A64 3400 OC tweaking

[Upwardbound]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post. I read some messages here before I bought my equip and Anandtech Guides. Thanks for all the great info.

Question: How fast and how hot can I reasonable expect my setup to support? I use it only for gaming and folding.

Background: This is my 2nd overclocking machine - my first was a Duron 650 with the pencil trick

Equip: Athlon 64 3400+ (newcastle core - CG) (2.4 ghz stock)
Thermalright 948U HSF with Vantec Tornado 92mm fan
Crucial Ballistix DDR 400 PC3200 - 2 x 512MB
MSI Neo Platinum S754 (nForce 250GB) w/ AGP lock
Evga Geforce 6800GT - 256MB
WD 74GB Raptor 10K rpm SATA HD
Lite On 8x DVD+_RW
Fan controller - to tame the tornado
Antec Case w/ 4 80mm fans
PC Power & Cooling 425w Silencer PS

I pretty much followed Anandtech's guide for a good Doom3 experience. I wanted to overclock to at least 2.6 Ghz on air and am trying it now. My memory is currently at 2.5-2-10-2 2.8v and CPU is at 2604Mhz (217 x 4) at 1.55v (if i remember correctly).

Idle CPU temps seem to be around 41-44c at ~75-80F ambient. System temp - 30c. Folding heats it up to 55-60c while tornado fan is maxed out (about 4800-4900rpm). Today I dropped the fan to 3400rpm and temps are about the same.

Isn't that really hot? I mean 60c for an Athlon 64?!? I've read other people's posts and they don't seem to be that high. I flashed my bios to the latest 1.3 because I say some erratic temps coming from the motherboard readings. The temps I'm reporting are from the motherboard sensors - not actual measurements.

So what do you all think?

Upwardbound

 

[Upwardbound]

Update - I've been using the utility provided by MSI to check the temps. It's called Core Center. I just ran Sisoft Sandra 2004 (shareware) and it reported my CPU temp at 52c while Core Center is showing 58c. Anyone know why? Which is more accurate?

Thanks,
Upwardbound

 

[ereshkigal181]

If you ever get an answer why core always reports higher plz pass on the info. My core reports 59 while sandra is 51, sensor next to cpu core reports 45, and the water temp sensor reports 78. I dont know which to trust.

 

[Upwardbound]

Another update - I've also upgraded to the 1.4 Bios since the changelog says they fixed some incorrect temperature readings. No real change.

I've also tried MBM 5 and it displays about 4c lower than Core Center under load just like Sandra. Anyone else have issues or answers regarding MSI K8N Neo Platinum motherboard temps?

 

[Toro 45]

I would go with the motherbaord monitor and sandra numbers, you could also check your bios temps and compare those to your mbm/sandra/core center temps

 

[zpapasmurf]

What worked well as an overclock for me was to bump the FSB to 230, multiplyer @ 11 and run it @ 2530 with the higher FSB, I usually find this to give me more performance than just a clockspeed increase.

I would like to go higher, (I have the same CPU as you) but im using the stock heatsink/fan... wanna buy a zalman once i can scrape together $50

 

[cbehnken]

Newegg has Thermaltake SILENTBOOST K8 A1838 RT for $29.99

It is what Anand used to overclock some of their Athlon 64 combos. I ordered one. Something to consider anyway...

 

[Upwardbound]

I believe the HSF I have is a very good one. My PC Power & Cooling PS is about 3 years old but it has been the most stable one I have used ever. It was also very expensive.

When I tried to overclock the FSB (HT) to 217Mhz I got errors in Folding. It hasn't happened at stock speeds. BTW, earlier I had trouble with my gfx card when playing Battlefield Vietnam but not with Doom 3. The game would just close as if I exited the game. I put a fan to blow more air, and no more trouble. Wierd.

I upped the voltage on the memory and CPU to reach a peak OC of 2.7 Ghz with memory at 2.5 CAS (FSB 225) and it ran OK but I got a lot of folding errors so I stopped. The top voltage I did on the CPU was 1.6v.

I'm still interested in your results.

Thanks