New to OCing A64...advice?

Asazman

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
May 6, 2002
Messages
4,316
I have a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard (1.4 official BIOS) with a 3200+ Winchester 90nm and 2x 512MB Kingston HyperX PC3500 DDR. It is on completely stock cooling, in BIOS it says it's 38c right now. Here is how I've done so far...

cpuz1.jpg

cpuz2.jpg


I got 22000 on 3DMark2001, and can do 1M Super_Pi in 38s. I also got 11540mips in SiSandra.

What can I improve on? Am I doing this right?

Thanks...
 
it seems just right... my 2.5ghz a64 newcastle 754 did the 1m in 37.. but you have a winchester... so apparently y ou should be able to push that puppy alot more, i think someone on here had a 3000+ andd did 325x9 on that same board.... something close to that
 
Asazman said:
I have a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard (1.4 official BIOS) with a 3200+ Winchester 90nm and 2x 512MB Kingston HyperX PC3500 DDR. It is on completely stock cooling, in BIOS it says it's 38c right now. Here is how I've done so far...

cpuz1.jpg

cpuz2.jpg


I got 22000 on 3DMark2001, and can do 1M Super_Pi in 38s. I also got 11540mips in SiSandra.

What can I improve on? Am I doing this right?

Thanks...
I noticed your HTT id set at 250Mhz and your memory is running a little over 200Mhz. The HyperX mentioned in your sig is PC3500. Try getting a higher speed from the memory so you can get rid of the 3:4 divider. See what you get with 1:1.

Also, run a 32M SuperPi and see what you get. Just curious.
 
For whatever reason, cpu z seems to note that your memory is running in single channel mode.

Is that a glitch?
 
spin02 said:
Asazman, do you have your memory in 1&3 or 2&4??

Yes it's in one and three.

KJ43 said:
For whatever reason, cpu z seems to note that your memory is running in single channel mode.

Is that a glitch?

How can I tell if it's running in dual channel? I hope it's a glitch...


spin02 said:
I noticed your HTT id set at 250Mhz and your memory is running a little over 200Mhz. The HyperX mentioned in your sig is PC3500. Try getting a higher speed from the memory so you can get rid of the 3:4 divider. See what you get with 1:1.

Also, run a 32M SuperPi and see what you get. Just curious.

Well I am very confused about all the things that go into overclocking A64s...right now the HT multiplier is at 4x and my HTT is at 250Mhz. Now from what I understand, the HT multiplier x HTT cannot exceed 1000Mhz...so if I wanted to increase the HTT I would have to drop the HT Multiplier correct?

Is the HTT equal to the FSB? My memory could not run in sync with 230 on my LanParty with a 2800+...how would it be able to run at 250?
 
If you have your memory in 1&3 it should be dual channel. When you boot does the flash screen say dual channel?

You may be able to get your memory to 250Mhz. Try relaxing the timing a little and adding a little more voltage. For example, I run my ballistix at 250Mhz 2.5-3-3-10 at 2.9v. All memory is different, so you will have to experiment a little.
 
spin02 said:
If you have your memory in 1&3 it should be dual channel. When you boot does the flash screen say dual channel?

You may be able to get your memory to 250Mhz. Try relaxing the timing a little and adding a little more voltage. For example, I run my ballistix at 250Mhz 2.5-3-3-10 at 2.9v. All memory is different, so you will have to experiment a little.

It says single channel during POST. I tried my memory in 2 & 4 and it wouldn't boot...gave me a memory error beep. Tried several times, I couldn't get it to run dual channel in any configuration. What the hell?

Also - I relaxed the timings to 2.5-3-3-10 2T and was only able to boot to windows with an HTT of 235. I ran SiSandra and only scored 10736...quite a bit lower than what I got before. I also completed super_pi 1M at 41s, slower than before....
 
What voltage are you using with your memory? Also, what kind of temperatures are you getting from your CPU?
 
spin02 said:
What voltage are you using with your memory? Also, what kind of temperatures are you getting from your CPU?

temps are staying around 38c. i put my memory voltages all the way up at 2.85.
 
Very important with the K8n neo 2, the first two slots above the processor are for dual use.

PLEASE DISREGUARD THE COLORS!!!! (The first two slots only!)
 
Asazman said:
temps are staying around 38c. i put my memory voltages all the way up at 2.85.
Man, I am puzzled. Try running the memory in 1&2 just to see if it is recognized as dual channel.

What voltage are you running on your CPU??
 
wormburner said:
Very important with the K8n neo 2, the first two slots above the processor are for dual use.

PLEASE DISREGUARD THE COLORS!!!! (The first two slots only!)

you are THE MAN!! You are right, the first two slots are for dual channel. So far I have not been experiencing a very big performance boost...right now I am at...

HT Multiplier: 4x
CPU Multiplier: 10x
HTT: 260
Divider: 166

resulting frequency is 2.6Ghz. Not bad for stock cooling. I scored 11869 on SiSandra this time and 35s in super_pi.

When I try to run 1:1 I can only get up to HTT 135 even with timings of 2.5-3-3-10-2T...I think what I have now is faster.
 
I'd drop the HT multiplyer down tho. Anything over 1000mhz (260 x 4 = 1040mhz in your case) isnt 2 good stability wise
 
Fully_Sik said:
I'd drop the HT multiplyer down tho. Anything over 1000mhz (260 x 4 = 1040mhz in your case) isnt 2 good stability wise

OKay I did that...right now I'm at...


newbench.jpg



Quick question: Should my AGP frequency be at 66Mhz or 67Mhz? I got to 2.7Ghz but when I ran 3DMark there were a few artifacts (vid card not overclocked with stock cooling) and it was a little shaky. I stepped it down to 2.65Ghz.
 
With your motherboard set the AGP to 67 to enforce the AGP lock. Thats not a bad OC man :)
 
Fully_Sik said:
With your motherboard set the AGP to 67 to enforce the AGP lock. Thats not a bad OC man :)

thanks :)

what is AGP lock?

For some reason I'm getting artifacts in windows now.....little ones, like right of the mouse there's a little line that flickers.
 
Asazman said:
thanks :)

what is AGP lock?

For some reason I'm getting artifacts in windows now.....little ones, like right of the mouse there's a little line that flickers.
AGP/PCI lock lets you adjust the HTT without changing the ACP/PCI speed. If you get these speeds too high, the video card or hard drive could start acting flakey.
 
Asazman,

-[Prometeia Mach I ....sitting in my closet unused at the moment.....]-

Please break this out and hook this chip up to it. 3Ghz is NOT out of the question for a system like this. Get some faster RAM, and you're in business. 2.6Ghz on a 1.568V Winchester screams overclock me further. SOI loves to run cold.

Matt.
 
enraged78 said:
Asazman,

-[Prometeia Mach I ....sitting in my closet unused at the moment.....]-

Please break this out and hook this chip up to it. 3Ghz is NOT out of the question for a system like this. Get some faster RAM, and you're in business. 2.6Ghz on a 1.568V Winchester screams overclock me further. SOI loves to run cold.

Matt.

I would. One problem: I don't have money for a kit. hardwaregods sells them for $65, and I'm saving up for it. I don't have time/energy to make a kit myself....

I also don't have money for faster RAM right now...but if I did, what would you suggest?
 
get some Patriot RAM from Newegg.com I am running 275FSB 2.5-3-3-5 1T and theres still room. I got the dual channel PC3200 with XBL for 220
 
Asazman said:
I would. One problem: I don't have money for a kit. hardwaregods sells them for $65, and I'm saving up for it. I don't have time/energy to make a kit myself....

I also don't have money for faster RAM right now...but if I did, what would you suggest?

Making a kit shouldn't be too bad. I cut a water block hold-down from some metal stock and got some nuts, nylon washers, and six inch threaded rods. Two hours, and $10.00 later, nice retention mechanism. You should be able to do something very similar with just a trip to Loewes or Home Depot.

As far as RAM goes, I haven't used Patriot RAM before, so I can't say whether it's good or bad. As for stuff that I like, I use Corsair XMS, Mushkin, and the high-end OCZ. Make sure the speeds and CAS ratings are better than what you plan to clock to, as the extra headroom is always nice. Get at least PC 3500 low latency. The higher you can go while staying at CAS 2.5, or if you're lucky/rich, CAS 2, the better off you are.

Matt.
 
Back
Top