Overclocking AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (ECS C51G-M754 Motherboard)

[Micccx]

Okay so this is my extra computer laying around the house and well, it's fairly old and I overclocked it already some. The CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice (stepping 2 revision DH-E6) 90nm processor and it's stock clock is 2.2 Ghz. I have OC'ed it to 2.552 Ghz, and was curious if anyone else has pushed it further? If so what OC and temps did you get with this exact chip? (mind the stepping and revision posted). The vcore on this CPU currently fluctuates between 1.432 - 1.456v. I can't find an option in the BIOS to change the voltage for anything, the only thing it lets me change is the multiplier which is maxed out at x11 currently, the FSB which is upped to 232.0 Mhz from 200 Mhz, and the memclock index value which is 166 Mhz. (The BIOS will only let me change the memclock index value between 100 Mhz and 250 Mhz). I haven't played with that value at all yet, and the timings on my 1 Gb (2 x 512mb sticks) of ram (sv512mb400 corsair value select ram) are 2.5-3-3-8 (as recommended by corsair for maximum performance).

SpeedFan Temperatures for the core is 22C to 23C with the stock heatsink and 7 or so fans in the case. Have yet to run P95 to see the load temps and if it's stable, but I'm leaving it running overnight tonight.

I plan on overclocking as high as it will go, however there are no options in the BIOS to lock the PCI slot or the pcie x16 slot, or to link/unlink ram. This motherboard comes with onboard graphics as well and I'm not sure if that is affected in the process (geforce 6100). I plan on getting a better graphics card for close to $50, if anyone knows of any around that price that are good for playing todays games (modern warfare 2 for example) at medium to low settings (30 - 50 fps?), I don't care much for maxed out. I plan on putting the card in a pcie x16 slot and only have 1 slot available. I hear that pcie 2.0 x16 cards are backwards compatible and can be put in a pcie x16 slot, can anyone confirm this? Does doing so significantly decrease the performance of that card since it is being put in a downgraded slot?

I know I have many questions, but this is open for discussion and well leave some input if you know even one of the answers to the above questions, as that would help me as well. Tell me what you would recommend doing in my case? Thank you everyone!

 

[dickcruz]

go for it

 

[dickcruz]

yeah dude, you should get something like am 8800 GT, those are pretty sick for gaming.

 

[Micccx]

lol, this is my spare computer running only windows xp pro, I only plan on spending $50 max, but I was wondering what the best one out there was for that price? My current rig that I use for gaming has windows 7 home premium 64-bit with an sli setup of 2x 8800gt overclocked (brand: bfg tech). So I know they are amazing cards lol I'm looking for something cheaper than that though that will still run todays games such as mw2 so my girlfriend can get on my spare computer to play too.

 

[Micccx]

I found this so far:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141113&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-Biostar-_-14141113

That's $49.99 with about $8 in shipping, so only $58 total which isn't too bad. I was actually surprised of the spec's of this thing it has more stream processors than my 8800 gt's combined .........

I think I may order this, but I don't know if the processor will hold me back, I can't upgrade the mobo and cpu at the moment since I don't have an operating system at hand and I'm short on cash.. but I could always replace those in the future and keep that card.

Should I get the card? Will it run the game smooth on medium settings?

 

[dickcruz]

that looks good, one of the guys says he can run L4D max'd out so he can probably play MW at a decent fps so mw2 will be smooth to an extent. seeing that it's a x6xx ati card, its not that great at gamming, this is meant for desktop graphics really. 8800GT's aren't that expensive, you can get them used on ebay for about 60 bucks. I'm talking about the skinny 8800gt's not the monster 8800GTX's

 

[dickcruz]

Well I know you need at least a dual core to run the newer game smooth, a processor upgrade on an AM2 level should cost about 75 bucks (again, used on ebay).

 

[Micccx]

8800gt oc cost me $80 on ebay with $10 shipping, but I'm trying to find a cheaper alternative this card seems like it's equal to it and better in some aspects, worse in others (such as it being 128-bit). My motherboard is a socket 754, so therefore I would not be able to put an AM2 or AM3 processor in that motherboard. And like I said I don't have like $200 to get a whole new system with mobo, ram, cpu, and gpu... otherwise I would lol. I read the minimum requirements for MW2 and this is what it shows:


The minimum system requirements for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 have been released:


OS: Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor or better supported
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT or better or ATI Radeon 1600XT or better
DirectX: Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c
Hard Drive: 12GB of free hard drive space
Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Internet: Broadband connection required for Multiplayer Connectivity. Internet Connection required for activation.

The system requirements seem to be almost identical to Call of Duty 4, so if you are able to run that with decent frames, you should have no problem running MW2 on your PC. The recommended system requirements should be available soon.

In "my computer" it shows that I have 1.54 GB of ram, both slots are full so I can't really upgrade the ram any more.

 

[Micccx]

This is my motherboard:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/289

It has one pci x16 slot.

 

[dickcruz]

yeah dude, that's bear minimum though, I've seen desktops run MW with 8400GS just fine and even an athlon processor (single core) its a bit laggy at times and you need to turn your filtering down but because the game is kinda heavy on the polygons. you need to have a ton of ram. like my desktop is on 4gb and it runs out of memory at times on mw2. its weird but that's how the game likes to render stuff.

 

[dickcruz]

on the graphics card front try an 8400, they're a bit cheaper.

 

[Micccx]

Which 8400 are you looking at, do you have a link?

 

[Ashgrove]

I am actually responding to the first post by Micccx. I am currently running my Athlon 64 3200+ at 2450Mhz, stock was 2000Mhz which is a 22.5% increase. I have been running it for over a year and it is rock steady. I can push it to 2500Mhz no problem but every once in a blue moon it will lock up. As for the vid card might I suggest this one... I have absolutely no problem maxing out resolution and settings on games such as Borderlands and Mass Effect2 with my ATI X1950 Pro at stock speeds(it doesnt like an oc very much). I have 2 intake and 2 exhaust fans keeping my case at 28 idle and 43 underload, CPU at 35 idle and 53 underload, and the GPU 44 idle and 73 underload (damn hot card). All temps are in Celsius.

Heres my set up and good luck with yours=)

Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2.45Ghz
Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 Mobo (love this board PCIE and AGP)
2gigs dual channel ram (cheap stuff...If it was decent the oc would be better I am sure)
ATI X1950 Pro (PCI E)
1TB WD Caviar Black
Windows 7 64 Ultimate

Ashgrove