help with OC'ing a 2600+ XP-M

[Effex]

hey all,

its been awhile since i built my comp with all of your help and its been running great! with the experience i learned from building this as my first comp i then built my friend a comp, again from your suggestions and it too is working fine!

anyways, i am now to the point where i want to start overclocking this mofo cause that is the main reason why i chose this setup. i want to reach speeds somewhere near its true potential without pushing it too much

i also want to OC my RAM but i guess i should do that after i get my CPU stable first. what is some safe timings to use in the mean time for these?

what im working with:

2600+ XP-M
abit nf7-S rev.2
tsunami case w/ 2 120mm, 1 90mm fans
thermalright SI-97 heatsink
panaflo 92mm CPU fan
480w tt butterfly PSU
corsair xms 2x512 ddr400

 

[Nubius]

1. Corsair RAM isn't the best for overclocking...since you have the high performance RAM it WILL overclock don't get me wrong, but especially on the socket A system you'll probably be limited to around 220-230 somewhere in there and if you want to start pushing your FSB up beyond 200 then you need to have aftermarket north bridge cooling as it really sucks...

1gb of RAM on a socket A system won't go very far no matter the RAM though...you'll be limited to around 240 or so even with top of the line best in the world OC'ing RAM simply because the board is not made to handle it. Generally this will require some added voltage to the NB which again is why also you'd require after market cooling for it....All in all you don't see a huge gain in performance OC'ing the RAM and it can be tricky on this board...I know I have the same board

It IS quite possible don't get me wrong, sometimes the boards like it, sometimes they don't and since you probably have a newer board (purple dimm slots whereas mine is an earlier style with black dimms) it might even be more prone to OC because of that...

Anywho I'd say 2.9v dimm voltage and 2.5-3-3-7 and you could run up to 230 with that....at the most 3-3-3-8 with same voltage.

Your CPU should easily hit 2.5GHz, that's what I run mine at 24/7 use, however mine is the 35w 2400+ XP-M...not that thats a huge factor just giving you general info...mine takes 1.85Vcore to reach those speeds but the couple of people I've known with the 2600+ XP-M have been able to hit the same clock speed with lower voltage, this also may be the case for you....your PSU should be more than adequate, they are good PSUs

If I were you I'd first find out your CPU's limits simply by raising the multi and adding Vcore where needed and using prime95 to test for stability. You'll want to use large in place FFTs torture test and leave the program running for 12+ hours.....if it errors before then you need to add a tad more vcore and repeat the process....once you know exactly how far your CPU will go when OC'd, then you can start OC'ing by raising the FSB beyond 200 to achieve the same clock speed in which you know is the top.....at this point if the system becomes unstable you'll know it's your RAM/Mobo holding the OC back.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

What nubius said is basicly right

But you can keep pushing up your FSB speeds till ya cant boot, see how high they get.

To eliminate the factor of your CPU causing instability, drop your CPU multiplyer for testing purposes. Now raise the FSB until it wont boot, and your top FSB will be just under that speed

 

[Nubius]

I already covered all that chris....you don't want to raise the FSB dude, you want to raise the Multi to find out what the CPU's max is........as I said in my paragraph above, raising the FSB does nothing but tax the rest of the motherboard so then you won't know your CPU's limits, but your mobos at that point.....he needs to simply find out his CPU limits by raising the multi, NOT the FSB....otherwise he will need NB voltage and even without voltage the NB needs extra cooling when going above the stock 200.

 

[PP Mguire]

what if i want to OC my 2600+ AthlonXP past 2.3 (freq 200mhz on FSB) but yet the Multi is locked?

 

[Nubius]

Notice the title of the thread here is the XP-M which is what I addressed the concern for.......an XP is an entirely different story which is not what the thread owner asked so why should I put that into consideration?

Obviously if you have an XP raising the FSB is your only way of OC'ing and you have to make due

 

[PP Mguire]

i was just asking and yes i saw the title. so ill keep it at 200 then.

 

[Effex]

sorry i havent replied until now. i got home from work yesterday and passed out.

what is a good minimum to start the multi and FSB at and in what increments should i raise the mult and the vcore

i assume you meant i could safely OC my RAM to 2.9 dimm 2.5-3-3-7 before i even OCed my cpu and call it good?

"You'll want to use large in place FFTs torture test and leave the program running for 12+ hours"

im not familiar with what you meant here

"once you know exactly how far your CPU will go when OC'd, then you can start OC'ing by raising the FSB beyond 200 to achieve the same clock speed"

what i get from this is that once i get a good OC with the multi i can THEN raise the FSB to attempt a little more of an OC and once it becomes unstable when adding the FSB that i need to drop it back down because raising the vcore isnt going to stabilize it?

 

[Effex]

oh, ive been reading some good things about merlin's bios

i am pretty sure i should update my bios but im not sure how to or what site to get merlin's from

 

[Nubius]

"You'll want to use large in place FFTs torture test and leave the program running for 12+ hours"

im not familiar with what you meant here

Get the program Prime95 that I mentioned and you'll know

i assume you meant i could safely OC my RAM to 2.9 dimm 2.5-3-3-7 before i even OCed my cpu and call it good?

Changing the Dimm and RAM timings isn't OC'ing....until you start to OC your RAM you don't need to do anything to it.

Stick with the CPU until you find out it's max......raise the multi by .5 increments...don't touch the FSB at all as you're looking for your highest stable clock speed........raise the multi by .5 then go into windows and run Prime95 using thes settings I told you......if the program can run for atleast 5 minutes with no errors, restart and bump up the multi another .5.......once you get into windows and Prime95 errors within 5 minutes, immediately, or causes windows to freeze you need to go back and knock your Vcore up by .025, then restart and see if prime95 will last atleast 5 mins......when you go in to bump up the Vcore, don't raise the multi as at this point you're just trying to stabelize the current setting.....once you've put in enough Vcore for it to run Prime95 atleast 5 mins then continue bumping up the multi by .5

Once you hit a spot where even after you've added a fair amount of voltage and it just seems like Prime95 won't stop erroring then you need to bump the multi BACK one step to lower your clock speed and from there start finding out how much Vcore it takes to get that speed stable........you should be able to run Prime95 12+ hours without errors and that'll be a stable system....from there you'll know your highest possible CPU overclock.

So from there you can start raising the FSB and changing the multi so that it equals out to whatever speed you found was the highest and then from there it'll require stabelizing your RAM.....so if you raise your FSB to 215 and your computer doesn't pass Prime95 (for testing RAM you should use the blend mode test) then you know it's not your CPU but the RAM limiting you.

what i get from this is that once i get a good OC with the multi i can THEN raise the FSB to attempt a little more of an OC and once it becomes unstable when adding the FSB that i need to drop it back down because raising the vcore isnt going to stabilize it?

Use only the multi to OC the CPU, then once you know the top CPU Clock speed, put the multi back to stock then start raising the FSB....if it turns out 220 is the max FSB you can get with your RAM, then adjust the multi so that 220x(multi)=(top known clock speed)

EDIT: http://www.pc-tweaker.ch/Downloads/Bios/Modded/Abit.php merlin and tictac BIOSes....I use TicTacs D26 Black Mantarey personally