MSI nforce4 ultra OC

[marshmallow]

Anyone had any luck overclocking on the nforce4 msi board? The software (core center) isnt a real effecient OC, and keeps reseting my configs I set in the bios.

Specs:
AMD64 3500+ 90nm
MSI NEO4 Ultra
1 gig Corsair 2x512

Trying to use other programs to test speed and temp, but nothing seems to support the board yet. *frustrated*

 

[RollerX]

Why don't you try the combination of Clockgen AND Core center?

Here's what I do,

1. In bios, relax memory timings and use maximum multi's
2. Get into windows, raise HTT with clockgen
3. Run your stability test program of choice (superpi, prime95, s&m)
4. If pass, raise HTT again, if fail, use core center to raise voltage and try again.
5. Apply, rinse, and repeat until you find max headroom or reach max temp tolerance.

After you're done, apply the final settings in the bios and see how low a vcore will make the max OC stable. Now you can start finding your max bandwidth and tweak mem timings and all that good stuff.

Hope this helps

edit: btw, here is the link to the clockgen page, you'll want to get the one for NF4.

 

[NoGodForMe]

Agree, clock gen is cool. I have ghost icons set up to OC my system. Now that it's set up, I just click an icon and poof, 10% OC. When I'm done playing CS:S, I click another icon and poof, back to 200mz.

Memtest is another good program to test everything, because there is no way to corrupt your OS if something is wrong. You boot from a CD or Floppy.

 

[RollerX]

Memtest is another good program to test everything, because there is no way to corrupt your OS if something is wrong. You boot from a CD or Floppy.

From my experience, Memtest is an excellent program to test ram but does not push the CPU hard enough. My last 3500 ran the default test group for 10 hours with no errors at 2.75, but craps out within 5 mins running prime95...

 

[dabiggoober]

From my experience, Memtest is an excellent program to test ram but does not push the CPU hard enough. My last 3500 ran the default test group for 10 hours with no errors at 2.75, but craps out within 5 mins running prime95...

That's because memtest is to test your MEMORY, hence the name. It tells you if your memory is stable at a given freq, so that then you can go about pushing your cpu with more volts and trying to acheive stability. If mem is stable, then you can boot to windows and test CPU stability with PRIME, Folding, etc... to see if the CPU is giving errors.

 

[RollerX]

That's because memtest is to test your MEMORY, hence the name. It tells you if your memory is stable at a given freq, so that then you can go about pushing your cpu with more volts and trying to acheive stability. If mem is stable, then you can boot to windows and test CPU stability with PRIME, Folding, etc... to see if the CPU is giving errors.

Umm....I know it's for mem testing dude... That's why I said relax mem timings and max out the multi first when you're finding max htt and play around with mem settings later when you find the max mhz.

 

[Chron]

I set my memory speed to 100Mhz instead of the 200Mhz. This allowed me to find the true limit of the CPU and then after I had done that, see how far I could push the memory. For some reason, any setting other than 100 or 200 on the memory was unstable when I tried to OC. At 100 (1/2 HTT), I was able to get the board to run an A64 3000+ at 340x8 or 2.72 rock solid. 2.78 would post, but no windows

 

[marshmallow]

RollerX, you rock. Thanks for the link.

 

[marshmallow]

Ok, so heres a question that Im not too sure of the answer.

Is it wiser to lower the HT multiplier(4x) for higher bus speeds(250 with pc4000 would need to purchase), or just keep it as high as possible and only clock as high as my memory will let me (say 215 pc3200 i currently have).

Than again, what tweaks can I do to the corsair memory I bought?
Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512MB DDR400 PC3200 XMS

All this HTT, cpu multi, fsb speeds etc is giving me a headache ARRGhh.