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noob OC'er. Please help with some advice

P

paco

Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Messages
952
I just got a NF7-S ver 2 board and an AMD Mobile 2600+.
I don't know where to start with OC'ing. Anybody know of a good guide of what to start with and how to go about it? I just want to start out slow and I know my RAM will hold me back.

Here's my rig:
NF7-S ver 2
Athlon XP Mobile 2600+
SLK-900a
60Gb Maxtor 7200rpm
Radeon 9700pro
1Gb (2x512) Kingston Value PC2700

Also need suggestions on what utilities to use. I've heard that many people use something called Prime 95. (no idea what it is right now, I said I'm a noob).

Any suggestions would be great.
 
Flavorite said:
One suggestion would be getting pc3200 instead of pc2700.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know. But I won't be able to afford new memory until the end of the year at the earliest. So any suggestions on what to set the fsb and multiplier at? Or at least a starting point? I'm not looking to get huge overclocks. I don't plan on really doing any mods. At least not right now.
 
i'd set the fsb to 166 and multi to 12 to start which would be a decent OC, 2.0ghz. shouldn't have to up the volts on the cpu with that.

My 45w 2400+ is running at 2.2ghz stable at the moment... 200x11.
 
Flavorite said:
i'd set the fsb to 166 and multi to 12 to start which would be a decent OC, 2.0ghz. shouldn't have to up the volts on the cpu with that.

My 45w 2400+ is running at 2.2ghz stable at the moment... 200x11.
Click to expand...

Sounds good to me. I think that's what I'll start with. I'll run Prime95 for about 15-20 minutes or so with Motherboard Monitor and see if everything stays stable.
 
Right now I'm running at 166 with multi at 12.5 and I'm stable. I'm going to put the multiplier up again and see what happens. But everytime I go any higher on the fsb, I get a blue screen or the machine just reboots.

Is this mainly because of my memory holding me back? The next fsb I tried was 180, maybe I'll try upper 160's or 170.
 
Yeah, that setup will go way up. Especially if you have good cooling. I've seen reports of 2.6GHz on air cooling with some of the better makes of the CPU. 2.7 with a good water cooling setup. You should be able to pull off at least 2.5 with air cooling if you do it right. Your limiting factor probably is the memory. Note, you can't seem to get a higher multiplier than 12.5 with an unlocked cpu for some reason. If you set 13.0 it jumps down to being some small number like 5.0 or maybe it was 5.5 really. You maybe already have discovered this. This means you'll have to play around with the FSB and memory ratios a lot if you want to get your CPU at it's max.

My problem is that I screwed up my southbridge and apparently this board kind of relies on that more than usual, so my FSB won't go very high up. When I had a NF-7 -- before I screwed things up with the heatsink -- I had it at 200x12, I think at 1.65V. So don't think too badly if you look at my signature. ^_^

The NF7 and all other modern boards have an option to adjust the memory speed to be different from the FSB. Generally a higher FSB is better, however, memory will generally perform better if it's 1:1 with the FSB. That's part of why you might want to get PC3200 memory when you can afford it. I guess it kind of depends on what you will be throwing at it, but, probably 1:1 is best for most things. I just find my current setup useful because I need raw CPU power for ffdshow with the overkill filtering I've turned on. ^_^ From what you said before about the memory, I'm assuming you currently have it set to 1:1 with the FSB? (Well, it lists as 4:4 or 3:3 or something silly like that, but it's 1:1 in the end.) You can try changing the memory and see if games do better. You probably have to stick with 1:1 for maximum performance since games aren't TOO CPU dependant once you get over 1.4GHz or so.
 
Nazo said:
Yeah, that setup will go way up. Especially if you have good cooling. I've seen reports of 2.6GHz on air cooling with some of the better makes of the CPU. 2.7 with a good water cooling setup. You should be able to pull off at least 2.5 with air cooling if you do it right. Your limiting factor probably is the memory. Note, you can't seem to get a higher multiplier than 12.5 with an unlocked cpu for some reason. If you set 13.0 it jumps down to being some small number like 5.0 or maybe it was 5.5 really. You maybe already have discovered this. This means you'll have to play around with the FSB and memory ratios a lot if you want to get your CPU at it's max.

My problem is that I screwed up my southbridge and apparently this board kind of relies on that more than usual, so my FSB won't go very high up. When I had a NF-7 -- before I screwed things up with the heatsink -- I had it at 200x12, I think at 1.65V. So don't think too badly if you look at my signature. ^_^

The NF7 and all other modern boards have an option to adjust the memory speed to be different from the FSB. Generally a higher FSB is better, however, memory will generally perform better if it's 1:1 with the FSB. That's part of why you might want to get PC3200 memory when you can afford it. I guess it kind of depends on what you will be throwing at it, but, probably 1:1 is best for most things. I just find my current setup useful because I need raw CPU power for ffdshow with the overkill filtering I've turned on. ^_^ From what you said before about the memory, I'm assuming you currently have it set to 1:1 with the FSB? (Well, it lists as 4:4 or 3:3 or something silly like that, but it's 1:1 in the end.) You can try changing the memory and see if games do better. You probably have to stick with 1:1 for maximum performance since games aren't TOO CPU dependant once you get over 1.4GHz or so.
Click to expand...

I've got pretty good cooling. I need some better case fans and I have SLK-700a with a YS-Tech TMD 70mm fan, but I'll be putting on a SLK-900a with a Enermax 90mm fan on it when it comes in.

Right now I am running at 6:6 so that should be fine. I'm trying it at fsb 190 x 10 right now and the temps seem to be going no higher than 53 degrees on the CPU during the Prime95 torture test.

1 question I have is what would be better, for example 166x12.5 (2075) or 185x11 (2035) or 200x10 (2000)? They all come out to about the same speed, but what is the real difference? Say my temps stay around the same and it seems to run stable, what is the difference?
 
In the end, just about everything goes through the FSB. So, higher FSB = better overall. However, due to the memory no longer being 1:1 if you go too high, it might actually hurt overall performance due to memory not working as efficiently. Well, it can't do any damage to try both ways and see what happens. You'll just have to find out for yourself what REALLY works best for you as it kind of depends on what you use it for. For example, in my case I needed to kill my memory's speed to get more out of my CPU for the sake of some absolutely beautiful filtering turned on in ffdshow for my anime watching. If I weren't so lazy I'd just keep switching back and forth though. I got the memory up to 180 something stable, and the southbridge only craps out if I bring the FSB any higher than where I have it now.

People say UT2004 is a good CPU test. I guess look up how to turn on the framerate in it and see what happens.

EDIT: BTW, might not hurt to stick a small heatsink on your southbridge. I got one of those little passive coolers (only aluminum even) off of an old motherboard and stuck it on my southbridge with some artic silver epoxy. Couldn't do anything about the superglue. Never EVER use superglue, it's incredibly heat resistant, pushing that heat right back into the chip.


Hey, I wasn't done with my editing phase yet. d-: Lol, I edit too much, I know...
 
Nazo said:
In the end, just about everything goes through the FSB. So, higher FSB = better overall. However, due to the memory no longer being 1:1 if you go too high, it might actually hurt overall performance due to memory not working as efficiently. Well, it can't do any damage to try both ways and see what happens.

People say UT2004 is a good CPU test. I guess look up how to turn on the framerate in it and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good idea. I guess I'll just have to play some. :D
 
paco said:
Sounds like a good idea. I guess I'll just have to play some. :D
Click to expand...


Gee, I really had to brute force you into that one... Lol. ^_^

Don't just go by UT2004 alone btw. For best results, mix several things. Perhaps Doom3 might be good for example. I know it uses a fair bit between the AI and software only sound, but the requirements say you only need a 1.4P4 or 1400+ rating Athlon to play it, so I don't know about testing a cpu like that. The 2600+M easily goes 1GHz above that requirement...
 
Nazo said:
Gee, I really had to brute force you into that one... Lol. ^_^

Don't just go by UT2004 alone btw. For best results, mix several things. Perhaps Doom3 might be good for example. I know it uses a fair bit between the AI and software only sound, but the requirements say you only need a 1.4P4 or 1400+ rating Athlon to play it, so I don't know about testing a cpu like that. The 2600+M easily goes 1GHz above that requirement...
Click to expand...

I've got to get Doom3 yet. So I'll just have to start with UT2K4 I guess. "having arm twisted" I also play a bunch of sports games so I'll be glad when Madden is out on Thursday.

I'll toss on Far Cry and Battlefield Vietnam. (BV ran like crap on my old system).
 
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