Legit Reviews

Hello,

I've assembled my newest system and started doing some research on overclocking said system. But being new to OC'ing and not wanting to reduce my box to a smoldering silicon waste bucket, I want to be sure I'm doing this properly.

I'll just state up front that my goal is to push my x2 3800+ to 2.4ghz and that's it. I'm solely interested in matching the 4400+ speed without spending the money. I've read here and there that it's rather easy to achieve this goal, but I'd like to see some more opinions on if my particular system can achieve it.

From what I've read, I think the most limiting factor will be my ram, as it's just simple Corsair ValueRam. So my plan is to keep the ram running at stock speeds, and only raise the cpu up to 2.4ghz. I base this on the following article http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardw ... 4oc/4.html which says keeping memory normal and only raising the cpu speed gives you great benefits, while avoiding the hassle of fiddling with timings which i don't think my memory could even handle. Again, I'm not interesting in squeezing this stone till it bleeds, just give it a healthy boost.

I think I got the basic handle on the procedure of doing this. But I'd like to get confirmation on specifics. Here's my list of adjustments to reach my end goal:

HT: Lowered from 5x to 4x
FSB: Raised from 200mhz to 240mhz
CPU/RAM Ratio: Change to 2/1.33 (to achieve as close to stock RAM Frequency of 400mhz)
Voltage: unchanged

Now I of course, will be raising the fsb in increments of 10mhz and testing stability between each raise, and not just jumping all at once.

So am I correct in my method, or is there anything that doesn't look right to you? Did I understand all the terminology correctly?

Thanks for any help!


System Info:
-------------------------
Athlon X2 3800+
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-Sli
2x 1GB Corsair ValueRam
Leadtek Geforce 7800GT
Thermalright XP-90 HSF
Enermax 500W PS

Here is what I think:

Under DRAM Configuration:
DRAM Frequency Set: 166 (DRAM/FSB:5:6)

Under Genie BIOS:
LDT/FSB Freq Ratio: AUTO or manual to x4
CPU/FSB Freq Ratio: Leave at x10
CPU VID startup: 1.35
CPU VID Control: 1.35
CPU VID Special Control: 110%
LDT Voltage Control: 1.30V
Chipset Voltage Control: 1.60V
DRAM Voltage Control: 2.7-2.8V (Since its "Value Select" you may want to put a fan over it, but Nate actually wrote a really good article that Corsair and Kingston's Value memory is better than some company flagship products).
Hope this helps

OOOps, I wrote all that out as if you have the DFI board I have.
Just keep your VCore below 1.5V (you don't need too much voltage for where you are going) and keep the memory divider at 5:6 and you should be okay. I haven't played with any Gigabyte boards in quite awhile.

To save you some time, get clockgen, load up 2 instances of prime95 and bump your HTT by 2 or 3 every 30seconds or so. Prime will error or the system will hang if you hit a limit (without tweaking). Set the ram divider and hypertransport multi before hand in the bios and you should be able to test up to 2.4 no problem. Once you are satisfied, copy the settings from clockgen into your bios. Ideally, 1 or 2 reboots and you are good to go.

whats the word on this adventure

The only thing to add, watch your temps!!!!! X2's get HOT when running dual prime95!!!!

ok please forgive my ignorance... overclocking has taken a whole new step from when i use to do it, and i am one that is slow to learn, but i pickup quick, if that makes since....

what are my steps one by one to oc my 3800 x2
I have http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/64_ ... -alcu.html HSF and value corsair ram. I know i wont be able to get high specs, especially with my ECS Nforce4 939 mobo, BUT WHERE DO I START?!?!?!?! People show what they did, but how do i get there. what do i do first?? in advance thanks for your patience!

Here is a good guide...it is geared towards a DFI board but it's relatively generic enough for everyone.
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823

http://forums.legitreviews.com/viewtopic.php?t=2052

You can also check out my quick and dirty guide

Yes, that is a good one too. The other one gets really in depth on memory settings and timings so it's a little more complex. Prolly best to start with IV's first.

so can i just oc my cpu without having to mess with the memory. I dont have good ram and just want to get the max out of my cpu. I know i wont get good timings in my ram. LOL

But thank you, when i get home i will try this out!! See if i cant break something!

DragonCooler wrote:so can i just oc my cpu without having to mess with the memory. I dont have good ram and just want to get the max out of my cpu. I know i wont get good timings in my ram. LOL

But thank you, when i get home i will try this out!! See if i cant break something!

Yep you don't need to worry about memory......AMD has an option to run what's called "Dividers"
Normally your ram runs @ 200MHz
You can set your ram to run different dividers
180MHz
160MHz
150MHz
100Mhz
also
233MHz
& upto 250MHz
Most of these dividers you won't use
the 100 / 150 / 180 & 200 are your main ones (180 might not be available)
If you set your ram to 100MHhz it will run @ DDR200
SO if you run say a 180MHz, you then can up the HTT (fsb) by ~20MHz and still keep you ran @ stock, or you can set to 150MHz -> this divider allows ~ 50MHz OC of the CPU b4 the ram reaches stock (200Mhz)


This may not make things clearer, It did to me when typing

so what do you do when there is no temp monitoring siftware to support your board? I have the (in sig) mobo!

I am trying to overclock and right now i am using super pi because prime95 requires some kind of registration thing that i didnt want to mess with.


EDIT/Update: with some help from infanitevalence, i still cant find a working program for temps on my board but...

with just setting the HTT to 230 and leaving everythign else stock i was able to get 2.3gigs out of my 3800+ X2. I am affraid to go higher with not seeing the right temp on my proc. what i was seeing was 43c but i dont know if that is right or not.

ok well since i finally got a program to check my temps and got my new HSF......


right now all i have done is raise the FSB to 230 with 10x multi @ 2.3gig.

Idle 37c and load 49c. Will increasing the voltage reduce the heat on the proc? But for air just messing with the FSB i thought that was pretty good results. I will have to read on more about the HTT and Ram and stuff.

Need some input and advice!!

bump!

Dragon_Cooler wrote:Will increasing the voltage reduce the heat on the proc?

increasing the voltage shouldn't reduce the heat observed on the processor.

Apoptosis wrote:

Dragon_Cooler wrote:Will increasing the voltage reduce the heat on the proc?

increasing the voltage shouldn't reduce the heat observed on the processor.

Quite the opposite!

ok. I was just looking for a way to get more clock and get cooler (who isnt) I know with just air im not going to get that much better as far as speeds go. I can live with 2.3 which is in between a 4200 and a 4600 isnt it?

Some overclocking reviews:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... spx?i=2650
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=192&type=expert
http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=229

ok now i just have to figure out how to get it to 2.5mhz!!!

I have 4 stick of ram which i was told it wont help, but they are currently all at 2.5-3-3-6. So i am sure this thing can get higher!!