Retro Overclock: 3800X2 on A8NSLI-SE

[imported_Acedrew]

A friend of mine has been looking round for a hi-end Socket 939 dual-core CPU to stretch the life of his ageing Asus A8NSLI-SE motherboard.

Given the extortianate prices of 939 4600/4800 X2s, I suggested he got a cheapo 3800X2 and clocked it up.

This he did, having first updated to the latest 502 BIOS.

We started with FSB to 230MHz FSB, RAM to 333MHz and HT to 4X - with CnQ diasabled.

(X2 Processor driver loaded).

It all runs fine, but NTune reports the Multiplier is set to 8X - whereas I naturally expected 10X.

i.e it seems that the Board is lowering the multiplier in light of the FSB/HT settings.

With FSB, HT & RAM set to Auto all runs as expected (i.e 10X with 200FSB).

So what am I missing? Doubtless it is something bleeding obvious!!

TIA

Andy

 

[cubeless]

get cpuz and use it to check the cpu frequency (and other settings)...

lock in the 'expected' multi in the bios, don't set to auto... turn off cool n quiet, it could be setting the multi down...

 

[abs0lut3]

Originally posted by: Acedrew
A friend of mine has been looking round for a hi-end Socket 939 dual-core CPU to stretch the life of his ageing Asus A8NSLI-SE motherboard.

Given the extortianate prices of 939 4600/4800 X2s, I suggested he got a cheapo 3800X2 and clocked it up.

This he did, having first updated to the latest 502 BIOS.

We started with FSB to 230MHz FSB, RAM to 333MHz and HT to 4X - with CnQ diasabled.

(X2 Processor driver loaded).

It all runs fine, but NTune reports the Multiplier is set to 8X - whereas I naturally expected 10X.

i.e it seems that the Board is lowering the multiplier in light of the FSB/HT settings.

With FSB, HT & RAM set to Auto all runs as expected (i.e 10X with 200FSB).

So what am I missing? Doubtless it is something bleeding obvious!!

TIA

Andy

Your friend should be able to hit 240FSB easy without raising any Vcore. I did it on mine just fine. I hit BSODs at 250FSB with any kind of Vcore increase...maybe it's just my board but I'm satisfied with 240FSB

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

I am running a more than two year old X2 3800 @ 240 FSB * 10 with stock cooling and no voltage increase.

250 FSB also works, but I did not want to push it too much. My A8N SLI starts making problems beyond 260 FSB (checked this by taking CPU and Memory out of the equation).

I do not like nTunes, my experience is, that it does things I can not control. I did the overclocking via the mobo bios.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: abs0lut3

Originally posted by: Acedrew
A friend of mine has been looking round for a hi-end Socket 939 dual-core CPU to stretch the life of his ageing Asus A8NSLI-SE motherboard.

Given the extortianate prices of 939 4600/4800 X2s, I suggested he got a cheapo 3800X2 and clocked it up.

This he did, having first updated to the latest 502 BIOS.

We started with FSB to 230MHz FSB, RAM to 333MHz and HT to 4X - with CnQ diasabled.

(X2 Processor driver loaded).

It all runs fine, but NTune reports the Multiplier is set to 8X - whereas I naturally expected 10X.

i.e it seems that the Board is lowering the multiplier in light of the FSB/HT settings.

With FSB, HT & RAM set to Auto all runs as expected (i.e 10X with 200FSB).

So what am I missing? Doubtless it is something bleeding obvious!!

TIA

Andy

Your friend should be able to hit 240FSB easy without raising any Vcore. I did it on mine just fine. I hit BSODs at 250FSB with any kind of Vcore increase...maybe it's just my board but I'm satisfied with 240FSB

when you up the FSB are you doing it incrementally? or just blasting it to 240 - 250 FSB from stock?

If incrementally how much of an increment?

 

[Rhoxed]

mm 2.6 on stock voltage here, might be able to push the chip like i did, turn off cool-n-quiet

 

[mooseracing]

Why mention turning off cool and quiet?

Originally posted by: Acedrew

We started with FSB to 230MHz FSB, RAM to 333MHz and HT to 4X - with CnQ diasabled.

 

[StinkyPinky]

What's the max idle temp for this CPU? Mine idles at around 50c in summer @ 2.2Ghz on stock cooling. Seems high??

 

[Amaroque]

I have a 3800+ with stock vcore running for about a year at 2.4 Ghz.

 

[Rhoxed]

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
What's the max idle temp for this CPU? Mine idles at around 50c in summer @ 2.2Ghz on stock cooling. Seems high??

Idle at 50C is very high, that is usually where i try to get temps at 100% load - around 56C or so

 

[secretanchitman]

opteron 170 from 2.0Ghz to 2.6Ghz no effort. didnt need to raise any voltage (its set at 1.30v). i am using an a8n32-sli though.