Need help with overclocking an Abit KN8 SLI Please

[Veraxitas]

I am not new to overclocking but very new to 939/nf4/a64 overclocking. Yes, I did a lot of searching on the forums and found guides but they all confuse the sh*t out of me.

My motherboard bios is pretty simple in features.

CPU FSB Clock
Multiplyier Factor
PCIe Clock

Voltages

Then:

HT Frequency (auto, 1x,2x,3x,4x,5x)
DRam config


I am familiar with most of these but I am not sure how to handle the FSB vs HT Frequency settings.

Any advice on some simple overclocking would be appreciated. I am not looking to achieve maximum overclock. I just want to play around a little and maybe get a few more FPS in my gaming.

What would be the best settiongs for the options listed above?

I have the following hardware:

Abit KN8 SLI
A64 3800+ Venice
G. Skill F1 PC4000 2x1gb
ATI X1800XT
FSP Group Fortran 500w Blue PS

 

[o1die]

Cpu fsb times HT should equal about 1000. For example, with the HT at 4X, you should set the cpu fsb at about 250. If you drop the HT to 3X, you might be able to go to about 330 if your memory and board support it. My lowly ecs board only goes to about 280 before failing to post. For standard or value memory, you frequently have to drop the setting so you can overclock the cpu. I would use 166 for the memory if I were overclocking.

 

[Veraxitas]

Originally posted by: o1die
Cpu fsb times HT should equal about 1000. For example, with the HT at 4X, you should set the cpu fsb at about 250. If you drop the HT to 3X, you might be able to go to about 330 if your memory and board support it. My lowly ecs board only goes to about 280 before failing to post. For standard or value memory, you frequently have to drop the setting so you can overclock the cpu. I would use 166 for the memory if I were overclocking.

Well, I tried FSB of 210 and left all others default and no prob. As soon as I went 220 it crashed. I changed the HT Freq to 4x and still crashed. My DRAM clcok willnot let me go below 200 for some reason.

Could you or someone give me some suggestions for:

CPU Core Voltage
DDR Ram Voltage
DDR Ref Voltage (-60, -30, or +30)?
Nforce 4 voltage
Hyper T Voltage (2%, 4%, 8%, 12%)?

Also, should I always keep my multiplier at 12? with this 3800+?

I tried all the stuff I have read in forums and it keeps freezing on me.

I have G.Skill PC4000 Ram which according to all the reviews should O/C very well.

Anybody have this board that can give me some examples of settings?

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: Veraxitas
Well, I tried FSB of 210 and left all others default and no prob. As soon as I went 220 it crashed. I changed the HT Freq to 4x and still crashed. My DRAM clcok willnot let me go below 200 for some reason.

The KN8 series is reckoned to be a pretty good overclocker, certainly capable of 330 external clock.
At 200 & your CPU multi of 12 thats 2.64GHz so you probably need to increase your Vcore.

How have you got your memory set up (Auto, SPD or Manual)?
The DRAM clock is a divider/ratio rather than an absolute speed setting - given your PC4000 I would probably stick it on 400.
Best place for you is probably the nVidia 939 forum at Abit-USA.

 

[Skitzer]

Your processor uses the 12 Multiplier and your memory is rated for 250MHz. You can drop the multi but not raise it. Start off with the 11 multi and the DDR400 memory divider. Disable Cool ?n? Quiet in BIOS. Change the HT Frequency to X 4, this will be good till at least 250MHz. Raise the External Clock to 250. This will give you an overclock of 2750. Somewhere along the line you might need to increase Vcore. It will depend on your processor and how far you go.


"Hyper Transport Technology
HyperTransport technology, which delivers a 2GHz effective system bus, is a high-speed, low latency, point-to-point link designed to increase the communication speed between integrated circuits in computers, servers, embedded systems, and networking and telecommunications equipment up to 48 times faster than some existing technologies."

In BIOS, on the Advanced Chipset Features screen, is "HT Frequency" with options such as Auto, 5X, 4X, 3X...

The HT Frequency controls the speed of HyperTransport bus. The spec is 2GHz, you can exceed it but the speed of this bus has little to do with performance. So the common wisdom is to keep it below 2GHz. You will see many people refer to it as 1GHz, which is due to the math, the x 2 at the end.

External Clock x HT Frequency x 2 = HyperTransport bus speed

Not overclocked:

200MHz External Clock x 5 = 1000MHz x 2 = 2000MHz = 2GHz

Now as soon as you start to overclock the External Clock will be greater than 200MHz, hence HT Frequency 4X up till 250MHz External Clock.

250 x 4 = 1000 x 2 = 2000


Commonly Used Memory Dividers

12 multi
DDR400 = 12
DDR333 = 15
DDR266 = 18

11 multi
DDR400 = 11
DDR333 = 14
DDR266 = 17

10 multi
DDR400 = 10
DDR333 = 12
DDR266 = 15

9 multi
DDR400 = 9
DDR333 = 11
DDR266 = 14

8 multi
DDR400 = 8
DDR333 = 10
DDR266 = 12
DDR200 = 14

CPU Multiplier x External Clock = Processor Core Speed / Memory Divider = Memory Speed

2.2GHz
11 x 200 = 2200 / 11 = 200.00
10 x 220 = 2200 / 10 = 220.00
09 x 245 = 2205 / 09 = 245.00
09 x 245 = 2205 / 11 = 200.45
08 x 275 = 2200 / 08 = 275.00
08 x 275 = 2200 / 10 = 220.00

2.3GHz
11 x 209 = 2299 / 11 = 209.00
10 x 230 = 2300 / 10 = 230.00
10 x 230 = 2300 / 12 = 191.66
09 x 256 = 2304 / 09 = 256.00
09 x 256 = 2304 / 11 = 209.45
08 x 288 = 2304 / 10 = 230.40
08 x 288 = 2304 / 12 = 192.00

2.4GHz
11 x 218 = 2398 / 11 = 218.00
10 x 240 = 2400 / 10 = 240.00
10 x 240 = 2400 / 12 = 200.00
09 x 267 = 2403 / 09 = 267.00
09 x 267 = 2403 / 11 = 218.45
08 x 300 = 2400 / 10 = 240.00
08 x 300 = 2400 / 12 = 200.00

2.5GHz
11 x 227 = 2497 / 11 = 227.00
10 x 250 = 2500 / 10 = 250.00
10 x 250 = 2500 / 12 = 208.33
09 x 278 = 2502 / 09 = 278.00
09 x 278 = 2502 / 11 = 227.45
08 x 313 = 2504 / 10 = 250.40
08 x 313 = 2504 / 12 = 208.66

2.6GHz
11 x 237 = 2607 / 11 = 237.00
11 x 237 = 2607 / 14 = 186.21
10 x 260 = 2600 / 10 = 260.00
10 x 260 = 2600 / 12 = 216.66
09 x 289 = 2601 / 11 = 236.45
09 x 289 = 2601 / 14 = 185.79
08 x 325 = 2600 / 10 = 260.00
08 x 325 = 2600 / 12 = 216.66

2.7GHz
11 x 246 = 2706 / 11 = 246.00
11 x 246 = 2706 / 14 = 193.29
10 x 270 = 2700 / 10 = 270.00
10 x 270 = 2700 / 12 = 225.00
09 x 300 = 2700 / 11 = 245.45
09 x 300 = 2700 / 14 = 192.86
08 x 338 = 2704 / 12 = 225.33

2.8GHz
11 x 255 = 2805 / 11 = 255.00
11 x 255 = 2805 / 14 = 200.36
10 x 280 = 2800 / 12 = 233.33
10 x 280 = 2800 / 15 = 186.66
09 x 311 = 2799 / 11 = 254.45
09 x 311 = 2799 / 14 = 199.93
08 x 350 = 2800 / 12 = 233.33

Info borrowed from Abit forums