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overclocking an Barton?

S

subzero813

Member
i have an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe, with an Athlon XP 3200+ (2.2GHz Barton)...

i need to squeeze some more performance out of my system for F.E.A.R., BF2, etc. and probably Quake 4 since i cannot upgrade until next spring, when i can go splurge on a completely new system. until then, what are my options?

the cpu multiplier seems to be locked at 11.0...

so i was thinking is it possible to drop in PC3700 (DDR 466) ram, and run the FSB at 233MHz, and thus oc the CPU to somewhere like 2.5GHz? i have no idea what kind of voltages i need to set for the CPU/RAM in the BIOS for those speeds, anybody have any ideas? what kind of cooling would i need? i presume the ram should be stable as its made for that speed...
 
I'd definitely suggest upgrading the cooling to something like a Thermaltake SI-97A or a Zalman CNPS7000B if you're going to do any significant overclocking.

You'd probably be better off seeing how far you can push your current RAM before upgrading, and as for voltages, just push your speeds until they become unstable at stock voltages and then increase things by little increments until your system is stable again. Repeat.

From what little information I've been able to find about overclocking AXP 3200+ chips, you probably shouldn't expect too much. I've managed to almost get to 2.5GHz (227MHz FSB). It wasn't very stable, but that might have been my RAM's fault.
 
With Athlon Xp cpus, you need to keep the fsb and the ram frequency at the same speed, otherwise your performance will suffer. Seing how you ram is rated for high speeds, I'd set the ram to run at a 1:1 ratio with the fsb, and then increase the fsb until it gets unstable. The you can increase the voltage and see if it makes it stable again at the higher speeds.

For Barton cpus, I'd go up to 1.8 volts, but only if you have a good cooler. If you're running a stock heatsink, I would nor recommend raising the voltage, because you risk overheating the cpu. Measure your cpu temp while running prime95, and if it stays below 60C, then you're safe.
 
Well I still have one ...so I can offer you some advice albeit limited.

Just use whatever RAM you have and try and squeeze as much out of it that you can. Don't buy any RAM etc unless you know you're planning to upgrade to A64 S939 as the performance gains on XP aren't that great - they don't scale as well as A64 for the extra speed you add.

Always keep the RAM:CPU 1:1 as others have said. Also try and keep the timings as low as possible although if going from 2-2-2 to 2.5-2-2 nets you an additional 15mhz it's probably worth it. Don't be afraid of upping your RAM voltage to 2.8V if needed.

Also I wouldn't go over 1.75V - I've found it simply isn't worth it. I'd probably prefer going a bit lower but I'm not happy to settle for less than 2.2ghz.

eg at 1.75V I can get 10.5 x 211 = 2215mhz
to get to 2300mhz I however need 1.85V which I did for a few months before realising the error of my ways.

The extra voltage and speed produces masses of extra heat and simply isn't worth it for the extra heat (and indirectly noise).

Overclocking beyond a certain point can suddenly start demanding masses of extra voltage in which case it isn't worth it.

Looking at it circumspectly, your games are more likely to be ggraphics card limited than anything else - certainly if your operating a 9800Pro or so.


edit. btw I hope you have 1GB of RAM for those games as if you don't, overclocking your CPU will be meaningless.
 
1.8volts seems like a bit much, I've seen several barton cores go south quick running that kind of voltage. I've got a barton and I'm at 1.75v with no issues and its been there for about 30 months. I had some big time heat issues when I tried to go much higher than 1.78v at 2.4ghz. Just way too unstable. So I backed it down to 2.2 and that seemed to do ok.
 
i have this heatsink currently:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835108021

(the AMD version of course)

it keeps temps at like 45-50 C with the 3200+... is that Zalman 7000B still superior?

also when you guys say voltage, for some reason there is like a 0.05 v difference from my BIOS setting to what it ends up being. if i set bios to 1.65 it ends up 1.7, if its 1.7 in bios, it ends up 1.75, etc.

right now its at 1.7 (bios set at 1.65).

i'm almost tempted to just get the PC3700 ram (i can get it for cheap, so i can throw it away when i upgrade again sometime late winter/early spring), and start bumping up FSB to see how close i can get to 233mhz since the voltage/temps are already fairly high on this thing. of course if its possible to reliably achieve 2.5GHz on this thing, i'll do whatever it takes, within monetary reason. 🙂
 
I don't know the heatsink but it looks fine to me - sufficient for you're purposes.

It's really not worth spending any money on your XP unless you're going to use it in your next build.

eg 2 x 1GB sticks could be worthwhile

Outside of that don't end up spending even $20 more for say 100mhz performance - it's simply not worth it.
 
Originally posted by: Diasper
I don't know the heatsink but it looks fine to me - sufficient for you're purposes.

It's really not worth spending any money on your XP unless you're going to use it in your next build.

eg 2 x 1GB sticks could be worthwhile

Outside of that don't end up spending even $20 more for say 100mhz performance - it's simply not worth it.
Click to expand...

I agree...you could always buy your better ram now, but I dont think I'd do that. Just play around with the OC and let me know what you get...if you get 2.5 I'd like to know what combination you used to get it there because I have yet to be successful on mine or any of them that i have access to (which is about 6 of them).
 
well i am going to be spending like $1500 on new cpu/mobo/ram/vid card probably around spring. so i can afford to dump a hundred or two right now because i really need to be able to run Quake 4 (Doom 3-engine) and FEAR/BF2 until then, and then resell and lessen the hit to the wallet when i get all the other stuff.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820221024 < --- how does this brand of RAM sound? the timings look good, and it can take high voltage too, so this should be solid as a rock with the speeds i am going to throw at it.

i am going to try that first...just throw in the faster ram and a faster cpu fan on my existing heatsink, and start bumping up the FSB as high as i can without exceeding 1.75v and see if i can make it to 2.5GHz.
 
Don't. Get 2 x 1Gb Muskin Blue . Inexpensive and overclocks like a champ upto 250mhz or so at cas 2.5-3-2.

For a future buil you'll need 2GBs and its much better to go with 1Gb sticks. Get the Mushkins and sell your current sticks.
 
alright, but can someone let me know which voltage setting do you guys refer to? the one you set in the BIOS or the one that results? because setting 1.65 in bios ends up giving me 1.70, and 1.70 gives me 1.75... so i'm confused as to whether 1.70 or 1.75 in BIOS will get me working 1.75.
 
i just tested mine at 211 without changing anything and it worked fine, couldn't run an extended memory test cuz i got impatient but it ran all my games fine for an hour then i changed it back.

which reminds me...at what point will i need to raise the voltages of the motherboard itself? because my board, the Asus A7N8X-E does not allow me to modify this from the BIOS :-\ so how far do you think i could get? still over 220mhz?
 
I'll echo a remark made above.

Those are FPS games, I think the vid card is waay more important than extra CPU power. What card are you running now?

Fern
 
Don't faff around with modded bios unless you really need to. A bios that gave you accurate volt reporting could be worth investigating - however regarding those volt readings it could just be the sensor reading it wrongly.

Just keep going until you need to start adding voltages.

To be honest beyond 1.7V i didn't notice too much more headroom being created. I just went to 1.75 because I couldn't settle for less than 2.2ghz or 3200+ speeds. So in short stick to 1.7v (giving 1.75V) for the moment and see how far you can get. (Stick to 1.65v actually until you need to add more juice etc.

Use prime95 for your CPU and run it for upto 24hrs to test for stability - once you find your maximum back down a couple of fsb mhz. Use memtest to test your memory specifically.
 
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