A8N32-SLI OC Adventure - I'm a mess

[AuxNuke]

Who with a what now? I come from owning a loooong string of abit motherboards and this Asus bios looks like a disorganized mess of calculus equations tossed into a pile of vomit. Now that I have my feelings out of the way.... Here's what I'm working with:

Have an X2 4400+ (Stock 11x200) running with some XMS 4000PT (DDR500). I'm slowly working my over clock up. But something doesnt make sense. Current settings are:

FSB = 230
CPU Multiplier = 11
Memory = 200 (Which I assume is Asus's way of saying 1:1)
K8 to NB Frequency = 1000 (Which I hope was Asus's way of saying 5x HTT Multiplier)
K8 to NB Link Width = Auto
SB to NB Frequency = 1000
SB to NB Link Width = 16 Down, 16 Up

So I fire up CPU-Z and Sandra and they tell me I'm running at:

- 2.53ghz: which makes sence 11x230
- 230mhz mem clock: sweet, got 1:1 to work
- 2300 (1150 x 2) HTT speeds: follows the formula FSB x HTT Multiplier (5 x 230)

So far so good. My question is, what do I do with those extra settings and how can I test for them?
- Should I leave the "K8 to NB Link Width" to Auto?
- Does the SB to NB HTT frequency OC along with the other HTT settings or is it locked? Is there a way to test?
- What's that max that you guys have gotten your HTT up to? Is 2300 very high / low?

Sorry for all the questions and thank you all in advance for your replies!
~Aux

 

[mavalpha]

K8/NB should be dropped to 4x (800MHz) to keep the HT-link under 1GHz when overclocking.

 

[Oline61]

- What's that max that you guys have gotten your HTT up to? Is 2300 very high / low?

It's generally accepted that this has little impact on performance and should stay at 2000 (1000 double pumped) or below.

 

[AuxNuke]

Thank you both for your reply! I will keep that value at or around 2000. Do you know if the SB to NB value changes with the FSB also or is that a static setting since it deals mainly with the added PCI-E channels?

 

[KCComp]

OK, I'm confused. You say:

Memory = 200 (Which I assume is Asus's way of saying 1:1)

The BIOS setting is actually "LIMIT 200", is that what you mean? There doesn't seem to be any way to set the memory speed directly and they don't document this setting.

K8 to NB Frequency = 1000 (Which I hope was Asus's way of saying 5x HTT Multiplier)
SB to NB Frequency = 1000

Again the BIOS doesn't say 1000 it only has a multiplier, unless you're running some different BIOS than 0805 beta?

So I fire up CPU-Z and Sandra and they tell me I'm running at:

- 2.53ghz: which makes sence 11x230
- 230mhz mem clock: sweet, got 1:1 to work
- 2300 (1150 x 2) HTT speeds: follows the formula FSB x HTT Multiplier (5 x 230)

I'll bet you Sandra is confused and you are NOT running 1:1 memory at 230. Run a Sandra memory bench and I'll bet you don't get the throughput you should expect from 230 1:1. At a supposed 240, I only get 5600. Sandra thinks my RAM is at 240 but the BIOS says it's at 200.

I can't find any way to run the RAM at 1:1 on the A8N32-SLI.

KC

 

[AuxNuke]

The BIOS setting is actually "LIMIT 200", is that what you mean? There doesn't seem to be any way to set the memory speed directly and they don't document this setting.

The LIMIT 200 actually is the 1:1 multiplier just as the LIMIT 166 Setting is the 4/5 multiplier. I've found, after some asking around, that most Asus boards seem to label multipliers in this way rather than using the more practical actual multiplier settings.

Again the BIOS doesn't say 1000 it only has a multiplier, unless you're running some different BIOS than 0805 beta?

Yes, I'm still using the latest release BIOS 0703 and not the new beta. My settings are 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600 instead of the normal 2x, 3x, 4x, etc.

I'll bet you Sandra is confused and you are NOT running 1:1 memory at 230. Run a Sandra memory bench and I'll bet you don't get the throughput you should expect from 230 1:1. At a supposed 240, I only get 5600. Sandra thinks my RAM is at 240 but the BIOS says it's at 200.

My memory scores have scaled along with my FSB fairly nicely. At Stock (200fsb) I was at about 5003. At 260fsb they were almost 6000. That seems on par with the "reference" systems, yet way under the readings that the [H] got. Their stock X2 system at 200fsb was getting around 5800. I don't know if they were using Sandra 2005 SR2a (which gives higher scores) or the newer SR3 (which tends to give lower scores) so I don't know whether to be worried or not

Other than that, I know that my mem scores at 10x240=2400 were better than 11x220=2420. The memory multiplier must be working

 

[AuxNuke]

Hmm...
I'm starting to think that my memory scores are way off. Can someone with an X2 do a quick memory benchmark with Sandra 2005 SR3?

Thanks in advance!
~Aux

 

[Appa]

I can't find any way to run the RAM at 1:1 on the A8N32-SLI.

KC

I am easily running my RAM at 1:1 on my A8N32. I'm running 228 MHz using Corsair 3500PRO LL @ the tight 2-3-2-6 1T. 10 over what the rating is.

I can run it 1:1 if I loosen the timings up a bit at 2.5-3-3-7 @ 240 MHz. It really is fantastic memory and an amazing MB.

 

[AuxNuke]

I am easily running my RAM at 1:1 on my A8N32. I'm running 228 MHz using Corsair 3500PRO LL @ the tight 2-3-2-6 1T. 10 over what the rating is.

I can run it 1:1 if I loosen the timings up a bit at 2.5-3-3-7 @ 240 MHz. It really is fantastic memory and an amazing MB.

What kind of memory scores are you getting in Sandra 2005 SR3 with those settings? Thanks!

 

[Appa]

My memory scores in SiSoft Sandra SR3 just keep going up and up the higher I clock, obviously. Currently I'm scoring 6330 MB/s on the RAM Bandwith Int Buff'd and 6270 MB/s on the Float.


I can supply a screenshot if neccessary.

 

[AuxNuke]

My scores are no where near as good. I'm set at 260fsb x 10 w/ timings: 3-4-4-8 1T and am getting 6008 at max. Seems to be that the timings out-weigh frequency in the X2's case. Should I try and run 236fsb x 11 and lower the timings? I'm having trouble prying performance out this damn on chip memory controller... mainly because i don't understand it fully yet