overclocking and cooling for Folding

[Pocatello]

Many of you guys overclock? I never have overclocked. I don't even know where to start. If I wanted to overclock simply to get more points what would I do? Is there some free program that helps you overclock? Or is it a system BIOS thing?

And what about cooling? I know that overclocked boxen need to consider enhanced cooling. Some of the new Intel dual cores seem to OC very well without using anything but stock cooling.

I have been reading about the extreme overclocking to get an idea of what is out there. Water cooling, as well as using chilled water to really cool things down. Lots of info out there.

I have read the watercooling FAQ here at [H]ard OCP. I must have missed the FAQ on how to overclock.

I think I have one boxen that is capable of OCing. It is a socket 939 AMD 3200+ in some fancy ASUS motherboard.

Where do I start? Thanks.

 

[AtomicMoose]

dekard has an wiki on it... www.overclockingwiki.org

 

[Pocatello]

Thanks Moose. Nice wiki.

But I need something even more basic... something not provided at the wiki.

what do I do in my bios to overclock? or is there a cool program that does it all for me thru windows?

or to put it another way... what can I do to overclock right now, without changing anything in hardware?

 

[Pocatello]

and who here in the DC forum overclocks for folding?

if you have tried it and decided it was a waste of time...... why?

is it easier to build more boxen, or try to overclock on the cheap, or go the water cooling route for a big OC?

 

[mwarps]

Overclocking is like free money. If you can do it, do it.

As far as how you'd go about doing it, it depends.
Some people prefer to do it in BIOS, some with programs.
You have an Asus Mobo and an AMD CPU. There MAY be version of clockgen for your chipset. You can use clockgen to overclock in windows.

I used Clockgen to find my max stable Front Side Bus and then tooled around in BIOS.

Check out the A64 OC guide by (cf)Eclipse in the AMD CPU area. It's a really good start.

 

[ND40oz]

First thing you want to do is drop your HTT multi to 4x, by default it should be 5x or it may be listed as 1000 (if it's listed this way, drop it to 800).

Next you'll want to set your memory divider, should be a setting for 5/6, this should allow you to get up to a 240 HTT speed without overclocking your memory.

Next you'll start upping your HTT speed, it defaults at 200, try 210 and go up in 5s from there. You should be able to get to 220 atleast without a voltage bump.

From here it's test and go.

Another method is to set your CPU multi to 6x and just raise your HTT, after you've set your memory divider and lowered your HTT multi to 3x. This allows you to find your maximum HTT speed (fsb in amd talk).

 

[Imitation]

Overclocking is like free money. If you can do it, do it.

As far as how you'd go about doing it, it depends.
Some people prefer to do it in BIOS, some with programs.
You have an Asus Mobo and an AMD CPU. There MAY be version of clockgen for your chipset. You can use clockgen to overclock in windows.

I used Clockgen to find my max stable Front Side Bus and then tooled around in BIOS.

Check out the A64 OC guide by (cf)Eclipse in the AMD CPU area. It's a really good start.

eclipse's guide FTW!

And yes, overclocking makes a huge difference if you have a system that can handle it. You shouldn't have to worry much about heat unless you start upping the cpu voltage or it runs hot already. If its a venice core 3200+ I would think that you could get it to 2.5-2.6 without any issues. You've got a good start with a 3200+ and an asus motherboard. Can you give the cpu details and the motherboard model along with ram model?

 

[Pocatello]

You've got a good start with a 3200+ and an asus motherboard. Can you give the cpu details and the motherboard model along with ram model?

I can get that info later when I get home.

The ram is some cheap (but name-brand) stuff like Kingston Value Ram. I have two sticks of 512 (1 gb). I never thought I would OC so I never paid any premium for memory. Will this be an issue?

 

[ND40oz]

I can get that info later when I get home.

The ram is some cheap (but name-brand) stuff like Kingston Value Ram. I have two sticks of 512 (1 gb). I never thought I would OC so I never paid any premium for memory. Will this be an issue?

No, just run a memory divider, 5/6 will get you up to 2.4 ghz without overclocking your memory.

 

[MN Scout]

All my experience is with overclocking an AMD 2800+ socket 754 chip, so this is written AMDish.

If you already have something critical on the hard drive and you are overclocking you ram make sure that you run Memtest before you let it boot up all the way.

To overclock your ram (ram speed isn't that important for folding speed, but it does make a difference).

First, you want to get your cpu out of the equation. So you lower your cpu multi as as low as it goes in the bios. Reboot. Then lower the HT multi to 2 or 3. Reboot. Now you can play with your ram settings without having to worry about reaching a cpu bottle neck. There are two main things you can set: the HT speed and the divider.
Ex. HT. set at 240 using the 400(1:1) divider would result in a mem speed of 240mhz.
Ex. HT set at 240 using the 333(5:6) divider would result in a mem speed of 200 mhz.: (5/6)*240=200mhz

To start off with I'd always keep it at 1:1 and then slowly raise the HT speed until it would error in memtest within 8 passes. Then you can try raising the cas timing up .5 and see if you can bench at that failed speed or higher. Often raising the cas will allow a greater speed.

Ratios:
400 (1:1)
333 (5:6)
266 (2:3)
200 (1:2)

The CPU speed:

The most important aspect in getting wus done faster is the cpu speed. To start off with we want to get the memory speed out of the picture, so we lower the ratio to make it run at a lower speed until we find the max cpu speed. So set the ratio to 266mhz(2:3).

Next we play around again with the HT speed. The final cpu speed is the (cpu multi)*(HT speed). Unless you have a fully unlocked processor like the FXs or the Extremes then you will only be able to lower the multi. The only time you'd want to lower the multi is after you have found both your max mem speed and your max cpu speed. On to the max cpu speed... It's much like finding the max mem speed. We want to keep the temp below 70c underload, and we keep the multi constant and keep raising the HT speed until you error out in something like Prime95 or Orthos(program to run two instances of prime95 easily on dual core) in Windows -- Note since your Mem speed is under the max speed you found in the first part we don't have to worry as much about corrupting our Windows boot files and other personal files. Once it errors out drop your HT speed by 2 or 3 points (the mhz dropped on the core all depends on your cpu multi) and re-bench with Prime95 ect.

Once you find your max mem and cpu speeds individually you do some simple math and see what ratios and multis and speeds you need.

Ex. My cpu that I won from one of the first teams raffles was only stable up to 2300mhz without a better cooler, and my mem was stable up to 230mhz since there is that 2 stick memory issue with older AMDs. So my best option was:
(8xmulti)*287HT = 2296mhz
(287HT)*(333mhz divider)=229.6 mhz memory -- There must be more math here that I'm missing. The mem speed also depends on the cpu multi but I don't know what. Some one chime in and I'll edit this post.
So those timings are right at there maxes, but I had to both lower my multi and lower the mem divider. Also to note is that all motherboards have a max HT(AMD) or FSB(AMD) and in my case it is 290 so I was also able to almost hit a max there.

Also once you are done you can rase the HT multi so that the HT speed * multi is less than or equal to 1000.

Folding is mostly depended on the CPU clocks, but if you can get a fully optimized system with both mem and cpu speed max then everything is even better.

 

[Pocatello]

not a sticky any more, but I found this:

eclipse's OC guide

 

[applejacks]

yea he has good guides on oc

oc is great just make sure you have good stuff
cheaper components will limit your oc

and have good cooling with good thermal grease.

i overclocked a previous conroe e6600 stock was 2.4ghz and i had it at 3.6ghz
i had 2 of these this was the first one. but that thing would just tear up some WU!

also if you get more into look towards watercooling

 

[Pocatello]

okay, the ASUS motherboard is: A8N-E

what more can I say about the CPU? How do I check? The box does not give me much info.

 

[ND40oz]

Use CPU-Z, mainly, is it a Winny or a Venice core?

 

[AtomicMoose]

Thanks Moose. Nice wiki.

But I need something even more basic... something not provided at the wiki.

what do I do in my bios to overclock? or is there a cool program that does it all for me thru windows?

or to put it another way... what can I do to overclock right now, without changing anything in hardware?

Sounds like dekard needs to add an "overclocking for n00bs" section.

 

[Imitation]

okay, the ASUS motherboard is: A8N-E

what more can I say about the CPU? How do I check? The box does not give me much info.

Ahh the A8N-E, that should be fine for getting your chip to its max speed without issues. My roomie has the A8N5X which is the vanilla nf4 board, it was just fine for overclocking his 3800+X2. And as ND40oz said, download cpu-z and run it to find out the details of your cpu core. The core name is at the top after cpu-z loads. It will most likely be a venice if you bought it in the last year, but could be a winchester.

This is the guide that I used, it's pretty thorough, more detailed than the one eclipse has on his site I think.

 

[Pocatello]

thanks for the suggestions. I will download CPU-z and get started soon.

 

[Axion22]

I've got the same board and an Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego). I cranked up the FSB in the BIOS. It think it just says "Bus Speed".

I'm at 2310MHz right now on stock cooling. My Asus Cool&Quiet utility reports a pretty much constant voltage of 1.5520v. Sometimes it hits 1.5680.

Please continue this thread, sirs. I would like to hear recommendations.