First OC'ing Attempt: AMD X2, DFI nF4, OCZ, X800XL

[AINTD]

I have made my first attemp to overclock my new computer. Perhaps some of you may find it of interest to know the details while other may suggest hints for further improvements.

<b><font color=green>- HARDWARE AND STOCK SPECS -</font color=green></b>
<i>CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual Core (2x2200MHz)
Motherboard: DFI Lanparty nForce4 SLI-DR (Socket 939)
RAM: 2x512MB OCZ EL Dual Channel Platinum Rev.2 DDR400 memory
GPU: ATI Radeon X800XL (Core = 400MHz, Memory = 490MHz)

<b><font color=green>- OVERCLOCKING SETTINGS AND SPECS -</font color=green></b>
<b>CPU:</b>
-Runs stable at x11 multiplier and FSB=221MHz (at some 2431MHz per core)
-Runs stable at x10 multiplier and FSB=243MHz (at some 2430MHz per core)
-Second option is chosen for higher FSB frequency.
-Core voltage upped from 1.2V to 1.3V
-Core temperature on idle - around 33-34C (*)
-Core temperature under 100% load on both cores (via Prime95 and F@H) - around 43-44C (*)

<i>(*) Room temperature is around 25-26C</i>

<b>RAM:</b>
-Runs stable at CAS = 2.0-3-3-5 at FSB=245MHz for DDR490
-FSB was lowered to 243MHz due to system instability caused by CPU (?)
-DRAM voltage upped from 2.60V to 2.90V - maximum garanteed by OCZ
-Tested by DFI Memtest86 v1.55

<i><font color=blue> (?) This one I'm not sure about ... at 244 or 245 and under load the system was freezing with CPU=10*FSB. RAM I believe is not the cause. Is this the optimal setting then? </font color=blue></i>

<b>Motherboard:</b>
-No real changes here, just upped the LDT voltage to 1.3V and chipset voltage to 1.6V

<b>GPU:</b>
-Using ATI Tool 0.24, max core frequency has been established at 445MHz (+45MHz on stock)
-Using ATI Tool 0.24, max memory frequency has been established at 570MHz (+80MHz on stock)

<b><font color=green>- COMMENTS -</font color=green></b>
I obviously am new into OC'ing, so probably my first steps are kind of amateurish, I would appreciate anyone's input.

Will lowering the multiplier any further (x9 ?) and raising FSB work? What CAS setting for this perticular RAM would work then with higher FSB?

What about the PCI-E setting? The default is at 100MHz but can be raised up to 145MHz if memory serves me right. How should I go about it?
<font color=blue><b>AMD A64 X2 4400+ -- DFI LP nF4 SLI-DR -- OCZ 1GB DDR400 Platinum Rev.2 -- ATI X800XL -- 2x74GB WD Raptor RAID0 -- Enermax 600W -- SB Audigy ZS 2 -- CM Stacker -- Watercooled </b></font color=blue>

 

[K8MAN]

Well the firs thing u should do is set your mem to 2.5-3-3-11 and see how far your ram can go. Set your multy to 8 and keep upping the fsb by 5mhz @ a time. As long as your temps dont go above 50 you should be fine. I have the DFI 250GB 754 board and ocz plat just like u and it hits about DDR550 stable @ those timing @ 1t but further than that requires 2t which kills performance.

The know-most-of-it-all formally known as BOBSHACK

 

[AINTD]

I believe RAM is <i>capable</i> of doing much more than DDR510 at 2.5-3-3-x settings, the problem is CPU. 255MHz and x10 multi at 1.375V for vcore seems to be the limit at which it is stable. If I raise the vcore - temps raise significantly. If I lower the multi to 9 and raise the frequency, I will have to do so at least up to 280MHz to be on the same CPU frequency as I am now. And I doubt my OCZ will work at 280MHz with the same nice 2.5-3-3-x setting. I'm kind of stuck. Would anyone recommend actually using x9 multi, 280MHz FSB and 3-x-x-x settings for RAM (DDR560+ in this case) over my current setup?

<font color=green><i>- AMD A64 X2 @ 5100MHz
- OCZ Platinum Rev.2 DDR510 2.5-3-3-5
- ATI X800XL (445MHz core & 570MHz mem)
- WD 2x74GB Raptor RAID0 @ 10000rpm
- Watercooled</i></font color=green>

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

OVERALL ur better off with more bandwidth than MHz..

howcome these x2's cant clock as high as there single core "bredrins"???

As far as ur ram goes..ur ram can go higher than 280..

Ive got OCZ EL 2x512 PC4400 Gold Limited Edition running at 300Mhz on 2.6Volts...3-5-5-11 1T on a 3000+ Venice running at 2.7Ghz....3x HTT 1/1 FSb with DRAM @ 300.....

as for temps, i idle at 33 celcious with a VCore at 1.6...

again im curious as to how a x2 dual core cpu runs at 1.2 and the singles are 1.35/1.4...

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>

 

[AINTD]

OH, I forgot to mention - I put DRAM voltage to 2.9 and set it to 2.5-3-3-6 @ 255MHz (I also touched other BIOS RAM related settings, but they're all mostly loose). I have minor stability issues (with CPU at 255 x10), sometimes Windows would reboot showing a blue screen with white text (it happens too fast for me to read it) but says something along the lines that some kind of exception occured, it's now dumping the physical memory ... Then I somehow fail (well only a few fail) Memtest86 test #6, although I wasn't changing anything in setup. I don't know whether it's the CPU or RAM setup issue.

As for the voltages ... I don't know ... They run in parallel, so I would assume to achieve the OC'd top of 5.1GHz they would not require the sum of voltages, rather just the adequate voltage supplied to each core. As to why singles require more than 1.2V? - No idea. The default voltage and at which it was stable (@ 2200MHz) was 1.2V, and the monitor readings actually suggested 1.16V.

<font color=green><i>- AMD A64 X2 @ 5100MHz
- OCZ Platinum Rev.2 DDR510 2.5-3-3-5
- ATI X800XL (445MHz core & 570MHz mem)
- WD 2x74GB Raptor RAID0 @ 10000rpm
- Watercooled</i></font color=green>

 

[AINTD]

Whatever, running two tasks in parallel it will outpace single core, hence the 5100 frequency. If one task takes 10s to complete on 2.55GHz and 8.5s on 3.0GHz, two tasks take 10s on 2.55GHz as if it was at 5.1GHz; and 17s on 3.0GHz. Rough maths, but you get the point. At any rate, I stand corrected, obviously I don't have a CPU that physically runs at 5.1GHz.

<font color=green><i>- AMD A64 X2 @ 2x2550MHz
- OCZ Platinum Rev.2 DDR510 2.5-3-3-5
- ATI X800XL (445MHz core & 570MHz mem)
- WD 2x74GB Raptor RAID0 @ 10000rpm
- Watercooled</i></font color=green>

 

[AINTD]

OK, I guess so, it still will do more than a single chip in the same amount of time unless it's one task (that can't be distributed). I do not pretend I have build a Cray-2 or something, just a nice computer that suits my needs.

<font color=green><i>- AMD A64 X2 @ 2x2550MHz
- OCZ Platinum Rev.2 DDR510 2.5-3-3-5
- ATI X800XL (445MHz core & 570MHz mem)
- WD 2x74GB Raptor RAID0 @ 10000rpm
- Watercooled</i></font color=green>

 

[apesoccer]

The only thing i would say would be about your memory timings. 2 3 3 x 1T @ 240 and 245. My tccd stuff will boot at both speeds and timings, but it will crash occasionally. Also, you should be fine at stock v on the memory until you hit about 255-260. That memory will hit upwards of 320 @ 2.8 or 2.9. Despite what ocz says, people are burning out their tccd chips at 2.9 (just something to keep in mind...especially since there is no reason to be running 2.9 already).

But then i don't know what you're running now, so you may have already backed off a bit on the voltage.

What a lot of people do is just start out at 3 4 4 8 and go from there. However with those dfi bios's, there are a LOT more timings to be worried about. If i were you, i'd head over to <A HREF="http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=379317" target="_new">oc'ers</A> and <A HREF="http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=58" target="_new">Xtreme oc'ers</A> as they have guidelines specifically for your board on all the different timings.

F@H:
AMD: [X2 3800+ down][64 3000+ down][2500+][2400+][2000+][1.3][366]
Intel: [X 3.0x4][X 2.8x2][P4 3.0x2][P4-M 2.4][P4 1.3]

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