Sempron 2300 x2

[saintinix]

Ok, so I'm not sure where to start.

Biostar MCP6P M2+
Sempron 2300 x2 (SDO2300IAA4D0)
2x2GB G.Skill DDR2-6400 w/ Heat spreaders

I was scraping some stuff and came across an older AM2 Alienware tower that had been pretty well gutted...

Case was busted up, drives were gone, RAM, but the PSU, MoBo, CPU and Heatsink/Fan were still in there.

After tearing it down for the scrap guy, I picked up the pieces for a few bucks and brought them home.

The PSU is an Enermax 460W that's got connectors for everything, 2x6-Pin PCI-E, 2x12v rails, 24+4, like 5 molex and 4 SATA. Oh, and a fan speed control on the back of it. Got two 120mm fans out of there too.

I have no idea beyond Thermaltake when it comes to the fan, but it has a copper plate and heatpipes through a finned aluminum heatsink.

Replacing the stock cooler on my Sempron 2300 x2, dropped temps almost 10C with some AS5.

So I started bumping my FSB a bit and I'm sitting here wondering how much further to go on this little gimpy Sempron.

Started at 2.2Ghz, I've got the current speed at 2.75Ghz and idle temps (CPU-Z, CoreTemp/Gadget and Opera with 6 tabs) are starting to creep into the mid 30's on one of the cores. 33C/27C at the moment.

I haven't changed the RAM speed, I'm running 2x2GB G.Skill DDR2-6400, CPU-Z says it's clocked at 458.4Mhz at CS 5, some type of gaming edition, heatsinks on those are taller than my CPU heatsink/fan.

I've only bumped the FSB from 200 to 250.

Got two of them, Combo deals with the Mobo/CPU/HSF, one with the gaming RAM and one with 1x1GB DDR2-6400 Rendition in trade for some OS discs and an IBM eServer 325 with dual 2.2Ghz Opty 248s.

Anyway, do I need to be upping any voltage, doubting I can push the FSB much higher, or can I?

After I know my max, I was gonna stability test until I found my sweet spot with the CPU and RAM.

Any advice with the whole HyperTransport speed? Last time I OC'd anything....Was back in the 462 days...Oh Socket A...

I still have like 10 working socket A's in my house, only two in a machine, dual Tyan with 1800+ MPs in it.

Any help would be great.

~Edit~ So, it won't post at 260Mhz FSB, but it will at 255Mhz...Which gives me a clock speed of 2809Mhz.

I'm getting Prime95 now to test it while I sleep tonight, or this morning....Or tomorrow.

 

[Ari3sgr3gg0]

Overclocking the fsb can only get you so far because the fsb affects other things such as your pci bus, and you may notice audio loss if you push too far. You've probably reached the max that little sempron can go. The hyper transport bus in my experience isn't even worth overclocking and a marketing gimmick in my opinion

 

[saintinix]

Well, it's done pretty well for me so far.

Considering I got both CPU/MoBo/Fan/RAM combos...For free, since I made my money off of the other servers I scraped/sold out of the lot I bought.

And I just sold the other system with maybe $25 more invested in the parts...For $125.

Anyway, I have a stable clock of 2.7Ghz, (FSB 245x11), Idle temps are decent, high 20's to low 30's.

Under load, as in Fallout New Vegas on some pretty high settings, although customized because I think grass and trees should be rare in a wasteland...It peaks about 45C, the other core lagging behind at 40C or so.

I do have locked clock speeds for everything...

PCI-E is locked at 100Mhz, with options up to like 180 or 150Mhz, my GPU is stock clocked at 600Mhz GPU/500Mhz GDDR3.

I had it to 690/550, and was getting some screen tearing on my second monitor whenever I scrolled down a webpage.

My RAM is 2x2GB G.Skill DDR2 PC-6400 Gaming edition with like 2 inch heat spreaders and I've seen them clocked over 1000Mhz on newegg reviews.

Currently they are running at 900Mhz stable in dual-channel at CAS 5. Though it says I should be able to hit CAS 4 on it...

My HyperTransport is Auto set to 4x, though I can manually set it to anything between 1x and 5x.

I have voltage controls for my RAM, both higher and lower than factory recommended, as well as CPU voltage controls.

I have no PCI cards, and don't plan to add anything, except a gigabit Ethernet adapter. Hell, there could be a locked speed for that too, never really looked.

Just wondering if increasing the voltage to the CPU might in turn let me opperate a higher frequency without rasing the FSB any more than it is.

 

[Ari3sgr3gg0]

You sound just as cheap as me when it comes to computers pushing budget parts to the absolute max. If your bios has overlocking options to allow an overclock without pushing the fsb I'd take that route, increasing the voltage may provide a higher threshold for overclocking and if you feel comfortable doing that I'd say go for it. That little system ought to get a gaming on a budget reward imo

 

[saintinix]

I don't believe it does.

In my performance settings zone, all my options are there...

FSB, PCI-E, HyperTransport, Voltage for RAM and CPU.

Then there's an entire section for the RAM, but no 'Overclock' setting as far as I'm aware.

It's honestly a big upgrade from an old Socket 939 3700+ Single core with 4x1GB DDR400.

I'm in pretty good with the local PC scrap guy, just picked up 11 non-working LCD's from 15" to 19" Widescreen...Got two working so far, hopefully 5 or 6 total.

Got a bunch of other stuff from him too, Enermax 460W gaming PSU, Logitech G5, some nice Gateway keyboards, Targus mini-mouse...

Usually my scrap Motherboards, PSUs, CPUs and RAM cover the crazy low prices he charges me...Like $2.50-$5 for Hard drives...Got a WD Blue 320GB SATA for $5.

So yeah, I'm very cheap. Considering all the PCs in my house...I don't think I actually spent a single penny.

The money I make off of fixing, re-selling, hustling and what-not from the things I buy...Always seems to get me extra cash and free upgrades.

Now if only I could make enough doing it to pay the rent, and the car payment, I'd be set.

 

[Ari3sgr3gg0]

Seems you might be stuck at that overclock but congrats on making it that far not too long ago I was rockin' an old emachince with socket 939 3200+ and a 9800gtx+. Surprisingly the 3200+ didn't seem to bottleneck it and even before that pc a barton core socket 462 mad 3200+ and pipeline unlocked 6800 gt