Sempron 3100 s754 System Overclocking help needed

[DarkTXKnight]

Hello all. I have a bunch of parts from some of my earlier machines cobbled together to make a decent gaming rig. with work and family I really did not want to sink a whole lot of money into a new machine until some new stuff comes out ( UT2007, Vista SP2 ) and so I am looking to O\C my current machine. Here's what I have :

Sempron 3100+ @ Stock speed with a fancy Tt CPU fan ( forgot the model )
2 GB PC3200 RAM - 1 GB Corsair chip, 2 x 512MB corsair Chip
Asus K8N Nforce3 250 MB ( the on with 3 RAM slots, that's why I have 2 GB)
2 x 120 GB WD HDD's
BFG 6800NU with NV Silencer

I really haven't had the time to catch on to a ton of newer games, but I play UT2004, Q4 and now Fear Combat pretty regularly.

I have a read a bit on the 754 Overclocking and have some questions though. Where should I really begin my OC, as in what should I tweak first? Is it going to be possible to OC with all 3 RAM chips installed? I had been keeping the RAM at 2 GB's because looking around the forums that seemed to be the best suggestion to play FC. If I have a faster machine but only 1.5 GB Ram, do you think there would be a significant performance hit ?
I am really open to suggestions, and would really prefer to work with the hardware I have ( i.e. just can't afford to spend anything on new HW right now, baby on the way )

 

[BlueWeasel]

With the NF3 being single-channel only, it might be easier to run 3 sticks, although I'm unsure if they would run at PC2700 or PC3200 speeds.

I'd following the A64 Overclocking Guide, as it works the same for the Semprons and will allow you to find the maximum limits for each component (CPU, RAM, MB). Then it's just a matter of picking the combination that provides the best performance.

I had a 3100+ (Palermo) that ran at 2.6Ghz...those newer Semprons really are great OCing chips.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Where can I find the A64 Overclocking guide?

 

[pwnedbypie]

google? lmao.....

 

[BlueWeasel]

Here

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Thank You So much Blueweasel

 

[myocardia]

The quick version: drop your HT multiplier to 2x, your RAM to 133 Mhz, and raise your vcore by .10v, and see how fast it will go. Oh, also lock your AGP bus @67 Mhz, and PCI @33 Mhz.

 

[KAZANI]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
Where can I find the A64 Overclocking guide?

:thumbsdown: @ that guide loosing sticky status.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Hey I like that quick version myocardia. I will try those very settings when I get home tonight . I am assuming that the AGP and PCI locking is somewhere in the BIOS? I remember reading about locking this stuff before but was never in a situation that required it before now and this is a new MB.

 

[BlueWeasel]

I'm pretty sure that both the AGP and PCI speeds are locked by default on the NF3 boards (not sure about SATA though). In the BIOS, you might see an option to set the speeds manually to 66 (AGP) or 33 (PCI).

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
I'm pretty sure that both the AGP and PCI speeds are locked by default on the NF3 boards (not sure about SATA though). In the BIOS, you might see an option to set the speeds manually to 66 (AGP) or 33 (PCI).

With quite a few of the nforce3 boards, the AGP bus wasn't locked until you set the AGP bus to 67 Mhz. I.E., leave it at the stock 66 Mhz, and no lock. I don't remember which boards required that, and which didn't, but it hurts nothing to do it with all boards, since it's only .33 Mhz higher.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
I'm pretty sure that both the AGP and PCI speeds are locked by default on the NF3 boards (not sure about SATA though). In the BIOS, you might see an option to set the speeds manually to 66 (AGP) or 33 (PCI).

With quite a few of the nforce3 boards, the AGP bus wasn't locked until you set the AGP bus to 67 Mhz. I.E., leave it at the stock 66 Mhz, and no lock. I don't remember which boards required that, and which didn't, but it hurts nothing to do it with all boards, since it's only .33 Mhz higher.

Ah, didn't know that.

 

[bartoloman]

i got my Sempron 3100 up to 2.5ghz with stock fans and such, just drop the HT and Ram and then boost vCore and then go up large at first, u should be able to hit 250-260mhz fsb no problem, and then a few more changes and u can 275 mhz fsb, i cant get any higher. I see no point for me now to OC it, cuz i just bought an E6600

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
I'm pretty sure that both the AGP and PCI speeds are locked by default on the NF3 boards (not sure about SATA though). In the BIOS, you might see an option to set the speeds manually to 66 (AGP) or 33 (PCI).

With quite a few of the nforce3 boards, the AGP bus wasn't locked until you set the AGP bus to 67 Mhz. I.E., leave it at the stock 66 Mhz, and no lock. I don't remember which boards required that, and which didn't, but it hurts nothing to do it with all boards, since it's only .33 Mhz higher.

Ah, didn't know that.

Yeah, I actually own one of them. I didn't find that out until after I had it. But, once I started researching a bit, it turns out quite a few of them were the same. With some, it even depended on the version of the board, IIRC.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

OK Im a little confused still I guess. I got the CPU part where I used FSB 266 X Multiplier of 9 to give me 2394 MHZ. I had the HT set at 3 at the time. Where I am fuzzy are the RAM settings. What should they be? In my memclock options I have 200, 266, 333, and 400. I had it set to 266 and while it did boot it seemed kinda pokey actnbg to me. Any ideas?

 

[postmortemIA]

Reduce RAM to 200. It gets multiplied based on FSB anyway, so it won't run at 200.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

OK, so If I leave the RAM to 200, do I need to mess with the timings at all or leave default to auto. Also do My CPU settings needs any changes?

I am about to use the following settings:

RAM set to 200, all other tiings set to Auto

HT=3
FSB = 266
CPU Multi = 9X
My Stock Vcore on this Asus is 1.525, do I need to boost this?
I saw some earier comments telling me to drop HT to 2 or up to 4, what would that buy me?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Unless you are trying to underclock the RAM to isolate the CPU, I'd use the 266 divider. Using 200 (0.5) puts the RAM at 133 if you are running the CPU at 266x9. Since you've got PC3200, you want to use the highest RAM divider that puts you nearest or higher than the stock speed of the RAM.

If you use the 266 (0.67) divider, then your RAM will be running at ~180Mhz (266x0.67). Going up to the next highest divider of 333, your RAM would be running at ~221Mhz (266x(333/400)). Your RAM might be able to hit that high, but it would likely take relaxed timings and or more voltage. I'd probably leave the divider at 133 for now.

The hypertransport bus frequency is always the HT multiplier x HTT (FSB). On the NF3 Ultra boards like yours, the stock HT frequency is 1000Mhz and going higher that this can mean instability with no performance increase. In your case, setting HT to 2 or 3 will be fine (2x266=532Mhz, 3x266=800Mhz, both less than 1000Mhz) and 4 would push the frequency over 1000Mhz.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

what about the voltage settings. How high should I raise it?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
what about the voltage settings. How high should I raise it?

+10% above stock is typical and should give you plenty of overclocking headroom.

 

[jjmIII]

Honestly......you could change one setting and get a nice big boost.

Set the FSB to 250, and leave everything else alone. The HTT will be fine at 2000, and your DDR will auto set to 200mhz. You shouldn't even need a Voltage increase.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

jjm , so youre saying to have the following settins corect?

HT =2
CPU Multi = 9
FSB = 250
DDR set to 200

Is that correct??

I may try this. I tried the other settings last night and the machine kept rebooting after a few minutes. I was wondring if I did not have enough voltage, but if the above settings work I may no fool with the other stuff.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: jjmIII
Honestly......you could change one setting and get a nice big boost.

Set the FSB to 250, and leave everything else alone. The HTT will be fine at 2000, and your DDR will auto set to 200mhz. You shouldn't even need a Voltage increase.

How do you know his RAM will lock at 200? Likely setting the divider to 200 will result in a 1:1 ratio and I doubt his RAM can handle 250Mhz, regardless of his timings or voltage.

 

[jjmIII]

BlueWeasel....I could be wrong with his board, but when DDR is on auto and 250bus, all my boards auto set ddr to default speed (via the dividers). They all run the DDR at 200 (or very close).

DarkTXKnight....

HT = 4 (x250 bus = 2000htt...no problem, A64 runs 2000 default, Semp is 1600)
CPU Multi = 9 (yes, leave alone, you can't change it anyhow!)
FSB = 250
DDR = 200 (set DDR to AUTO and see if it sets itself to 200..or close)
Voltage = default (or 1-2 bumps past default)

If you set the bus past 250, lower HTT to 3, and then you'll need to mess with memory timing some more. In my experience (x2, A64, Semp) 250 is a sweet spot that needs almost NO tweaking.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

jjm, you seem to be correct about the auto setting, I notice that whenever it is set to auto it defaults to 200. Im going to try the settings I suggest and see if I cant get it all stable. Will report back tonight hopefully Thank you all for your help... Im loooking forward to getting this working!