Please help me overclock my 1600xp with my 2100 ram

[wellerdball]

Im sorry if this is redundant but i never see any help on the subect for people using 2100 ram I just bought an asus A7V8X ,512 stick oh cas 2 hiperf mushkinram 2100.I hear alot of talk about its overclocking ability and have read the other posts.I would like to overclock it the best i can without unlocking it.This board has somekind of turbo feature too.what do you guys feel is an appropriate fsb to set this thing to?anykind of help is greatly appreciated.This is my first nice computer and i would like to get the most bang for my buck

 

[CrazySaint]

Make sure you've got a decent HSF and some properly applied AS3, then set the FSB to 166MHz (with a 1:1 ratio) and pray your PC2100 RAM can handle those speeds. I'd go ahead and set your vdimm to ~2.6v. You may (or may not) also need to up your vcore a notch or two.

 

[wellerdball]

im running 1.543 ghz @ 147 fsb all i need in bios was set the fsb to 147 change my ram to cas 2 enable turbo mode whatever the hell that does,anyone know? I didnt mess with vcore or anything else.what do u mean 1:1 ratio? what is vdimm to ~2.6v? can i raise the vcore on a locked chip?

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: wellerdball
im running 1.543 ghz @ 147 fsb all i need in bios was set the fsb to 147 change my ram to cas 2 enable turbo mode whatever the hell that does,anyone know? I didnt mess with vcore or anything else.what do u mean 1:1 ratio? what is vdimm to ~2.6v? can i raise the vcore on a locked chip?

Set the FSB to 166, at 147 you're running your AGP/PCI busses out of spec, but at 166 the 1/5 divider is enabled setting your busses back to spec. So because of this, you might be able to get 166FSB when you can't get 150. Also, set your RAM to the most relaxed timings until you finish overclocking the CPU. I seriously doubt you're gonna get 166MHz @ CAS2. Vdimm is the RAM voltage, in the BIOS it may be listed as something like DRAM voltage or whatever. Yes, you can raise the vcore on a locked chip. Good luck

 

[wellerdball]

yea ive heard much about the 1/5 divider and at 147 im running stuff out of spec,but am i doing my system any harm or not running any faster than the stock 1.4.So what i plan to do from your help is set my fsb to 166 after i turn off turbo mode whatever the hell that does go back to cas 2.5.but how will i know when i need to bump ram voltage or cpu voltage?and lets say i do hit 166 fsb with cas 2.5 wll that be faster than my current 147 with cas 2?

 

[mechBgon]

<--- system at 133MHz FSB

<--- system at 137MHz

<--- system at 142MHz

:Q <--- system at 147MHz

:| <--- system at 150MHz+

<--- system at 166MHz after 1/5 divider kicked in


You're doing more harm at 147MHz than at 166MHz. I wouldn't want to be your hard drive at 147MHz!

 

[wellerdball]

i just set my chip to 1750 at 166fsb and it runs perfectly but i turned off turbo mode and cas 2.0 on my ram is it safe to put back on?

 

[mechBgon]

It won't harm anything to try, but if it doesn't run stable then you're overdoing it. I'm in the same boat, I use PC2100 at 166MHz, and I haven't tried pushing the RAM timings... let us know how it goes!

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: wellerdball
i just set my chip to 1750 at 166fsb and it runs perfectly but i turned off turbo mode and cas 2.0 on my ram is it safe to put back on?

Since you're automatically running both your RAM and CPU out of spec at 166, its a little tricky to see which is the problem. You can test overall system stability by running Prime95 (your system isn't stable until it can run 10 hours without crashing) and you can test the RAM specifically by running memtest86 (run it a couple hours with no errors on all 11 tests). Those lengths are for testing final stability, you can do preliminary tests by running Prime95 for an hour with no errors and memtest86 for about 3 passes with no errors.

 

[wellerdball]

wow i cant believe i got this speed and stability on this locked cpu plus i overclocked my geforce 4 mx 440 constant 125 fps in all games

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: wellerdball
wow i cant believe i got this speed and stability on this locked cpu plus i overclocked my geforce 4 mx 440 constant 125 fps in all games

Nice OC Did you have to increase your vcore any? How long did you run prime95 and memtest86?

 

[wellerdball]

nope i left vcore standard should i up it?and i havent ran thoose tests should i

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: wellerdball
nope i left vcore standard should i up it?and i havent ran thoose tests should i

You shouldn't up your voltage unless your system is unstable, and yes you should run those tests. If you don't plan on overclocking your system any further, then set your RAM on the least aggressvie timings, then run Prime95. If it runs an hour with no errors, then stop it and run memtest86 for a few loops on all 11 tests. If it passes, then slowly start improving your timings, one by one (leaving CAS latency until last), running memtest for at least 5 loops with no errors after each change. If you get more errors, increase your RAM voltage to 2.7 (don't go any higher than that), once you start getting errors at 2.7 RAM voltage, then back off a bit and see if you can run memtest86 for at least an hour, if not, then back off the timings a bit more. Once you've got memtest86 running for an hour with no errors, then its time for some final stability tests by running prime95 for about 10 hours with no errors and memtest86 for about 5 hours.

 

[wellerdball]

wow thanks for all the great info im gonna try to rude prime95 and memtest now but i do not plan to oc any further till i unlock

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: wellerdball
wow thanks for all the great info im gonna try to rude prime95 and memtest now but i do not plan to oc any further till i unlock

Hey now, no need to be rude, software has feelings too, ya know!

 

[wellerdball]

lol how the hell did i type rude meant run

 

[rogue1979]

Unless you have high case temps up to 2.9v should be safe for your PC2100.

 

[wellerdball]

im not intrested in overclocking more all im intrested in now is using cas 2 instead of 2.5 because after all this nice mushkin ram would go to waste not at its full potential.is 46-50 c idle normal?

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: wellerdball
im not intrested in overclocking more all im intrested in now is using cas 2 instead of 2.5 because after all this nice mushkin ram would go to waste not at its full potential.is 46-50 c idle normal?

If you're running your PC2100 RAM at PC2700 speeds, I'd say you're doing well. I'm running my Corsair XMS PC2700C2 at PC3200 2.5-3-3-7.

 

[wellerdball]

so corsair owns mushkin preety much right?

 

[Dewey]

Originally posted by: wellerdball
nope i left vcore standard should i up it?and i havent ran thoose tests should i

I would run them. Prime95 will tell you if you system is truely stable.