A little OC help, please??

[FBR_BDavis]

I'm newly registered around here, but have been browsing the forums for quite a while.. I asked pretty much the same question on the ASUS boards with little to no luck in receiving any helpful replies.. So, I'll give it a whirl here.. I'm not looking for a wizard to wave a wand and give me every step to OCing, but, a little assistance or pointing in the right direction would be greatly appreciated..

First, my system specs:

ASUS Crosshair Motherboard
AMD 6400+ Black Edition
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme w/ 2 SilenX 120mm Blue LED fans
(Lower fan is intake, upper fan is exhaust)
2 MSI 8800GT OC 512MB (w/ stock heatpipes + fan)
BFG Ageia PhysX Card (w/ MSI heatsink/fan)
4GB (4x1GB) G.Skill DDR1066 RAM
(1 set is 2.3v EPP, the other is 2.1v EPP)

Currently, the rig is in an ULTRA Grid ATX case with an ULTRA 700w Modular PSU.. I will be moving all components to my old Thermaltake Xaser 2 A5000+ case with a Thermaltake 850w Modular ToughPower PSU within the next week.. I just feel that will offer a bit better airflow and cooling, and the added power won't hurt either.. The current case has 1 120mm fan exhaust on the rear, and 1 120mm intake on the front.. The Xaser case has 2 80mm exhausts on the rear, and 2 80mm intakes on the front, as well as an 80mm fan in the side window..

I've overclocked in the past with Socket A and Socket 939 rigs with not too many issues.. However, as technology moved ahead, I got left behind.. There are SO many options in the overclocking realm with this particular setup, I don't even know where to begin.. As I'm typing this message, my CPU sits at 31 degrees, if that bit of info is any help..

Any and all info/advice is appreciated.. Thanks..

 

[Xenozx]

Well have you TRIED overclocking yet? Usually overclocking is accomplished via trail and error.

Basically your going to increase your FSB. As you increase your FSB, youll also need to increase voltages, and lower your ram divider. Its usually simple as that. Rule of thumb on that chip is dont go over 1.55v. I have an Opty 165 overclocked to 2.8ghz at 1.50v using a 166 memory divider.

All your hardware sounds fine for overclocking, idle temps dont realy mean anything, but make sure you dont load over 65c.

 

[HenryBravo]

FBR_BDavis,

Well it appears that you know you're asking for a lot of info. It's one thing to ask for something specific but you're asking for a course in Overclocking 101. That is probably why you didn't get any helpful replies on the Asus forums. You should start out reading some general overclocking guides so you can learn about fsb, memory dividers, voltages, temp monitoring, etc. These are easily found using google. Once you learn the basics then you can start reading the forums about your particular type of cpu and motherboard. www.xtremesystems.org/forums and forums.extremeoverclocking.com are good resources.

At some point you're just going to have to jump in and start playing around. Every OC situation is different, and as Xenozx said, trial and error techniques are needed to achieve maximum speed and stability.

Looking through your system specs I do see a couple of potential issues you are going to have with your memory. First, it isn't a good idea to have 2 different sets of memory that require different voltages. The motherboard will supply the same voltage to all 4 chips. Since 2 of your 4 memory chips need 2.3v to run, when you set your motherboard's memory voltage to 2.3v then you are overvolting your 2.1v memory for no reason. Another issue you may come across is it is (generally speaking) harder to overclock 4 memory chips than 2, particularly if they are not all the same type.

HB

 

[FBR_BDavis]

Ok.. Perhaps I should have been more specific here.. I figured since I posted that I had OC'd previously on Socket A and Socket 939 rigs, everyone would understand that I am aware of the "basics", and that I have gone through the motions of the "basics".. I am actually selling an ASUS A8N32-SLI rig with an Opteron 148 that hit 3.0 GHz stable on air cooling, so, I'm not a complete noob.. But still, it was my mistake to not give a little more detail..

The biggest issue/question I guess I have deals with the memory.. I have DDR1066 memory, which obviously is beyond the scope of my 6400+ Black Edition's "default" rating.. Obviously the memory was purchased specifically to help enable an "easier" overclock, without having to over-volt or go through too much hassle with memory timings and such on a grand scale.. I'm not looking to break records.. I just want a decent overclock that's stable and manageable..

As was mentioned though, somehow I ended up with two different sets of what was supposed to be the same memory.. While all of the timings are identical, the voltages are different for the EPP.. So, in a sense, I'm a little screwed there.. D'oh!!

I have actually toyed a bit in BIOS as well as with the "AI Booster" utility that comes with the Crosshair motherboard.. I've set it to OC to 108% and had no issues.. That gave me a rated speed of 3.456GHz.. It's cool that it's all "automatic" and crap, but I know it's not even close to being optimized..

Based on my system specs, what kind of overclock should I be looking at to be "middle of the road"?? I figured 3.5GHz stable would be a nice mark to shoot for..

The actual general question I was asking with the original post was more along the lines of that in the past, raising the FSB and overvolting the DDR was the simplest way to OC.. You could also adjust the VCore voltage and adjust the core clock as well.. But when I get into the BIOS on this Crosshair, WOW.. There's just so dang many options, it's a little scary.. I'm guessing by the replies I should just go for it and hope for the best.. Heheh.. Thanks guys..

 

[Pegi]

Sent you a PM, FBR, unrelated to this topic but haven't heard back and thought you might not have seen it....