I have Couple of New-b OCing questions.

[ty1er]

Hello everyone.

I have been searching thou the forums here at anandtech and also some other OCing forums.
I think that i pretty much gathered all the infomation that i going to get from reading various OC
guides/forums from around the net.

The reason for this post is that i just want to Make sure that im understanding how everything effects other components when OC you FSB


Here is a couple of things that i would like to be cleared up for myself.

Im going use my system spec for an example.

AMD XP 2600+ (266 FSB)
Epox 8kha+ rev 2.0
1024mb DDR2100
eVGA 6800GT

1. PCI bus questions:

From what i have been reading the PCI bus runs at 33mhz and doesnt really like to be pushed much higher then that.

So is it safe to assume that Since im running a 133 FSB and the max divider on my MoBo is 1/4 that i
most likely would not get it higher then ~145ish (145 / 4 = PCI 36.25)

Now i have seen around the net that some people are running there FPS extremely high compared to my exaple. How is that possible?
Is it because there are Not using any cards in thier PCI slots?
Is it because there MoBo support higher PCI/AGP dividers? 1/5 1/6.....?


(in theroy) If my Locked CPU & mobo could stablaly run with a FSB at 166, had a 1/5 divider and
was using DDR2700 ram (166 * 16 = 2656mhz) the ONLY things in my system that would be effected by OCing would be the FSB, CPU and the RAM? correct.

Everything eles would be running in spec? PCI, AGP, HDs, North/South Bridge, etc etc.... right?



2. What causes DATA corruption?

Is it mainly because the RAM is OCed to much?


3. Most important to me. What will fry/damage a Hard Drive?

Is it because the HD is getting OCed from running on a OCed FSB?



I havent been able to fine a cut n' dry answer for these questions.
so any help would be greatly appreicated.

thanks in advance.
-ty1er

 

[maluckey]

I am one of those people running a PCI bus at over 40 Mhz PCI for three years on my "toy" setup. It isn't an issue in itself, any more than overclocking the FSB, RAM or the multiplier ratio. Heat is of course higher with the higher PCI bus, and the HDD drive temperatures can lead to drive issues. Chipset limitations also come into play as well. It is usually not an issue for enthusiast boards, so much as the boards for the masses.

I run with three PCI slots filled, as well as the AGP slot. I have a Lian-Li case that cools one of the drive bays, so the drives are comfortable. I find that at 1/4 divider, and somewhere around 43 or Mhz PCI, that the chipset/RAM/CPU all need more voltage than I want to give in order to run without errors, so with a 1/4 divider as my max choice, I am real-world limited to around 175 Mhz FSB unless serious cooling is applied.

My advice for begginers is to buy quality components, start slowly, and at the first sign of issues, raise the approproate voltages 1 notch and repeat as necessary. At the point that you either get too hot for your cooling setup, or run out of adjustments, you are at the practical limits.

good luck...


Mark

 

[Chopstick217]

Also, you can run progs like Prime 95 and Memtest-86 to determine if your system is running stable after an O/C

 

[WA261]

1 - It is called an AGP/PCI lock.
2- HDD running out of spec
3- Yes, but on most new mobos and chips this is no longer a problem

 

[ty1er]

Originally posted by: WA261
3- Yes, but on most new mobos and chips this is no longer a problem

Im just curious...... Why not?

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

Originally posted by: ty1er

Originally posted by: WA261
3- Yes, but on most new mobos and chips this is no longer a problem

Im just curious...... Why not?

me too

just posted this in another thread
standard overclocking procedures:

1)find out your max cpu speed
set the mem divider low like 1:1 so memory won't be overclocked
increase the front side bus until it is unstable (test stability using some kind of benchmark)
raise the voltage to the next higher setting and go back to the fsb step (don't keep raising the
voltage if the temps skyrocket or if it doesn't help, see what other prescott users have)
the max cpu speed is whatever you get it stable at. (fsb*cpu multiplier)
2)find your max memory speed
set the default mobo settings (2:1 mem divider, 200 fsb) then set the cpu multiplier way down so it
won't hold you back(this may be something like cpu speed in the bios)
increase the fsb until it is unstable
increase vdimm (the memory voltage) and go back to the fsb step
try playing with the latency timings (increase them) to see if that helps
max mem speed = whatever fsb you can get *2 cause it's ddr
3) you can also try finding your max fsb by setting the cpu and ram multipliers lower
find a combination that gives you the best settings, may need to use 5:3 memory divider, high
latencies etc.

happy trails buckarroo.