Overclocking 3200 Venice

[Mazumo28]

Well, it's decided that i'm going to get an amd 64 3200+ venice, and an Asrock 939dual-sata2 motherboard. I'm a complete newbie to overclocking, so what can I expect from this board? Also, i'm going to use some of my old pc3200 2x256mb RAM with my new build.
From what I heard, RAM can hold back an overclock. Is this true? Will my RAM work fine, or hold me back?
Unfortunately, I don't really understand the sticky about Overclocking in this forum. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks for your help

 

[spiritwalker2223]

You might want a bit more ram, like 1Gb min. If you get ****** ram you can always use dividers to set it at its max usable settings while upping your FSB.

 

[theMan]

nah, ram doesnt hold back an a64 overclock. just run a ram divider, which runs the ram at a fraction of the cpu. feel free to ask specific questions about the sticky. it helps to be able to see the bios first.

 

[spiritwalker2223]

Yes, he can run dividers, but 512Mb of ram won't run worth a damn. I'm suffering with my 1Gb...

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Well 256MB sticks generally overclock better than 512MB sticks (depending on what you have of course) but yeah you definitely want no less than 1GB of ram. There's nothing wrong with running dividers if necessary to push your CPU to it's max . . . CPU speed is usually more important than RAM bandwidth anyway as long as you stay above 200mhz . . .

 

[uOpt]

You didn't tell us what RAM you have, how can we give a recommendation?

 

[Shenkoa]

My friend was unlucky with his Venice 3000+, he has Corsair Value Select CAS3 memory (accidental Cas3). He can only OC to about 2300 MHz with the Cas3, but when I put my Cas2 in his rig he can hit over 2500 MHz. In my opinion the RAM makes all the difference, pickup some good Corsair Value or OCZ Value.

Dont bother with expensive RAM

 

[Beh]

well,
i would recommend hanging out a bit more here and reading some articles on overclocking until that sticky becomes less confusing. you definitely dont want to fry anything inadvertently . i think the 3200+ is a good choice as it has a multiplier of 10. makes the math easier. personally id be happy with a simple overclock from 2.0Ghz to 2.4Ghz but thats me. if you want to go to the very edge you'll have long days and nights of tweaking ahead. to achieve that, you merely have to bump your fsb from 200 to 240 and set your ram to a 5/6 divider. dont worry, its still running at PC3200 in the end. also set your hypertransport multiplier from 5x to 4x, that way your system doesnt lose stability. you may also have to give your cpu core a bit more voltage to get it to work at this speed but be sure to take care! also make sure to have a decent cooling solution with this.

Here are some numbers for stock:
athlon 3200+ (200*10) = 2000Mhz
ddr400 (cpu speed/10) = 200Mhz (400Mhz effective)
hypertransport (fsb*5) = 1000Mhz (2000Mhz effective)

Here are same parts but adjusted for OC:
athlon 3200+ (240*10) = 2400Mhz
ddr333 (cpu speed/12) = 200Mhz (400Mhz effective)
hypertransport (fsb*4) = 960Mhz (1920Mhz effective)

the hypertransport is only a slight loss here but i think the cpu makes up for it. of course you could have a 250 fsb instead of 240 to make the hypertransport nice and even but then you would need better ram that can go over spec a little. of course i could be completely wrong with all this. if anyone knows differently, please let me know!

 

[Shenkoa]

It was very easy for me to get up to 2.6 VERY!

I have used the 3000+ on the same board and I was very dissapointed.

 

[Mazumo28]

Well, after reading the turorial a few times, i'm beginning to understand it, except for one part: memory divider. I just don't get this part, and I know its one of the most important ones to...

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Originally posted by: spiritwalker2223
Yes, he can run dividers, but 512Mb of ram won't run worth a damn. I'm suffering with my 1Gb...

???? I can run BF2, BF2CC, Ventrilo, and AIM/Xfire without any issues at all with 1gb.

 

[Mazumo28]

Wow, I read this: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1441072&enterthread=y and I finally understand everything!!
Well, what im thinking of doing for my OC is 220-240 FSB (im not going extreme here) with 10 multiplier, with a 6:5 memory divider. Although, I have two more questions:
1. Can you configure the memory divider in the BIOS?
2. When I fail to boot, would resetting the CMOS reset the OC?
-Thanks

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: theman
nah, ram doesnt hold back an a64 overclock. just run a ram divider, which runs the ram at a fraction of the cpu. feel free to ask specific questions about the sticky. it helps to be able to see the bios first.

Actually it can. My Athlon 64 didn't like my old CH-5 Mushkin RAM. It wouldn't work with memory dividers. Refused to POST.

 

[lifeguard1999]

Originally posted by: Mazumo28
1. Can you configure the memory divider in the BIOS?
2. When I fail to boot, would resetting the CMOS reset the OC?
-Thanks

1. The RAM divider is configured in BIOS.
2. Depending on the motherboard, you may or may not need to reset the CMOS. My DFI reboots just fine from a bad o/c. I do not need to reset the CMOS.