After endless reading, still need some info

[Blylock]

System Specs-

K8T Neo2 939 pin
A64 3000+ Winchester model F stepping 0
2x 512 Corsair 3200
GForce FX 5950 ultra
80 gig Max 7200/8MB cache
AMI Ver 1.4 bios
WinXP sp2

no sata drives

Im middle of the road OC'er but new to the A64's.

So far ive had it as high as 250/9x almost 2.4 gig, HTT 800mhz(if i set it to 1000 i cant get the fsb over 220)but unstable. In fact it crashed my secondary hard drive, would not let me format it or scandisk it until i lowered my FSB.

Now i read all about the HTT multiplier, i dont have it, instead my bios has settings for it in 200mhz increments all the way up to 1000. FSB no higher than 9x. Ive read for a few days that this isnt the greatest board for OC'ing, yet ive seen results upwards around 2.5-2.6 gig stable.

Q1- What did i do to cause instability in my secondary ide HDD?
Q2- Whats the deal with the HTT frequency settings?

Also im a little confused on the whole memory divider deal. Right now im running a modest set of timings 2.5,3,3,5, 1t @ 333. Im a little confised also about the slot situations on this board, 2 green 2 purple. According to the book, i need to set em up specifically in either 1-3 or 2-4 slots (1-2 are green, 3-4 purple) to get it to run in dual channel mode,, yet the book tells me its highly not recommended to use one of each color. Ive also read that dual channel dont mean much on the A64's.

Q3- I have options in the Dram for ddr200,333,400. but i dont know wheres best to set it for Ocing, also im running in slots 1,3 to enable dual channel. help here please.

I guess what i need is a sample OC setup from someone with this board, or a semi detailed description of what the hell i did wrong, because im not proud enough not to admit that im screwing stuff up. The crashed HDD has me a little puzzled.

i find it funny that i OC'd my xp2800 on a crap delta-L board to 2.6 gig stable, yet im running this A64 as we speak at a modest 2.05g.

Thanks Gurus for at least reading it, and those who also try to help.

 

[stnick80]

 

[stnick80]

Okay, here goes.

On your system

250MHz = HTT (FSB)
9x = CPU multiplier

9 x 250MHz = 2250MHz Your CPUs clock speed

When you set your HTT to 800 MHz you are telling your system that you want a 4x HT multiplier. 4x200=800

The highest you can set that is 1000MHz or 5x200.

You are not going to get any higher than unless you set HTT to 600MHz (3x200)because at 250X9, you have reached the HTT limit of 1000MHz. You do not want to go over 1000MHz for your HTT.

That is the reason why you could not get the FSB over 220 is because you had your HTT at 1080MHz.

A memory divider allow you to run your memory slower than your FSB so that your memory doesnt become a limiting factor in your overclock. You should set it to 166 or 5:6.

As for the memory slots if they are the same on the K8N neo2, than you need to run dimms in either 1/2, 3/4 or 1/2/3/4. that is the only combinations allowed for dual channel.

The options in your DRAM menu, i think that is your divider setting. 200=100 divider, 333=166 divider, 400 = 200 divider.

So I recommend these settings

CPU multi = 9x
HTT increment = 600MHz (3x200)
HTT = 250
Memory timings = 2.5-3-3-7
Memory divider = ddr333(166)

Memory in slots 1/2 if i was right about your mobos slots.

Raise your HTT from 250 in 10 MHz increments to get an additional overclock.
Don't forget to test for stability along the way.

Good luck. I hope that wasn't as clear as mud.

 

[Blylock]

No, actually you just helped me out a ton. Thats where my unstability came in. Its the HTT freq and FSB freq that i needed clarification on. On my board, either slots 1,3 (1 green 1 purple) or 2,4 same colors, will support dual channel(if only 2 sticks of Ram) 1-4 will support it if i had 4 sticks, but does dual channel even matter much in this case?

 

[stnick80]

cool. Let me know if you squeeze any more out of it. =D

Oh and try to run dual channel if you can, there is no reason why you shouldnt be. I don't exactly know how much it helps but its never a bad thing to run it if you can.

use 1 and 3

 

[stnick80]

Okay i looked up your board on MSI. in order to run Dual channel you need to use DIMM1/2 or DIMM3/4 or DIMM1/2/3/4. like i said originally. The difference I saw was that the 2 dimms closest to the processor are Purple and the two furthest away are Green

Green = Ch. A
Purple = Ch. B

You must use a channel A+B to utilize dual channel.

I think the deal with your board is the labeling on the board. I think if you look at the board they may in fact be labeled out of order. so it would be dimm1/2 as labeled on the board.

Dimm1/3 as u look at it.

Just plug one in the first green one and one in the first purple one ;P

there you go dual channel

 

[Blylock]

Thanks. OK im running 250x9, HTT 600mhz. DDR 333 divide, so far stable@ 2250. im going to bump it up to 260 after a few tests

thanks again!

 

[stnick80]

running prime95 for 5 minutes is usually enough if you are just trying to find out if its stable or not. once you get to your max. run Prime95 overnight. make sure you watch the temps.

do a google search on prime95 and download it for free.

another quick test is superPI, use the 1M test for a quickie

google search on superPI and download it for free

and to test your 3d and cpu performance aquamark, same deal. its free too