OCing clarification: Opty 170, A8R32-MVP, GSkill 2GBHZ

[starwars7]

I'm really confused by your situation. Seems that you should be able to OC better.

My 165 is at 2.5GHz and runs Dual Prime Stable for 8 hours (haven't run it any longer than that because I like to use the PC )

Looks like we have the same RAM. It seems pretty irritated by little changes, but once you figure out what works on your MOBO its all good.

My RAM had been holding me back as well, until I read a thread that talked about a couple of their batches being sent with the wrong timings. Go into your BIOS and make sure yours are set to 3-4-4-8 and not 3-3-3-8. Once I made that change it took care of everything. Prior to that I was messing around with my volts etc... and then found out that it was just the timings.

Also are you using a divider?

My ram can run 250 or even 260 at 1-1, but once it goes above that I use a .9 divider.

EDIT: Here is the thread, it leads to another thread with a couple of helpful links and one actually leads to a G.Skill tech support thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1848003&enterthread=y

 

[PSUPef2k]

Originally posted by: starwars7
I'm really confused by your situation. Seems that you should be able to OC better.

My 165 is at 2.5GHz and runs Dual Prime Stable for 8 hours (haven't run it any longer than that because I like to use the PC )

Looks like we have the same RAM. It seems pretty irritated by little changes, but once you figure out what works on your MOBO its all good.

My RAM had been holding me back as well, until I read a thread that talked about a couple of their batches being sent with the wrong timings. Go into your BIOS and make sure yours are set to 3-4-4-8 and not 3-3-3-8. Once I made that change it took care of everything. Prior to that I was messing around with my volts etc... and then found out that it was just the timings.

Also are you using a divider?

My ram can run 250 or even 260 at 1-1, but once it goes above that I use a .9 divider.

EDIT: Here is the thread, it leads to another thread with a couple of helpful links and one actually leads to a G.Skill tech support thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1848003&enterthread=y

Mine are set to 3-4-4-8. I am running at 1:1 also. I don't think the memory is the problem, but I could be wrong.

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

Originally posted by: PSUPef2k
Mine are set to 3-4-4-8. I am running at 1:1 also. I don't think the memory is the problem, but I could be wrong.

Easy to find out. Drop the memory speed down, make sure ALL the timings are pretty loose. then run Prime again and see if it errors. If it does, you can be pretty sure it's the CPU.

I know you mentioned that Memtest passes, but in my experience Prime can sometimes cause an error where Memtest doesn't.

 

[PSUPef2k]

On a side note, I was gaming for a good 2 hours last night (CS:Source & Battlefield 2) with no problems at all. Max temps were CPU 43C and MB 43C.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Even if the mem is rated @ 250 it doesn't mean that its guaranteed. Maybe 245 mhz is all it will give you. Try using dividers to make your OC have 200mhz on the mem. If Prime still fails then... well, you may have bought a dud 170 (a crappy one)...

Make sure you're using the latest BIOS: 0404

Here's a direct link: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

or the main support site: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

The latest Bios solved so many issues for me. So glad

 

[PSUPef2k]

I have the latest BIOS. I hope I don't have a dud 170.

Anyway, I don't think the memory is the issue. It's run memtest86 for 2 hours w/ no errors...should I test it more extensively?

 

[Mogadon]

Originally posted by: gersson
Even if the mem is rated @ 250 it doesn't mean that its guaranteed. Maybe 245 mhz is all it will give you. Try using dividers to make your OC have 200mhz on the mem. If Prime still fails then... well, you may have bought a dud 170 (a crappy one)...

That's a negative. He's running DDR 500 which is meant to run at specific timings at 250MHz, if it doesn't he can and should RMA. That means it is guaranteed to run at 250Mhz.

 

[PSUPef2k]

Update:

I moved the core voltage to 1.375 and then overvolted +100mV to put it at 1.475. Prime ran fine for 3 hours and then failed on core 1.

Obviously prime for 3 hours isn't "great," but that is pretty decent right? Should i take it back up to 1.4 vcore and +100mV instead, or is this most likely the memory this time and not the processor?

 

[PSUPef2k]

Update again. I tried 2.6ghz and booted windows fine. However, when priming at 2.6ghz, core 2 fails almost instantly with a rounding error. Does this yet again signal the need for more voltage? I am already at 1.475 on a dual core opteron which safe voltage is 1.4v. Any thoughts? Should I stick to 2.5ghz or try adding more voltage. Temps are still fine and below 50C at load. Probably at 47C.

 

[PSUPef2k]

Ok so I set voltage to 1.350 + 200mV = 1.504-1.520 fluctuating...slight improvement, but prime still fails on core 0 in < 5 minutes. Do I need 1.55 to get this to 2.6-2.7ghz? Is it safe? According the quick and dirty OC guide, it's not, but many other places i've read of people pushing 1.55 through their 170's safely. Any thoughts or advice? Temps still seem ok. By the way I have an SI-120 & 120mm Delta fan on my CPU, so I am off the stock cooler.

 

[Mogadon]

You can at least put 1.55V through it temporarily to see if that'll help you get stable, if it does you can then decide whether you want to keep it there or not ... .

 

[PSUPef2k]

Originally posted by: Mogadon
You can at least put 1.55V through it temporarily to see if that'll help you get stable, if it does you can then decide whether you want to keep it there or not ... .

I was hoping there would be something else to try. :-\ Why am I not able to get 2.7 out of this chip on air at close to stock voltage like many others?

 

[PSUPef2k]

giving it 1.55V only helped a bit, but it still isn't lasting longer than 5 minutes. What else is there to try? Am I forced to accept my 2.5ghz @ 1.45v?

Is there anything else I can tweak? Should I lower the HT Link multiplier? Currently HT Link speed is 800mhz...should I Lower it to 600?

 

[PSUPef2k]

Ok, I haven't had much time to work on this lately, but now am forced to because I am getting a post error on bootup. 1 long followed by 3 short beeps...a base/extended memory error. So I figured that narrowed my issue down memory, right? WRONG.

Memtest still detects no errors after almost 6 hours. To say this is frustrating is an understatement. I get the post error, then do a hard reboot once or twice and then it comes up fine. I am definitely going to try putting my memory in a divider tonight.

I bumped my HTT down to 240, so now I am at 2.4ghz, memory is at 240mhz, but I am still experiencing the post error. The error only occurs when the machine is off for some time (2+ hours), because if i do a restart once I finally get it booted up, it comes back up fine. If I turn it off then back on 10 minutes later, it comes back up fine. Any thoughts after this new development?

EDIT: I am beginning to think the PSU is the problem.

 

[EffeX]

Hmm, that might be the limit of your chip. btw do you like the A8R32?

 

[PSUPef2k]

I did like the board...then I started getting these cold boot issues. So right now the answer is no. If this issue were to be resolved, whether it be by tweaking my timings or a BIOS update from ASUS...then maybe I would say yes.

 

[PSUPef2k]

ugh...HELP!!

This morning I tried starting it up, had to reset 3 times to get it to boot past post, and when I did get it to startup, the video card driver is now not installed. It shows up in add/remove programs, but not in device manager and was detected as new hardware. I will have to reinstall them tonight when I get home.

I also noticed that when I boot up, the post screen shows that the memory clock = unknown. Is this normal?

I checked speed fan and it was showing vcore1 correctly, it had a reading of vcore2 = 3.25 steady (i think this is really my +3.3V rail), and then +3.3V = 2.6 fluctuating from 1.4-3.4, not steady at all, but mostly floating around 2.6V which is what my memory is set to, so I assume that reading is actually my DDR voltage. I would assume that the fluctuations from 1.4-3.4 is not good, and could actually be the basis of my overclocking stability issues. Would this be caused by bad memory? Or would it be the motherboard or even the PSU that is the issue? All rails on the PSU are stable, so I don't think that is it but I could be wrong. Any advice would be appreciated.