Recommended settings for Sabertooth 990FX

imostlydomurder

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Hi guys, new poster to the forum. Like gaming but really a novice when it comes to PCs, software or hardware.

Recently upgraded from old M4*LT-M series mobo to a sabertooth, which I have a 1100T BE Phenom (Thuban) stuck to it and cooled by an Antec Kuhler liquid jobber in a spanking new NXZT phantom case.

Everything works fine, however I reckon there is some tweaking to be done, as I'm still running my Phenom at 3.3ghz and my lovely Corsair vengence RAM is still sat at 1333mhz despite the fact it is actually Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 RAM. (8 gig in total in two slots).

Could someone please at least point me at the optimal normal settings in my bios for normal gaming use, before I look at overclocking?

I am not at all confident with manipulating the bios and to be honest I am concerned I will cook or kill something messing with it.

For starters, I read on the web in various areas that it is best to disable the TURBO CORE function as it monkeys with the system too much. What does this do and what is the effect of disabling it?

Second, what the heck is 'cool and quiet' and am I best to disable this? If so what do I need to be aware of?

Lastly, I read that the default bios setting for RAM is EEC mode, and it is best to disable this immediately. Is this ok?

So, thats that, anything else I need to be aware of or change? The bios on this mobo is supposed to be user friendly but it confuses the hell out of me. I have CPU-Z and the hardware monitor installed so I can give you results from all this etc.

System is also includes 750W Corsair PSU, Palit GTX 580, running windows 7 64 bit, just a regular mechanical WD 1TB HDD. Nothing else. Will shortly be adding an Asus sound card to this, the cheap one.

Many thanks, sorry if I have asked 'bone' questions as I said I am completely new to this, I was mostly an Xbox 360 player until last year and this is my first from scratch build really, never opened a computer case up except when upgrading my old rig earlier this year.
 

casualbuilder

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Ok, the only thing i will say is log onto the AMD OC club thread, and read. I believe Ryan4 also has an AMD OC guide for unlocked multiplier chips like your 1100T BE. Every chip is different, and nothing is guaranteed.

Read those two threads first. Then, start with your multiplier. Everything should be done in the BIOS>
 

imostlydomurder

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Many thanks, that guide however, doesn't address and of my confusion and simply adds to it. For example, memory timing, I have no idea how to alter these.
 

casualbuilder

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dont worry about you memory timings. Im guessing in your BIOS, you have a 16.5 multiplier. You should be able to raise that to an 18.0 and not have to change much if anything. I hate giving advice though...OC'ing is at your own risk!
 
For timings you need do this:

1- Go to your BIOS
2- Look for the "DRAM Configuration" and change it from "Auto" to "Manual"
3- Your RAM have defaults specs like speed (1600MHz) and cas latency (CL9)
4- You need set those settings in the BIOS changing the current settings to the above settings (default settings for your RAM)
5- What mobo do you have?

Now, for your other questions here are the answers.

1- What's Cool'n'Quite?: That's a power options that reduce the CPU frequency when your CPU isn't in heavy use, in that way your rig use less power and produce less temps.
2- Is better disable turbo core? Turbo core rise the CPU frequency when the CPU is on load (games or similar), this is disable because you only want a single stable speed and not two.
3- ECC: This memory type is only used for servers, the ECC acronym means "Error Correcting Code", you can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECC_memory

If you have more question or need more help, let us know.
 

imostlydomurder

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Thanks. I have an Asus Sabertooth 990FX and a Phenom 1100T X6 Black addition stuck to it. All cooled by an Antec Kuler liquid cooler.

Will change latency and RAM speed as indicated above, many thanks.

From memory on CPU-Z my multiplier is 16.5 how do I alter this in my bios?? It doesn't seem to be called a multiplier in the mobo manual??

I should disable turbo core then. Thanks.
 

casualbuilder

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disable turbo core. set your OC to manual. there should be a multiplier in the AI Tweaker of your BIOS. you can easily set this to say, 20, and then keep that FSB at or around 200Mhz. This should be a good start. Next thing would be to change the RAM freq, as its just below it, nothing over 1600 speed though, your mobo/cpu will not like it! change the cpu voltage to manual, and maybe around 1.47-1.48 range.

Ram timings is just before the vcore settings i believe... click on DRAM Timings tab and you can adjust everything in there.
 

imostlydomurder

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Thanks guys, very helpful. Will set CPU voltage as you said.

So, in sequence.

Turn machine on and get into bios.

Disable turbo core.

Disable EEC ram mode.

Set OC to manual.

Change multiplyer to 20 from 16.5.

FSB sat at 200 (i think this is the stock setting).

CPU voltage to 1.48.

RAM frequency to 1600mhz not 1333.

DRAM timings to 9 9 9 9 24.

Boot machine. Enjoy.

Thanks again.
 
Go to your BIOS and do this:

1- Go to A1 tweaker
2- Set the "A1 tweaker" option as "manual" as well as "CPU ratio"
3- Do the same for "memory frequency" and select 1600MHz
4- Look for the "DRAM timing control" option and hit enter
5- The configuration is 9-9-9-27
6- Remember change the DRAM voltage from "Auto" to 1.65V
7- Disable C1E too
 

casualbuilder

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There might be some tweaking with this, so dont get too excited...lol. I noticed with my board, once i hit the 18.5 multiplier mark, the FSB automatically wanted to increase to 216. It might take some tweaking to get it to boot/post. This is simply a starting place.

About the RAM, i would keep it at or better yet under 1600MHz. You can always go a little higher, but i would like to see you get a better stable OC than have a little faster RAM. 8GB is a TON! you will never use it in gaming, but the cpu clock will be nice to have.

Prime95 for min. 2 Hrs, and keep CoreTemp up to make sure your temps stay around 55c, (62c absolute max!!!) and have some fun. This can be stressful or frustrating, so be prepared to make slight changes over the next couple of days even.
 

imostlydomurder

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What is C1E?? Sorry. Config for my ram according to Corsair is 9 9 9 9 24??
 

imostlydomurder

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Hi guys, have disables turbo core, cool and quiet and EEC mode. Did an auto overclock just to try, it got to 3.8ghz easily, though it did this by raising the FSB from around 200 to about 215-220 or something, leaving the multiplyer untouched. Prime 95'ed it and cpu temp got to 55 easily. Will have another tinker at the weekend and do it all manually instead.

Overclocked the GPU, using supplied software with my card- V tune. Did a burn in with furmark, card hit 79 degrees over the usual 72 when gaming, so well pleased with that, haven't taken it beyond 900mhz yet though.
 
The turbo feature and generally, the auto overclock features add to your CPU more voltage than they really need for be stable. You can do the same 3.8GHz easily with less voltage and better temps.
 

imostlydomurder

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Thanks. Perhaps it was originally designed for CPUs without unlocked multipliers.

What do you think my realistic overclock ceiling is with an 1100T Black edition?? 4ghz??
 

imostlydomurder

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Thanks, will set that as my target. Apparently a 4ghz Phenom and this Mobo are one of the fastest AMD rigs around so should see me into the future for some time yet, until bulldozer or piledriver are revised/ready to do battle or I decide to go intel.