Overclocking newbie question

[Sangiovese]

Hello,

I just picked up a XP3000+ barton cpu, GigaByte GA-7N400 Pro with the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset, and two 512MB sticks of DDR400 (pc3200) ram.

The mo-board and ram both support 400mhz FSB (I understand it is actually 200x2). But the CPU is set to run at 333 (166x2).

If the chip multiplier settings were easily accessible, I would switch to 200 bus speed and just lower the multiplier. Unfortunately they are locked and I'm not quite comfortable going in and tying the pins together to unlock it.

So my question is... how big a jump is it if I leave the multiplier where it is and just raise the fsb speed from 166 to 200? Would I just be asking for trouble? That would wind up running the chip about 20% past the spec'd frequency.

 

[pIII_Man]

it will probably run just fine...it may need a tad bit of voltage but really not much...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[YYZ_Slayer]

With an athlon, i wouldent try it. Thats a nice sized jump in core frequency, u may fry the chip.

Anyone who clames they can tell the difference between 450 and 500 FPS in Quake 3 should be severly beaten in the head with a rock.

 

[pIII_Man]

frequnecy does not fry a chip...voltage and heat does...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[svol]

You're not serious I hope.

XP3000+ 2.17 GHz=13x166... 13x200=2600 MHz!

He will need some serious cooling and a high voltage to let it run at that setting. So better first ask which cooling he uses.

I love my Delta 60HP 7000 RPM fan that puts out more dB then CFM

 

[pIII_Man]

ahhhhh....i thought it was a barton 2500...that would only have been 2200...i fvucked up..

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[Sangiovese]

Thanks for the input. Decided not to try it since I'm using the standard fan/sink that comes with the boxed chip.

Speaking of cooling though. What is a safe temp? I seem to remember reading somewhere that you're not risking damage really until 58C. Is that right?

I let it run for about 12 hours with 100% CPU load for a burn in and the temp never got above 34.

 

[TKH]

If the chip multiplier settings were easily accessible, I would switch to 200 bus speed and just lower the multiplier. Unfortunately they are locked and I'm not quite comfortable going in and tying the pins together to unlock it.

Huh, I thought all Bartons are factory unlocked???


If I agree with you... will you shut up?
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=22996" target="_new">My System Rig</A>

 

[pIII_Man]

well i beleive your barton has the high multi...13x and up....you are going to want the low multis....so you will need to mod...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[pIII_Man]

i like to keep all my processors at 55c or below (full load)

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[skiZtch]

i have a barton 2500 and have the same issue as Sangiovise-- a 333 FSB processor and 400mhz ddram--can i overclock to 400FSB?? and what should my multiplier be?

SkiZtch

 

[pIII_Man]

you probably will be able to with a .05-.1v increase (that is if you cannot reach it with stock voltage)...although some chips may not make it...if you don't have pc3200 ram you will not reach this high...

What i recomend doing is...drop the muliplyer to 8x...find the max fsb your board and memory can run stable at...then increase the multipyer until you notice instabilities...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[skiZtch]

thanks pIII_man. I've got 3200 ram (400mhz) and a Nvidia nforce ultra 400 chipset, so i can clock to 200 mhz. I've got a stock fan and heatstink (it's actually quite large).

With those specs what do you recomend for a multiplier?
Also, what exaclty does a multiplier do?

 

[pIII_Man]

like i said...set the multiplyer to 8x...find the fastest fsb the chip/board/memory can run at stably...then slowly increase the multiplyer untill you get stability problems or your cpu temp exceeds 55c...increasing the voltage by up to .15 volts may help gain stability (watch your temps however)

the fsb and the multiplyer are the 2 things that determine cpu speed

example you have a 266mhz processor

the fsb is 66mhz and the multiplyer is 4x
hence 66 x 4 = 266

and 11x multi and 200mhz bus system...

11 x 200 = 2200mhz!

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[Sangiovese]

Huh, I thought all Bartons are factory unlocked???

Thanks TKH. I just assumed it was locked. After reading your post I looked around in the bios more and realized that I had missed a "frequency control" setting that was marked to auto. When I went in there it gave me access to the multipliers.

I went ahead and set the bus speed from 166 to 200 and lowered the multiplier from 13 to 11. That results in only a slight overclock (2.19 MHz instead of 2.17) but I am hoping that it'll give a bit of a performance boost (should set me up as a 3200+ instead of a 3000+).

Since the board and ram are both designed to run with 200 mhz fsb, I don't anticipate any problems at all there. And with how minor the o/c on the chip is, I don't think it'll be an issue either.