Stable overclock on an AMD 3200+

[mitchafi]

I'm trying to hit 2.2 ghz on my Athlon 64 3200+. Right now I have the fsb set at 215 and only lasted about 3 hours in Prime 95 blended mode. Is there anything I can do to make the system more stable thus allowing it to go higher. My ram ratings as reported by CPU-Z are 2.5, 3, 3, 6, 12, 16 and my DDR Voltage is 2.7. Could relaxing the ram timings help me out at all without signifcantly hurting performance? Extra cooling devices is an option but I don't think it would help because this machine idles at 38-39 C and never exceeds 47 C at full load. I'm using the stock HSF and I have 40 80MM fan's in the case.

 

[myocardia]

Raise your vcore, in the bios.

 

[mitchafi]

by how much, and isn't that dangerous. Does it reduce the life of the chip?

 

[oldman420]

unless there is a critical purpose for that box to be super stable ie its controlling a critical process like a server then 3 hours of prime 95 is not bad you should be able to do everything ie games etc with no problems, as for overclocking more yes it wears the chip out faster more temp = less life and to be honest the 200-300 mhz you get wont be worth it that is a great chip keep in mind that unless you are running linux or some other 64 bit os and apps you are really only seeing half of what that chip can do.

 

[mitchafi]

bump for more opinions/suggestions

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Raise your vcore, in the bios.

Right on if you want it to pass you will need to bump just a little. Perhaps one step abob stock.

Dangerous? perhaps depends on the chip. one step above stock I don't think will hurt anything. Many overvolt their chips alot but they also don't plan on running them for years either. I don't know what is a safe voltage for A64 but I would say if stock is 1.5 then atleast 1.6 is probably fine. But in your case 1.525 or 1.55 is probably fine as it already gets to 3 hours just a touch more will probably get you over that hump of being questionable to working perfectly.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: JBT

Originally posted by: myocardia
Raise your vcore, in the bios.

Right on if you want it to pass you will need to bump just a little. Perhaps one step abob stock.

Dangerous? perhaps depends on the chip. one step above stock I don't think will hurt anything. Many overvolt their chips alot but they also don't plan on running them for years either. I don't know what is a safe voltage for A64 but I would say if stock is 1.5 then atleast 1.6 is probably fine. But in your case 1.525 or 1.55 is probably fine as it already gets to 3 hours just a touch more will probably get you over that hump of being questionable to working perfectly.

I agree completely. You shouldn't need to go higher than 1.55v vcore, and 1.525v may be all it takes to make it completely stable. BTW, if you ever defrag your hard-drive, then you want your overclock to be COMPLETELY stable, not just stable enough for gaming.

 

[mitchafi]

why, crash during defrag = ownage? Never heard about that. BTW, I don't know what the stock vcore is, but when you increase it, it goes in increments of I think .02. One bump would be enough?

 

[Hyperlite]

indeed...whats happens if you crash during defrag? nothing good apparently...

 

[AsiLuc]

Defrag while unstable?
Maybe you'll just crash and damage the file-system or files.
Maybe you'll corrupt files? Je ne sais pas.
I do know you shouldn't install windows OC-ed.

 

[howdyduty]

Yep, crank up the vcore. Start with 10% or so. 10% should not hurt at all. Might cut 5 years of the 50 year expected life of the cpu. Go for it.