First time OCing

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Flying-Squirrel

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Hey all, I have never done OCing before so all help is appreciated. I am sure I will say many things that sound really stupid so please explain stuff. Here are my system specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Operating frequency 2.2 GHZ

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ ST3160827AS 160GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

Antec PERFORMANCE TX TX1050B Black Steel Server Computer Case 500W ATX12V v2.0 Power Supply

eVGA 256-P2-N538-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

I use fan cooling.

I have read different posts giving me good general information but I would really like it if some people who have similar systems could give me more specific advice about how much I should attempt to overclock my CPU and RAM. Also advice about what programs I should download to test/monitor speed/monitor temp would be a help. Thanks a bunch I look forward to people's ideas. :p
 
You should start by reading the AMD OC'ing sticky top to bottom.

Another suggestion, get very familiar with your BIOS. Read the relevant sections of the manual.

After that, post any specific questions you have.
 
Ya i was lookin at all the stickies. I am a bit worried that I won't be able to OC well because of my Corsair Value Select RAM since it is only DDR 400 and I read that I shouldn't change my ratio to anything other than 1:1

Any tips for good incriments to try increasing my FSB / HTT speed?
 
Well yeah, that valueram will not OC that far, but it is not crucial to stay at 1:1 like you said. You should still try to get to your max CPU even if you have to use dividers.

Here is my advice. Work on CPU and RAM seperately. Start with the CPU. Put it on the highest divider you have, probably 1:2 (RAM:FSB). This should take the RAM out of play. Now lower the LDT multi from 5 - 4. Now raise HTT in small increments at a time, testing stability at each point. Once unstable, increase vcore, repeat. Note you will need to lower the LDT multi to 3 after 250 HTT.

Now, after you find your max stable OC speed, you can now find out your max RAM OC. Put HTT back to 200 and put RAM back to 1:1. Now raise HTT in small increments again. Test stability and raise vdimm and loosen timings as necessary finding your max RAM OC. Now I would be surprised if your RAM goes over 220, so lowering the CPU multi will most likely not be necessary.

Anyways, thats about it. If its too confusing, read the sticky's again :p

Edit: Shoot forgot the last thing. Affter you have max CPU and RAM speed, you want to find a RAM divider that will put BOTH as close to their max as possible.
 
that amd OCing guide is very good

all you have to do lol, is just to change the HTT slowly in like 2-5mhz increases. once you do that. run prime95 usually the cpu test one. for either overnight or for 1 hour mimiumu. once stable do it again and again. once you get errors in prime95 increase vcore to .25 increases or .5 then run prime95 again. pass repeat. pass repeat. etc etc.

now once you cant go anywhere past that. write whatever speed it is. now put your ram divider to 200 then do the same thing except do the ram testing on prime95. repeat. if you get errors, put some voltage throught the rams. usually you can go up to 2.8ish. then if that still doesnt work loosen the timings. repeat and once you get that. you can see if your cpu can still go more. then you should do try some other memory dividers. like 5:6. i know DFi has all this weird stuff like 186 also but we dont need that.

and if you get stuck familrize yourself with the CMOS jumper, lol i used this about 10 times on the first day, cause i forgot to raise the vcore. and the ram timings, sense it was still on 1"1 and iw as WTF WHY ISnT IT WORKING!

i think bascailly i just said what idiotec just said but i wanted to say it again lol
 
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823&highlight=startup+vid

The DEFINITIVE DFI nf4 overclocking guide...goes into quite a bit of detail with basically every option available to you on that board.

Memorize your BIOS...chant your BIOS options in your sleep, eat, drink, masturbate to your BIOS options.....become one with the BIOS options and all shall be revealed :p

OC well because of my Corsair Value Select RAM since it is only DDR 400
the fact that it's DDR400 has nothing to do with it....it's the fact that you didn't get high performance 2-2-2-5 RAM

EDIT: Oh yeah, for easy CMOS clearing try this:

http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=9/25117385374.jpg&s=x4

See that red ziptie on the tub in the picture? It's holding down a 3pin extender with a yellow jumper on it....that's my CMOS :D Get a 12" 3pin extender, put it on your CMOS, then you can have easy access to clearing the CMOS without having to get in by the board....it may not be a big deal for you, but my tubing gets in the way so this makes it easy to clear the CMOS
 
Cool thanks for the advice all. By the way what does the 2-2-2-5 RAM mean that I should have gotten? I see that kind of thing all the time and don't really know what it means since my total extent of knowledge is reading some stickies. Thanks. Any ideas what my max cpu will be and my max ram? just to give me an idea what I will be shooting for. And remember I am just air cooled and want to have it good and stable. Thanks a lot
 
The link Nubius gave you explains memory timings very well. Read that for the 2-2-2-5 question...

Can't really give you any max OC you should expect. That can just depend. I can tell you though, good chance your RAM won't go too far, but that will also depend on how loose you want to go with the timings.

Keep reading, you'll get it...
 
New question, I am feeling down because I am starting to think that I saved a little bit of money on my RAM and got stuff that sucks for OCing and I really should use something different. Is it worth it to scrap the Corsair Value Select pc-3200 and go for something different? Or is it still possible for me to OC my CPU and RAM so that my system runs like a stud.

Another dumb question how important is it to get 2 GB of RAM instead of 1? Should I worry about getting 2 or is 1 ok if I try to OC my stuff. Keep in mind I am a gamer and love playin BF2.

So to put it differently should I get another gig of my Corsair Value Select RAM and have 2 Gigs with little OC or should I ditch the RAM I have now and get 1 gig of good stuff that I can OC. Thanks all.
 
Patriot XBLKs are goog OC'ing RAM and are down to $157 last time I checked on newegg...not a bad price at all.

Buuuut yeah,
So to put it differently should I get another gig of my Corsair Value Select RAM and have 2 Gigs with little OC
You'd get a little OC just with ValueRAM muchless 2gb....2gb never OCs as good as 1gb which never OCs as good as 512mb

I'm fine with 1gb of good overclocked RAM, however games like FEAR are so ridiculously demanding, they eat RAM up like candy so in games like those you will need a good OC just to help smooth em out to some degree...2gb would cover than fine....a lot of people say BF2 is a huge memory hog, but it isn't compared to FEAR and 1gb plays fine on BF2 for me no probs.
 
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