Help OCing A64 3200+ Winchester

M

Matrix333

n00b
Joined
Nov 22, 2004
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I have my new system overclocked to 2.5GHz and it runs all the benchmarks fine, but fails prime95 within 5 minutes and will sometimes randomly reboot (usually after a few days of being on). I would like help getting it more stable at 2.5GHz or higher and possibly getting my memory timings a little tighter. Also, possibly getting my 6800gt faster. I dont want to spend any more money.

Here is my new system:

Athlon64 3200+ 90nm
MSI K8N Neo2 Platnium
2x512MB Corsair XMS XL 3200+ Platnium TwinX
Thermalright 948U All-Copper Heatsink
Vantec Stealth 92mm CPU Fan
ThermalTake 480w Purepower W0020+PFC
Gigabyte GeForce 6800GT
WD Special Edition 80GB 8MB Buffer

Here are my current settings:

Bios v1.37 Modded
250FSB x 10 = 2500MHz
Memory @ 250MHz 1:1
2.5-3-3-7-2T
vcore = 1.60v
vdimm = 2.65v
agp = 1.55v

6800GT @ 400/1000
Bios modded to 1.4v

Benchmark Results:
Aquamark3 = 67,788 (gfx9639, cpu11415)
3DMark2001 = 23,911 (running all tests)
3DMark05 = 4,997 (cpu4581)
PCMark05 = 5,013 (cpu4755, mem5058, gfx7058)
Sandra04 CPU Arith = Dry 11,583 Wet 3,953/5152
Sandra04 CPU MM = Int 23,883 Flt 25,611
Sandra04 Mem Band = Int 5,167 Flt 5,167
Sandra04 Cache & Mem = Combined 7,177 Speed Factor 7.3
Doom3 FPS = 106.4
Super PI 1M = 35sec
Memtest = 12hours Passed
Prime95 = 5minutes Failed

Other Questions:
Is my memory TCCD?
What should the AGP Aparture Size be at?
Is running Cool-N-Quiet safe with overclocking?
Sometimes HL2 crashes with "Memory can not be read at..." error, is that because my mem timings are too tight?

Any help with making my system better would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
 
anyone?

I've tried using bios 1.41mod which is supposed to help with overclocking TCCD memory (my memory is TCCD isnt it?)

and ive also tried 2.5-4-4-10-2T @ 2.8v

my system still fails Prime95 rather quickly
 
Not sure whether or not it's TCCD or not, but Winchesters usually OC pretty well.

Aperture 256 or 512, won't make much of a difference.
Cool 'n Quiet should be off.
I've gotten the same thing in HL2. If your ram is memtest stable for 12+ hours or even 8 hours, it's not your RAM. If it's crashing or other programs are crashing it isn't because of ram, it's your CPU.

Use memtest only to check your ram, try tighter timings and memtest it. If it works, great. Set it to 1T as well if you can.

Once you know your ram is rock solid, it's all on your CPU. I don't use Prime95 anymore personally, as I can play games, leave my PC on for days and do everything else I need with no problems, yet Prime will report errors in under 5 minutes. Basically, if your PC does what you need it to, why care about Prime?

If you are getting hard boots forever after a few days, the only other stability issue to look into is your cooling and your PSU. If you're keeping it cool, it may just be the limit of your chip. Try different voltages, and even try 227x11 or 228x11. This will let you get tighter ram timings and also help you verify that it is the limit of your CPU.

Winnies usually get a lot higher (I've seen 2.7Ghz stable on air), so you might have some more left in it. You just need to find where the instability (referring only to your hard boots) lies. Personally, if you can bench and play games and such, consider it stable. Prime95 is generally useless in my opinion.
 
i just reset my bios and while running with no overclock at all i fail Prime95 within 5 minutes....still

also i ran Memtest86 (didnt use 86 before) and it passes everything

could there be a problem with my CPU or MOBO?

also, i dont think (would have to look again) that there are any multiplier options higher than 10
 
I always forget that Winnies are locked up, sorry about that.

Run your ram as well as CPU at stock everything. If you still get errors in Prime or experience hard boots, you need to be RMA'ing something. CPU or Mobo, I'd start with CPU. There's definately an issue if you can't Prime at stock everything that you can't solve unless you RMA, something is damaged.
 
ya, i just ran prime95 with everything at stock and it failed in 2 minutes

i bought a retail cpu from newegg.com and used AS3 on it...
so if i cleaned off the AS3 would it still be okay to RMA?
cause i know using AS5 voids the warrenty

it would be nice to RMA the mobo and get one with the newer revision of the nb chip
 
It's probably the Corsair RAM. I have the Corsair XMS DDR 3200 XL 2-2-2-5, and no matter what timings I ran it at, the system would fail at 250 FSB. That was with 2.80 V into the memory. Also, you should try putting at least 2.75V into the RAM, since that is the actual spec of the TCCD chips. The newer rev's of memory will also work better. I just tried some PQI Turbo 3200 2-2-2-5, and it runs fine at 2.5-3-3-7 at 270 FSB. So, try the voltage, and if the problem persists, I would try different DDR RAM.
 
HeavyH20 said:
It's probably the Corsair RAM. I have the Corsair XMS DDR 3200 XL 2-2-2-5, and no matter what timings I ran it at, the system would fail at 250 FSB. That was with 2.80 V into the memory. Also, you should try putting at least 2.75V into the RAM, since that is the actual spec of the TCCD chips. The newer rev's of memory will also work better. I just tried some PQI Turbo 3200 2-2-2-5, and it runs fine at 2.5-3-3-7 at 270 FSB. So, try the voltage, and if the problem persists, I would try different DDR RAM.
Click to expand...

He said it was memtest stable for 12+ hours. It isn't the ram.

Like I said Matrix, try everything at default / stock settings. If it fails, RMA something (CPU or mobo), because something is wrong.
 
i said a couple posts up that I ran prime95 with EVERYTHING at stock speeds and it failed in 2 minutes :(
 
i went ahead and flashed back to the official MSI 1.3 bios and Prime95 has been running for 16 minutes now with no errors.

with 1.37 and 1.41 bios it would almost always fail within 5 minutes

ill see how long it goes and get back to you
 
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