What would you do in my case?

[jim1976]

Ok here's the thing.I'm not exactly an experienced o/cker WTF it's not shame to say it I'm almost a noob at o/c .
I have a 2.8c that I want to o/c on a MSI neo2fisr(865pe) and 1Gb of Kingston pc3200 CL3 and 480w Thermaltake PSU.

My questions are:

1. With that system how far do u think I can reach? I know the ram doesn't offer quality timings but how far do u think I can stretch it at 1:1 ?

2. If that's a small amount of o/c at 1:1 should I run it at asynchronous mode and possibly help me out a bit with this?

3. Plz recommend a very good cooler for my cpu. I don't care for noise levels I just want the best air solution for it. (Vantec Tornado maybe or somethin better?)

4. I know I made a mistake and didn't go with an Abit mobo which are solid for o/c. How would you rate mine in terms of o/c?

5. Finally if you have a nice guide on how to do a nice o/c with the programs I need plz give it to me (Super Pi, MemTest and in general programs that I would need)

Hope I didn't tire you with all these. Thankz in advance

 

[bigahi]

I'm not into overclocking because stability is of primary concern for me. But my stock 3.4/Mushkin DDR400 (2-2-2--7), Asus P4C800E, Seagate 80's (RAID 0 - 160) runs like a Ferrari. I keep it cool with the Thermalright SP94 with a 92mm high speed Panaflo. That is the "cool" combo.

 

[jim1976]

Thanks for the recommendation.
Anyone else?

 

[jim1976]

bump

 

[zodder]

I do know that the MSI is an excellent overclocking board and very fast. That's the same board I run my 2.6C@3.25 on.

I doubt you will be able to get very far at 1:1 with that ram, but you shouldn't have any problem running the ram at 5:4 at a much faster fsb speed.

You should be able to get a decent o/c from that cpu, too.

 

[jim1976]

Thankz. Any other opinions?
What about the best air cooling solution out there?

 

[Mullzy]

Here's my experience with a 2.8c, 1GB Kingston HyperX PC3200, Abit ic7 & Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu hsf:

1) Max 1:1 memory ratio even at loose timings and increased voltage ~215 FSB (DDR430). With a single 512 module I was able to do 220 (DDR440) but in dual channel I couldn't get as high.

2) Max FSB/CPU speed with a 5:4 memory ratio is 235FSB x 14 = 3290Mhz at 1.65v. The ic7's seem to undervolt (readings are more like 1.6v) so other motherboards may be able to do this at much lower voltage (or even stock if they're lucky!)

With that memory you have you probably won't be able to get too high 1:1. I'd do 5:4 from the start and keep bump up that FSB until your voltage makes you nervous. If you're luck you'll get over 230FSB at stock voltage, or you'll get a bum chip like me and need to give it some more juice.

Utilities:
-Test RAM with memtest86 (shouldn't be an issue at 5:4 though, you'll be below spec until 250 FSB)
-Test CPU stability with Prime95 (2 custom torture tests instances: size 2048 -> 4096, in-place FTT's checked) If this runs for 5-6 hours you're golden... other people like to go for 12+ but this test will push you CPU harder than any game/application you'll use for 5-6 hours straight.
-MBM5 (motherboard monitor) is great for checking temperatures and voltages

My basic approach:

1) Make sure PCI/AGP is lockable!
2) I'd start with maybe 215FSB & 5:4 memory ratio (Let your memory timings be set by SPD until you find your CPU max, then work on tightening them up.)
3) Run the Prime95 torture test (2 instances of custom with the parameters I mentioned above. This will get your CPU as hot as it's going to get.)
4) If Prime runs for 5-6 hours, increase your FSB by 5.
5) If Prime reboots your computer or gets rounding errors you need to increase your CPU voltage (do it by the smallest increment your bios allows, then run Prime again)
6) Once Prime is stable at current FSB/Voltage, increase FSB again.
7) Keep a log of what combinations were stable so you don't get confused about what worked (waiting 5 hours for Prime to tell you you're stable again isn't fun!)
8) Once you hit the max voltage you're comfortable with (anything over 1.6v seems to start making people nervous. I'm only doing 1.65 because the ic7 seems to undervolt. Occasionally I see someone as high as 1.7v, but that's pretty rare) try tightening up your memory. Your memory might be as tight as it can get though... and in reality you won't notice much of a difference (my KHX SPD's at 2.5-3-3-7 but works fine at 2-3-3-6; hardly seems to make any difference at all on memory tests).

Good Luck!

 

[jim1976]

Thankz. What about the best air cooling solution out there?

 

[Mullzy]

Originally posted by: bigahi
I keep it cool with the Thermalright SP94 with a 92mm high speed Panaflo. That is the "cool" combo.

Pretty sure that's one of the best air cooled combo's around.

 

[zodder]

That mobo has APG/PCI locks.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

1. Your memory will be bottleneck since its only pc3200. Most stable 1:1 fsb might be around 210 to 215. You have to test it yourself.

2. Best case with the current memory would be to run divider 5:4. Most 2.8C should hit 240 on default voltage (~1.52V) and air cooling. Anything higher than 240 fsb may need higher volt all the way to 1.62 or 1.65V. I'd stay low, under 1.7V.

3. thermalright sp-94 or alpha equivalent. bottomline: recent all-copper fins with heatpipe technology are superb. any double-bearing 92mm fans will do (ex: sunon, panaflo, vantec, top). Fan controller becomes a "must."

4. 865PE from msi, abit, asus, gigabyte - can't go wrong.

5. www.overclockers.com

 

[jim1976]

Thankz again for all the feedback.
Some final questions.
Running at 5:4 ,does it affect my perf noticeably and how far do you think my fsb can go from experience (under 1.7v of course)
I remember there was a database for checkin similar systems to see these things. Do u have a link?
Also anything else that I might have dismissed plz feel free to mention it.
Thankz again for all the help

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: jim1976
Thankz again for all the feedback.
Some final questions.
Running at 5:4 ,does it affect my perf noticeably and how far do you think my fsb can go from experience (under 1.7v of course)
I remember there was a database for checkin similar systems to see these things. Do u have a link?
Also anything else that I might have dismissed plz feel free to mention it.
Thankz again for all the help

You should follow the advice that Mullzy gave you step by step.
Your question of "how far can I go at 1.7V" is not the way to go.
Increasing the core voltage does not always increase the speed.
That is why you should increase the core voltage very gradually and only if needed.
Do exactly what was suggested. Set the ratio to 4:5 to remove the memory from the picture. Then, gradually increase FSB and monitor stability by prime95. After you get the first failure, gradually increase VCore and repeat the tests. You will eventually get to a point where increasing or decreasing VCore will result in instability. That is a sign that you have found the maximum limit of your CPU.

After that, you want to find the maximum limit of your memory.
For that, you go back to 1:1 and FSB=205 and this time run memtest for stability test and gradually increase the memory voltage as you fail. You will find the maximum frequency of your memory that way.

Then, you can decide which one gives you higher performance by running benchmarks.

Edit:
This is an example of a guide:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=1363208&enterthread=y
You can search on the web and find many more.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: jim1976
Thankz again for all the feedback.
Some final questions.
Running at 5:4 ,does it affect my perf noticeably and how far do you think my fsb can go from experience (under 1.7v of course)
I remember there was a database for checkin similar systems to see these things. Do u have a link?
Also anything else that I might have dismissed plz feel free to mention it.
Thankz again for all the help

You should follow the advice that Mullzy gave you step by step.
Your question of "how far can I go at 1.7V" is not the way to go.
Increasing the core voltage does not always increase the speed.
That is why you should increase the core voltage very gradually and only if needed.
Do exactly what was suggested. Set the ratio to 4:5 to remove the memory from the picture. Then, gradually increase FSB and monitor stability by prime95. After you get the first failure, gradually increase VCore and repeat the tests. You will eventually get to a point where increasing or decreasing VCore will result in instability. That is a sign that you have found the maximum limit of your CPU.

After that, you want to find the maximum limit of your memory.
For that, you go back to 1:1 and FSB=205 and this time run memtest for stability test and gradually increase the memory voltage as you fail. You will find the maximum frequency of your memory that way.

Then, you can decide which one gives you higher performance by running benchmarks.

Edit:
This is an example of a guide:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=1363208&enterthread=y
You can search on the web and find many more.

Thankz mate. I do understand that my question wasn't the proper one, I was just askin for a point of reference.

 

[Navid]

You may be able to go to as high as 3.6GHz at 4:5. Or, you may only be able to go to 3.2GHz. There is no guarantee. It is luck.
After you find the max in each case, you can run benchmarks or just play games and see what fps you get in each case and decide which one gives you a higher performance.

If you can go as high as 3.6 or even 3.4GHz, I think you are better off using 4:5.
If you can only go as high as 3.2, you may find that you can do better at 1:1.
In the second scenario, hopefully, your RAM can take you to FSB=220.
It is a matter of how fast your CPU is and how fast your RAM is. There are two variables and a wide range of possibilities.

Good luck!

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Navid
You may be able to go to as high as 3.6GHz at 4:5. Or, you may only be able to go to 3.2GHz. There is no guarantee. It is luck.
After you find the max in each case, you can run benchmarks or just play games and see what fps you get in each case and decide which one gives you a higher performance.

If you can go as high as 3.6 or even 3.4GHz, I think you are better off using 4:5.
If you can only go as high as 3.2, you may find that you can do better at 1:1.
In the second scenario, hopefully, your RAM can take you to FSB=220.
It is a matter of how fast your CPU is and how fast your RAM is. There are two variables and a wide range of possibilities.

Good luck!

Crystal clear.Thankz again

Last bump for the best air cooling solution.