ASUS A7N8X Deluxe - AMD 1700+ "Help Me Understand CPU Frequency"

[ciscobee]

I have an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe and a 1700+.
It is the Model 8 chip ... retail.

I have searched online and cannot find a definative resource to help me understand CPU frequency and the impacts on my system, mobo, processor, etc.

This is my first system build and I would appreciate any input.

I want to find out how to get the most out of my system without venturing too far into the risk zone.
My FSB on the board can be set to 200 or 266/333.

Thanks in Advance

 

[Jeff7181]

Clock frequency isn't the dangerous part of overclocking... increasing voltage is. For the most part, I think people would say for a Palomino, the safe zone is up to 1.9 volts... for a T-Bred, 1.750 is on the high side.
With that in mind... increase the clock frequency as much as you can while maintaining a safe voltage and stable operation. It's hard to say exactly what's "safe" because of differences in componants and cooling. If you want to get the most out of your processor, you need to experiment with it yourself... there's no definate boundaries to what's safe, what's stable, and what's too hot.

 

[ciscobee]

So basically ... It's trial and error.
Does Voltage = Speed?
I guess I am wondering what "tweaking" the settings will give me.
If I add voltage to the CPU will it operate faster? ... Will it perform more ... and better ... or just hotter.
I have had limited exposure to the overclocking community so please bare with me if that is an obvious question.

That is the other question that I have.
Should I just run Case off? ... I have Two Exhaust Fans in the back .. One In the front for fresh air ... and a Processor Fan and a Power supply inhale fan, and one that exhausts the heat.

 

[chizow]

CPU frequency is simply the overall clock speed of your CPU, measured in MHz (some people measure it in GHz ). In its simplest form, CPU frequency is made of 2 components, the CPU clock multiplier and its external frequency, commonly know as the Front Side Bus (FSB). Basically, FSB is the pathway in which the CPU interfaces the rest of the system; a higher FSB means there is more bandwidth for the CPU to send its information to the rest of the system.

OCing is nothing more than increasing one of these two variables beyond its default specifications. Official support of the higher FSB frequencies depends on motherboard support of that frequency as well as the ability of the RAM used to handle the external frequency. Without getting into crazy detail, increasing the multiplier will have little effect on any other components other than your CPU and maybe your mobo. Increasing your FSB can strain every single component in your system b/c it essentially OC's your entire system. However, innovations in chipsets and motherboards have allowed for PCI/AGP locking as well as much greater control over Memory frequencies, which essentially allows you to overclock your FSB without OCing your system components. "Official Support" of a FSB frequency is nothing more than keeping the PCI/AGP frequencies within spec. and allowing PC2700 or greater RAM to default at its rated speed while running at a specific FSB frequency. If you are looking into an A7N8X or any other Nforce2 mobo, you won't have to worry about this b/c of PCI/AGP locking.

There's some detail I've left out, but that should do for simplicities sake. In your case, you have a few options. If you want to run a higher FSB b/c your RAM is PC2700, you can simply drop your multiplier (1470mhz/166mhz) to 9 and you will not be overclocking. If you were running PC2100, you would have the stock multi and FSB of 11 x 133 = 1470mhz. If you wanted to run with PC3200 and still not "overclock" you would do something like 7.5 x 200. This is where OC'ing comes into it. You need to balance a lot of other factors such as heat, memory ability, PSU, chipset support and the overall ability of your CPU to handle a certain CPU frequency (again just a combination of a multiplier x FSB frequency). Finding the limit requires trial and error and tweaking, and is part of what makes OCing appealing to people.

Hope this helps,

Chiz

 

[ciscobee]

PayDirt -
Thank You!

Here is how this whole thing started.
I purchased a A7N8X Deluxe and an AMD 1700+.
I built the PC and put three OS's on it.
When I checked the system info and ran a tool from AMD it came back with the following:
======================
AMD Athlon(tm) XP
AuthenticAMD
Speed: 733 MHz
L1 Data Cache: 64 KB
L1 Inst Cache: 64KB
L2 Cache: 256 KB
Family.Model.Step: 6.8.0
MMX: YES
Extended MMX: YES
3DNow!(tm): YES
Extended 3DNow!(tm): YES
======================
Then I basically flipped out for the next hour trying to find receipts thinking that I got taken for the processor and that newegg had sent me a dud.
Then I decided to check the BIOS prior to calling newegg and AMD and found the processor frequency and multiplier and some other spectrum stuff that I did not even look at before.
When I first opened the BIOS the CPU frequency was set to 100 and when I selected the options ... there were 133 and 166.
I switched it to 166 and I received a post error about overclocking ...
Then I switched it to 133 and it booted fine ... and now the CPU reports at 1.47 which it should.
My MOBO has a jumper next to the CPU that has 3 pins ... cap two and you get 200 FSB and cap the other two and you get 266/333. (which it doesn't seem that you get to choose).
======================

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: ciscobee
PayDirt -
Thank You!

Here is how this whole thing started.
I purchased a A7N8X Deluxe and an AMD 1700+.
I built the PC and put three OS's on it.
When I checked the system info and ran a tool from AMD it came back with the following:
======================
AMD Athlon(tm) XP
AuthenticAMD
Speed: 733 MHz
L1 Data Cache: 64 KB
L1 Inst Cache: 64KB
L2 Cache: 256 KB
Family.Model.Step: 6.8.0
MMX: YES
Extended MMX: YES
3DNow!(tm): YES
Extended 3DNow!(tm): YES
======================
Then I basically flipped out for the next hour trying to find receipts thinking that I got taken for the processor and that newegg had sent me a dud.
Then I decided to check the BIOS prior to calling newegg and AMD and found the processor frequency and multiplier and some other spectrum stuff that I did not even look at before.
When I first opened the BIOS the CPU frequency was set to 100 and when I selected the options ... there were 133 and 166.
I switched it to 166 and I received a post error about overclocking ...
Then I switched it to 133 and it booted fine ... and now the CPU reports at 1.47 which it should.
My MOBO has a jumper next to the CPU that has 3 pins ... cap two and you get 200 FSB and cap the other two and you get 266/333. (which it doesn't seem that you get to choose).
======================

Hehe yah, I shoulda figured you got the dreaded "CPU is OVERSPEED" error; the A7N8X-DLX shipping BIOS is miserable. The reason the 200 and 266/333 are really only the effective FSB speeds as a result of the DDR effective speed (double-data rate) after doubling the actual FSB frequency. In this case, it would be 100mhz, or 133/166mhz. The problem is, the multiplier is encoded in the CPUID at a default, and when your memory is encoded to run at a specified speed as well according to its SPD (serial presence detect). This basically confuses the motherboard, so it defaults to a "safe speed" so you don't accidentally OC and run at defaults. As I posted above, if you have DDR333/PC2700, you may want to drop your multi and up your FSB so that you gain some performance for free (and you still won't be overclocking).

Before you do though, you will want to flash a new BIOS; 1002.001 is generally accepted as the best available atm. This'll allow you to change BIOS settigns w/out getting annoying CPU is OVERSPEED errors. Safest and least involved method is to flash through AsusProbe. Download and extract the BIOS, then run Asus Probe and point it to that directory. Just change the multiplier option to user defined as well as the memory interface, and choose:

multiplier 9
CPU external freq. 166
Memory SPD: 100% or "SYNC"
Keep everything else at optimal or aggressive for now. You can tweak it later if you like, but its probably better to keep it at presets for now.

Everything else should be fine at default. If you have PC2100/DDR266, you're fine where you are until you want to overclock Also, disable options in advanced peripherals if you don't think you'll use them. This'll allow you to avoid any potential conflicts and save some system resources as well. Disable the SATA RAID controller if you aren't using it by changing the jumper on the board.

Chiz

 

[bigpow]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: ciscobee
.
.
.
Before you do though, you will want to flash a new BIOS; 1002.001 is generally accepted as the best available atm. This'll allow you to change BIOS settigns w/out getting annoying CPU is OVERSPEED errors. Safest and least involved method is to flash through AsusProbe. Download and extract the BIOS, then run Asus Probe and point it to that directory. Just change the multiplier option to user defined as well as the memory interface, and choose:

.
.
.
Chiz

Chiz, I knew you meant Asus Update right? Not Asus Probe...

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: bigpow

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: ciscobee
.
.
.
Before you do though, you will want to flash a new BIOS; 1002.001 is generally accepted as the best available atm. This'll allow you to change BIOS settigns w/out getting annoying CPU is OVERSPEED errors. Safest and least involved method is to flash through AsusProbe. Download and extract the BIOS, then run Asus Probe and point it to that directory. Just change the multiplier option to user defined as well as the memory interface, and choose:

.
.
.
Chiz

Chiz, I knew you meant Asus Update right? Not Asus Probe...

Hehe no, he is using the Alien version of the A7N8X, therefore it requires a AsusProbe

Yah, meant Update

Chiz