OCing AMD64 2800 CPU

[grimdeath]

Heres my system specs:
AMD a64 2800+ newcastle socket 754
Aopen AK89max Mobo
2x512 OCZ Platinum 3200(400, though MB glitch makes it 333 )
ATI Radeon 9800 pro(upgrading soon)
80+120gb HD(win XPpro and x64 dual boot)
420watt PSU
all stock speeds and cooling
hmm, did i forget anything?

Ive tinkered wth OC before and reached 2.03GHz on my cpu before with default voltage, i was wondering what yall would recommend for a MID-RANGE oc would be...i dont wanna max it out or anything on stock cooling, but i would like to get a little more juice outta it. im worried it will be my bottleneck when i get a 6800gt series videocard or better(around christmas)

if all goes well ill buy a new heatsink to cool my processor, any recommendations? would i be better off just buying a higher end socket 754 cpu? i know 754 is dying out but with my upcoming marraige i will not be able to buy much more then a better video card(but wanna run The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion game when its get out!!)

Thanks for any suggestions

 

[Furen]

Buy a DTR Athlon 64 4000+!! 2.6GHz@stock with 1MB of cache, plus it's a 90nano chip. Ok, I'll be serious now (heh, I just want someone to try the 4000+). I'd stick with that cpu and overclock it to around 2.2 if it can do it with only a minor vcore bump. You dont want to raise the voltage too much since the stock cooler is pretty weak and 130nm chips can get quite hot. Also, you need to get your ram speed up since you probably are bandwidth starved.

 

[grimdeath]

i still havent gotten too much into ram OC'ing...im having a harder time understanding how it works for ram then i have on the CPU side...

a 2.2 would basically mean its running as a 3200 correct? any recommendations on how to set the ram or a good place to look for ideas on setting it? heres the ram im using:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820146889

 

[Furen]

ok, I'm going to give you a few settings I'd try, I'm going to try to raise your DDR speed while staying under 2GHz so we dont have to deal with the CPU voltage, ok?

First go into advanced chipset features and lower your ldt multiplier to 2.5x and disable cpu thermal throttling.

Then go into DRAM settings and set your DDR timings to manual. Then set your settings as follows:

CAS 2
tRCD 3
tRAS 7
tRP 2

After that go into Frequency/Voltage control and set the following:

CPU Bus Freq 240 x 8

Then change your DRAM setting to whatever is appropriate (333MHz should be what you want) and raise your memory voltage to 2.7v

Give it a try. If it doesnt work reply, I'll be around for a bit.

 

[grimdeath]

ok, everything seem to work fine on the ram side, but i got a "reset cpu setting" message on the post

reset to default 200/x9 and has booted up fine...what else should i try?

btw is it ok to leave the DRAM set to Auto in the freq./volt because im working on looking into a fix so it runs as 400 like it should be, darn aopen mb weirdness

 

[Furen]

What did you mean everything worked on the ram side? is your ram running at DDR400 now? Can you try the same settings but increasing the cpu voltage to 1.55?

 

[grimdeath]

i meant not noticable problems right off the bat...Aopen boards have a glitch that causes 2 dimms of ram to run 333 instead of 400 when one stick alone will run 400 fine(these are matching sticks btw)

ill try the cpu voltage, brb

 

[grimdeath]

ok, bumped up the voltage(btw thats the highest Aopen allows for the CPU volt) but got the same thing...not sure if it matters but ive run 200/x11(if i remember right) at stock voltage and it ran fine

oh and thanks for the late night help, i should really be in bed for work tommorow

 

[Furen]

oh which bios revision are you using? Anandtech's mobo ran fine with 2xDimms at DDR400...

 

[grimdeath]

1.08 i beleive, its the newest....1.07c(beta) runs it at 400 but is very unstable with 2 sticks for w/e reason...i had been running it fine with one stick but when i recently put in the second stick it started going nutzo so i updated to the 1.08 and its been stable but with the lower setting of 333

 

[Furen]

weird, ok, can you ignore the ram settings and just raise your cpu clock to 240 (keep the same cpu multi), lower your ldt to 2.5 and raise your voltage to 1.55? I wanna see if you can do over 2ghz...

 

[grimdeath]

ok, you wanted me to reset the ram settings back to default right?

cause i did that and set those last settings ^^^ for the cpu and its boot into windows fine now, no error

as for the mb problem, ive ventured over to aopen forums and this is a very common issue, everyone keeps pointing out a chart that shows dim positions and the settings you get for each but ive tried with it set in slot 1&2 and now 1&3 with no differnce

 

[Furen]

There a bit of a problem, though: I dont think your mobo supports a cpu clock higher than 250 so that will limit your overclock unless you use a windows-based program (like clockgen). Right now you are running at 2.16GHz but I still think your memory is bottlenecking you. Have you tried using different ram slots?

 

[grimdeath]

yea im running 2.16 and the highest cpu clock is 250(range of 200-250)...read the last paragraph of my previous message, edited about the ram slots...let me find that chart, ill post it on here as an edit

*edit* here ya go:
http://club.aopen.com.tw/faq/FAQ_ShowAnswer.aspx?Language=English&RecNo=5771

using slots 1 and 3 right now

*edit2* heres a quick search on the aopen forums to see what others are saying about the same problem:
http://club.aopen.com.tw/forum/search.asp?Subject=on&Date=all&forumID=*&keyword=ak89&Action=Search

hey its late, so i gotta get to sleep, ill bookmark this thread to see what your responce is and if your not to busy and could bookmark as well so to give me a little help tommorow evening? id MUCH appreciate it...maybe youll be able to figure out this weird ram issue

ill buy you a hooker or something lol...thanks for all the help so far though!

 

[grimdeath]

bump, if anyone else can help me out that would be great, dunno if furen is gonna make it back today

 

[grimdeath]

justa bump

 

[Furen]

Ok, I'm back again. I'm not sure what you're asking for right now... your motherboard wont allow DDR400 with two modules so you'd only be able to do it by running only 512MB or selling both your sticks and getting a single 1GB module. If you want to overclock further you'd have to use clockgen. I'm pretty sure your mobo can reach close to 300HTT (or better) but the bios is severely lacking in that regard. If you do try clockgen, dont forget to lower your LDT multiplier to 2x.

 

[grimdeath]

alright, well hopefully they will put out a fix for the mobo, id hate to have to sell my brand new ram so i may look at replacing the now "problemactic" motherboard instead of looking for a bunch of work arounds....if worst comes to worst like i said ill just buy a higher end cpu, theyve gone down in price and i feel like i can wait for that till after my marraige if need be so ill have a little more cash to throw around

thanks for all your help