Weird overclock issues w/ new system. UPDATED

[Kakumba]

Ok, so my setup is:

Opteron 165 (CCBWE0546MPMW)
DFI SLI-DR Expert
2x1 gig OCZ EL Platinum PC-3200
XFX 7900GT
WD Raptor 74 gig
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 300 gig
Silverstone Strider (600W Modular PSU)
All in a Thermaltake Armor running XP Pro

Ok, so it all seems good, should work together ok, right? Well, I have been trying to overclock it, but cant get it past 2.43 GHz, and even then its hit and miss whether it will boot at that speed. Im pretty confused, coz this stepping should overclock ok (not more than 2.8GHz, but I was expectimg at least 2.6 from it)

Genie BIOS settings:

270 FSB
9X CPU multi
3X HTT multi
133 RAM divider
RAM is at recommended timings, but lower speed (2-3-2-5 at 1T)

set the CPU voltage to 1.5V (as high as I am prepared to go), and RAM to 2.8v (should be plenty)

So, any ideas? I have heard that you should avoid running fans off the fan headers on this motherboard, can anyone shed more light on that? Any other ideas/ questions?

Update: Ok, set chipset voltage from 1.56 (just above stock) to 1.62. that seems to be helping a lot. I had issues with the CPU fan not always going (CPU was never looking to overheat, but its better now)

Will be going ahead and finishing some isolate then consolidate overclocking tonight, and will update again tomorrow.

 

[avi85]

if your SATA drives are plugged into an unlocked SATA port then that could be what's stopping your oc, I think that ports 3 and 4 are locked on DFI boards but I could be wrong.

 

[Maethor]

Every processor is different when overclocking some can overclock well while others do not overclock as well.

 

[Kakumba]

Yeah, I ahve the drives in SATA 3 and 4, considering using some of the ports controlled by the SIL3114?

Maethor, I know that. However I have seen a few results of this exact stepping. 3 from XtremeSystems, all reached 2.8GHz, and all other results I ahve seen have said this stepping reaches between 2.6 and 2.8 GHz. thats the reason I am so surprised that I cant even get a guaranteed 2.4 GHz. Its really just hit and miss whether it will boot at any given speed (though it always boots at stock, so thats good at least)

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: Kakumba
Yeah, I ahve the drives in SATA 3 and 4, considering using some of the ports controlled by the SIL3114?

Maethor, I know that. However I have seen a few results of this exact stepping. 3 from XtremeSystems, all reached 2.8GHz, and all other results I ahve seen have said this stepping reaches between 2.6 and 2.8 GHz. thats the reason I am so surprised that I cant even get a guaranteed 2.4 GHz. Its really just hit and miss whether it will boot at any given speed (though it always boots at stock, so thats good at least)

try the sil3114 ports, it can't hurt.

Edit: another thing I just thought of is, did you turn off all the spread spectrum junk in the bios?

 

[Kakumba]

no idea what the spread spectrum stuff does, so I left it alone.

The thing Im trying to get at isnt really so much that its not reaching expected speeds, its that even at speeds that I have managed to get into windows and play on, it doesnt always boot......

So you know exactly where it fails, when it should say Verifying DMI pool data, that line never comes up and the computer restarts...

 

[customcoms]

dfi-street.com is your biggest friend. Do not use the fan headers, the link just isn't their (can't get enough juice to the board and fans attached to the board, even if you have a 1000W PC P&C PSU). Have you tried updating the bios? Also, drop the multi on the cpu and see where the board craps out at...apply more chipset voltage if needed. I know my Ultra-D won't boot into windows past 310mhz HTT and won't post past 315..thats at 1.6v on the chipset I believe. I have to do more testing to see where the end really is the end (where their is no more voltage available). This is just for piece of mind so you know that its the cpu crapping out and not the board. I wouldn't be afraid to put 1.55v into that cpu, this is a commonly acceptable limit on air. Also, try LOWERING your volts, these newer chips sometimes do better on less voltage and you just end up gaining 10% with the increased voltage (verses my 3000+ that hit the wall at around 2.2ghz, then hit it again at 2.5ghz after adding more volts-I can go to 2.6 but it needs around 1.63v to do it, which I'm not comfortable with for an extra 100mhz)

 

[Kakumba]

hmmm, I think you just hit it on the head. I didnt up the chipset voltage. And yeah, that what I thought about the fan headers, but I have no choice. I can either not power my CPU fan, or I can power it from the CPU fan header on the motherboard. I will be getting a fan controller asap so I can power it from there instead though.

Will head over to DFI-Street, see if they come up with anything else, but for now I shall try some chipset voltage, and just stick with my slight overclock.

 

[Kakumba]

OK, I worked it out. I got an Opty that doesnt like mem dividers..... well, it doesnt like 120 or 133, which are the ones I wanted. So now Im going to try for 7x400, with a 100 divider (it does like that one). I think that should work ok.

Thanks for the help.

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: Kakumba
OK, I worked it out. I got an Opty that doesnt like mem dividers..... well, it doesnt like 120 or 133, which are the ones I wanted. So now Im going to try for 7x400, with a 100 divider (it does like that one). I think that should work ok.

Thanks for the help.

Are you sure that your board is stable at 400? if so that's a nice board.

 

[Plester]

the joys and frustrations of lanparty boards - lots of variables and a big learning curve.

 

[Kakumba]

heh, im not new to lanparty boards, I am new to THIS Lanparty board.

Anyways, it didnt work out, the board wont post at 400 (not even close to be honest), and so Im stuck. I can get the processor to over 2.8, but its not prime stable at that speed. it is stable at 2745, but at that speed my ram is running pretty slow.

I cant decide whether to buy another Opty and hope that the next one likes mem dividers, or jsut stick with slow ram....

 

[Cynicist]

btw about spread spectrum (taken from speed demonz' bios guide)

Spread Spectrum

Options : Enabled, Disabled, 0.25%, 0.5%, Smart Clock

When the motherboard's clock generator pulses, the extreme values (spikes) of the pulses creates EMI (Electromagnetic Interference). The Spead Spectrum function reduces the EMI generated by modulating the pulses so that the spikes of the pulses are reduced to flatter curves. It does so by varying the frequency so that it doesn't use any particular frequency for more than a moment. This reduces interference problems with other electronics in the area.

However, while enabling Spread Spectrum decreases EMI, system stability and performance may be slightly compromised. This may be especially true with timing-critical devices like clock-sensitive SCSI devices.

Some BIOSes offer a Smart Clock option. Instead of modulating the frequency of the pulses over time, Smart Clock turns off the AGP, PCI and SDRAM clock signals when not in use. Thus, EMI can be reduced without compromising system stability. As a bonus, using Smart Clock can also help reduce power consumption.

If you do not have any EMI problem, leave the setting at Disabled for optimal system stability and performance. But if you are plagued by EMI, use the Smart Clock setting if possible and settle for Enabled or one of the two other values if Smart Clock is not available. The percentage values denote the amount of jitter (variation) that the BIOS performs on the clock frequency. So, a lower value (0.25%) is comparatively better for system stability while a higher value (0.5%) is better for EMI reduction.

Remember to disable Spread Spectrum if you are overclocking because even a 0.25% jitter can introduce a temporary boost in clockspeed of 25MHz (with a 1GHz CPU) which may just cause your overclocked processor to lock up. Or at least use the Smart Clock setting as that doesn't involve any modulation of the frequency.

 

[Kakumba]

cheers, will disable it then..

 

[Kakumba]

ok, NOW I'm annoyed. Whenever I turn on the system, I get weird dotted lines (vertical) on the screen. It shows for the splash screen, and the Windows XP screen with the scrolling thing (loading windows), but no other screens, and the display in Windows is a little odd. Mostly ok, but some weird issues. Will try a screen shot, see if its display only (like tearing) or if its in the video buffer.

Setting everything in BIOS back to defaults didnt help, but now everytime I log on, I get the "Found new hardware" tool telling me it found a RAID controller. Didnt happen before, and Im not using RAID.

So, help? OR shall I format and start again, see if that helps?