Trying to get the most out of a new rig

[Griffyn187]

Just got the rig in my sig last week. This will be the first time I've attempted an OC, and I'm wondering what a good recommendation would be based on the cooling system I've got running. I did read Zebo's OC guide, but most of the terms are above my knowledge level.

Anyone have a few tips?

 

[Piuc2020]

Well, the best way to learn is to experimentate, go into your BIOS and you should recognize some of the terms, the clockspeed of a proccesor is based on its FSB speed and its multiplier, in A64s the FSB is the result of multiplying the LTD & the HTT (hyper transport) I think. Just have Zebo's guide on hand and explore your BIOS settings, change a few settings, experiment and you'll become an OC buff in no time.

Always increase clocks in small increments and remember FSB and RAM speed have a symbiotic relation, this means the ram runs at the same speed as the FSB (1:1 ratio), thankfully you can use dividers to have fsb speeds be higher than ram speeds. Don't mess with voltage settings until you have a decent understanding of power and cooling. Try to find how much you can push the FSB, I have found its wise to keep the LDT at 3. ALWAYS check for stability, just because your computer can boot in a set frequency doesn't mean it will run stable, run Prime95, SuperPI and Memtest, those are great for checking OC stability and remember, in most of the cases a processor will reach its voltage limit first rather than its cooling limit.

Overclocking is more complex and more hard than what a guide may make it out to be and the best way to learn is by experience and the best thing to do when detecting OC instability causes is not to assume anything and not to discard any possibilities.

As a final tip, set yourself a goal and try to hit that and remember, your proccesor will not always oc the same as your neighbor's one, not even if they are the same proccesor.

 

[Mogadon]

Find the equivalent terms Zebo used in his guides for those that pertain to your motherboard, they shouldn't be that different, espcially the important ones

If you're unsure about what term/notation means what for what google it.

You should be able to get a clear idea of what you need to do doing this.

As to the cooling system. It seems like you don't have much computer experience so pick up an thermalright XP-90 with a Panaflo, 90mm M fan and some artic silver compound.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

That SD of yours is just crying to be overclocked. You have a good chip there likely and you should able to hit pretty high OC even at stock voltages. Some 4000+ SD have hit 3 GHz+ on air so 2.8-2.9 GHz wouldn't be surprising. As was mentioned an XP-90/XP-90C is probably the best choice as the cooler (a Big Typhoon involves removing the backplate) and make sure you use Arctic Silver 5.

Basically since your CPU has a 12x multiplier (200x12 = 2400 MHz) you can use a relatively low FSB and still get a high OC. For instance with just 225 FSB, you get 2700 MHz (225x12 = 2700) . . . remember when using 4x LDT never to go above 270 MHz (usually though not above 260 MHz) IF you're ram can't handle 225Mhz (which it should be able to) you can always inch the FSB a little higher and then run a divider (set your RAM at 166 MHz instead of 200 MHz)

THe most important tip is patience and gradual increases in FSB and voltages. A sudden increase in one or both could potentially cause your system to fail post or even temporarily shut down your PSU . . . patience truly is a virtue when it comes to OCing . . .

 

[tyborg]

dont forget you can lower your multi and raise your FSB if you think your RAM can handle it. it gets insanely complex when you start changing based on 3 variables, though, so remember, Sanity comes first. (the three variables being the FSB, Multi, and the divider.)

 

[Griffyn187]

Thanks for the info guys, looks like I'll be reading up on the terms for awhile yet. Note that I said I'm looking to OC based on what I'm currently running as far as air flow and heatsink goes. I'm not looking for the world's most extreme OC, and I don't feel like gutting the heatsink and paste I've got going for it just yet. Given that, I'm guessing I should stick with the LDT set at 3. Since power and cooling are obviously huge parts of any successful OC knowledge base, does anyone have a link to a guide focused on that?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I have the SD 3700+ which OC's about the same as the 4000+, here are some settings I'm pretty sure will work that will give you a good starting place

HTT multi 4x
CPU multi 11x
HTT 250mhz
vcore 1.5v
Ram divider 166
Ram volts and timings at stock

That will give you 2.75ghz, once your satisfied that your stable drop the HTT multi to 3x and increase vcore to 1.55, and raise HTT gradually testing for stability and temps as you go. Good luck

 

[dunkster]

It's not that difficult. For newbies, I think the incremental method is the simplest. Keep notes, so you can always revert back to stable settings.

Simplify by starting with some safe 'set it and forget it' initial settings, such as 600MHz link speed and (with your XBLK RAM) set Vdimm to 2.8V and forget it.

Start with known-stable settings, such as 200X12. Settings are reasonably stable if:
- Memtest86 Test#5 and Test#8 each run at least 2 passes error-free.
- Prime95 small-FFT torture test runs without error for at least 5 minutes.

If Prime95 fails, increment Vcore until stable.

If Memtest86 tests fail, loosen timings until it passes Test#5 and Test#8. If/when that doesn't work, reduce memory clock to 166Mhz. If that doesn't work, you may have to use 2T Command Rate. The 'acid test' for memory stability seems to Memtest86 Test#8. You may be stable for hours of Prime95, but if you can't run multiple error-free passes of Test#8, your system will likely crash with page-fault error whenever a significant memory page-write is encountered (Macromedia, printing a Windows printer test page, etc.).

When stable with Prime95 and Memtest86, increment FSB/HTT by 5 Mhz and repeat.

You can save a great deal of Memtest86 testing time by using only the most-critical tests, which seem to be Test#5 and Test#8. To select a discrete Memtest86 Test#:
- Start Memtest86 (floppy or CD).
- Key sequence 'C 1 3 (Test#) Return 0' will start multiple passes of (Test#).

Record stable settings so you can always return to those stable settings.

For CPU stress testing, SuperPI is about as good as Prime95, and it will produce a benchmark result (time to completion).

It's not difficult. After a couple of FSB/HTT increment steps, the process will be intuitive. Speeding up testing at each increment (as described above) will hasten progrees and make it much less tedious.

Hope this helps!

 

[Griffyn187]

Think I'm beginning to get the hang of this. Three more questions:

Is there a specific order the timings need to be loosened in if/when Memtest fails?
600Mhz "link speed", what's that refer to?
And doesn't the SD run at 12x200 to begin with?

Thanks for your continued patience guys.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: Griffyn187
Think I'm beginning to get the hang of this. Three more questions:

Is there a specific order the timings need to be loosened in if/when Memtest fails?
600Mhz "link speed", what's that refer to?
And doesn't the SD run at 12x200 to begin with?

Thanks for your continued patience guys.

The first memory timing 2,2.5,3 is the most important and where I usually start tweeking

I think the 600mhz "link speed" is another term for LDT or HTT mulit of 3x (200x3=600)

Yes the SD 4000+ runs 12x200 stock

 

[dunkster]

12X200 is indeed stock speed for 4000+ - what better place to start?

Sorry about my 'link speed' term - I refer to HTT bus speed of 600MHz (probably 3X to you). Some BIOS options are listed in different terms.

Your XBLK will probably run 2/2/2/5 timings to about 240MHz FSB/HTT. Typical progressions might be:
- 2.5/3/3/7
- 2.5/4/3/7
- 3/4/4/10

Try to stay with RAM speed same as FSB/HTT speed and 1T Command Rate as far as you can go, for best combination of CPU speed and RAM bandwidth.

Hope this helps!

 

[Griffyn187]

Yeah, everything I've read about XBLK (highly recommend TCCD, turns out) comes up as 2.5-3-3-7 so far, mostly in the 250Mhz range.

By the same RAM and HTT speeds, are you talking about the divider being equal to the multiplier?