My Overclocking Journal (In progress, comments welcome)

[bront]

As a long time enthusiest but a newbie to overclocking, I thought I should keep a little journal of notes of my experience.

First of all, my overclocking experiences include overclocking my Pentium 120 to 133 (which gave me a true 10% increase in performance since it also increased the IDE Bus speed at the time), and a failed attempt to overclock a Moble Athlon 2400+ (I didn't spend too much time on it though).

This is not something I intend to run constantly, more of a "let's see how far I can push it" type of thing.

After reading about overclocking, I know I need to watch my HT overall speed, and should try to isolate my CPU and Memory maxes independantly. So, I decided to start with Memory first.

Stock, I've been running DDR400 at 2-3-3-6-2T (1T has never been stable, though it passes memtest). So, I turned down the HT multiplier to 3X, set the clock multiplier to 4x, and turn up the system clock to 210. And after a moment, my motherboard boots up in safe mode. Confused, I try removing the clock multiplier, but no go. I try putting all the memory settings on auto, but no go. So, I set the clock back to 200, the multiplier to auto, and it boots just fine. So, I change the Memory setting from Auto to DDR433 instead, and run memtest for a few hours with no problems.

Now, it occures to me that the Memory setting is simply the multiplier, and on Auto, it might not work correctly, so after testing to see if it boots in DDR466 memory (I had to set the clock timings to 2.5-3-3-7), I set the memory back to DDR400 and adjust the system clock to 233 with an 8X multiplier, and I'm up and running. So, DDR400 is 1:1, I can work with this.

So, feeling much better, I procede to do Memtest on DDR466 and 500 on 2.5-3-3-7 with no problems for a few hours each. DDR533 booted but didn't pass memtest on the first run. I tried setting the memory voltage to 2.8 (it looks like it was at 2.7 stock) and raisling the timings to 3-3-3-8, and drop the clock multiplier to 7, but no go.

So, with my system clock at 250, multiplier at 8 (so running at stock Mhz), HT multiplier at 4, and memory set to 1:1, and ran SuperPi for a bit, and am currently running Prime95.

Not comprehensive, but it's my experience so far, it's been entertaning, but I'm sure it will slow down from here. I'll update this more as I go, but I hope it helps someone.

Also, I'm open to any tips.

 

[bront]

Nope, some TT Silent something 7 I think. It's a few years old, so I don't remember.

What I did was buy 2 DDR400 chips, and tried to up the FSB from 266 to 333, but couldn't get it stable, and since I realy didn't care, I didn't press it much further. Idealy, I should have pushed the FSB up a bit slower, or checked the Memory Multiplier. I know a bit more than I did about

Right now, that's my GF's machine, so no messing around with it now. Not to mention that it's now in a cabinet so it runs a bit warmer than it used to. But I may play one night when she's asleep

Any thoughts on ways I could get more out of my memory? Should I push for 1T, maybe drop to 2.5-4-4-8? or drop the timings to get more Mhz? I think I'm going to avoid overvolting (My memory runs stock at 2.75 apparently)

 

[bront]

Ok, Prime95 failed after 5 hours on DDR500 2.5-3-3-8.

Prime95 also failed 5 hours after DDR500 2.5-3-3-8 1T 2.8v

Currently running at DDR500 3-3-3-8 1T 2.8V, and if that runs ok overnight, I'll be fairly satisfied with those timings and speed.

 

[bront]

I don't have UT2004 actualy. I have Farcry, but don't care for it. Been playing X2 and Dungeon Siege, mostly this is just an experiment for me.

I do usually leave my system on and run Seti@Home on BIONC.

I have noticed my system is getting a bit warmer, but I think that may be because I bumped the Zalman 9500 and it turned a bit, so the AS5 needs to reset. I'm probably going to clean it off and reapply the AS5 using the dot method on my next day off.

In case others may find them useful, I found these 2 articles usefull in learning what to look for in overclocking.

Neoseeker article on how different parts of the system overclocked effect the overall system (the HT chanel, system memory, and the CPU).

Madshrimps guide to overclocking the Athlon 64.

There have been others, but these were probably the most useful 2. If I find more, I'll post them.

 

[Bluefinger]

I have UT2004, and it was excellent at finding out a problem with the RAM on my previous X800GTO.... All you had to do was put everything on high, including resolution, play for half an hour, and then some patch on the terrain wouldn't be rendered properly and then the pc shuts down. Upon rebooting, the M$ error report would indicate a problem with memory, but after a memtest, the 1GB of DDR RAM i had wasn't faulty, leaving the gfx card to be responsible for causing the error. And i was right after a friend of mine tested it properly... so i know the benefits of that game in finding errors... Also, FarCry is fairly good at finding errors... but UT2004 and HL2 are the best ones.

 

[bront]

Ok, so Prime95 ran for 14 hours (2 instances) with no problems on DDR500 3-3-3-8 1T 2.8V. So I'm satisfied that the system is stable like that. I ran 3Dmark06 to see if there was any improvement, but the website was down, so I couldn't post the results and compair.

So, I crank up the CPU Multiplier to x10 again, and test the heat. Temps were acceptable throttled with BIONC, so I run 3Dmark06 just to look at it, that runs well, and start up prime95.

Just to be sure everything's ok, I pull up Thunderprobe, and my CPU voltage is at 1.5. Curious, I got to check my bios, and find out that the voltage adjustments are set to auto, so I set that to off, and voltage is back to 1.4.

Moral of the story, Auto is bad if you're not sure what it's going to do, and make sure you watch everything.

So, computer haulted easily on 1.4V, at 2.5Ghz, and haulted after an hour and a half of prime95 on 1.425V, so right now running it at 1.45V. I'm pretty sure it's stable at 1.5V, but I'd prefer to overvolt the CPU as little as possable.

Either way, a 25% increase in overall system speed is pretty good, in my opinion. I'll probably put the system through it's paces on benchmarks once I find the stable voltage. In order to not confuse the issue, I haven't updated to the new Forceware drivers out there.

 

[Bluefinger]

As far as i know 1.45 volts is the maximum voltage for safe and stable operation for dual-core AMD chips....

 

[bront]

As far as i know 1.45 volts is the maximum voltage for safe and stable operation for dual-core AMD chips....

I'm researching that. Stock they're 1.4, which is odd because they're listed as 1.3-1.35 on AMD's specs website.

 

[Bluefinger]

I reckon the BIOS on your mobo is a little twitchy about keeping things stable. At the moment, i have a 4200+ running at 2.42Ghz on stock voltage which is 1.35V, and is quite stable doing so.... I'll probably up the voltage if i were to push it any further, but never more than 1.45V.

 

[bront]

Several reviews pushed it over 1.45, but I don't intend to do so for long. We'll see if I can get it stable at 2.5 at that speed. We're still talking faster than a 4600+ X2 stock. I'd like to get more input about the voltage though. I know pushing it too much can shorten the CPU's life.

 

[bront]

Ok, at 1.45v, my system did over 12 hours of Prime95 (dual) stably. So I'm, currently running at a 250 bus with a 1:1 mem multiplier.

Now, my temps were running a bit high (52), but I've noticed mine seem to be higher than most other people post, and I know I need to reseat my heatsink. However, 52 under prime 95 load is not too bad (42 with no load at the moment), and I'm sure it will be lower once I reapply the AS5.

I've learned a little bit about the computer, and hope that this journal helps others. I'll probably go about tweeking the memory a bit, perhaps see if I can get the timings down, and I'll probably be fooling around my my video card a bit as well (Currently I know I can do 492/1.13 with no problems and little heat).

I'll update my temps once I reseat the HS.

Edit: Temps are about the same, but ambient temp went up a few degrees. However, there was definately too much AS5 before. I used the dot method this time, and hopefully that will work much better once it sets. I'll post benchmarks later when Futuremark is up (Second morning in a row they've been down).

 

[bront]

Ok, gains in 3dMark05 and 06 are fairly negligable (150 in 05, less in 06). 3dMark01 score jumps up over 4000 points, with gains of over 100 FPS in some case, which is probably a better pure CPU test.

Load temps are 51-52, which isn't much higher than they were before, and idle, it runs are 43, and the AS5 hasn't fully set yet. While those may seem high, with stock speads load was 48 or so, and idle was 42, so my thermostat may be off, but the range and change is likely accurate, and it's running quite cool, with the only heat coming out of the PSU (by my hand), so I can't complain. Chipset is running at a cool 28, which is oddly better than it was before the OC.

Next step is the GPU, which should be a lot less of a hastle.

 

[bront]

Interesting.

I throttled everything down, with the exception of the Ram voltage, and ran at 2-3-3-6 1T, and my system seems less stable (Had a BSOD). I know it's stable at 2-3-3-6 2T and stock (2.75V) memory settings.

The OC is Rock Solid. Temps are 1-2C higher on idle, 2-4 higher on load, but quite stable at 52, and seem much more independant of the room temp now. As I said before, I'm not worried about the temps too much because I know there is a little inacuracy in the onboard thermal sensors. I'm getting a fan controler at some point, I may try to hook up one of the thermal sensors to the CPU to get a more accurate reading.

 

[bront]

Ok. I looked at the Bios for my video card, but it appears I can't adjust the memory voltage, only the GPU, and that seems maxed in my bios at the moment. So, I'll just stick with OCing it as I can for now.

I want to try out the new drivers before I get to the GPU overclock, but I know I can run at 492/1130 with no problems (Stock is 450/1050) at the GPU never gets over 67C (and it barely got there). I may stress test it by running the X3 benchmark since that runs in 3D mode under load longer than 3DMark. I just wish I had a better software for tracking GPU temps (I like to look over logs).

 

[bront]

FYI: My CPU-Z validation page