Help with overclocking

[Nissanspecv04]

Ok, ive done this many times before, never with the amd64 though. For some reason I can not get my amd64 3200 venice over 2.1 Ghz. I dont know if its my board which is a MSI K8N Neo 4, or if my cpu isnt being cooled enough by the zalman 7000cu. In my bios Msi gives me the options of how I want to overclock either by presets at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11% over stock or by changing the FSB. Well when I use corecenter to overclocked I can only set it to 5% by the presets. if I change the FSB I can only go to 210. Thats only a 100 Mhz increase, max. any higher and the computer restarts but wont show anything so I have to reset the cmos. When I try to up the cpu voltage to 1.55 the comp freezes. Any idea on what I should do, does anyone else have this mobo and another option or something. Thanx for any help

 

[Him]

You have to get into your RAM timings and start playing with those. I wouldnt use the onboard MSI overclock utility, just go in there manually and start changing some thigns. Will work better prolly. What is your CPU voltage at currently? Maybe you are going too high on the voltage bump. You have to up things very SLOWLY so as not to get ahead of ytourself and start burning things out. I'm talking 5mhz jumps in the FSB, and .5volt jumps on the cpu. You really have to start messing with RAM timings else your not going to get anywhere.

 

[Nissanspecv04]

You have to get into your RAM timings and start playing with those. I wouldnt use the onboard MSI overclock utility, just go in there manually and start changing some thigns. Will work better prolly. What is your CPU voltage at currently? Maybe you are going too high on the voltage bump. You have to up things very SLOWLY so as not to get ahead of ytourself and start burning things out. I'm talking 5mhz jumps in the FSB, and .5volt jumps on the cpu. You really have to start messing with RAM timings else your not going to get anywhere.

When you say I shouldnt use the onboard msi Overclock utility do you also mean the bios as well? The MSI corecenter that io use basically gives me the same options. I just updated the motherboard bios though and I see a few new options. I have to go to work but I'll try going slower like you mentioned and let you know what happens.

 

[Elbatrop1]

I think he means to not adjust any clock speeds through Windows. Only adjust via BIOS.

Just to clear up Him when he said to play with the RAM timings:
This means to loosen them by increasing them.

 

[Nubius]

DO NOT use corecenter to overclock by any means...dont EVER use windows based programs for overclocking....if you buy a board in which you have to use windows programs, then you need to sell that crap and get a REAL OC'ing board in which all options are presented in the BIOS....that board however has all the options needed in the BIOS.


Move the FSB up by 5MHz at a time....like Him said though your RAM will follow it....so you need to have RAM that can withstand higher voltages and loosen the timings a bit for the RAM to go up with it...otherwise use a divider to set the RAM below 200 when raising the CPU above 200.

Run prime95 once you get into windows....if it can run 5mins on the large in place FFT test, then move up your FSB another 5MHz....keep doing it until prime95 either fails within 5 minutes, fails immediately or your comp freezes....in which you need to add voltage, go back into windows with the same speed but added voltage and see if it'll pass that 5 mins in prime.

 

[Him]

So you have to have lots of patience when you overclock, else you will start frying thigns.

When someone says a RAM divider, are they meaning a ratio for the FSB and RAM? Since optimal is usually 1:1, is a divider using an equation like 5:4?

1:1 is without a divider
5:4 or anything other than 1:1 is using a divider

Am I right?