Should I push it farther? (Barton 3000+ -> 2300mhz)

[zbose]

First here is my new system:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2.0, flashed to 1007
Barton 3000+ 400 fsb version
SLK-900A Heatsink with Panaflow M1A
Old School Artic Silver 1 Thermal compound
512 Crucial PC-3200B ram
AiW Radeon 9800 Pro (no oc'd).
Currently using a crap 230 PSU, Antec 430 TruePower arriving today

Temps taken using MBM 5


I just changed the multiplier from 11 to 12 (i think, machine is at home so I can't check) and got it from 3000+ -> 3200+ -> 2300mhz (thats what POST says now). Temps are running at 31 for the socket sensor, 41 for the diode sensor at idle and it seems to go to 38/50 or so max under full load. Totally stable, been burning in w/ prime95 torture for two days now. Oh yeah, FSB is just at 200 (or 400 or whatever).

My question is, am I running as hot as i want to be? Or should I just keep jacking up the mutlipler until it starts to get unstable? I heard the barton 3000+ wasn't that great of an overclocker but I haven't really seen many people posting temps/results about them.

Also, to anyone with a similar set up, which temp do I trust more? The diode or the socket temp?

Thanks!
-zb

 

[zbose]

Ok I am an idiot. I tried searching the archives and found a few examples of people doing similar OCs but nobody has posted what they ended up topping out at.

Also, do I want to bother getting my FSB as high as possible, or should I try and get my multiplier as high as possible? What is going to give me the best performance in video games?

BTW, I would rather not screw with the voltages for now, so this is all subject to stock voltages.

 

[myocardia]

Zbose, you're not going to get much performance difference at all by raising your multiplier. The only reason you would want to not raise the FSB, and raise the multiplier is if you have ram that isn't fast enough, like you have now. If you want to see a huge performance jump, you are gonna have to invest in some higher "octane" RAM, like some PC3700 (466 mhz). If you buy some quality ram, you will be able to run it fast, like 2-2-2-7, and your performance will go up even more. Oh yeah, with the Athlons, running your ram at 2-2-2-7 is actually faster for some strange reason than running it at 2-2-2-5, which would in fact be faster on an Intel machine. Anyway, good luck.

 

[zbose]

Damn. And here I was thinking it was going so easy. So i'll take my multiplier back down to default and just start jacking the FSB up until its topped out? I get what your saying about the ram... i guess that will be my next investment.

Heres a question, i read somewhere that some of the bartons with slower fsbs that had higher clockspeeds than the 3000+ 400fsb beat it in certain becnhmarks... Are there certain instances/applications when having the highest possible clockspeed (thru high multiplier) will yield more performance than having the highest possible fsb (with a lower clockspeed)?

Thanks,
-zb

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: zbose
Damn. And here I was thinking it was going so easy. So i'll take my multiplier back down to default and just start jacking the FSB up until its topped out? I get what your saying about the ram... i guess that will be my next investment.

Heres a question, i read somewhere that some of the bartons with slower fsbs that had higher clockspeeds than the 3000+ 400fsb beat it in certain becnhmarks... Are there certain instances/applications when having the highest possible clockspeed (thru high multiplier) will yield more performance than having the highest possible fsb (with a lower clockspeed)?

Thanks,
-zb

Oh, I'm sure there are instances of that happening, but which processor do you think would be faster: an XP3000, with a 400Mhz fsb or an XP2500 running at 2.4Ghz (400 Mhz faster than the 3000) with a 440 or so fsb? Oh, and if you wanna try it with your slow ram, make sure that you go into the bios, and relax the ram's timings as much as possible. I would recommend running it at 3-4-4-7 or even 3-4-4-8. That's going to allow the ram to reach higher speeds.