MHz and 36C as i type this i dropped down the voltage to 3.75 and i actually got a bit cooler with no stability loss i can tell. Another cup of coffee and i am going to shoot for 3.0 by dropping my HTto 400MHz, mytimings to 2-2-2-6/133mhz and bumping the voltage back up to 1.4V and of course cranking my FSB up to 300 and keeping the multiplier at 10x. I'll report back.

Looks like i have reached my ceiling with what i have maybe with some better RAM.

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=217161

Report Date: Friday 13 July 2007 at 16:26 - PC Wizard 2007 Version 1.73

&lt;&lt;&lt; Processor Benchmark &gt;&gt;&gt;

&gt; Whetstone (x87 - Float.) : 8503 MFlops

&gt; Whetstone (iSSE3 - Float.) : 16029 MFlops

&gt; Dhrystone (iSSE3 - Int.) : 25289 Mips

&gt; Computation of "Mandelbrot" (iSSE3) : 9.906 sec.

Put that in your 5000+ pipe and smoke it!

 

I was thinking about that last night and i know you said you would probably keep it there can't blame you really but if by chance you do wish to push it a bit faster i still think if you take your HT mulitplier down to 4x and set your RAM timings a bit slower while<U>leaving the CPUClock multi. at 10x</U>you can go faster. You may be thinking (of course i don't know) but you may be thinking you'll loose outby doing so but this is a give take operation here the increase in FSB speed should balance out what you took from your RAM and Hyper Transport speed. If you take a close look at that last OC of mine you will see what i am saying i think.

 

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=217398

Enough said.

 

Nice overclock!!!

I had a scare earlier today.

I started afresh with overclocking my CPU earlier today. Started to adjust memory timngs and CPU fsb together, and running some burn in between each adjustment. I was about to reach the same fsb as I had before, only to boot up to a black screen. I cancelled all overclocking and went back to defaults, to no avail. After hours of troubleshooting and trauling the web I stumbled across a situation simaler to mine. I get no picture when connecting DVI - DVI with my screen, but do when connecting DVI - VGA (using adapter). I got an older screen out and DVI - DVI does infact work fine, so Ithink my graphics card isn't the thing that broken, but my screen. All the constant reboots and resolution changes has broken something with the DVI port on the screen. Not sure whether I should start overclocking again, I dont want to break the VGA input or i'm f****d. Might start adjusting things again slowly over the next few weeks though.

The odd thing is my screen works DVI - DVI when no drivers are installed! (Safe mode, boot up, ms standard drivers are displayed fine over the DVI)Weird eh? Makes me think I may have crapped something up with my graphics card, but then why would it work on my older screen? The plot thickens....

ATI did put something in their knowledge base on the 12th describing a black screen issue what Ive got but the page i was looking at goes back to 2006.

 

I won't even pretend to knowwhat's going on there. What i can say as i don't OC my video card "anymore" i doubt you noticed but i was for a long time running a XFX Geforce 7600 GT and well..................now i have an EVGA so i leave the graphics cards alone now. I don't mind shelling out some bones for someRAM ( i have a source for cheap pulled DDR400 from my shade tree tech. buddy)but i don't like burning up my card b/c then i'm really screwed! I am a big fan of my old 20" CRT/VGA flat it has outlasted 2 LCD monitors on DVI so that's all i will say about that.

a little higher..

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=217780

 

The thing is I wasn't even overclocking my graphics card - even the pci express frequency was at its default 100Mhz. All that happend is I put the FSB of the CPU from 230 to 235 (lower than it was before as I was testing out memory timings). I know that the FSB does stress everything, but I had been using a higher FSB for over a year.

I think perhaps all that on-off from the computer broke the screen as it couldnt keep up. I dont have any other DVI computers to test out teh DVI in on the screen. None of my friends or grandparents have a DVI graphics card so i'm never gonna find out whether its the screen or the card ( which as I said earlier outputted DVI to a different screen ). Something is going on. I wish I knew what.

 

I will say thiswe need some competition around here! Come guys i know there are more of you than kingofnexus and i OC'ing out there,if your not a member sign up post your marks! Sure thisforum is geared towards Vistaso hey post your "Vista machines" specs that way we'll be true to form

 

I am willing to melt my P4 2.4 Ghz if it's necessary to win . Here I come 3.0Ghz!

 

That's the spirit! Way to lead by example Jason!

 

Since I'm making that desktop a server for the house, once I get Server 2008 Beta on it I will start to crank up the cpu and report back.

BTW Sever 2008 beta is free for anyone to evaluate right now.

 

still the reigning champ! Come on guys!



who needs a 5600+ ?



Report Date: Wednesday 18 July 2007 at 13:09



Processor Benchmark >>>



> Whetstone (x87 - Float.) : 8566 MFlops



> Whetstone (iSSE3 - Float.) : 16396 MFlops



> Dhrystone (iSSE3 - Int.) : 25356 Mips



> Computation of "Mandelbrot" (iSSE3) : 9.718 sec.





<<< General Features >>>



>> General Information

Processor : AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+

Frequency : 2000 MHz

Number of Core : 2

L1 Cache : 2 x 128 KB

L2 Cache : 2 x 512 KB

Total Memory : 1536 MB

Bus Speed : 289.9 MHz

 

Holy s***! Youve probably halved the life time of that thing with that high a FSB. Oh well, gives you an excuse to upgrade your comp when it finally gives up the ghost.

Update on theDVI situation, seems like its my monitor which has broken.

So lesson learned: In future NEVER BUY A VIEWSONIC monitor. :hehe:

 

I am sure of that but for 85 bucks who cares. Newegg has a 5600+ for $149.00 and i am looking at that right now no faster than where i'm at now but a bigger L2 so and 20 bucks less than the 6000+ i'll just OC the 5600 I don't care how fast or big the Intels are i refuse to go there! Even if AMD goes under one day you will just find me haunting the scrapyards for processors. I'm such a fanatic that the fact my mobo has onboard Intel Gb LAN irks me!



These old 939 Toledo's are pretty tough too. I have a fan up front now as well so i am staying around 30-32C,she'll be alright. If it comes down to it i can always fall back on my old Athlon XP box.

 

hy!! i have same mb asus a8s-x,AmericanNightmare what version of bios you use,maximum overcloking on my amd athlon64 3200+ is @ 2500, and i want more overcloking

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=219480

 

Manufacturer :American Megatrends Inc.
Version :0501
Date :26 August 2005

That's a pretty respectable OC for a 3200+ however you should not be locked in at 2.5. Off the top of my head i imagine your not lowering your HT multiplier which for socket 939 should be set at 5x (1000MHz) by default try lowering it to 4x(800MHz). I would also increase your core voltage as well. Then start raising that FSB leaving you multiplier at 10xit is hard to get much out ofK8processors without lowering the HT most will top out at about 2.4-2.5 if they start at 2.0 or lower. By looking at your Validation you seem to have everything else right. You may just be stuck at 2.5 but i doubt it from what i have read they ( the Venice cores)can reach 3.0GHz fairly easy.

Some very good info. on overclocking your 3200+

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=127&amp;type=expert

Of course these are only suggestions to be tried at your ownand your hardwares risk.

 

oki

i make this moves for 2500mhz

1.ht 4x

2.fsb 250

3.multiplier 10x

4.ram 20/cpu

core voltage :stock

i use bios version 1001 09.04.06

your bios is original?