Newbie Wanting to Overclock

[pnyxxpress]

I have read the the sticky that covers overclocking. I've "never" overclocked a system before, but I think it is time to learn the art form. I just put together a new system. I want to push it the limit as long as it stays cool and stable.

Here are the specs:
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
2 Asus Extreme N6600GT GeForce 6600GT PCI Express 128MB DDR3
2 Western Digital 160GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drives Raid 0
Kingston HyperX KHX3200AK2/1G 1GB DDR400 PC3200 Memory w/Heat Spreader
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor Socket 939
500 watt power supply.
Aspire Case with lots of air moving

Thanks,
Mike

ps. I'm looking for some baselines to start with. Make it grade school level till I learn the technical stuff.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

First off some basics.

(Most people use the terms FSB and HTT interchangeably)

HTT x CPU multi = CPUmhz (speed) ie.. 210 x 11 = 2310mhz
HTT x HTT multi = FSB (frontside bus speed) ie... 210 x 5 = 1050fsb
HTT x MEM Divider = RAM speed ie.. 210 x 1:1 = 210mhz ram

BIOS settings

CPU config page:

HTT (Hypertransport) multi - options are 1x - 5x , for overclocking past HTT of 220 use 4x, over 260 use 3x. FSB at stock is 200 x 5 = 1000 you need to keep this under 1100, so as you raise the HTT keep this in mind and reduce the HTT multi accordingly.

DDR ram submenu:

DDR (RAM) Settings
AUTO - This setting applies automatic memory dividers once HTT reaches 217, and keeps it under 200mhz, this is a good option for value ram
DDR400 - This setting equals 1:1, it keeps your ram in sync with HTT
DDR333 - 5/6 mem divider
DDR266 - 2/3 mem divider


Start out with settings like this

HTT multi = 4x
DDR = Auto

Under the jumperfree section set the following

HTT = 225
CPU multi = 10
DDR volts = AUTO
CPU volts = 1.6375 (this setting seems to produce around 1.50 to 1.52 actual volts, depending on bios)

Boot you system with these settings, then using the AI booster utility that is on the motherboard CD to increase your HTT by increments of 3-5 mhz at a time. You should easily get to 240 x 10 = 2400mhz, your chip will likely be able to get over 250 or perhaps 260 using this method. Once you get to 240, test for stability with Prime95 or other CPU intense benchmarks, 3dmark works well. If everything works well at 240 bump it on up, check stability as you go up. As long as your CPU temp don't go much over 50c durring peak load (prime95 small files), your OK.

You can also experiment with different HTT's and CPU multi's 11,9,8 I would stay away from the .5 multis
232 x 11 = 2552mhz
250 x 9 = 2475mhz
315 x 8 = 2520mhz

 

[CheesePoofs]

What's wrong with the half multis?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

1. I have read several articles claiming that A64 chips don't support .5 multis, and that motherboard makers basically create them with the bios and reporting, by usings rounding and fractional dividers. The article that comes to mind was from "Tom's Hardware" and was supposedly confirmed with AMD.

2. Results that I've gotten on this board seem to back this up. For instance if I use DDR333 (5/6 mem divider) and use a whole CPU multi, ram speed is always 5/6 of the HTT speed. ie.. HTT 300 = ram 250
But if I use .5 multi, the ram speed is now much less than 5/6 ie... HTT308 = ram 238 indicating that a higher CPU multi is in affect, at least as far as the on chip memory controller is concerned.

3. I always get the best benchmarks with whole multis

 

[pnyxxpress]

GuitarDaddy
I followed your lead, here are the results and of course a question or two.

System is kinda flakey. I set everything as mentioned above and the system wouldn't post. Gave me a audio message about overclocking. I then turned back HTT from the 225 to 200. System posted and booted. I ran 3Dmark no problem then did a reboot again a message about overclocking and it wouldn't boot.

First Question: How is it would boot one time but not the next with the same settings?

From here I put HTT back to 225 and set cpu multi to auto and cpu voltage to auto. The system booted. Using AI Booster I bumped it up to 240 in steps of 5. The cpu multi automatically changed from 9 to 10. This I expected based on the info you provided. I notice the board had set cpu voltage to 1.65. I reduced it to 1.6375 and ran 3dmark very unstable. I reduced the htt a couple of time still no improvement. I pumped up the htt back to 240 and set cpu voltage to 1.65 and ran 3dmark. The system seemed as stable as it did before I started. But the benchmark was down a few hundred points. Tempratures during the loadtest hung around 36c.

Second question: Is this due to the mem divider causing some latency?

Third question; Can I set my memory to DR400 and safely try another load test?

Your directions were very clear and almost exactly as it appeared in the bios setting. I appreciate your time, Thank you very much.
Mike

 

[GuitarDaddy]

1. Don't know, the only thing I can fiqure is the flakey bios. I have had the best luck with 1003.05, are you still using 1002? I may have given you too low a starting point 2250mhz for the amount of CPU volts.

2. Yes, 3dmark is primarily a GPU benchmark, but is also affected by ram speed. CPU has almost zero effect on this benchmark. So if you use the AUTO mem setting, you will almost always see a small decrease in 3dmark score. If you want to overclock your GPU search google for "Overclocking Coolbits". Coolbits is an nVidia overclocking utility built into the drivers, to manually overclock you have to enable coolbits in the windows registry.

3. Yes, looking at your sig, that HyperX should overclock. You will most likely have to increase the DDR voltage in bios try 2.75 - 2.85

 

[pnyxxpress]

I tweaked a bit more. Here's how it stands.

cpu multi 11
HTT 233
volts 1.65

I stepped up the ram to DDR466
I let the bios auto adjust the voltage it stands at 2.7
bios also is adjusting the memory timing

Base benchmark was 13042
Best benchmark as it stands 13379

I'm still usig the 1002 bios. I didn't see anything newer on asus website.

I'm looking for some more reviews on the hyprx memory to see what the limits are before I do anything else.

What do all these numbers mean? I'm not sure.. If you see anything of concern please let me know.

Thanks again,
Mike

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Thats a nice overclock 233 x 11 = 2563mhz (approching FX55 speed) with ram at 233 your actually running faster than an FX55 at stock. I am running almost identical speeds with my 3200+

To get to the beta bios's on Asus site click the beta radio button on the top of the page

What benchmark are you using?

 

[pnyxxpress]

I'm using 3dMark03 for the benchmark and Prime95 for the stress test.

Forgot to mention, the temp peaked at 51c during a 45 minute stress test. So I don't think I'm going to push it any higher.

One last question. I'm currently using the onboard sound is there any substantial gain using a sound card?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[NateSolberg]

Please check the new Asus A8N-SLI overclocking topic I just started. I've been having a ton of trouble actually getting that board to do anything respectable. Maybe just because I'm too used to being able to actually pick what I want for everything?

 

[pnyxxpress]

I updated the bios to 1003 and tweaked the GPUs. Since the update I notice the actual voltage is a bit lower than it was before with the same settings. All the auto function act a bit differently. While running prime95 the max temp is down from 51c to 46c.

Is this normal?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: pnyxxpress
I updated the bios to 1003 and tweaked the GPUs. Since the update I notice the actual voltage is a bit lower than it was before with the same settings. All the auto function act a bit differently. While running prime95 the max temp is down from 51c to 46c.

Is this normal?

Thanks,
Mike

Which 1003 are you using? I'm using 1003.05, and in this bios you can only get the max voltage by using the Clockgen NF4 utility to set voltage. And it also has the PCI clock setting in the jumper free section, that should be set to 33.34

 

[pnyxxpress]

I'm using 1003.005. The voltage that I mention in the last post wasn't quick what I thought. Even though AI Booster indicated the voltage was 1.65 it was still auto adjusting per the bios setting. I manually set it to 1.65 temp went to 53 when I stopped the load. I tuned it back to 1.6375 the temp held at 52c. I voltage is now actually within -.03 of what the bios setting is.

 

[crowdx]

So got my A8N-SLI Deluxe tiday with an Athlon64 3000+, now my quick question, should my cpu be reading as a 3200+ when I am running at 2ghz? Or will I just see the frequency and not get the actual 3200+ speed showing for the cpu?
I have come from a Barton 3200+ (2500+ running with OCZ at 220mhz).
Any advice?
Patrick

 

[pnyxxpress]

You'll see the 2ghz. As for advice, I'll leave that up to the experts. This is my first overclock..

Mike

 

[pnyxxpress]

GuitarDaddy, A closer look at things this morning. I can't manually set jumperfree settings and DDR Freq. Changing one to manual reverts the other back to auto.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

You are correct! Set the DDR400/DDR333 in bios, then boot up. Use AI booster to increase the HTT and reboot. Once you do this, you can now change the jumperfree settings and the DDR setting will not revert to auto. Go figure? Asus has some work to do on this flackey bios.

 

[crowdx]

Where in the bios do I set the AI booster so that I can use the AI software from the install cd??
TIA
Patrick

 

[GuitarDaddy]

No bios settings required. Just install from the mobo CD

 

[pnyxxpress]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
You are correct! Set the DDR400/DDR333 in bios, then boot up. Use AI booster to increase the HTT and reboot. Once you do this, you can now change the jumperfree settings and the DDR setting will not revert to auto. Go figure? Asus has some work to do on this flackey bios.

Ahhh.... The challenges of a new product. Thanks!

 

[pnyxxpress]

Well I think the board is dead. I don't believe overclocking is what killed it.

The case came with a temperature sensor. When I was running loads I noticed the probe was getting even close to the temperature that the software was showing. So I decided to put the sensor on the bottom side of the heatsink as close to the cpu as possible. When I put the heatsink back on I turn on the system and now the system either won't post, hangs while it is posting, gives some random error. If I get through the post it normally hangs during boot. If I can manage to get it to boot. It seems to work without any problems. Is it posible that I cracked the board by snapping the heat sink back in place. I've since pulled the board and reseated everything, but it still not posting. I checked but I see no cracks.

Mike

 

[fsstrike]

y9

 

[fsstrike]

y9

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Sounds like youv'e got the probe touching the CPU. Remove the probe
Plug some speakers in the green jack boot up, and see what post messages you get if any.

 

[pnyxxpress]

The probe has been removed. I did this shortly after the issue started. I have never gotten an audio message. The probe wasn't metal it is a wire with no metalic exterior. Would that still cause an issue if it touch the cpu.

What is y9?

Mike