Intermediate Overclocking Help

[CircusAtari]

I don't know if "intermediate" gives me too much credit (I like to think I know what I'm talking about at least.), but here goes anyway...

I recently rebuilt my desktop, and am trying to overclock to something pretty stable for the long term. On the other hand, a lot of my hardware is dated so I have to overclock it a good amount to keep up. I need some suggestions for if I should push it any further, but keep in mind I would like to not have to buy anything for at least a year (I'm pretty broke lately). As of right now, I'm running Windows XP, but I'm saving up for 7.

Okay, so as long as I'm reading this stuff correctly, I'm currently running with this (only things I upped are FSB on CPU, GPU speed, and shader clock):

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 245

• FSB: 240 Mhz
• Multiplier: x 14.5
• Speed: 3480 MHz
• Core Voltage: 1.392 V

RAM: 2x 2GB Kingston DDR3 (PC3-10700) 7-7-7-20 (Might be reading the wrong number for the last one there; tRAS is 20, but tRC is 27. I don't know what either of them are.)

• DRAM Frequency: 640 MHz
• NB Frequency: 2400 MHz

Video Card: MSI NGTX460 Cyclone 768MB

• GPU: 810 MHz
• Memory: 925 MHz
• Shader: 1620 MHz

MOBO: BIOSTAR a880g+
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. Version: 080016
PSU: Antec NEO ECO 620C

• Type: ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V

I thought I had the GPU at 1090MHz running OCCT with 0 errors, but then when I restarted, it kept crashing at anything above 900MHz. I think my driver failed or something when I first went through OCCT testing. My GPU kept dropping to 405MHz (which I believe indicates a driver crash) after that and I had forgotten to watch the clock instead of just the usage the first time through so I just picked 810 and it worked.

I should probably mention, I'm using Afterburner for the video card, and just the bios for the CPU.

Let's see, I also have 2 relatively new 1600x1200 native Samsung monitors and some black case I got from an old buddy that has pretty good airflow and 3 fans if any of that matters/if you care.

So yeah, any suggestions? Should I change any voltages or lower my multiplier or anything? I'm mostly using this PC for gaming, music creation/recording, and 3d rendering/animating.

Feel free to correct me on anything stupid I might have said out of lack of knowledge.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I have nothing as far as cooling systems (except fans), and am using a stock heatsink.

 

[CircusAtari]

~55 views and still no help?

 

[sangyup81]

Please mention your HT and CPU/NB settings as these are important for overclocking the AM3 platform.

 

[CircusAtari]

Please mention your HT and CPU/NB settings as these are important for overclocking the AM3 platform.

I thought hyper-threading was Intel only, unless this is a different HT... In CPU-Z it says my HT Link is my FSB x 10 (so 2400 MHz).

As for the north bridge, I'm not sure what u mean... I'm gonna check the BIOS real quick so I'll come back and update after.

Edit: Ah well, I'm retarded. I'm guessing the HT was for Hyper Transport, but all of my settings for that are at Auto. My NB settings are:
Clock Gating: Auto
FID: 2000 MHz
VID: 1.175 V

 

[sangyup81]

I thought hyper-threading was Intel only, unless this is a different HT... In CPU-Z it says my HT Link is my FSB x 10 (so 2400 MHz).

As for the north bridge, I'm not sure what u mean... I'm gonna check the BIOS real quick so I'll come back and update after.

Edit: Ah well, I'm retarded. I'm guessing the HT was for Hyper Transport, but all of my settings for that are at Auto. My NB settings are:
Clock Gating: Auto
FID: 2000 MHz
VID: 1.175 V

There are 2 NBs. One is the regular NB which is the northbridge. The one I'm looking for is the CPU-NB which is the memory controller speed within your CPU. For the Phenom II it also controls the L3 cache but I think you don't have L3 on your processor?

 

[CircusAtari]

There are 2 NBs. One is the regular NB which is the northbridge. The one I'm looking for is the CPU-NB which is the memory controller speed within your CPU. For the Phenom II it also controls the L3 cache but I think you don't have L3 on your processor?

Okay now I'm lost... What settings do you need exactly and where should I look for them? Someone just told me 3.5 is too much for my cpu with no cooling... Is he right?

 

[sangyup81]

CPU-NB speed is in the BIOS for most boards and is also displayed in CPU-Z in the memory tab as "NB Frequency"

 

[CircusAtari]

CPU-NB speed is in the BIOS for most boards and is also displayed in CPU-Z in the memory tab as "NB Frequency"

Ah, okay... my NB Frequency is 2400 MHz.

EDIT: Just upped the video card to 850/1000/1700 and about to stress test it... I'm really concerned with cooling, but I haven't seen my temperatures even come close to 50 degrees C...

 

[sangyup81]

Try to get your "NB Frequency" dropped back to 2000 MHz. This way you can overclock your CPU and CPU-NB separately.

 

[CircusAtari]

Why would I want to go about lowering it if it's already high?

Or is it better to be slow?

 

[sm625]

It is safer to keep your "NB Frequency" at or under 2000, especially for troubleshooting purposes. You are running at fsb 240 which is pretty good imo. Better than both my X2s lol. I wouldnt expect to get much more than that. Your multi is just too low for serious overclocking.

It couldnt hurt to have a couple pics of your bios options wrt HT so we get the nomenclature correct, but the first thing I would do is reduce my HT settings.

 

[CircusAtari]

It is safer to keep your "NB Frequency" at or under 2000, especially for troubleshooting purposes. You are running at fsb 240 which is pretty good imo. Better than both my X2s lol. I wouldnt expect to get much more than that. Your multi is just too low for serious overclocking.

It couldnt hurt to have a couple pics of your bios options wrt HT so we get the nomenclature correct, but the first thing I would do is reduce my HT settings.

Oddly enough, My NB Frequency is at 2000 in the BIOS, but it shows up as 2400 in CPU-Z...

I'll go through and take the BIOS pictures when I get home tonight.

By the way, thanks for the help guys... It can be hard to find people who know what they're doing and are willing to teach others this stuff. Not to mention, most of the tutorials are like 8 hour reads.

 

[sangyup81]

Oddly enough, My NB Frequency is at 2000 in the BIOS, but it shows up as 2400 in CPU-Z...

I'll go through and take the BIOS pictures when I get home tonight.

By the way, thanks for the help guys... It can be hard to find people who know what they're doing and are willing to teach others this stuff. Not to mention, most of the tutorials are like 8 hour reads.

The 2000 setting in BIOS is really an x10 multiplier. It would only be 2000 if your FSB were still at 200. Try the 1600 setting and it should get your CPU-NB down to 1920. At least this way you'll know it's not the CPU-NB causing crashes when you are running stability tests