ready to overclock

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aliasaid

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i've always been scared to overclock, but seeing as some ppl are getting CRAZY overclocks.. i can't resist anymore. i don't know too much on how to overclock, but if you guys recommend that i do overclock, i will research in detail.

these are my computer specs:

450 watt antec smart power 2.0 (came w/ sonata2 case)

MSI K8N Neo4-F ATX AMD Motherboard

Athlon 64 3000+ venice skt 939 (stock heatsink/fan, i didn't add any thermal paste, i just used the junk that was already on the heatsink)

Corsair Value Ram 2 X 512mb

eVGA 6600gt

i also have a dvd-wr, floppy, HDD, and a soundcard.. (for you to assess power drain...)

everything is at stock speeds and stock cooling and stock everything. i don't want to replace or change anything when i overclock.

these are temps i'm currently getting:

(i just got this program.. for some reason it doesn't say which temp is which)

using SpeedFan:

Temp1: 34
Temp2: 35
Temp3: 17
Temp: 40
HD0: 38
Temp1: 22

.. all in celcius.

i know this is a gay program.. whats a good free program to use?


ANYWAYS.

given my computer specs, would you recommend that i overclock?! out of sheer curiousity i want to know what speeds my venice could hit.

oh ya i almost forgot to mention, if some of you are familiar with the sonata case, there's this big black air duct that goes over the cpu... should i just remove that? it doesn't seem to affect the temperature when its in or out.

thx
 
ok i just got nvidia monitor for temps... and this is what i get:

CPU: 35
System: 17
GPU: 58

seeing how the temps change, i'm pretty sure that Temp3 = system. nothing else is certain. the temps b/w the 2 programs differ by a degree or 2.
 
Alright calm down, people have other things to do in life. So lets take it slow, you've got value ram which isn't the best but you can usually get 25-40MHz extra out of that ram.

Well your in luck, you board is a very good overclocker with a straight forward non-confusing bios. In this bios you have 2 sections you really want to pay attention to, the "Advanced chipset features" and "Cell menu". The advanced chipset configurations has to deal with the ram speeds and timings, and the cell menu has to deal the CPU's HTT (fsb) and everything else needed to overclock.

Lets start off by seeing just how high your cpu can go. To do this go into the "Advanced chipset features" and set the ram to run at 100MHz. To do this you must change the "timing mode" to manual instead of auto. Then underneath set the speed to 100MHz. Now exit the bios and save, when the computer posts again re-enter the bios.

Go to "Cell menu". Now we get down to the overclocking. Raise the CPU's FSB frequency to 205. Save and exit the bios. If the computer posts you have succesfully overclocked your CPU. It will now run at 2.050GHz. Remember that the HT frequency is calculated by multiplying the the value byt the FSB. You want to keep it closest to 1000, so 205*5=1025. You can usually go up to 1200 or so. Repeat this process until the computer doesn't post anymore (*keep in mind it's a good idea to have a pen and paper to write down the everything that you do). Let's call all the working settings "setting X" (what I mean by that is all the overclocked settings that work, example stock voltages, FSB at 225MHz and RAM at 125MHz).

When the computer doesn't post turn off the power and press that little button beside the SATA ports, this resets the CMOS and brings all the changes back to stock speeds (this is why it's a good idea to have a pen and paper). Now you know how far your CPU can go on stock voltages. Reset everything the way it was when it last posted. Now we start raising the core voltage. Put everything back to "setting X" and raise it the core voltage .025V. Now keep on bumping up the FSB until it doesn't post again. Repeat this process until you can't do anything to get it to post. Now you've found out how high you cpu can go. Now we have to test the ram. This is a lot easier.

Set the ram back to 200MHz. Start overclocking your cpu slowly again. Raising it 5MHz at a time, following what you've written down on the paper. For example, the CPU is overclocked a certain amount and can only boot with voltages higher than 1.425V. Do this until you can get the system to boot no matter what (we'll call this setting "setting Y". Now you know the RAM max limit on stock voltages. Reset everything to "setting Y" but this time in the "Cell menu set the ram voltage .05V higher. Do this until the system doesn't boot anymore, but don't give the ram too much voltage give it absolute max 1.85V. So now you know just how high you can get your RAM and CPU can go. If your ram is not allowing your CPU to reach full potential, you can run a ram divider.

A ram divider is simple here's the basic jist of it. Your CPU FSB and RAM run in a 1:1 ratio so they can communicate without bottlenecking each other. Everytime you raise the FSB the RAM speed goes up accordingly. Example: FSB = 205MHz RAM = 205MHz. What a ram divider does is it set the ram to run at a slower speed. Say you can get your CPU FSB up to 250MHz but you can only get to 220MHz you'll want to set your ram on a divider. Usually 166MHz (5:6). So if you have your FSB at 250MHz and you running on a ram divider of 5:6 (166MHz) you ram will now run problem free at 216MHz.

I know it's long, thats why I split it up into paragraphs:p but it's worth it. You'll probably want to pick what I said apart and ask a million questions, (it's not your fault, I have a tendancy of not explaing things to well, but hey im 16 so I've still got time to learn) so feel no obligation to ask as many questions as you want.
 
wow thx a lot reggie_da_man, that really helps.


before i get started, just a couple of [nooby] questions:

Remember that the HT frequency is calculated by multiplying the the value byt the FSB. You want to keep it closest to 1000, so 205*5=1025.


so the 205 is the new FSB (or htt..w/e) speed, and you multiplied it by 5. where did this 5 come from? and why close to 1000?


also, since my cpu is 1.8ghz, so that means 1800/200 = 9.
so 9 is the multiplier or w/e of my cpu...?

so if you say that i can get up to 40 mhz from my RAM.. (and i plan to keep the FSB:RAM ratio at 1:1) my resultant cpu speed will be 9 X 240 = 2160mhz? (thats IF i get the 40mhz from my ram..) and i can't raise the multiplier value of 9 right?

lol sorry if my logic is screwed up...
 
1. he is talking about the LDT multiplier. the LDT bus should be kept around 100 like he explained

2. yes that is your multiplier

3. no you can't raise the multiplier. if you make the overclock that far and want to overclock further you will probably have to use a divider on the memory to get any further. at first the divider will keep your memory below that 240mhz but if you push the overclock higher eventually your ram will get back to 240mhz but you will also have a higher overclock
 
ah ok thx man.

using a memory divider will cause the ram to be the bottleneck of the system, no? if the fsb and clockspeed were any higher it would be pointless, or at least i'm guessing, since the ram is involved in pretty much everything. doesn't seem like much of an advantage to use a mem divider... or plz correct me.

oh and i'm trying to find the specs and info on my cpu @ http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/Default.aspx but there seem to be 3 different cpus that look like mine. they only differ in the "stepping": D0, E3, and E6. how do i know which one is mine?

thx for all the help
 
like i said if you keep overclocking with a divider the memory speed will overclock again. i think i'll have to use an analogy. take my processor stoc k at 2.0ghz. i overclock to 2.4ghz but i find my memory isn't quite stable so i use a 9:10 divider which puts my ram at 216mhz rather than the 240mhz it would be without it. that way i got to a higher clock speed with the memory still stable and overclocked. now if i were to take that overclock to 2.66ghz with that memory divider still on then i have a much higher clock speed and the memory will be back at its max speed of 240mhz
 
ya so you end up with 240mhz for your memory and 266mhz for your FSB

240 < 266 therefore bottleneck.

thats my logic anyways..
 
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