oh okay and on the same subject as HT, whats the right setting 8 bit or 16bit and whats the diff?
I'm not entirely sure what that is, but I imagine it's something like PCI-e x8 versus x16. The bus runs at a certain speed, but x8 and x16 just dictates how wide the bus is. I left that setting on auto.
What voltage would you expect for 3.5GHz? I was able to hit 3.6GHz "stable" with 1.475V. I didn't actually test that for very long so it may or may not be fully stable.
And since we're on the topic of OCing AMD cpus, is there much to gain in OCing the cpu-nb if you're using DDR2? I've noticed many of the reviews/guides I've looked at used AMD cpu + DDR3 1333/1600.
Also, what voltage did you have to set for 2.6GHz cpu-nb? I was able to get 2.4GHz using 1.25V (from 1.15V default).
how did you find out what the stock voltage was for your CPU-NB?
You will definitely gain performance from the CPU-NB while using DDR2.
The L3 cache is separate from the memory-- the type of memory has no impact on it.
I had to give mine +0.2v to get it to 2.6ghz. I'm not sure what stock for it was. 1.1? 1.2? Either way the voltage with +0.2v was, at worst case only 1.4v, and I'm comfortable with that. Further, with the program "PhenomMSRTweaker" I can control both voltages-- CPU core voltage, and the CPU-NB/L3cache voltage. I have 2 settings, one "full speed" (3.5ghz) and the other my cores at 2.2ghz, CPU-NB still at 2.6ghz [can't control the frequency of it with this program], but I am able to decrease the voltage back down 0.0625v to 1.3375v. Note that with this program, the voltages are in reference to the voltages in the BIOS-- so the program starts at 1.2v for the CPU-NB, but that's actually 1.4v because I've got it set to +0.2v in the BIOS. You can do the Cores frequency overclocking with this program, however, and the voltage adjustment of the cores as well-- so when you give it 1.45v in the program, you'll get 1.45v to the CPU cores.
I don't have enough experience to say what voltage would be required for 3.5ghz, best thing is to just fire up prime95 and start stressing while watching your temps. Increase the voltage-- 1.45v is the max AMD recommends, but with good cooling a little more than that is ok-- and see what it does to the temperature. I found no amount of voltage past 1.45v matters if my temps go above ~63C-- but 1.45v works and I can let the CPU go to 68-69C without getting prime errors. This is something a lot of other reviewers/overclockers found as well-- the chips really prefer low temps [I would append "above 1.45vcore" to that, personally-- as I seem to be fine with 1.45v even at 69C].
If I could tell you all the answers for your chip I don't know that I would, overclocking and getting a "better than average" chip is so much fun in the first place, I wouldn't want to ruin it.