All these guides and I'm still confused

[panzer6192]

So I've built this expensive competent gaming system and I've been reviewing various overclocking guides and system setups people have. But for the life of me I still can't figure out if what I'm doing is proper and how to get the best life out of this processor.

For starters my specs are:

AMD Opteron 165 CCBWE 0530TPMW
Antec NEO HE 550watt
Asus A8N-Premium
evga 7900gtx
2gb Corsair XMS PC3500

So far all i've adjusted is the clock speed. I have it at 260 right now and if I go any higher windows wont boot. I also have my Vcore at 1.425. I know my ram is good for overclocking but I just don't know what to adjust and how much to get my clock speed at around 2.7ghz. I dont have internet in my barracks right now so I don't have any prime95 or any other OC programs. But I can run Oblivion without any defects. Right now I'm at 2360ghz. What do I need to adjust to get er' higher. Help a young Marine out.

My temps are around 36 at idle and 44 after i stop playing a game.

 

[krotchy]

well heres one thing to try. Drop your multiplier to say 7. Then raise your HTT past 260. This will tell you if it is the motherboard that isnt booting or the processor. Right now it sounds like you have raised Vcore to up your CPU speed, but havent checked to see if your motherboard is at fault. If the motherboard is at fault, all the Vcore in the world wont help you pass 260 HTT. If it is your motherboard, then your option is either raise the chipset voltage(hot mobo may result), buy a new mobo, or just live with 2360, which is a 30% overclock, not to shabby.

 

[JSFLY]

Right now you've got your ram running at DDR520, which is pretty good, but I doubt they go much higher than that since you cant boost your fsb any higher. You will need to slow down your ram.

Thus: set your ram to 2t and/or use a ram divder

ram dividers look something like this: 9/10, 5/6 etc etc... try a lower ram divider and that should allow you to increase your OC.

 

[JSFLY]

Double trouble

 

[JSFLY]

Doubled again.. I am drunk

 

[TanisHalfElven]

yeah you need ram dividers. can't OC ram past 260 much. your almost approaching/excceding ddr2 at that speed and timings.

 

[itznfb]

loosen your ram timings, use a ram divider, 2/3 is usually necessary to reach 2800-2900mhz. 1/2 might be needed if you are trying for 3000mhz. although i don't think that stepping will go that high. you also need to drop your LDT multiplier to x3, or x2.5.

 

[m1ldslide1]

Um, anyways. You will need a memory divider to get any higher, and the divider that you're looking for is going to be 5:4. On your ASUS boards bios, that translates to setting your memory to DDR333. Take 333/400 = .8325. Multiply .8325 times your memory mhz (260 in this case) and you get 216mhz. You know that you can run at 260mhz without a divider (called 1:1), so divide that by .8325 and you get 312mhz, which you won't be able to get all the way up to on that asus mobo, but you'll get around 280-290 I think. Multiply that by your CPU multi and you have your Ghz speed.

Other notes:
Do NOT drop your command rate to 2T
Loosen your other memory timings, 3-4-4-10 should be plenty high
Set your HTT multiplier to 3x
You're not going to get a fully stable system without prime95 - you risk crashing in the middle of an oblivion mission

When I was learning to OC I found that it was the interchangeable terminology (HTT vs FSB vs external clock vs RAM speed) and unhelpful/unknowledgeable forum posts that threw me off the most. This isn't terribly difficult once you get your head around it. I'd recommend just getting after it as much as possible, as that's the best way to learn.

 

[starwars7]

I also suggest using a RAM divider