Problem Overclocking Opteron 165. Please Help.

[maraboulan]

First off, here are my SPECS:

LanParty UT SLI-DR (BIOS 06/23/2005)
Opteron 165 @ 2565Mhz
Scythe Ninja HeatSink + 120mm Nexus fan
1x1GB G.Skill PC4000 DDR 500 @ 200 Mhz (Underclocked)
eVGA 7800GT PCIe
2x250Gb + 200Gb SATA (Seagate Barracuda 7200.8)
OnBoard sound
Fortron 550W
Antec P-180
NEC 3500A DVD+RW


I followed the overclocking guide to establish the max o/c values for my CPU and my RAM.

CPU: 2565 Mhz passed 8 hours Prime95 (real max value between this and 2700Mhz)
RAM: 270 Mhz passed 8 hours Memtest86

Now, I obtained the CPU value by using a 1:2 divider on the RAM and I obtained the RAM value by using a 6.0X multiplier on the cpu (As the guide suggests)

My problem is that when I bumped the CPU back to 2565Mhz and tried to get the RAM up to at least 250Mhz , it wouldn't work. Depending on the value, the computer would freeze at any given point between the time I hit the power button and the time the windows desktop is supposed to show up.

While keeping the CPU at 285 x 9.0X , the max divider I can use on my ram so that I can boot up windows is 7:10 which gives me (.7 x 285 = 200Mhz).

As you will understand, I'm not exactly happy with having to run my RAM underclocked by 20%. There has got to be something I'm doing wrong here. And because a picture is worth a thousand words, here are pictures of my Bios settings:

 

[Gadfly]

You can not run a DFI board with Auto memory timings, it just plain will not work.

Here is my memory timings with CH5 memory good to 265mhz:

Memory voltage: 3.4v

enable
1.0
2
5
2
7
12
2
2
2
2
AUTO

enabled
increase
250
normal 4
level 3
7
fastest
5
8
enable
8x
4x
disable (4 bursts)

 

[SpoogeMonkey]

You can not run a DFI board with Auto memory timings, it just plain will not work.

That's a bit of an over-generalization, but somewhat true... I'm running my ram at bios defaults for the 623-3 bios. The only thing I had to change was vdimm to 2.7v After too many hrs of tweaking ram settings, the defaults seem to work the best for me, but yrmv....

The one thing I see that you might try adjusting is the chipset voltage. Bump that up to 1.6v, from the default 1.5.......hopefully that will allow you to boot into windows and get a bit more OC.

 

[Gadfly]

I will have to disagree with you.

Especially in the Opty's,

 

[xdkimx]

sometimes i found that having the htt too high can cause instabilities, thats the only downside with lower multis unless you can somehow manage to get a high htt stable

i dono try using the next ram divider (2/3 i think) and see if that helps

 

[wadec22]

I would say the statement about not being able to use auto timings on DFI boards is bogus, mine is perfectly capable of doing just that, and has done so with a 3200 winnie, a 146 opty and my current 165 opty.... Back to the problem at hand, pretty goofy, don't know what to suggest actually. Only thing I can say is that remember with the amd64 processors, the memory controller is on-die and you will see an incredibly small real-world difference between running your memory at those specs. I know thats not much help, but hopefully some comfort.

 

[maraboulan]

Still waiting for help. I'd like to add that with the cpu multiplier at 6x, I can boot windows with the Ram @ 260 Mhz. I tried 270 Mhz but it didn't boot so I guess 260 Mhz is my limit. I primed this for an hour without errors.

This does not do anything to solve my problem though...

 

[(cf)Eclipse]

maybe you have a weak memory controller that doesn't like high cpu speeds and high ram speeds at the same time?

also, you should mess with some of the secondary timings, they might get you where you want to go, esp the max async latency and read preamble.