Overclocking Sempron 2600+

[CalcProgrammer1]

(Moving this from another thread to keep that thread on topic)

I just got a Sempron 2600+ (1.6GHz stock) Socket 754 CPU and Foxconn motherboard (see my sig). I'm trying to get the most I can from it, and that means giving it a bit of an overclock. My motherboard has an option to simply set the CPU speed (default 200) in the BIOS or with the included SuperStep utility. In the following pictures (from 0, 7, and 10 minutes), I show the three utilities on the screen: SuperStep utility, PC Wizard 2008, and the stress test utility. Oddly, PC Wizard and SuperStep report vastly different temp's for CPU and system (note the "?" in the first pic).

Note that I'm using stock cooler, a plain heatsink with fan and stock thermal paste. I also have a rear case fan directed outside of the case right by the CPU. The PSU has 2 fans. The Ext. CPU Freq. is at 225 (MHz apparently).



A: Is this a safe OC as is now?

B: Can I OC a bit more, say, maybe to 2.0GHz?

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Went into my BIOS and disabled "Smart Fan Control," this means that the fans run at constant full speed rather than varying speed depending on temperature. The fans spin roughly twice as fast and the CPU stays around 23 to 25 at 1840MHz on stress tests. However, the utility doesn't seem to want to go beyond 232, thus limiting the CPU to 1857 or so MHz. I guess that works, it's sure better than 1.6, but I don't know what this CPU can handle. I haven't had any weird issues at 1.8GHz though and the temps are good, so I assume it's working.

 

[NosBoost300]

ignore my last post...

 

[SYL\X/3K]

733RPM? thats really slow man , disable speed fan controller and get a bigger heatsink for around $20

in average it should be running around 1600RPM

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

PC Wizard was reporting way off. The SpeedStep utility was saying reporting 1500-ish RPM with motherboard's "Automatic Fan Control" on and 3000 RPM with it off. The SpeedStep readout matches the readout of the BIOS'es "PC Health Status" menu, and SpeedFan reports the correct reading ONLY when the Automatic Fan Control is off. I think it's an issue of how the BIOS handles sensors or something, the chipset is an SiS 755 Northbridge and SiS 964 Southbridge, and SpeedFan was unable to determine chipset type, so maybe it's not well supported.

When Automatic Fan Control is off, you can feel the air coming out of the case, it is quite strong. I have two fans, a rear case fan (that was already in the case from the old board) and a CPU fan that came with the heatsink. Both of them run loud and fast when speed control is off.

Here's what the BIOS says:


Here's a comparison of the (entirely different) readouts of SuperStep, PCWizard 2008, and SpeedFan:


When I disable Smart Fan Control, the BIOS readings say around 3000RPM and SpeedFan and SuperStep show the same values. PCW2008 continues to show a completely (about half as fast as the others state) different reading.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

I've got it running at 1.84GHz stable at 31 degrees under 100% load (left it on overnight running F@H, every time I checked on it's temp it was 30 or 31 degrees C). I can get it up to 1856MHz using the SuperStep utility, but I can't seem to get it any higher. Is there any other OC'ing software that could possibly get this board beyond 230 or 235MHz FSB? I'm not sure if it's FSB or not though, it's just the base CPU speed, the RAM and AGP are running the same speed no matter what I set CPU to.

 

[hmammen]

all i say is goodluck...i couldnt do **** with my old sempron 3000.

 

[Nagasama]

ram. set your ram multiplier down.

 

[Apokalipse]

I don't think the motherboard's SiS755 is going to help you out much.

I used to have a Foxconn NF4UK8AB and a Sempron 2800+ (1.6GHZ, 256kb L2 cache)

I was able to overclock the thing to 2.24GHZ.
The Nforce4 chips are much better for overclocking the socket 939 or 754 chips.


One thing you could try is lowering the HTT multiplier, if that's possible on your motherboard.