Overclocking Athlon64 system, need some basic advice

[nullpointerus]

I've got the following:

AMD Athlon64 3000+ (Winchester, 90nm)
MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum (?)
Geil 2x 512MB PC3200 CL 2.5
eVGA 6800GS w/ NV Silencer 5

...and so far I've managed the following overclock:

HTT: 1.06GHz @ 1.55V
HTT base: 265 MHz
HTT multiplier: 4
CPU: 2.4 GHz @ 1.50V
CPU RAM: 420 MHz CL 2.5 3-3-6 Dual Channel
PCI-E: 100 MHz (?) locked
GPU: 490 MHz
GPU RAM: 1000 MHz (stock so far)

This runs Prime95's blend torture test stably for 6.5 hours, so at least I'm on the right track. (I'm running the small FFT and large FFT now.) My question is, where do I go from here? Would this be a decent overclock considering my hardware? Or should I try to push it further if possible?

My ambient room temperature is always fairly low (~72F), and the case has good airflow with 2x 120mm fans plus a 120mm fan in the power supply.

I'm not looking to spend much money improving this setup...

 

[nullpointerus]

...OK...no response yet...

I'll update this thread with my temperatures:

CPU: 38/49C
GPU: 41/62C
NF4: 35C

And this setup runs Prime95's small FFT fine for a few hours at least - more testing tonight...

 

[imported_compudaze]

If you're happy with the current performance, keep is as is. If I were going this route I would try to reach 2.4GHz on a lower core voltage.

However, if you feel like pushing it. 2.6ghz should be attainable w/o problems. If you up the base clock any more I would change the HTT multiplier to 3x.

If you have no fear, keep going and find a higher stable overclock. Keep the voltage as low as possible while trying to get the highest MHz all while keeping temp's in check. I wouldn't be beyond 55C MAX which is kind of high.

 

[nullpointerus]

Cool, thanks for the reply!

I tried bumping the base to 275 MHz with the same voltage levels but a much lower 3x HTT multiplier and lower RAM divider at 133 MHz, but the board failed to POST and required a CMOS reset.

To see if it was the CPU or the aging NF4 Ultra chipset hitting a wall, I tried those settings again with the CPU multiplier lowered from 9x to 8.5x - still couldn't POST. 265 MHz is the sweet spot, apparently.

Looks like I'll stick with your advice and see if I can get the CPU voltage down to 1.45 or so. Cool 'n Quiet is now enabled, so overclocking should have much less of an impact on longevity. Also, my temperatures will remain consistent all year round due to the room's 24/7 AC.

Also, I downloaded that DX9 HDR light demo so that I can begin testing GPU RAM overclocks. So far I'm up to 1.09 GHz on this 6800GS without any artifacts. Maybe it'll get up to 1.19 GHz eventually...

 

[nullpointerus]

Nope, 1.5V is the lowest I can go to keep this overclock stable. A gain of 33% on the CPU and 10% on the RAM isn't too bad, anyway, considering these parts weren't made for overclocking in the first place. I'm happy with it. Thanks for the help! I suppose I'm done posting in this thread now.