any advice on my oc's 2500 barton

[patrickmacdonald]

I have just got a new system and I need any advice on how far I can take the oc... and how to do it!

Spec :

ASUS A7N8X nforce 2
AMD barton 2500oem (1840Mhz roughly) Oc'd : Multiplier 12.5x to roughty 2000Mhz... Cooled with the Zalman flower
Radeon 9700pro (powercolor) (I have the zalman passive cooler, but it isn't installed yet... I wanted to get the cpu oc'd right first... befre adding any extra potential heat from the radeon)
Yamaha SW1000
Corsair XMS3200

Now, I'm new to overclocking... so please bear with me....
What kind of overclock do you think I could get with this setup?
Do I need to unlock the cpu to obtain higher FSB's ?
Do I need to lock the pci-and agp speedS? where is the option in the bios ?

Any tips on the a7n8x bios appreciated!


i haven't adjusted any voltages yet, and the system seems fairly stable ( although I haven't really stressed it yet)
3Dmark01 = 14400 or thereabouts...

Am I getting a decent result for this setup? or can i expect to push alot more out of it?

Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom!
p.

 

[Richdog]

If I were you and I wanted to do some nice overclocking buddy I'd exchange that Zalman Flower for slightly more aggressive cooling... If so then I'd expect around a 2.1-2.2 Ghz overclock no worries.

 

[patrickmacdonald]

How would I achieve that? ... I cannot seem to go any further than a multiplyer at 12.5x .... Would I need to start increasing the FSB from 166? or can I unlock the multiplyers above 12.5 somehow?

I appreciate that a more aggressive cooler would allow better overclocking, but I am actually looking for the best compromise between speed performance and acoustic performance. I hope that the set-up I have is heading in that direction....

Does anyone have anything positive to say about installing some form of acoustic sheeting ? Does it have any negative effect on the cooling of my box?

 

[paco83]

I would like to know about the unlocking too. My barton 2800+ is on the way and i will probally unlock it.
As for cooling, SLK 800 with tornado will keep it nice and cool while making you deaf at the same time. A lower cfm/lower db fan should do you fine tho.
As for the padding from what i've read around these forums, it's about as useful as a 5 1/4'' floppy drive.

 

[BigJ]

Does anyone have anything positive to say about installing some form of acoustic sheeting ? Does it have any negative effect on the cooling of my box?

That will increase your temperates astronomically. I would highly suggest against it.

 

[KidChaos]

Originally posted by: patrickmacdonald

Do I need to lock the pci-and agp speedS?

PCI is locked at 33MHz and AGP is adjustable. AGP, FSB and PCI are all independant of each other.

 

[Shimmishim]

um... yeah...

better cooler agreed.. and yes, up your fsb... i haven't heard anything about unlocking bartons... maybe it's the same as unlocking a tbred.. but i have no idea..

 

[VisableAssassin]

Originally posted by: BigJ2078

Does anyone have anything positive to say about installing some form of acoustic sheeting ? Does it have any negative effect on the cooling of my box?

That will increase your temperates astronomically. I would highly suggest against it.

That isnt true.
my entire Lian Li PC-75 is fully lined with paxmate........my case temp has stayed the same and has not gone up.........
also on the note of OC'ing your 2500+ you should hit 2.2ghz no problem. mine is running at 2322mhz right now at 1.95v (2v is the max that you can do safely) on water with no problem what so ever.

 

[pelikan]

What if you hang a slow, silent 120mm fan off a bracket, maybe 1" above the flower?
You can get Akasa sound dampening kits pretty cheap at SVC.com.
And just raise the fsb to get the best performance. You will probably end up wanting to lower the multiplier and it should be unlocked. You can expect between 180 and 205MHz fsb with that board. You may need to flash to a newer bios for the multiplier to be unlocked.
Bartons are hitting 2300 - 2900MHz depending on cooling and luck. Of course, above 2500MHz people are using crazy cooling.

 

[BillStuck]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
um... yeah...

better cooler agreed.. and yes, up your fsb... i haven't heard anything about unlocking bartons... maybe it's the same as unlocking a tbred.. but i have no idea..

To get multipliers greater then 12.5 you need to physically modify the chip and can't remember if you connect or blow a L3 bridge.

The 3000+ barton comes this way though. Also I heard that the nForce2 Asus board can unlock but I think that was rumor

 

[VisableAssassin]

Originally posted by: BillStuck

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
um... yeah...

better cooler agreed.. and yes, up your fsb... i haven't heard anything about unlocking bartons... maybe it's the same as unlocking a tbred.. but i have no idea..

To get multipliers greater then 12.5 you need to physically modify the chip and can't remember if you connect or blow a L3 bridge.

The 3000+ barton comes this way though. Also I heard that the nForce2 Asus board can unlock but I think that was rumor

My KD7-RAID unlocks the chips from jump.
but on an NF2 mobo i would agree with ya.....i just hate modding my CPUs anymore.......back weh i blew a 1.4 t-bird

 

[pelikan]

Hey VisibleAssassin - How do you like the PAX Mate? The loudest fan I have in my case is 28dB, but I'd love to quiet it down even more. Did you put it behind your mb too?

 

[VisableAssassin]

Originally posted by: pelikan
Hey VisibleAssassin - How do you like the PAX Mate? The loudest fan I have in my case is 28dB, but I'd love to quiet it down even more. Did you put it behind your mb too?

nah i didnt put it behind the mobo just on all the panels and "roof"
my Lian Li PC-75 has that window in it so one box of paxmate was way more than enough to do my case.....i sitll have some left over
but it did quiet down my case as well as got rid of the resonance noise my fans and pump caused. yes you can still feel the vibration but there isnt any "noise" that i can really hear with it
but sides it makes the inside of the case look cool LOL

 

[pelikan]

Sounds good. I think I'm going to try it.