couple quick questions (re: possibly overclocking a 2500+)

[seepy83]

first of all, i'm running the amd retail heatsink/fan(mocking is allowed, but only in good taste). good news is that i've got arctic silver 5 on it. cpu idles at 38deg C, and it's usually around 41 after playing 3d games.

first question - i've got an old(er) coolermaster heatsink/fan here...i'm really not sure the specs on it, but i can tell you that i bought it a little over 3 years ago, and it was for a thunderbird processor...would i benefit from swapping out the amd retail fan with the one that is mounted on that heatsink?

second question - anyone have thoughts on overclocking with my current (or fan swapped) cooling? i'm not looking to do anything extreme, just wondering what you all think i might be able to get out of it. I'm running corsair-XMS 3200C2 RAM in here...so upping the fsb is a definate possibility.

fyi - this is all housed in a sonota case w/ 2 x 120mm fans, giving a MB temp of 25deg C

all input is welcome, thanks

 

[Corporate Thug]

1. i wouldnt swap the HSF
2. you can always try to oc without changing the voltage in which case the stock HSF will be perfectly fine

 

[jar5tyle]

You should definatley be able to run 200x11 with both of those heatsinks

Giver er a try

 

[seepy83]

maybe this is a stupid question, but since i have no experience overclocking, i'm gonna ask anyway

I've got it set at 200 x 11 right now. cpu-z is reporting 3200+, 2205MHz, 400MHz bus speed, etc.

However, when my pc posts it says the RAM is running at 166MHz. same for the memory tab in cpu-z...it reports:

167MHz frequency
FSBRAM 6:5
CAS Lat 2.0
RAS to CAS 3
RAS Precharge 3
Cycle time 7
In the Module Info, it reports it as being Corsair PC2700, and it is definatly the XMS series 3200C2 RAM.

With the FSB at 200, and having 3200 RAM, shouldnt the RAM also be running at 200MHz? I dont think the timings are too agressive for xms3200, but maybe they are. a little more help here would be nice. thanks.

edit: also, i'm about to run prime95 to make sure everything is stable...wish me luck

 

[klah]

For the A7N8X the bios looks like this: a7n8x_bios3.jpg.

You need to set 'memory frequency' to either '100%' or '1:1' or '200MHz'.

Right now it is set to at a 6:5(fsb:memory) ratio, thus the fsb=200 and mem=166.

 

[seepy83]

thanks klah...

well, here's my results from running prime95. within about a minute of it running the torture test at the default 'blend' setting, i got this:

FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.499999886, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

i've run memtest86, and i'm pretty confident that i have no ploblems with the RAM.

so, just for clarification, here's my current settings:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0, BIOS Rev 1006

xp2500+ running at 200 x 11.0 = 3200+ 400MHz Bus speed
CPU is idling at 40deg C

512MB Corsair XMS-3200C2
FSBRAM 1:1
CAS Lat 2.5
RAS to CAS 2
RAS Precharge 2
Cycle Time 5

anyone have suggestions as to why prime95 is returning errors? hopefully by the end of this i'll be a little more familiar with overclocking and how to troubleshoot it on my own. thanks again...

 

[klah]

You probably need to bump the cpu voltage up a bit. Generally staying within 10% of the stock(1.65V) voltage is 'safe'. I run the same setup (xp2500+ @ 200x11) with vcore at 1.70V.

You should probably read this before proceeding: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=1181921&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

 

[seepy83]

after reading the thread linked to above, i figured i would begin by following these steps

1.Make sure your RAM is 1:1 with the FSB for best performance.
2. Try changing the multiplier to see if you can (I hear that the newest Barton's are completely locked ...). Just bring it down to 10.5x and see if your system displays the correct clock speed at POST (should be ~1743mhz).
3. If you can change your multiplier, bring it down to 9.5x, and bump your FSB all the way up to 200mhz. This will bring your RAM up to its rated speed, but at the same time keep it in sync with the FSB. It will also bring your CPU frequency to 1900mhz. Test that and see if it works (check temps constantly).
4. If you get a stable system, try bringing the multiplier up a notch while at the same time bringing the FSB down a few mhz. For example... multiplier up to 10x, FSB down to 196 to give you a clock speed of 1960mhz.

-RAM is set to 1:1/100%
-Brought down the multiplier and it posted correctly, so my multiplier is not locked
-turned the multiplier down to 9.5 and boosted the FSB to 200MHz...Computer posted correctly(1900MHz, 200MHz FSB) and booted to windows with no problems. Idling at 38deg C.
-Ran prime95...after 1 minute "FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expect less than 0.4. Hardware failure detected."
-Rebooted, left everything the same, but bumped Vcore up to 1.675
-Ran Prime95...after 3 minutes same FATAL ERROR listed above.
-for the short time the test was running, temp maxed out at 43deg C.
-interesting to me: CPU-Z and Asus PC Probe both report the Vcore at 1.71, but it's set to 1.675 in the bios? it also spikes up to 3.28 periodically (i'd guess once every 15-20 seconds).

my completely uneducated guess is that this is a voltage issue that's giving me problems...but what do i know? keep the suggestions flowing, please...

 

[klah]

What voltage is the memory set to? With that bios I think it is listed as "DDR Reference Voltage". I believe Corsair recommends that 2.7V be used for that specific memory.

If you go to Corsair's forum here: http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=128 they can probably tell you exactly what settings to use to create a stable environment.

 

[seepy83]

excellent!

checked out the corsair support forums and found that they do recommend 2.7 (and definatly no higher than 2.8). i also looked at their timing recommendations on the forums and they're saying 6-3-2-2, so i made those changes in addition to 9.5 x 200 vCore 1.65.

prime95 has been running for about 25 mins without a hiccup...i'm gonna let it go for about an hour. sad thing is that right now under the stress test, my cpu is at 46degC, and i wouldnt be too surprised if it got hotter after a while longer. maybe i shouldnt have gotten the retail cpu and spent a little extra for a good hs/f. oh well...when i purchased these components i had absolutely no plans to overclock, and then i started reading about the potential of the 2500+, and since i already have pc3200 RAM i wanted to give it a shot.

i've read several different things about the CPU temp for the 2500+, and XP processors in general. the impression i've gotten is that to be safe you really dont want to exceed 50degC, and of course the cooler the better. so, i guess i'll try that out as a barrier. does that sound on par, or too cautious, or not causious enough?

thanks again to everyone, especially klah for following up on this

(self-test 1024k passed! from prime95...half way throught he second set of tests now)

 

[seepy83]

update:

9.5x200 = 1900MHz w/200MHz FSB... Stable!
10x196 = 1960MHz w/196MHz FSB... Stable!
10x200 = 2000MHz w/200MHz FSB... Stressing now...looks good.

Since this is my first time, i think i'll keep trying out incements of 40-60MHz, just to be safe. thanks so much, again!

 

[Budarow]

Just curious...I'm going to be picking up a 2500+ Barton or 2600+ Barton (with retail AMD hs/fl) and was wondering if either one (i.e., 2500+ or 2600+) had a better "reputation" as overclockers? There's about a $15 price difference and if they both generally provide similar overclocks....I wouldn't mind saving a few bucks

Thanks,

Bud