Time to get down to business (Please Help Me Overclock My Rig)

[Space Cowboy]

I've been waiting to give it a go and now I'm ready to see what this new build can do.

The spec's are in my signature.

Where should I start?

Thanks Allot
Cowboy

 

[n7]

Look up ^ (or click here)

 

[phaxmohdem]

The way I would start out would be to bump up the FSB numbers in regular intervals (like 2-3 MHz bumps) until your system starts becoming unstable using the stock core voltage. Once thi shappens bump up the Vcore a notch or maybe two and see if the system stabilized. (Keep an eye on your CPU temps as well)

This will mostly depend on how well your RAM overclocks, I noticed it is only rated for DDR400, so it may not go too high. Then again, it is OCZ so you may get lucky. My systems FSB overclock maxed out at 212 (DDR 424), but I bet you could get closer to 225 with your RAM.

another thing you maytryis lowering the clock multiplier to 10.5 or 10 and cracnk up the FSB numbers even higher (again if your RAM can take it) In my system I had to bump up the RAM voltage on notch to achieve stability.

When messing with voltages in your CPU and RAM go up in SMALL increments. and don't push it if you don't have to. Voltage is what will ussually make or break your processor/ram. Voltage = heat = shorter lifespan. If you need any help feel free to PM me. I'm no Overclocking expert, but I know my way around the process pretty well.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Also download some stressfull programs like MemTest or PiFast to test for stability. You could also try playing some 3D games like FarCry or Doom3 to test for stability. I also use Benchmarks like 3Dmark03 and 05 as my initial stress tests. If your overclock is going to fail it will ussually do it while running those benchmarks. If it passes that test, move onto Memtest, or play some 3D games for a while. I will also render some images in Lightwave 3D to stress the system.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

Using Prime95 is the easiest way to test stability.

 

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks for the tips.. I printed out that document posted here and the lingo is differant than what I see when going into my BIOS. I'll keep pluggin away. Right now I have the FSB at 218 and the video at 110.

Thanks

 

[Space Cowboy]

I'm makin progress but not messin with it to much. I've bumped my voltages from 2.6v =ram to 3.1v and cpu from 1.45 tp 1.55. FSB is at 20 x 11. Ram shows up as pc3500 in everest (its pc3200) and cpu at 2420 up from 2200. Not sure if I notice any difference .. temps are the same as before .. no noticable differance.

Any thoughts?
Thanks

 

[theMan]

i dont think you should put that many volts on your ram. thats very dangerous and voids your warrantee. anyway, you should follow the overclocking guide you printed, and ask us any questions you have about it.

ok, what does it mean when you say the fsb is at 20x11? also, your ram says pc3500 in everest, because its overclocked.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Howdy there Space Cowboy! Your kinda going at it backwards, you should be cranking up the HTT(FSB) and only increasing the voltages when you have to. Your ram volts are way to high for that ram.

With the ram that you have, and the fact that you have 2GB its not going to overclock well at all. But thats fine because high ramspeed means squat on A64's unless your a benchmarking fanatic.

Drop the DDRvolts back to 2.75 and find the memory dividers on your board and set to 166, this will run your ram at a lower speed than the HTT. Leave the vcore at 1.55, Set the HTT multi(also known as LDT) to 4x, Set HTT(FSB) to 220mhz, CPUmulti 11x. It should boot up no problem with those settings at 2420mhz, then increase the HTT 3-5mhz at a time and test for stability as you go with Prime95 or SuperPI (free downloads). Once you start getting errors in Prime or PI, then back down to your previous setting and run Prime for several hours (preferably overnight), if you get errors back it down a few more mhz, and try again. Once it will run prime overnight you know its a good overclock and won't give you any problems. I'm guessing you can get in the 2.6-2.65 range with that chip, just check you CPU temps after a couple of hours of Prime and as long as they are less than 65c your OK. With that DFI board you can push it farther with more vcore, but personally I wouldn't go above 1.60 without watercooling or phase change.

 

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks Again.. I loaded up the defaults for now and when I get another day off from work I'll mess with it some more.

Just curious ??? What would another 2 gig of this OCZ dual channel do at this point?

4 gig of dual channel OCZ is where I'm headed but am waiting for another price drop.

Last I checked I can get the 2 gig of OCZ for $215.00 at NewEgg .. thats half of what I paid for the first 2 gig in Feb.

Any thoughts on where the price of that ram will bottom out at?

Happy 4th !!

 

[theMan]

what are you doing on your system that requires 4 gigs? thats insane, games wont use that much ram for at least 2 years.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Very few apps can use 2GB much less 4GB, the only things I can think of to use that much ram is if your running a huge game server with 40-60 people logging in or you work with gigantic image files in photoshop or something.

Now that I see your running 2 x 1024 sticks, thats probably why your having problems running 1T, the Winchesters onboard memory controller sometimes can't handle 2 x 1024 at 1T. And if you get 4 x 1024 it will have to run 2T regardless of processor.

 

[Space Cowboy]

Originally posted by: theman
what are you doing on your system that requires 4 gigs? thats insane, games wont use that much ram for at least 2 years.

Yeah .. I was told the same thing on my first rig .. "4 megs of ram .. what the heck you need that much for"

I feel the need for speed .....

What I have noticed is that memory pricing is kinda strange. It starts out high then drops to a certain point then goes back up again. Tryin to buy when it's at the bottom is what I want to do.

Why .. because there are 2 slots empty :shocked: ..

Overclockin never really did much that I could notice in the past.

Mo Ram is ALWAYS noticable .... to me anyhow

Thanks Everyone.. I may try overclockin one more time .. Later in the week.

Cheers
Cowboy