Should I get another MB?

[MBrown]

I going to get either an opty 165 or 170 and I want to get to at least 2.6Ghz. Does anybody have any experience overclocking these processors with this MB or should I get another one.

Maybe I should post this in the CPU section.

 

[Wentelteefje]

It'll do fine, and will probably overclock even more... I had my Venice 3000+ up to 2.7GHz (9x300, highest HTT 332MHz) with this board... The 165 is more than enough... What PSU do you have?

 

[MBrown]

NeoPower 480watt. Im guess its my power supply that would be hold me back.

 

[MBrown]

Oh what about my ram? Good enough?

 

[Wentelteefje]

Originally posted by: MBrown
NeoPower 480watt. Im guess its my power supply that would be hold me back.

Errm... No, that one's not going to hold you back...

Originally posted by: MBrown
Oh what about my ram? Good enough?

Not for extreme overclocking, but you can set a divider, no problem...

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje

Originally posted by: MBrown
NeoPower 480watt. Im guess its my power supply that would be hold me back.

Errm... No, that one's not going to hold you back...

Originally posted by: MBrown
Oh what about my ram? Good enough?

Not for extreme overclocking, but you can set a divider, no problem...

I've heard about dividers but Im not exactly sure what they are. Is it something you have to put on the Motherboard or is in in the BIOS?

 

[Wentelteefje]

Originally posted by: MBrown

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje

Originally posted by: MBrown
NeoPower 480watt. Im guess its my power supply that would be hold me back.

Errm... No, that one's not going to hold you back...

Originally posted by: MBrown
Oh what about my ram? Good enough?

Not for extreme overclocking, but you can set a divider, no problem...

I've heard about dividers but Im not exactly sure what they are. Is it something you have to put on the Motherboard or is in in the BIOS?

It's a BIOS thingy... Normally the RAM runs at the same speed as the processor's Front Side Bus, however, with an AMD Athlon 64, we don't talk about FSB anymore, but here it's named HTT... Some explanation: The Front Side Bus (the bus that runs from the CPU to the NorthBridge) is on the CPU itself and not the motherboard as is the case with Pentium 4 and Athlon XP... The CPU is connected to the motherboard via a HyperTransport interconnect bus in place of the Front Side Bus.

Now, if you start overclocking, you have to raise your FSB/HTT, but this means that your RAM will rise too... Some RAM can hit really high, while others don't... If yours doesn't (what kind of Corsairs are they anyway? ValueSelects?), you need to set a divider...

What it basically does, is changing the speed of your RAM, differently from your CPU's FSB/HTT... If it runs at the same speed, it's of course 1 (CPU) : 1 (RAM)... But there are different settings (6:5, 3:2 and 2:1 are the most common ones) to be selected in the BIOS... So let's do the math...

FSB/HTT: 200MHz (on every Athlon 64 and Opteron)
Divider: 6:5
Actual RAM speed: 166MHz (200/6*5)

FSB/HTT: 200MHz
Divider: 3:2
Actual RAM speed: 133MHz (200/3*2)

You see?

Now, when your CPU's FSB/HTT is 200MHz, your RAM runs at 166MHz (if you selected the 6:5 setting)... So if you start overclocking, your RAM will have to rise a long way until it reaches 200MHz (which is its standard speed as well)... A new calculation (just turning around):

RAM speed: 200MHz (after it has risen of course)
Divider: 6:5
FSB/HTT: 240MHz (200/5*6)

RAM speed: 200MHz
Divider: 3:2
FSB/HTT: 300MHz (200/2*3)

You see again?

What I just showed, is that, by setting the divider to 3:2, your RAM will only reach 200MHz (its nominal speed, remember?) while your FSB/HTT already has 300MHz! You don't "stress" or overclock the RAM, so it will not pose a bottleneck to your CPU overclock...

In your case, it would be best to use this 3:2 divider, as it will let you rise your FSB/HTT to at least 300MHz... Let's make this final calculation on your setup:

AMD Opteron 165

Clock speed: 1.8GHz
HTT: 200MHz
Multiplier: 9 (9x200MHz equals 1800MHz geddit?)

So you have a multiplier of 9... If you multiply 9 with 300MHz, your outcome is 2700MHz or 2.7GHz... Speedy enough? This looks like the ideal situation for you...

Hope I helped...

EDIT: D*mn spelling...

 

[darkdemyze]

Wow, you should repost that as a mini guide or description, unless there's already one somewhere else on the forum and I missed it. Nice info though!

 

[Wentelteefje]

Originally posted by: darkdemyze
Wow, you should repost that as a mini guide or description, unless there's already one somewhere else on the forum and I missed it. Nice info though!

LOL Thanks! And... Welcome to the forums to you!