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Hi everyone,
I recently got into OCing because I've been trying to find a bottleneck in my computer (as a reference, on CoH, I get an average of 40 fps on Automatic settings at 1680x1050 with a max of 60 and a min of 10 sometimes; I'd like to get rid of the 10). Lowering my settings down to 1024x768 all on low only makes the game look ugly, as the performance is surprisingly similar. Before I get started, take a look at my gaming rig in my sig.
Anyway, I've a few questions regarding overclocking.
1) I overclocked my CPU from 2.2 to 2.4 by upping the cpu to 220 mhz, but I had to lower the HT to 3x and the ram down to 100 mhz. Later on, I upped my ram to 200 mhz (2 / 1.83) and it seemed stable, but the system was actually a bit slower/laggier than at stock. What's wrong here? What can I do to get a better OC from my CPU, since I can only tell it's overclocked when I run synthetic benchmarks.
2) My 2x1 GB Corsair can run at 400 Mhz easily (200 mhz), but whenever I put my 2x512mb sticks of the same type of ram, the system drops down to 2/1 and the ram runs at half the frequency. All the sticks are DDR400. I haven't tested my 2x512 kit individually, but CPU-Z says the sticks can do 166 and 200 mhz. Why does the system drop down to 100 Mhz when I have both sticks? Pushing it to 2/2 (200 mhz) prevents the system from booting up and it jumps to the secondary bios.
3) My stock temperature is about 45 idle, 55 on load, and when I overclock it to 2.4, it goes up to 50 - 60, which is pretty close to the limit AMD states of 65 degrees C. I've read of many other people running the same CPU (I even had this problem with a 3500+, same temps, about) and having much lower temperatures in the 20-30 ranges. When I replaced the stock HSF, I thought that'd be long gone, but with the Zalman, I'm still having the same problems (which is why I haven't tried OCing my system in the years I had it). If I take the side panel off my case, the temperature drops by about 5 degrees, but I'd like to go much lower than that. What can I do?
4) Does a noisy NB fan (I'm guessing it's about to die, but it's been like that for a year or more) affect anything on my system? I have no stability issues while I'm at stock temps, and when I'm OC'd, the system does not hang or reboot on its own.
As a reference, I've a black Rosewill case (forgot the model number) and it's got one of those funnels on the side panel about where the CPU is (but doesn't really sit on top of it), one fan on the back of the computer, the Zalman, and the PSU fan, excluding the IceQ3 fan from the video card and the NB fan.
Thank you for your replies.
I recently got into OCing because I've been trying to find a bottleneck in my computer (as a reference, on CoH, I get an average of 40 fps on Automatic settings at 1680x1050 with a max of 60 and a min of 10 sometimes; I'd like to get rid of the 10). Lowering my settings down to 1024x768 all on low only makes the game look ugly, as the performance is surprisingly similar. Before I get started, take a look at my gaming rig in my sig.
Anyway, I've a few questions regarding overclocking.
1) I overclocked my CPU from 2.2 to 2.4 by upping the cpu to 220 mhz, but I had to lower the HT to 3x and the ram down to 100 mhz. Later on, I upped my ram to 200 mhz (2 / 1.83) and it seemed stable, but the system was actually a bit slower/laggier than at stock. What's wrong here? What can I do to get a better OC from my CPU, since I can only tell it's overclocked when I run synthetic benchmarks.
2) My 2x1 GB Corsair can run at 400 Mhz easily (200 mhz), but whenever I put my 2x512mb sticks of the same type of ram, the system drops down to 2/1 and the ram runs at half the frequency. All the sticks are DDR400. I haven't tested my 2x512 kit individually, but CPU-Z says the sticks can do 166 and 200 mhz. Why does the system drop down to 100 Mhz when I have both sticks? Pushing it to 2/2 (200 mhz) prevents the system from booting up and it jumps to the secondary bios.
3) My stock temperature is about 45 idle, 55 on load, and when I overclock it to 2.4, it goes up to 50 - 60, which is pretty close to the limit AMD states of 65 degrees C. I've read of many other people running the same CPU (I even had this problem with a 3500+, same temps, about) and having much lower temperatures in the 20-30 ranges. When I replaced the stock HSF, I thought that'd be long gone, but with the Zalman, I'm still having the same problems (which is why I haven't tried OCing my system in the years I had it). If I take the side panel off my case, the temperature drops by about 5 degrees, but I'd like to go much lower than that. What can I do?
4) Does a noisy NB fan (I'm guessing it's about to die, but it's been like that for a year or more) affect anything on my system? I have no stability issues while I'm at stock temps, and when I'm OC'd, the system does not hang or reboot on its own.
As a reference, I've a black Rosewill case (forgot the model number) and it's got one of those funnels on the side panel about where the CPU is (but doesn't really sit on top of it), one fan on the back of the computer, the Zalman, and the PSU fan, excluding the IceQ3 fan from the video card and the NB fan.
Thank you for your replies.
