my 3200+ is @ 2.5 But...

[buci]

i've hit a wall, and havent played w/voltage on any amd64 cpu so i'm kinda scared to. so anybody have any advice or should i stick w/this wall. BTW, this was achieved by:

HTT = 4x
FSB = 333Mhz
Memclock = 250Mhz
Multiplier = 10x

I let the board decide the voltage necessary....

 

[Covered_in_bees]

Well, it depends....

Could you provide more info:

I'm assuming your runnng a socket 939 3200+ (socket 754 3200+ is rated as 2.2GHz, which would have a 11x multiplier), but do u have a 90nm or 130nm ?
what is your current vCore
what temps are you getting with your current OC (idle & load)

could you provide your complete system specs

I'm also guessing you have the FSB and Memclock the wrong way round in your post.

 

[buci]

it's a 90nm chip. it runs at about 40-45c under load. i have a thermaltake venus12 on it and a good case w/a bunch of fans so everything is circulating. vcore is stock, i haven't touched that because i havent played w/vcore since amdxp soooo this is my barrier as of now. and yes i mixed that up x= it's 250x10 so 2.5Ghz

 

[Covered_in_bees]

Well, at least with the 90nm, your stock vCore should be 1.4V.

You can check what it's actually running at either in BIOS or by using a windows application like SpeedFan.

Your temps seem ok also.

As a general guideline, ppl won't take their temps higher than 55C under full load. Please note that this is a guideline only. Also take into account any changes in ambient temp when OCing (if you do it in Winter, and your ambient temps increase in Summer, then consider this when deciding your max temp).

So, based on this general guideline, you may be able to take your OC a little higher by increasing the vCore.

Remember the following:
Excessive temps can lead to instability
Increasing vCore can help improve stability, but will increase temps
Excessive vCore will reduce the life of the CPU

I have no experience with your particular CPU, so I can't really advise on how far you can go with the vCore. However, I would not suggest more than 0.1V above stock (someone with more experience with that specific CPU may be able to advise better here). Also, use the smallest increments available and test each one rather than jumping by 0.1V directly.

If you can get a significant increase in performance with a small increase in vCore, then it's worth it. If the increase is not significant, then I would drop back to stock personally. A few MHz extra processing is not going to make a big difference, and doesn't justify a reduction in the life of a CPU in my opinion.

 

[SuperFly03]

I'll step in here and add my 2cents as usual. Assuming that your core is either San Diego or Venice You can safely hit 1.5v but your going to have to keep a sharp eye on your temps because vcore increases quickly lead to extra heat which may easily overload your heatsink. I run my Venice at 250x11 @ 1.616v (i got a shitty chip so lets not go there lol) but it is water cooled.

Your overclock depends alot on the hardware behind it. YOur motherboard, PSU, Ram, cooling, and even which chip you have. No two chips overclock the same, even if they are both Venice cores. DFI boards are by the far teh best for overclocking but are the most complicated thing I have ever seen. My guess is you probably have an Asus or Abit board, most people do. They are decent overclockers and are solid.

I assume when you say you switched the FSB and Mem speeds that you mean your memory is on a divider for 333 speed. Can you provide more details about your ram because you may hit a wall with your ram before you do with your proc.

Provide a full system breakdown if you can, and I would be glad to give you some pointers, and issues I have come across.

 

[buci]

Asus A8N - SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
2GB DRAM Master [Micron Chips CL3 3-3-3-8] Memory PC3200 DDR400
160GB RAID0 Array [2x80GB Hitachi SATAII]
BFG 6800GT OC[Not OC By me....yet]

 

[7H4_D00D3]

yup, bout 0.15V+ is the MOST you'll want to reach bfore you get a bbq going on...

Don't remember where, but I read that AMD's 90mm CPU (depending on the speed) dont need the full 1.4V to function properly, I'm running a Sempron3000 @ 1.1V instead of the 1.4stock (I know it's just a Sempron and it shouldn't be compared with an A64 and stuff, but the article refereed to AMD's micros in general...)

I don't like too much the idea of tweaking the voltage, but, it's your $$$ at stake, not mine : p, if you do, follow Covered_in_bees advice and do it in the smalles increments possible, but without going 0.15V avobe stock (and still, hat would be some risk)

 

[SuperFly03]

Asus A8N - SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
2GB DRAM Master [Micron Chips CL3 3-3-3-8] Memory PC3200 DDR400
160GB RAID0 Array [2x80GB Hitachi SATAII]
BFG 6800GT OC[Not OC By me....yet]

Alright, let me think here. If you memory is PC3200 and on a 333 divider with FSB at 250 then it should be running at 208 Mhz, which might be a problem since your memory seems to be generic brand. From my experiance on generic memory, they are typicly fairly poor oc'ers.

First you need to isolate the max speed of each of your main parts, CPU and Memory. To find your max memory speed, drop your CPU multiplier to something nuts like 7 (so when you hit a wall it can't possibly be your CPU) . Also Reduce your HTT multiplier to 3. Now, up the FSB in 3-5Mhz increments, each time running MemTest 86 for at least a pass or 2. This will take time, each memtest pass takes me about 40 min. Once you get errors start lowering the FSB in 1-2Mhz increments until you can get a few passes of Memtest with no errors.

Write down that speed.

Then increase your CPU multiplier back to its orignal number ( i think its 10 in your case). Put your ram on a 266 divider, or even something lower to take it out of the equation. Then up the FSB in the same 3-5Mhz increments. Each time boot to windows and run SuperPi on 32M digits, it should take 20-25min. If it fails, reduce the FSB by 1-2Mhz and try it again and again until you pass.

Write down that Speed.

Then you try and find a combination of FSB and RAM dividers that maxes out the speed of each. Keep as close to your CPU's max speed as possible, because that gives you the most boost in performance. If you search google there are sites that explain how to estimate RAM speed with dividers better than I, because it involves the ceiling function. Also adjust the HTT multiplier to keep the speed as close to 1000 as possible, there is 0 need to OC the HTT bus.

Adding voltage to the core once you hit an initial wall is dangerous, but not stupid. As the previous poster said, do it in the smallest increments possible. With air cooling I would strongly urge you to stay under 1.5v is possible. As for your RAM's voltage, since its generic, I am going to assume it like the standard DDR voltage range which is about 2.65v-2.9v. Anything above that is illadvised unless the RAM specificly states it will take it, or is warrantied.

Note all warranties will be voided,

If I missed something please feel free to correct me, or ask about it. This is a walkthrough off the top of my head from experiance on my board.

 

[7H4_D00D3]

if doing that procedure (except for memtest : p and adding Prime)some registry entries and files get fskd up and my system can't display the directories, what would you said that happenned?

 

[SuperFly03]

Hmmm that is really a problem but it does happen. hwne you overclock your computer you run the risk of corrupting the actual installtion of the OS. It doesn't happen that often but it is known to occur. If your lucky you maybe have a backup of yoru registry somewhere, but not likely. You could try system restore, assumingyou didn't disable it when you first installed the system (i normally disable it, but most ppl dont) then you can run System Restore and it should work. But if that still doesn't work.... guess what your left with? Reinstalling windows. I know, I have corrupted my Xp install twice I think, its a Pain in the ass. GRRR lol. Sorry dude.

 

[7H4_D00D3]

Well. the second thing happebned, all data lost, reformat, seven hours of File Scavenger and done, I only lost a couple of Gigs, and 700Mb from there were backed up in a cd, no big loss there, though it was a real pain in the 4R53

The problem is, if it was my pc I wouldn't give a damn about it being broke for a couple of days, but since this is a "family connection center" no day can pass without pc...

 

[SuperFly03]

I understand. I recently upgrade my mother's copmuter from a P3 600Mhz to a 3Ghz P4, and so I "stole" the p3 machine and now use it as a backup server so that no matter what I do I at least have a backup of everythign essential like school work and music.

Sorry bout the crash though 🙁

 

[7H4_D00D3]

np man!

good one on using the backup machine