OCing 4200 X2 with OCZ RAM and an ASUS A8N-E

[Kayden]

Hi all. I tried searching for tips in general, but I figured it'd be best to get specific suggestions in relation to my setup.
This is my RAM and this is my motherboard.

I'm not looking to push it to the edge, just something extra I can do with stock cooling.

I know that the memory controller is on the CPU itself, so that means that the RAM runs at the same frequency as the CPU, correct? Seeing how I have the value ram, I'm guessing its not a good idea to run it too high. This is where things get fuzzy as the ratio thing has so many different names I have yet to properly associate and differentiate. I could ramble and cough out how I think things are interelated or I could just ask if anyone has some good likes with clear explanations.

 

[Kholonar]

Your setup is quite standard actually, try looking at this:

http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=300

It's quite a bit to read but print it out and you got great toilet reading material.

 

[Kayden]

Thanks.

Another question, I've got 2 1gb sticks. Should I use 2T or 1T for my CPC?

I read 1T should be used if you can and that 2T is for when your sticks are too big or you have too many to avoid stressing the memory controller. Is this just something I'll have to try on my own and find out?

Theoretical OC.
Bump up the clock to 240 with a multiplier of 10 = 2.4 (is 2.6 too high for stock cooling?) What is a good voltage for 2.4 and 2.6?
This raises the HTT to 2400 as well, so I'll have to drop the multiplier down to 4x to make it 1920.
The ram also goes up to 240= 480 ddr. Should I go with a 5/6 multiplier to bring it back down to 400?
If I leave my ram at DDR480, I'd have to up the voltage right, what would be a good voltage then? With the faster clock speed, I want to leave the default timings at 3-4-4-8, right? If I where to go with the 5/6 multiplier, is there any recommendation for lower timings?
Lastly, do you have to increase voltage if you lower your timings or is it just for raising your clock rate?

 

[Kholonar]

1T is the faster setting but as you say, using more than 2 RAM slots can make 1T unstable.

Don't bump up in large increments, take it slowly. If you find your temps going above 55'C on 100% load then you will need to go for aftermarket cooling.
Yes, you will have to use the 5/6 multiplier, DDR480 is a big overclock. With my corsair xms I can get a maximum of DDR460 at reasonably loose timings. If you set the timings too slack you'll get worse performance than using a divider. Oh and yes, it's still better to overclock the CPU even if you lose a bit of performance on the RAM. I do not recommend you raise the voltage on the RAM. RAM is very vulnerable to heat and you have no temp probes there to know what is going on.

 

[Kayden]

I got my CPU up to 2.5 with my ram running 454. Its not the most impressive OC, but its stable and faster than everything on Sandra!

I also reigned in my timings from stop 3-4-4-8 to 2.5-3-3-7. It passed 20 minutes of mem86 and calculated PI to 32million in 30 minutes.

Thanks for the reading material!

 

[apesoccer]

Generally the last step in oc'ing is the running of Prime95 on each core for 24hrs. If there are no errors for 24hrs torture testing on blend in Prime, then it's solid. To run two instances of Prime95, you download two copies then within the program you choose which cpu to run each instance on.

Most people do just what you did though. They'll do a quick test with memtester86+ and/or 32m pie, then call it good. Then they try to game and it'll seem to randomly crash out (maybe after 30min an hour maybe 2...)...When really it just wasn't stable at those speeds. It's what i used to do too heh.

 

[Kayden]

I'll give that a shot, but I think it'll be ok because I played titan quest for about 3 hours without issue. If you've visted the forums for it, you'll know the kind of horror the game inflicts upon hardware.

 

[apesoccer]

Cool...alot of times to test out the cpu, instead of prime i'll play counter strike for an hour or so...It's more fun then waiting for 24hrs to pass by.

I do it a little less often now though since i've had to reinstall it a few times. heh. Frigg'n updates take forever.

 

[Kholonar]

I agree that waiting for 24 hours of super pi is dull as the British weather and it can be good to replace the test with gaming. I would, however, suggest people to play games that are CPU heavy (new strategy games, lots of AI calculations etc.) but I would recommend people to stay away from programs that constantly write to the hard drive (ie autosave). If the computer crashes during a hard disk write you can sometimes muck up the disk.

 

[stole38]

I'll give that a shot, but I think it'll be ok because I played titan quest for about 3 hours without issue. If you've visted the forums for it, you'll know the kind of horror the game inflicts upon hardware.

Wow you guys suck im am using a 4200+ and im writting now and the speed of the processor is 2.75 GHZ !!! and temp on idle is 31-32-33 and its cool man.... what are you talking about i got it to 250 MHZ with 11 multi