Trying to OC AMD Athlon 64 x2 4600+

[timmay479]

Hey guys, i'm new to overclocking so bare with me.

Tried to get a bit of extra grunt out of my CPU so I could record footage in Dragon Age without it tearing horribly even on the lower settings.

I was able to get a stableish OC of 5% using the option in the bios that did all the voltages for you.

I lurked a few forum sites including this one to find out how to do it manualy, and to find some settings for the hardware I have to remove some of the trial and error. I found a user on youtube with the same CPU and got 3.13Ghz up from the stock 2.4 using a stock cooler and tried to copy his settings.

Unfortunately this has left me where I cannot even get to the bios anymore, when I was just using trial and error it would not boot the OS but I was still able to enter the bios and fiddle some more. With these settings I don't even get that far for some reason. What I had was:

Bus Speed 200 to 240MHz
Core Voltage up to 1.362
Cool n' quiet disabled
DDR2 800MHz
RAM voltage 2.2

There were other settings of his which I wasn't sure how to change such as timings, but when I changed to these settings I was no longer able to modify my settings because it just won't boot.

Any help I could recieve to either reset it or showing me how to do it properly would be greatly appreciated, my MOBO is an ASUS m2n32-sli deluxe

 

[r_manic]

Hey timmay, welcome!

Sorry if this won't be of any help, but let's cover the basics first, shall we? What is your GPU, and have you enabled Vsync in DA:O's settings?

 

[timmay479]

GPU: NVIDIA 8800GTS, and as for Vsync in dragonage i'm not sure and am unable to check as the system will not boot (its not the CPU overheating because it doesn't shut down, everything inside the case runs... just doesn't boot)

 

[kokin]

Try resetting the cmos battery. You might have set a value too high and didn't give it enough voltage, causing no boot.

 

[timmay479]

That sounds right, how do I reset the cmos battery?

 

[megamanx00]

Yup, you have to reset the BIOS. Also, if you have DDR2 800 RAM, set it to DDR2 667 which will raise the memory divider. Remember, with Athlon X2 CPUs with DDR2 memory, the RAM speed is the CPU speed divided by some divider. As your overclocking your CPU, your overclocking your RAM and in this case, with a Base speed of 240, it's running at a 20% higher speed. Also be sure to set your RAM timings manually and loosen them as much as the BIOS will allow in order to prevent the timings from being a limiting factor.

You should also lower your HT link multiplier to 4x (800MHz) if you haven't already. Doing so will increase your stability in overclocking, especially if you have an older board that was only designed for a 1GHz HT link. With a base bus speed of 240 and a multiplier of 5x, your HT link speed is 1.2Ghz, while lowering to 4x will give you a more board friendly 960MHz.

 

[timmay479]

Thanks megaman, I unfortunately couldn't find the RAM timings when I was originaly doing it, same with the HT link multiplier. I'll have another look when I reset the BIOS. Anyone want to tell me how I can do that? Sorry again...

 

[jitpublisher]

There is a jumper on the motherboard. It will be 3 pins. It will be on like pin 2-3, you take it off, put it over pin 1-2 for a few seconds, then put it back where it was.
Or, you can remove the battery leave it out for about a couple of minutes, then put it back in. Either way will put your BIOS back to the default settings.
If you do not know how to reset the BIOS, you have not read or attained enough knowledge to be overclocking. Resetting the BIOS is the very first thing you should learn how to do, because that is the first thing you will need when you get a setting wrong. Search the forums, there is a lot of good info in here.

 

[megamanx00]

Well, it may say Memory speed or something. Just depends on your BIOS. It may also have HT link speed rather than the multiplier, in which case you would select a lower HT speed 😀.

 

[kokin]

Battery method is probably the easiest one to do, if you don't really know your motherboard too well. Lucky for me I have a button that resets the BIOS. 😛

 

[timmay479]

Thanks for the help jit, I attempted the first method and failed so I had to take out my GPU to get to the cmos battery which worked. I'm going to have another attempt tonight and post the results. Hell, if it turns out well, I might even hang around these forums and see what else I can do to this PC. I guess it could be an experimental PC as i'm building a new i7 desktop soon which I won't be touching overclocking wise.

I'll take your advice into account tonight megaman, thanks.

 

[jitpublisher]

The 4600 should be able to hit 2.8ghz fairly easily. ( I myself had one on a DFI Lanparty 3200CFX DR/g. I loved that rig in its day)
Over that though, it starts requiring more work. Like slowing the HT bus, that is the first thing you will need to do much past 2.8ghz. You will also have to bump your voltage higher, and you are going to have to have some very good cooling. These processors could do about 3.2, but it takes diligence to get them there stable.

 

[timmay479]

Got it to this after a few hours of tinkering...

It was stable for a good hour without the CPU overheating but then I kept getting BSoD, so I lowered the bus speed to 220 which has left me at 2.64Ghz. I have similar settings to what I originaly posted changing the DDR2 800 to 667.

Any advice how I get to the "fairly easy" 2.8ghz with stock cooling? 😛

EDIT: Still having trouble identifying the HT multiplier... I found the voltage controls for it, but thats it.

 

[megamanx00]

Your HT link speed is listed at 1150, implying a 5x HT multiplier. Anyway, it may just say HT link speed and list 1GHz, 800MHz,... and so on. Select 800MHz.

Looks like you got an F2 Windsor chip, so it may be that you can't go much higher. The f2 stepping went up to the 5200 @ 2.6 GHz after which the f3 stepping came out enabling higher speeds. Anyway, the HT link speed should help with stability, and you may have to try 1.425v for a higher speed, so long as your temps are acceptable with your current voltage of course during stress tests. Did you stress test it with Prim 95 at the screen shot settings?

 

[timmay479]

Ran Prime 95 on the more stable settings (so I thought) which I have at the moment. Worker #2 shits itself 2 mins in, "FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected was less than 0.4." then if Worker #1 is left running for another 30 secs I get BSoD...

And I don't think my case has enough airflow to raise the CPU voltage any higher as my CPU temp is ~85 degrees Celsius... I can almost cook a pot of pasta on that 😛

I'll have another look for HT linkspeed and edit the post if I find it... my first venture into overclocking isn't going too well 😀

Dragon Age is running a little better though... before it keeps crashing a few mins in, and yes, Vsync is on (stops tearing does it not?)

EDIT: Found the HT multiplyer and set it to 4 so it ended up at ~800, however, I was still having troubles with stability so I kept lowering the speed and voltages with no luck. Heat seems to be an issue as I keep getting BSoD when the CPU is under stress and the 2nd core keeps dying in Prime95 even under the smallest of overclocks.

 

[jitpublisher]

Older build, first thing you should do is re-apply new thermal paste. Did you do that?

 

[timmay479]

Couldn't find any thermal pase, would it have come with the CPU?

 

[kokin]

It can be bought in your local electronics store (Fry's or Microcenter) or online if you can't find any. Most people use Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic Cooling MX-2. Any will do, but make sure you read instructions on how to apply thermal compound before you tackle it. You'll probably see at least a 4-5C drop, if not better.

 

[turbojo]

I've got my 4600+ up to 3.05ghz 24hr prime stable. On air with a freezer 64 pro. Settings are:
Vcore - 1.525v
FSB - 254
HT - x5
Corsair Ballistix DDR800 - 1016mhz @ 2.25v

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[megamanx00]

Not bad for an old chip. Pretty good increase over the stock speed ^_^. Hope it games well for you.

 

[turbojo]

well, before that chip i had a 4600+ single core which wound up to 3.25. but i got bored with both of them so i just (yesterday) bought a am3 phenom x2 555 be to have a play with. the board is a am2 socket asus m2r32-mvp which has got an ati xpress 3200 chipset. the board nor windows recognises this chip but it seems to work fine. cant adjust the multi or vcore, but have got an option in the bios 'vcore over voltage' which seems to put an extra bit of juice up it. got it up to 3.55ghz on stock volts and 4.05ghz with over voltage (ht is locked at 5x and is currently 1265mhz. think it is more the rd580 cant take this ht speed rather than the chip maxing out). all prime and linx stable. i might get a new board so i can have a proper play and try and get the other two cores unlocked as well. what i don't get though is my main rig (i7 @ 4.4ghz) completes superpi 32m in 8mins and this comp is 19mins, why the big difference? i know the board isnt showing the full potential of this chip but even so??