Suggestions for OC'ing My New AMD System

[dripgoss]

OK, this friday, I'm taking delivery of a new Athlon 64 3200+/K8N Pro system on trade but I haven't had an AMD system since K6-2 300 circa 1998. So I need a little help getting up to speed on the new A 64's and getting the most outta this system.

Here's what I'm getting:

Athlon 64 3200+ (Retail, AS3, Stock HSF)
Gigabyte K8N Pro NF3-150 (EasyTune and ClockGen on CD)
512MB DDR500 Kingston HyperX
37GB SATA Raptor
Radeon 9500 (Confirmed will softmod to 9700+)
400W Coolmax PSU
Lian Li Case Aluminum Case
NEC DVD-/+RW
NEC 17" LCD via DVI (1280x1024x32bpp@75Hz)
WinXP Pro

Any suggestions on where to start OC'ing the Proc/FSB/RAM to find max stable?
Should I use ClockGen and/or EasyTune along with BIOS tweaks or not?
Do these SW OC proggies retain settings on reboot?
Which 9500>9700 softmod driver works the best (Omega, ATitool, etc)?
Any other suggestions or caveats I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions!

 

[dripgoss]

Any thoughts or suggestions? I've been doing research, but some say ET/CG isnt necessary and I was wondering if the DDR500 will give me any room for more OC'ing on this board...

 

[VisableAssassin]

Originally posted by: dripgoss
Any thoughts or suggestions? I've been doing research, but some say ET/CG isnt necessary and I was wondering if the DDR500 will give me any room for more OC'ing on this board...

My self id go with a NF3 250 mobo right now...pretty much your best bet with the PCI lock function now.
also PC4000 will give you a higher guarenteed OC (250mhz) but it uses more relaxed timings...myself im running XMS PC4000 PRO and I love it.

 

[dripgoss]

Originally posted by: VisableAssassinMy self id go with a NF3 250 mobo right now...pretty much your best bet with the PCI lock function now.
also PC4000 will give you a higher guarenteed OC (250mhz) but it uses more relaxed timings...myself im running XMS PC4000 PRO and I love it.

Thanks for popping in! Since this is a trade system, I'm gonna have to stick with these components for a little bit, but I will definitely upgrade the mobo when I get a chance.

Now, do I need the PCI lock even if I don't use PCI cards? I'll be using OB sound, SATA, LAN, etc... But I don't know if those OB functions are also affected by the PCI lock? Also, I've been reading some conflicting info regarding the EasyTune and ClockGen apps regarding setting the AGP, PCI, FSB and so on... Again, this is my first AMD system in 6 years, so I don't know where to start but I'm willing to try something new!

 

[stardust]

Originally posted by: dripgoss
OK, this friday, I'm taking delivery of a new Athlon 64 3200+/K8N Pro system on trade but I haven't had an AMD system since K6-2 300 circa 1998. So I need a little help getting up to speed on the new A 64's and getting the most outta this system.

Here's what I'm getting:

Athlon 64 3200+ (Retail, AS3, Stock HSF)
Gigabyte K8N Pro NF3-150 (EasyTune and ClockGen on CD)
512MB DDR500 Kingston HyperX
37GB SATA Raptor
Radeon 9500 (Confirmed will softmod to 9700+)
400W Coolmax PSU
Lian Li Case Aluminum Case
NEC DVD-/+RW
NEC 17" LCD via DVI (1280x1024x32bpp@75Hz)
WinXP Pro

Any suggestions on where to start OC'ing the Proc/FSB/RAM to find max stable?
Should I use ClockGen and/or EasyTune along with BIOS tweaks or not?
Do these SW OC proggies retain settings on reboot?
Which 9500>9700 softmod driver works the best (Omega, ATitool, etc)?
Any other suggestions or caveats I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions!

Don't get DDR500, the K8N Pro has issues running high latency superfast memory. I'm speaking from experience, as I have almost the same setup as you and I had to RMA my Geil PC4000 Ultra Platinums. Low latency DDR400 will give you much better speeds. A64 runs asynchronous memory perfectly and the GA-K8N Pro has memory dividers that allow 200, 166, 150... speeds.

 

[VisableAssassin]

Originally posted by: dripgoss

Originally posted by: VisableAssassinMy self id go with a NF3 250 mobo right now...pretty much your best bet with the PCI lock function now.
also PC4000 will give you a higher guarenteed OC (250mhz) but it uses more relaxed timings...myself im running XMS PC4000 PRO and I love it.

Thanks for popping in! Since this is a trade system, I'm gonna have to stick with these components for a little bit, but I will definitely upgrade the mobo when I get a chance.

Now, do I need the PCI lock even if I don't use PCI cards? I'll be using OB sound, SATA, LAN, etc... But I don't know if those OB functions are also affected by the PCI lock? Also, I've been reading some conflicting info regarding the EasyTune and ClockGen apps regarding setting the AGP, PCI, FSB and so on... Again, this is my first AMD system in 6 years, so I don't know where to start but I'm willing to try something new!

well even if your useing on board everything a high PCI speed can cause al sorts of head aches from hard drive corruption to other odds and ends...Ive have drives go bad and the onboard NIC actually transmit bad data !
also if Im not mistaken SATA drives dont like high PCI speeds either.

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: VisableAssassin

Originally posted by: dripgoss

Originally posted by: VisableAssassinMy self id go with a NF3 250 mobo right now...pretty much your best bet with the PCI lock function now.
also PC4000 will give you a higher guarenteed OC (250mhz) but it uses more relaxed timings...myself im running XMS PC4000 PRO and I love it.

Thanks for popping in! Since this is a trade system, I'm gonna have to stick with these components for a little bit, but I will definitely upgrade the mobo when I get a chance.

Now, do I need the PCI lock even if I don't use PCI cards? I'll be using OB sound, SATA, LAN, etc... But I don't know if those OB functions are also affected by the PCI lock? Also, I've been reading some conflicting info regarding the EasyTune and ClockGen apps regarding setting the AGP, PCI, FSB and so on... Again, this is my first AMD system in 6 years, so I don't know where to start but I'm willing to try something new!

well even if your useing on board everything a high PCI speed can cause al sorts of head aches from hard drive corruption to other odds and ends...Ive have drives go bad and the onboard NIC actually transmit bad data !
also if Im not mistaken SATA drives dont like high PCI speeds either.

IDE hard drives should be fine..my maxtor were fine even at 289 mhz fsb...

SATA drives crap out around 235 mhz

 

[pelikan]

This guide may help.

 

[dripgoss]

Thanks guys for the feedback. Again, I'm kinda "stuck" with these components for the time being since this is a pre-made system I took in on trade. So I'm just looking to squeeze as much performance from this exact system as possible right now with suggestions on upgrading in maybe the next few months or so...

Now about the PCI lock, will ClockGen or EasyTune allow me to OC and lock the PCI? I've read AGP will lock, but this idea of software OCing is very new to me. Also about the RAM, I always thought it was better to have the speed overhead instead of lower latency.. Not true in this case?

 

[VisableAssassin]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim

Originally posted by: VisableAssassin

Originally posted by: dripgoss

Originally posted by: VisableAssassinMy self id go with a NF3 250 mobo right now...pretty much your best bet with the PCI lock function now.
also PC4000 will give you a higher guarenteed OC (250mhz) but it uses more relaxed timings...myself im running XMS PC4000 PRO and I love it.

Thanks for popping in! Since this is a trade system, I'm gonna have to stick with these components for a little bit, but I will definitely upgrade the mobo when I get a chance.

Now, do I need the PCI lock even if I don't use PCI cards? I'll be using OB sound, SATA, LAN, etc... But I don't know if those OB functions are also affected by the PCI lock? Also, I've been reading some conflicting info regarding the EasyTune and ClockGen apps regarding setting the AGP, PCI, FSB and so on... Again, this is my first AMD system in 6 years, so I don't know where to start but I'm willing to try something new!

well even if your useing on board everything a high PCI speed can cause al sorts of head aches from hard drive corruption to other odds and ends...Ive have drives go bad and the onboard NIC actually transmit bad data !
also if Im not mistaken SATA drives dont like high PCI speeds either.

IDE hard drives should be fine..my maxtor were fine even at 289 mhz fsb...

SATA drives crap out around 235 mhz

what was the divisor?
I know on my KD7-RAID at the max which was 1/5 my PCI was 40mhz and my maxtor 80gb 7200 8mb would constantly corrupt with out hesitation.
So I cant say IDE drives will be fine exactly

 

[dripgoss]

The clockgen page has been down for a few days. Does anyone have that app they can point me too or send to me?