64 X2 OC help please!

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
SPARTAN-117

SPARTAN-117

Distinguished
Oct 19, 2006
225
0
18,680
I've got a slight problem, maybe not one at all but would like to know if it is. I recently OC'ed my 64 X2 to 2.4ghz and it worked but the voltage on the Vcore readout on ASUS's PC PROBE II fluctuated any where from 1.35-1.42v, so I set the BIOS back to what I had before using AI Overclock (10% settings set by the BIOS automatically) and the Vcore Voltage still fluctuates (now its between 1.31 and 1.39v). Now I've never really paid attention to it till now but for the most part my Vcore voltages always stayed around 1.35v depending on what day it was (haha) and not it seems they change more than they should. Is this normal that they change this often (I've not looked at PC Probe for more than just rail control and temps and ocassionaly the Vcore), or have I really screwed up? PC boots fine, temps are normal (on both AI Overclock and the 2.4ghz OC), from what I can tell from the Task manager CPU usage is normal, and 3DMark05 runs normally. Will list pre 2.4ghz oc specs as well as 2.4ghz OC specs for you all to tell me what's going on. Now I know the voltage fluctations look small, but in a PC small things make big differences.

Pre 2.4ghz OC Profile:

AI Overclock 10% OC, settings are as follows:

CPU Freq: 220mhz
PCI-E clock: 100mhz
DDR Voltage: Auto
CPU Multiplier: Auto
CPU Voltage: Auto
PCI Clock Sync. Mode: Auto

2.4ghz OC Profile

Manual Settings

CPU Freq: 240mhz
PCI-E clock: 100mhz
DDR Voltage: Auto
CPU Multiplier: 10x
CPU Voltage: 1.375-1.4v
PCI Clock Sync. Mode: 33mhz

I increased the voltage from 1.375 to 1.4 hoping it would stabilize the fluctuations, but they only semmed to get worse until I brought it back down to 1.375. But when I brought it back down to 1.375 the Vcore read 1.39v and I reset to my original AI Overclock settings and now the Vcore voltages flutuate between these extremes: 1.31-1.39v, but they mainly fluctuate between 1.34-1.36v and sometimes 1.34-1.38v.

Now as I've said before, I've not been paying attention to the Vcore until I started to due my own OC so I could have very well not noticed this happening before. Also I've noted that the fluctuations happen with changes in fan speed, sometimes but not all of the time.

Any help with this concern is greatly appreciated!!

------------------

My System:

AMD 64 X2 3800+ OC'ed to 2.2 Ghz, BFG 7900 GTX 512 mb OC'ed, ASUS A8N-SLi Deluxe, 2 Gb Kingston Value RAM CAS Latency 2.5-3-3-6, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 4, Westen Digital 74 Gb Ratop ADFD, 2x Western Digital 250 Gb Caviar SE, 3x Thermaltake Hardcano 14 HDD coolers, Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU cooler, Zalman VF-Cu 900 Blue LED VGA cooler, Thermaltake Extreme Spirit Northbridge cooler, and a PC Power & Cooling 510w PSU.
 
Alright smart-a**, please answer the post and don't tell me to delete one of my double threads again. Some people never get outside of there one specific area and I'm looking for many opinions here.
 
Well, now that we really know who we are trying to help...

If your rail voltages are steady in BIOS and you are experiencing no instability, it is just fine.

Are your voltages read through Asus Probe reading the same as the BIOS voltage is set? I know if fluctuates, but my Abit uGuru reads voltages a little off from my BIOS and Speedfan isn't even close, CPU-Z is also unreliable.

Also, I feel no need to help you anymore, I come here to voluntarily give my knowledge when applicable and don't need you telling me what I can and cannot say to you.

The hypocritical side of me will say, don't tell ME what to do!

Good luck, hope you fry your chip.
 
Not for sure where PC Probe reads the voltages from. And when there's a difference its usually not more than +/-.03 off from what the BIOS have come to think of it, and all the other rails read normal through the desktop. So I guess that there is just this slight discrepancy, although I would like a little more defenition of what "Instability" is as I'm left grasping at straws as to what this could be. Hopefully I'm just fine and haven't screwed my $2500 system up (haha).

Thank you.
 
Mine does the same thing except it fluctuates as high as 1.41, scary huh.
i did some more research and discovered most motherboards are fairly inaccurate at reading Vcore so i dismissed the errononeus readings as you should too.
What assured me of this inaccuracy is the fact that 3 of my CPU monitoring tools (BIOS, CPU-Z, AI Booster) were giving different readings.
If the system is running smoothly and you noticed no difference in 3dmark05 then i would say everything is well and good, i believe you just spooked yourself a little (lot) and are being a tad paranoid (don't answer the door, close the blinds, shh....did you hear something).
Relax, take a Valium and call me in the morning (after 9am)
It's all good man...
 
Thanks, I thought I'd just shot my PC only minus using the whole gun part. Thanks, BTW when I OC'ed to 2.4ghz and ran 3DMark05 I score a 10,600 for a new score.
 
BTW when I OC'ed to 2.4ghz and ran 3DMark05 I score a 10,600 for a new score.
Click to expand...
Damnit, now i gotta crank mine up some more............where does it end.

FYI: you know it's gonna be game-over when i get my EVGA 8800GTX installed next week,
I'll be like the wind, you'll feel me, but you can't see me.....cya
 
I've gotta a liquid cooled credit card 8O , so I think my next upgrade will be ohh say 8800GTX's water-cooled in SLI on an x16 chipset with a nice pair AMD FX-74's to go with it :tongue: . Have fun while it lasts (sigh) :wink: . In the meanwhile will continue to OC CPU and VGA just for fun 8)
 
I get the same inconsistencies with my readings as well. Probably the software fron Asus not working correctly. Maybe they'll upgate it in the future. Probably not. :wink:
 
Thanks guys, was worried about seeing the voltages yo-yo like that but whenever I checked them in the BIOS they were fine. Now I feel better about OC'ing my 64 X2 3800+ to 2.4ghz.
 
Thanks, I thought I'd just shot my PC only minus using the whole gun part. Thanks, BTW when I OC'ed to 2.4ghz and ran 3DMark05 I score a 10,600 for a new score.
Click to expand...

Bit of information. I have a A8N32-SLI Deluxe and I run the cpu at 1.45V without trouble. Yes, its overclocked a bit and got a 3DMark05 score of 12098 on the last run. Also scored 6145 on 3DMark06. You've got a capable board, just needs some patience and fine tuning.

Voltage readings due fluctuate a fair amount, but as long as they stay within a given range, up or down, its all right. All it takes in overclocking are nerves of steel, some Rolaids for the stomach, and a good credit card for when smoke rises from the top of the computer while the screen goes black.
 
Good advice. What do you recommend as a voltage for S939 64 X2. I got that 3DMark05 score with it OC'ed to 2.4ghz with the voltage set at 1.375v. I think this is plenty but any help is appreciated. As for the smoke part, God I hope not and I don't intend to OC that far.

Thanks.
 
I would start with setting the voltage to 1.4V and run some tests, such as Prime95 to see if its stable. If it is, try 1.45V, which I run without trouble. You have to feed the cpu to get it to perform.

If you can afford it, get some better ram, looking for 2-3-4-6 timing or similar. The Cas of 2.0 will help speed things up a bit and good ram lets you play around with setting for it a bit easier. Take a pick; Corsair, OCZ, Mushkin are all good.

On Manual Settings, try a multiplier of 11x for a speed of 2640mhz. Things do start to get hot at that speed, so download and use Speedfan to moniter those things. My daily useage is a cpu frequency of 230 with a 11x multipier for a speed of 2530mhz. I've gone as high as 260 with a multiplier of 11 for 2860mhz, but the cpu gets hot running on air.

This works for me, but I can't gaurentee what your results will be. Parts vary too much. I only had smoke pour out once. Lesson learned, watch the heat. Cost me a motherboard and cpu.
 
Thanks. I don't have Prime95 but will 3DMark05 & 06 be enough to determine if its stable? Also I don't have the money for a set of Corsair XMS Pro seris memory and I only want to go up to 2.4ghz anyway. So 1.4v seems fine to me and my temps didn't get out of wack.

Thanks for the help Sailer :trophy: !
 
Thanks. One final question though, how long should you run Prime95 before considerering the system stable. I've had it running for nearly 2hrs now and had no errors. Is this too long. Most of my friends said that the test only takes half an hour or so. Is my system stable if it can run Prime95 for 2hrs w/o errors?
 
I would say yes, after 2 hours its probably stable. I've known of someone running it all night, but I think that's excessive. One thing I did try a while back was running prime95 while I was playing a game for about 3 hours after raising my overclock values. There were no errors, but Speedfan showed that the core tempteratures were getting up towards 55c, so I backed down the overcolck a bit. Point is, its not just stability, but heat that gives concern.
 
I believe the maximum temperature for an AMD X2 is 65 degrees C. Before I got a better cooling/case setup I would watch mine race to 62/63 C when running CPU Burn-in... I'd always kill the processes at that point, but I'm fairly certain it was going to run right up to 65 C... at that point (if I understand CPUs correctly) it would have just shut down.
 
That's nice to know. I guess I've had temp's in the 39-41c range for so long that when they went to 55c I got worried. I have been thinking about trying one of the new Zalman 9700 coolers to try to get things cooler. The thing's a monster though.
 
I'm just getting started with an Ath64 X2 4400+ on an ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe mobo, and I have run into something related. In BIOS Setup I can go to Advanced and set the CPU Voltage to 1.30 and reboot. But the if I go to Power Hardware Monitor it says my VCORE is 1.35. The 0.05v offset is consistent. I went searching forums, and here's what some claim. They say that in normal operation the VCORE value under heavy load will decrease or sag by about this much, so ASUS's practice for some time appears to be that they deliberately set up input power to the CPU slightly higher than you ask. Under no-load conditions this will show up with VCORE a bit high, but then your CPU isn't actually using a lot of current and the impact on chip temperature is nil. Under heavy processing load the VCORE internally will drop to the requested value and all is well.

I don't know if this is really true. But if it is, my hypothesis would be that you will observe higher voltages when the CPU is doing little, and lower values under heavy processing load. Do you actually see that correlation as you watch the system work?
 
I tend to agree with the people who say software monitoring sucks. However a good idea would be to use the AI overclock feature in the BIOS to begin with. After using AI Overclock and getting a good idea of whats what for CPU OC, then star tinkering with it yourself but becareful. And after each increase run Prime95 for at least 1-2hrs then try to increase again. If you get an error in Prime95, tweak your setting for your CPU again and again to get a stabke system.

Hope this helps!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom