BEST way to OC an AMD processor? (Theory-Hopefully not too Noob)

[maniac5999]

So, I have a computer that I built for myself last spring, and just overclocked without thinking about it (Black--raised mult.), and now that I've finally gotten around to thinking about it I've got some questions. Here is my Setup:

Kuma 7750 Black
ASRock 780FullHD
OCZ 1066 DDR2 RAM

Now, I've been playing around a bit, and I know the processor goes up to a bit over 3.1ghz, the NB is stable to around 2250, and the RAM is stable to about 1100. Now, Being a budget Mobo I have CPU and NB bultiplier control in x0.5 increments, clock control in 1mhz increments, and the choice between 1066mhz and 800mhz ram settings.

My understanding is that maximizing all of these settings is important, as is maxxing out the speed of the Cache, which is only adjustable by changing the base clock. is there anything else that I am missing that I should be looking to OC?

Now since this is a budget board if I just turn up the base clock with everything else stock except the ram at 800 the NB ( I think) begins to flake out at around 250, which only leaves my RAM at about DDR2 1000. Is this a good tradeoff? would it be better to turn down my NB multiplier, and everyhting else, and see how high I can get the Cache speed, then just set the rest to known good settings I.E> clock:320, RAM 667 = 1066mhz, CPU X9.5 (3.04 ghz) NB x7 (2240mhz) etc. is this a smart idea or is this really dumb?

 

[heyheybooboo]

So, I have a computer that I built for myself last spring, and just overclocked without thinking about it (Black--raised mult.), and now that I've finally gotten around to thinking about it I've got some questions. Here is my Setup:

Kuma 7750 Black
ASRock 780FullHD
OCZ 1066 DDR2 RAM

Now, I've been playing around a bit, and I know the processor goes up to a bit over 3.1ghz, the NB is stable to around 2250, and the RAM is stable to about 1100. Now, Being a budget Mobo I have CPU and NB bultiplier control in x0.5 increments, clock control in 1mhz increments, and the choice between 1066mhz and 800mhz ram settings.

My understanding is that maximizing all of these settings is important, as is maxxing out the spped of the Cache, which is only adjustable by changing the base clock. is there anything else that I am missing that I should be looking to OC?

Now since this is a budget board if I just turn up the base clock with everything else stock except the ram at 800 the NB ( I think) begins to flake out at around 250, which only leaves my RAM at about DDR2 1000. Is this a good tradeoff? would it be better to turn down my NB multiplier, and everyhting else, and see how high I can get the Cache speed, then just set the rest to known good settings I.E> clock:320, RAM 667 = 1066mhz, CPU X9.5 (3.04 ghz) NB x7 (2240mhz) etc. is this a smart idea or is this really dumb?

With the AMD clock at 250, RAMs at 1000Mhz and the NB/IMC at 9x250, I think you are good.

I don't think you can get 320 clock out of that board ,,,, but you can surprise me




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[maniac5999]

With the AMD clock at 250, RAMs at 1000Mhz and the NB/IMC at 9x250, I think you are good.

I don't think you can get 320 clock out of that board ,,,, but you can surprise me

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Well I guess my question is twofold, 1) is boosting the cache speed worth slowing down the RAM? and if so how much? (this is especially important if I have to make sacrifices to something like CPU clockspeed due to the clock setting (i.e. 3.04ghz in my example above) 2 is there anything inherently bad with going crazy high with clock and lower multipliers to get things where I want. --say I can get the clock to 266 which would put my ram back at 1066 for the ram, but I need to lower the HT multiplier to 8, is there anything inherrently wrong with that?

 

[heyheybooboo]

Generally, for each 10% increase in the speed of the NB/IMC, memory bandwidth increases 3-4% and latency decreases 3-4%. The more you squeeze out of the clock and overall CPU speed, the closer you will approach the '4%' improvements.

So I would think that would trump a marginal increase in the speed of your RAMs.

As far as the HT --- as long as the HT speed is higher than your RAMs speed there should be no detriment to performance.

Finally, if it becomes a question as to whether an additional 100MHz on the CPU trumps an additional 100MHz on the NB/IMC, I would tend to side with the NB/IMC --- provided that your temps and voltages are somewhat reasonable. You need to check on this but IIRC 1.3v to the NB is about as high as you want to go with the Kuma.

What may be holding you back somewhat is the PLL timing associated with the sb700. Not to put ideas in your head ( ) but a sb750 or sb710 (AM2+) motherboard would open the opportunity for much higher clocks because of the PLL improvements from ACC, and enter you into the AMD Chip Lottery.

You could be sitting on a Phenom FX-7750 Quad core processor at 3GHz+ and not even know it - LOL.

Good luck with that!



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[soccerballtux]

booboo make sure to differentiate between NB/IMC and the CPU-NB.
CPU-NB is definitely worth overclocking, at the expense of core speed.