I've finally manged to get a good overclock (thanks to ideas from GuitarDaddy and others) but one issue still bothers me. With my current settings which are Prime95 stable for 12 hours (probably for more but I haven't had the time to test 24h) my RAM runs at 173.88 MHz. I am very happy with my results and I believe I am voltage limited for further overclock and not thermally limited IMHO with my limited experience in this area.
My settings are as follows:
HTT: 260.82 MHz
HTT multiplier: 4x
RAM setting in BIOS: 266 MHz or AUTO (sets it to 266MHz)
RAM speed: 173.88 MHz
RAM type: Kingston ValueRAM 3200
CPU Multiplier: 10x
CPU: 2608.17 MHz
PCI and PCI-E: Stock
CPU Voltage: Effective 1.60v (according to CPU-z)
The cooling now is: Zalman NB47J passive northbridge cooler, Thermalright XP-120 with Panaflo L1A fan at 12v, Zalman ZM80D passive VGA cooler on 6600GT and 2 120mm Antec case fans. There is no program that can get my CPU above 55C and I've tried CPU Burn, CPU Burn-in and Prime95 each for hours together. So I think thermally I'm okay in terms of CPU. However maybe my Northbridge might not be so happy (you'll see why I'm telling you all this in a while). ASUS probe reports MB temperature at 40C but there is some speculation on whether it is reporting Northbridge temperature or something else.
The problem: The available relevant RAM settings on this board are 266MHz and 333Hz. As you can see, with 266MHz my RAM is running underclocked and I know it affecting my performance through some quick tests using Ntune benchmark. I tried changing the RAM setting to 333MHz to take the RAM to 217MHz and the Ntune benchmark showed a good improvement (about 10 points average which is significant). However it isn't stable in the least. SuperPI gives errors and it even hung during regular low intensity computer use - very unstable. So this ValueRAM can't even handle a little 8% overclock. I played with voltages but it won't even boot at 2.8v so 2.75v is the practical limit. I want the RAM to be as close to 200MHz as possible. I have tried faster HTT speeds with lower CPU mulitpliers but it never runs stable at 2600MHz it always needs something a little lower to be stable. Even with 9.5x and 270MHz it isn't really stable or even 9x and 285. The HTT would need to hit appoximately 300MHz to take the RAM to 200Mhz and somehow I don't see my passively cooled NB too happy with that when it isn't happy even at 285MHz. Or I might just have a crappy Northbridge. BTW, I did lower HTT Multiplier to 3x when I took it above 260Mhz. So if there was a RAM setting in between 266Mhz and 333MHz I would be golden.
The easy answer is probably to sell the sticks on Ebay and get something better (not $250 TCCD or BH-5 but maybe $160 decent RAM). Maybe I'll just do that when I have the money but until then maybe there is another solution (or maybe not and the plastic might need to be pulled out). If so any recommedations for good value RAM (again please no $250 stuff) that can hold a decent 10-20% overclock?
It also just occured to me that my RAM might be holding me back on general overclocking also. I might be able to run 265MHz or 270Mhz at 10x with better RAM. I suspect that the CPU voltage limit with the 1003 final BIOS at 1.6v might be the limit there though ("sqrt" and "convergence not round" errors in SuperPI at those speeds; the same errors when I tried overclocking my RAM).
Thanks for bearing with me. I hope that others can learn from these responses also.
My settings are as follows:
HTT: 260.82 MHz
HTT multiplier: 4x
RAM setting in BIOS: 266 MHz or AUTO (sets it to 266MHz)
RAM speed: 173.88 MHz
RAM type: Kingston ValueRAM 3200
CPU Multiplier: 10x
CPU: 2608.17 MHz
PCI and PCI-E: Stock
CPU Voltage: Effective 1.60v (according to CPU-z)
The cooling now is: Zalman NB47J passive northbridge cooler, Thermalright XP-120 with Panaflo L1A fan at 12v, Zalman ZM80D passive VGA cooler on 6600GT and 2 120mm Antec case fans. There is no program that can get my CPU above 55C and I've tried CPU Burn, CPU Burn-in and Prime95 each for hours together. So I think thermally I'm okay in terms of CPU. However maybe my Northbridge might not be so happy (you'll see why I'm telling you all this in a while). ASUS probe reports MB temperature at 40C but there is some speculation on whether it is reporting Northbridge temperature or something else.
The problem: The available relevant RAM settings on this board are 266MHz and 333Hz. As you can see, with 266MHz my RAM is running underclocked and I know it affecting my performance through some quick tests using Ntune benchmark. I tried changing the RAM setting to 333MHz to take the RAM to 217MHz and the Ntune benchmark showed a good improvement (about 10 points average which is significant). However it isn't stable in the least. SuperPI gives errors and it even hung during regular low intensity computer use - very unstable. So this ValueRAM can't even handle a little 8% overclock. I played with voltages but it won't even boot at 2.8v so 2.75v is the practical limit. I want the RAM to be as close to 200MHz as possible. I have tried faster HTT speeds with lower CPU mulitpliers but it never runs stable at 2600MHz it always needs something a little lower to be stable. Even with 9.5x and 270MHz it isn't really stable or even 9x and 285. The HTT would need to hit appoximately 300MHz to take the RAM to 200Mhz and somehow I don't see my passively cooled NB too happy with that when it isn't happy even at 285MHz. Or I might just have a crappy Northbridge. BTW, I did lower HTT Multiplier to 3x when I took it above 260Mhz. So if there was a RAM setting in between 266Mhz and 333MHz I would be golden.
The easy answer is probably to sell the sticks on Ebay and get something better (not $250 TCCD or BH-5 but maybe $160 decent RAM). Maybe I'll just do that when I have the money but until then maybe there is another solution (or maybe not and the plastic might need to be pulled out). If so any recommedations for good value RAM (again please no $250 stuff) that can hold a decent 10-20% overclock?
It also just occured to me that my RAM might be holding me back on general overclocking also. I might be able to run 265MHz or 270Mhz at 10x with better RAM. I suspect that the CPU voltage limit with the 1003 final BIOS at 1.6v might be the limit there though ("sqrt" and "convergence not round" errors in SuperPI at those speeds; the same errors when I tried overclocking my RAM).
Thanks for bearing with me. I hope that others can learn from these responses also.
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