Help me overclock my A64 3200+ Retail

[CoreZman]

So I bought this setup and it certainly rocks @ 2.2GHz, but I'm curious as to what it can really do. Part of my confusion/ignorance stems from the fact that I'm coming off of an Abit KT7A motherboard, so my knowledge of overclocking a cpu is limited to adjusting either the FSB or the multiplier.

Now with this motherboard, there is a Dynamic overclocking option in the bios that supposedly automatically adjusts the clock speed based on load. Is this option worth having on for gaming, for example? How do I manually adjust the clock speed to see how high the cpu can run stably? Do I need to use Core Center in Windows, or canit be done from the bios?

So far using Core Center I'm running at 2.36 GHz on air and with my 9800XT by 3DMark03 score was only 6720.

 

[charloscarlies]

It can be done from the bios. A good start would be just to lock the PCI/AGP buses and up the HTT (fsb).

Let us know how far you get. I'm looking into a similar setup.

 

[CoreZman]

Originally posted by: charloscarlies
It can be done from the bios. A good start would be just to lock the PCI/AGP buses and up the HTT (fsb).

Let us know how far you get. I'm looking into a similar setup.

well i don't see a PCI/AGP bus lock in the bios anywhere, and unless i'm just not familiar with the terminology (which is entirely possible) i don't see HTT anywhere either. but i do see where i can adjust the cpu and mem fsb in 1MHz increments. is that what you're referring to?

i'll mess with it for a few days and get back.

 

[charloscarlies]

Well it should be locked automatically...but fsb = HTT for the A64's. There really isn't a fsb..but that's another issue.

 

[imported_Jayl]

Here is some good sites you might want to have a look at.

OCing the Athlon64 3000+

How to you overclock a A64

 

[CoreZman]

Well so far my attempts to overclock have been met by failure. It seems that I can change almost nothing in the cell portion of the bios w/o having instability/crashes. I can enable cool & quiet, and I can set the memory timing to auto. Other than that, no go. If I try to change the cpu fsb and drop the HT, I get no post. Is this because there's no AGP lock?

On the bright side, the stock performance of this setup is very very good. I probably won't bench as high as others, but I can live with that. I'm more interested in good performance in the latest games and apps then in my e-penis size.

edit: I just found a discussion at HardForums that might help me OC.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=774314&page=1&pp=20

 

[DreamInBlue]

i have the same mobo and a A64 2800+ I have the HTT(fsb) at 250 stock voltage stock HSF. First off do a bios update if you dont have the most recent. Do all changes in cell menu in the bios. Here is what I have found to work the best to enable the PCI/AGP lock you have to set the AGP clock to 67 it actually even says this in the MSI manual so im not just making it up. Then lower your HT to 3 it defaults at 4, if you leave it at four it will top out around 235. Something else thats real important and kind of weird is if you are using a SATA drive put it on SATA port 3 or 4. When i put mine on 1 or 2 it wont boot past 235 this seems to be a common problem in the msi forums. Good luck i hope you get a good OC.

 

[CoreZman]

Ok I now have a much better understanding of how to overclock this cpu. Here is a preliminary result from last night, not stress tested but Windows was stable:

CPU-Z CPU@2.5GHz
CPU-Z Memory settings
Cool 'n Quiet

tRTC caused reboot when set at 2. Also, with tRTC set at 3 I can get to desktop at 260x10, but 3DMark03 crashed about 1/2 way thru.

 

[DreamInBlue]

Nice OC. I have the same ram as you also you can get much tighter timings see here.

 

[CoreZman]

cool, thanks for the link. one thing i've read about mem benches for this setup is that the TRas provides the best bandwidth between 9 and 11 clocks, usually 10. Setting your cycle time at 5 clocks might be stunting your bandwidth a bit.

 

[DreamInBlue]

that's what i thought also but putting the tras at 11 lowered my memory bandwith on sandra 2004 by about 150 points.