My Overclocking Nightmare

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xirokx

n00b
Joined
Aug 19, 2006
Messages
56
Hi,

3 months ago I purchased the equiment as stated below:

DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR
Amd Opty 170 + Toledo 2.7ghz @ 1.45vcore
2x GSkill Hz 1gb PC4000
Nvidia 7900gtx
Zalman cs9500
Antec 500w
WD Raptor 150gb
NEC 4570 DVD RW

Unfortunately till this day I have not used it all because I cannot manage to get a stable overclock...

The cpu's max is 270fsb when I run the mem on a really slow divider...It passed prime for 12 hrs +

My problem is the RAM...the other day I put the RAM on auto and prime95 failed for the RAM after 7hrs 40mins...which means its unstable right? I dont wanna load all my progs/games to experience random crashes..I would like a stable machine!!

I have tried the RAM cheat sheets, and other individual RAM settings but none have helped...I understand dividers but not TRC, TC and all those individual settings despite having read diff manuals so many time....

Please can you help get my RAM stable so I can start using my machine at long last????? Ideally I would like to run my RAM faster than its inital speed...

Thanks in advance for any replies I recieve...

P.S. I know you have to be patient with overclocking but 2 -3 months down the line I have not been successful..I wish I could get it stable..
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What are your current RAM settings? Have you tried to run your CPU at stock settings and run MEMTEST 86 to see if your RAM passes?
 
The weird thing is the a lot of people have dodgy ram in there PC'c but never find out. I ran Memtest i bought and three out of three memories i bought theywere all giving errors.

With ram when you buy it run memtest within its first year so you can go and change it from the retailer.
 
What's a "Really Low Divider?"

That Ram should be able to do 250Mhz stable... but nothing much higher.
 
current RAM settings are on auto because I got frustated testing out all the other dividers, I mean it will work on 5/06 and lower than this however I see no point in running RAM slower then what it can run at...hence me putting it on auto which I believe is 1/01...

Yes I have passed all tests with memtest86 when my cpu is at stock..

Low RAM divider was 1/02 which I understand for my DFI board is the lowest divider, see using that divider I hit 270fsb whilst priming my CPU and it was stable after 12hrs + I stopped the test voluntarily as I was happy that was the max because when I tried 275fsb it failed 5 - 6hrs in....

Therefore its just the RAM left so I can begin using this system 24/7 , its beginning to be a real headache :(

please help
 
So you aren't happy with a stable 2.7ghz on a dual core Opty system? Hell, I would be more than happy with that... especially below 1.5vcore! You could always up your voltage, bump your FSB to 275, throw on a 166/5:6 RAM divider and see what happens... But to be honest, I wouldn't complain of that overclock too much.


What are your temps like? If you are below 50c at load, add more voltage.
 
nooooooooooooooooo you misunderstood me....

I can run my CPU at 270fsb which is prime stable for more than 12hrs however that using a 1/2 divider which means RAM is running way under its stock speed...

Temps are 50c load...

Im trying to get my RAM to be stable at 1:1 whilst fsb is 270 but its not happening as prime95 failed after 7hrs 40mins...

Therefore I was hoping someone could advise me where I am going wrong??

If both CPU and RAM were stable at 270fsb I would be over the moon....

Please help...thanks
 
So your annoyed that your ram wont run 20mhz over its specced speed?

just throttle it back some, as long as its around the 400mhz mark it wont matter.

1:1 doesnt give hardly any noticeable speed increases on an Athlon64.
 
hmm interesting...

what divider on a dfi board would be the equivlant of 400mhz??? 5/6 perhaps??
 
I run 275fsb. With the 5:6 divider my Ram is running... *checks CPUz*

221mhz
2.5 - 4 - 3 - 8

My Ram says that it can run

250mhz
2.5-5-5-9

So, when I underclock the Ram frequency, I can also turn down the timings. Tighter timings are more beneficial than RAW speed on an A64 system (IMO). Having your Ram run at an insane speed doesn't really mean anything as at 200mhz your CPU can push almost 7gb of data a second between the CPU and the RAM... Try using all that up :D (really, I dare you, cmon)
 
Your memory controller can run all sorts of speeds... It's the ram that has problems. Ram does not overclock as well as CPU's can.

If your Ram is rated at DDR400, it can run at an effective HT (FSB) speed of 200mhz. You might get 210 out of it, but not easily.

Your IMC (Integrated Memory Controller) on your CPU die might be able to run Ram speeds up to 300mhz, but you'd need some DDR600 ram to take advantage of that.

In the OP's case, his IMC is fine, but His ram cannot run at 270mhz... It's only made for 250mhz tops (and even then Lots of DDR500 Ram isn't fully capable of running at DDR500 speeds).
 
thanks for your replies most appreciated...

If my system runs at 265fsb and is on AUTO for the RAM this means my system is running at 2.65ghz and my RAM is running at 530mhz? Is that correct?

I am testing using the above settings at the moment and so far after 12hrs prime has not failed...Would you say my system is stable?

Please help....
 
I think having your RAM settings on "AUTO" is the first problem. It probably is a matter of getting your timings set correctly, maybe adding more vdimm along with the right divider. Who knows, maybe some screenshots of your BIOS if at all possible. You'll have to physically takes pictures of your BIOS screen, but if you are willing to go through that trouble, I would be willing to offer suggestions.

Good Luck!
 
my RAM is on auto and my cpu is on 265fsb,,,,

I have managed to prime at these settings for 24hrs now :)

Would you class my system to be stable?
 
Unless your board has a specific setting for "250mhz" in the bios your ram won't be running at the correct timings.

With my motherboard (nf3 DFI) i have these options: 100mhz, 133mhz, 166mhz, 200mhz.

They of course just simply relate to the divider that's going to be used.

But here's the thing: your memory will 'think' it's running at the speed you set here and default to the respective timings.

So if I were to set my ram to 166mhz (6/5 divider) but put the fsb up to make the ram actually run at 200mhz, the ram will still set it's timings to 166mhz mode.



Download "A64 tweaker" and run your ram at 1:1 mode and make a note of the settings in a64 tweaker. Then go manually set them in your bios and then work from there. As I said right at the start, since my mobo doesn't have an explicit "250mhz" settings I can never find out what my pc4000's spd timings are even running at 1:1 ratio because the ram 'thinks' it's running at 200mhz and not 250mhz. Maybe the nf4 has a 250mhz mode, I don't know and I don't think it does since a64 cpu's dont run at 250mhz.
 
So if I were to set my ram to 166mhz (6/5 divider) but put the fsb up to make the ram actually run at 200mhz, the ram will still set it's timings to 166mhz mode.
Click to expand...


That's true... When you set "Auto" timings... Your board will try the timings for 166mhz... Although the auto setting is just usually the lowest of the low.

What is your Ram rated at timing-wise? 2.5-3-3-7? or something like that?
 
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