noobie needs help oc'ing 3000+ 939 on asus sli

[seattledesi]

thanks!

what's ur PSU rated for on the 12v line?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

30a *edit* Dooh! you weren't asking me

 

[thegimp03]

d3fc0n5, your 12V line looks pretty low. What's your psu rated at on the 12v line?

 

[seattledesi]

here's an interesting observation..

i tried to plug another 4-pin connector from my psu into the ez-plug, thinking i might get more juice into the mobo for OC'ing..

i press the power button, and nada.. NOTHING would start up.. not even the cpu fan!!

i think my psu is unable to feed the electronics for a good oc, and start a high htt.. i'm going to try getting a higher rated psu next.

 

[ahurtt]

I am having problems similar to you. The only overclock so far that works for me is just to use the AI overclock at 10%. Using that, prime 95 ran stable for about 5 minutes before I turned it off. . .using higher or other manual settings it would fail after like 1 minute. Using the AI overclock though, when I go into nTune monitor, it does look like it keeps the 5x HTT multiplier because it reports my HT bus at 1100!! It reports my RAM (2 x 512 MB Corsair 3200 rated 2-2-2-5) running at 440 which I think looks right and means that I'm running 1:1 is this correct? I left most settings in Auto in BIOS except I manually set the command timing to 1T. So right now it runs pretty stable @ 2200MHz (220 x 10 using AI auto overclock 10% for a A64 3200+) but I know I should be able to do better than this even with stock cooling. I'm currently running BIOS 1004-001 beta. I heard it's possible that the PCI lock doesn't work on nForce SATA ports 1 & 2 so maybe I'll switch my HD to 3 or 4 and see if it works. ClockGen NF4 does show my PCI clock at 33.34 and PCI-E clock at 100.
[EDIT] - And I have the OCZ ModStream 450 which has 26A on the 12V+. Should be more than enough power cuz I'm only running dual 6600GT's, 1 HD, 1 Optical, and a SB Audigy 2.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Ahurtt, I agree amps shouldn't be a problem for you.

To test your locks, drop the HTT multi to 3x, Drop you CPU multi, and set ram to DDR266, and see how high you can push the HTT. You should be able to get HTT to 300 or above, then check your bus speeds in Clockgen. If they are still 100 & 33.34 you know the locks are working. (If your locks aren't working you most likely can't get over 220 or so)

To find your best overclock use a memory divider to take ram out of the mix. And increase HTT slowly a few steps at a time, and when you start getting errors in Prime95 then up the vcore until it gets stable and continue increasing.

To find you best RAM overclock, drop your CPU multi taking the CPU out of the mix. Set ram to DDR400, and use the same method slowing increase the HTT, but now use memtest to test for stability and when you start getting errors relax the timings and or up the DDR volts.

Using this isolation method will allow you to find your best CPU overclock and your best Ram overclock, you can then start working on your best combined overclock. The problem with just increasing the HTT and overclocking CPU and RAM at the same time, is that when you hit the wall you don't know whats stopping you.

If you do the three steps I've outlined and test your maximum HTT, CPU, and RAM, this will give you a clear picture of where your limitations are, and allow you to squeeze the most out of your particular setup

 

[ahurtt]

Thanks, GD, helpful as always. I am not sure I can find where it lets you choose your memory dividers in the BIOS though. . . Last night I set the Max memory clock setting down to DDR 333 and 266 but I didn't see any settings options change that would allow me to set a memory divider. Is it someplace counter-intuitive like the rest of the stuff in this bios? Also i'm using the 1004-001 beta bios. . .when I tried the 1003 one day, it stopped detecting my HD. But the 1004 seems to work ok in that respect. I also don't quite understand the logic of setting the DDR setting to less than your RAM specs. . .because the bios says that setting this sets a CAP on the ram speed. . .Even though I had set it to DDR400 at one point, I could plainly see in nTune monitor and CPUZ that it was running 1:1 with the CPU frequency which I had set to 230MHz. (nTune Monitor said it was running exactly double that . . .DDR. . .460) This ran ok in windows just idling but crashed when I actually started to do anything. It is very confusing that the BIOS says setting a specific memory speed CAPS your memory at that speed but then you can plainly see it running faster. What's up with that?

[Edit] Oh and I'm pretty sure my locks are working because, after setting Memory from Auto to DDR400 in BIOS, I had the CPU/HTT frequency set all over the place trying different stuff but ClockgenNF4 always reported the PCI at 33.34 and PCI-exp at 100. Never budged. Crazy thing is that it actually runs stable using a 10% AI overclock even though the HTT bus is at 1100!

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The mem settings are terribly mislabled on this board. The max mem clock setting is the mem dividers. They "Do not cap memory as stated"

DDR400=1:1
DDR333=6:5 ie.. htt300=ram250
DDR266=3:2 ie... htt300=ram200


I am currently running the DDR333 setting, but my memory is at 236mhz DDR472(actual)


These settings throw everyone off, Asus should be spanked

If I only had $.05 for everytime I've posted this explantaion!

 

[ahurtt]

I see, makes sense now. . .it's all in how they implement that "cap." If you didn't have the ability to change the HTT frequency it really would be a cap. But as implemented it is really just setting a ratio of mem speed to cpu frequency speed. No wonder people get confused. I agree, somebody needs to bend Asus over their knee for this.

So for those setting above in your last post, I assume you have the CPU multiplier at 10x and the HTT multiplier at 4x (or are you actually able to run at 1180HTT)? What were the ddr and cpu voltages and memory timings you had to set to make this overclock stable? Is this running at 1T? I'd like to try to duplicate it and see how it works for me tonight. I think I would be satisfied and leave well enough alone if I could get this much of an overclock stable with stock cooling.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

My settings with 3200+, I get a much better overclock using the 9x CPU multi, my max with the 10x regardless of ram speed is just over 2.4ghz

HTT multi 3x289=867FSB
HTT289 x 9 = 2601mhz vcore 1.58(max) temps 42c idle 52c prime95 load
RAM @ DDR333 236mhz 2-3-3-5(auto) 1T(manual) DDRvolts 2.80(manual) OCZ platinum rev2

I've tried about every possible combo, and this is my best stable overclock. I can boot up with 2673mhz and surf the web or do light tasks, but anything intense shuts er down, And Prime or Super PI error quickly.

*edit* if you will notice the mem dividers do some strange rounding or something. At DDR333 6:5 divider my HTT of 289 should give 241ram. 289/6*5=240.83, but it gives me 236 per CPU-Z and Clockgen? Depending on where HTT is set you get ram speed slightly higher or lower or sometimes right on what a pure mathematical calculation gives you, whats up with that?

And I stay away from the .5 CPU multis. I can drop my CPU multi from 9.0 to 8.5 and increase my HTT to acheive the same CPU o/c, but my ram speed stays exactly the same speed? Indicating that what I've read about A64's not supporting .5 multis is true and the bios is actually using the next highest whole multis and dropping(misreporting the HTT to compenate) ie... 306x8.5=2601mhz is really 289x9=2601mhz

 

[ahurtt]

And do you actually get better benchmark scores with the lower multipliers than by maxing the multipliers and going with slower HTT speeds?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Absolutely!

9x289=2601mhz w/ram @ 236 or even
9x281=2529mhz w/ram @ 231

puts the smack down on
10x242=2420mhz w/ram @242

by a significant margin

My benchies @ 2601mhz and 1 6600GT (overclocked to 570/1170)

PCMark04 = 4998
3DMark03 = 9405
3DMark05 = 3708 cpu=5382
Aquamark03 gfx=8727, cpu=11947, Tot=63,938
Nbench3 = 3456
Super PI 1m=33sec. 32m=29min 01sec.

Heres a screenie of 2628mhz
2628
Prime errors at this setting after about 30min, But I can run benchies and play intense games for days

 

[ahurtt]

I'll try those out when I get home, thanks! If that doesn't work maybe I'll back off a little and try this:

270x9.5 = 2565 CPU
270x4 = 1080 HT Bus
Ram @ 5:6 (DDR 333) = 225

Since my system is running well now with HT at 1100 and RAM at 220 1:1, this isn't too far off from that but gives me a big jump up from 2200 MHz CPU. Hope it works!

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Or start with 270 x 9 = 2430mhz and increase HTT from there and see how far you can go

 

[ahurtt]

Well, didn't have much success last night with anything more than the basic 10% AI overclock. I even managed to push it a little too far at some point and ended up corrupting my windows boot sector! UGH!! Had to do a total reformat, reinstall. Sucked.