Need help overclocking x2 3800+

drakore

Senior member
Aug 15, 2006
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Hi, I am new to this whole overclocking thing.. so please bare with me.
My system consists of the following:

Antec Neopower 480W
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe bios 1016
AMD Athlon X2 3800+ (Manchester)
Scythe Ninja w/ SilenX 120mm 72cfm 14dBa fan
HIS x1900xt w/ Zalman vf900

Currently I have just been dicking around with a 10x multiplier.. but even at 220 x 10 I get a lockup after my bios screen. Do I need to adjust my ram timings from ddr400 2-2-2-11-1T for an HTT this low. I tried running this at stock voltage and 1.4V.

What are general timings/voltages/multipliers people are using for this chip that should be safe with most chips? Reading other posts, it seems like i should be able to run 220x10 @ stock.

Any input whatsoever is appreciated.
TIA
 

hennethannun

Senior member
Jun 25, 2005
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you need to set up a memory divider and also reduce your hypertransport multiplier.

Your ram is only rated up to 200mhz fsb, and the hypertransport connections won't work much above 1000mhz (the default multiplier is 5x the front side bus).

both should be available options in your bios. a 4x multiplier for HTT and a 5:4 memory divider should let you go all the way up to 250 mhz fsb (if you processor can handle it).

also, make sure your PCI clock is locked at 33mhz and your PCIe clock is locked at 100mhz...
 

drakore

Senior member
Aug 15, 2006
449
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Do I need to worry about adjusting my ram timings and voltages? Should I just set that to auto for the bios to configure? Then go back and try to tighten the timings? Or do I need to worry about this when I try to push it higher? Also will I need to adjust my CPU voltage accordingly?
 

hennethannun

Senior member
Jun 25, 2005
269
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well, that depends. you will need to tweak with the voltages to get very high overclocks. but changing voltages is the number one way to damage your components, especially if you don't know what your doing. and you almost certainly don't need to increase your voltages to get a 10% OC.

once you get the memory divider in place, and adjust your HTT properly, try pushing your system until it becomes unstable again. THEN you could try increasing the voltage on your cpu and pushing things a bit further.

 

drakore

Senior member
Aug 15, 2006
449
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Thanks a lot for the help... I'll try it out as soon as I get home.. and post my problems/findnigs
 

hennethannun

Senior member
Jun 25, 2005
269
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no worries. and by no means should you consider my advice the be all/end all of overclocking. I would check out the very good A64 overclocking guide that is posted as a sticky on this forum. it has some very good info about the basic principles, as well as some excellent suggestioned sequences.

If you use those guildines, you shouldn't have much trouble getting up to 2.2 or 2.4 ghz and hopefully beyond.

good luck!
 

drakore

Senior member
Aug 15, 2006
449
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Ok right now I have my HTT at 3x and my DDR266 @ 2.9V

i am testing my CPU @ 1.4V and 2600x10

Do these settings seem alright?

I am currently stresstesting both cores... looks like its stable
 

hennethannun

Senior member
Jun 25, 2005
269
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2.9v is higher than i would personally go with the memory, but if it is stable and not too hot, then it should be ok. and when you say DDR266, you do mean PC2100 speed, or is your frontside bus set to 266?

also, i sure hope you mean 260x10 rather than 2600x10 for you processor. I don't think you will get good results trying to run at 26ghz XD

assuming you are running at 260x10 (for 2.6 ghz), 3x HTT is ok, although 3.5 would be great if your motherboard supported it (always good to keep the hypertransport as close to 1000 as possible without going over. kind of like 'the price is right'!), everything sounds good.

If it passes prime95 or whatever stability test you want to use, and if your load temps aren't too high (anything below 60C is acceptable, although you should shoot for 50-55) then you should be good to go.
 

myocardia

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2003
9,291
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Is your RAM a few years old, drakore? Because I don't remember Kingston making any HyperX with 2-2-2-x timings, except for the BH-5 chips they had a few years back. If it is BH-5 chips, it should only need a 166 divider (333, if that's what your motherboard calls it), and still be able to run at 2-2-2-x timings, with roughly 2.9-3.0v vdimm. Many people run BH-5 RAM at 240-250 Mhz, with no memory dividers.
 

drakore

Senior member
Aug 15, 2006
449
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hmm my memory is about 2 years old... It's based on the TCCD chips. It runs at 2-2-2 timing @ DDR400, but for me to get the mobo to do a memory divider I believe i have to drop the DDR frequency. Well atleast this is my understanding. It seemed to help. I just finished a stress test on my CPU and it ran stable for about 14-15 hours @ a load of 48-49 deg, and idling around 33-34.

I cant remember the memory setting. I just ran CPU-z and it says my frequency is 172MHZ.

Later today I am gonna try running my mem at a lower voltage... although I have heard the the TCCD's can do 3V easily enough.