Overclocking guide for newbies here...

[kingdhesiii]

also what sort of cpu speeds can u expect with a 146 without chaning the multiplyer

 

[smids]

You cannot unlock CPU multipliers (except with some older Athlon's IIRC - required some modding). They are locked upwards on all CPU's except the FX series which are completely unlocked. All other's are multi locked upwards but unlocked downwards. e.g. a 2.2ghz 11x multi San Diego can be set to 10x, 9x etc all the way down to 4x but cannot go upwards to 12x. When you understand more about overclocking, you will realise that changing the multiplier is a minor thing and basically is based on what RAM you have. Read my guide on page 7 of this thread in Orange text for more info on A64 overclocking.

 

[AlanJ]

Hi there after reading this thread yesterday ive decided to attemp to overclock my CPU.

Specs;
Abit KD7A
AMD Athlon 2600+ (1,9mhz)
2 x 512 not sure on make
330FSP GROUP psu (330w)

I gave it ago yesterday and i managed to get 2140 mhz quite stable!
Put back to default lastnight so i could do some work instead of crashing lo.

Ive been trying most of the day to overclock it, but today nothings happening at all. I went into bios changed the settings to yesterdays and it would boot! Had to remove the motherboard bat. ps was at 10x 186

Any ideas?

Many thanks

 

[Baker]

Will follow this guide at the weekend to try and get max possible out of my PC.

 

[Siders77]

I've had a read through this thread but still don't really grasp the concept of it.

I have an AMD 3200+ which has a locked mulit (As do all of the Venice cores I believe)

I put the FSB up to 220, the DDR SDRAM voltage(I think that's what it's called) up to 1.75. Then I got 2.4Ghz. I did this when I was on the phone to a mate who was helping me.

We ran into a problem though. I couldn't find anywhere that will let me adjust the RAM timings (That's what I was told to do)

Any help here?

Spec is in my sig if you need it.
Cheers, Lee.

 

[abhorsen]

okay so i've read through this post and i might have missed it so feel free to nudge me in the right direction (page number etc) searched the whole forums too and i cant seem to find out where to unlock the multiplyer on my chip anywhere (see sig for specs), i heard it couldnt be done on the new 64's except the FX's but maybe thats just increasing... I havent tried an overclock of a CPU before so be gentle Thanx.

 

[smids]

okay so i've read through this post and i might have missed it so feel free to nudge me in the right direction (page number etc) searched the whole forums too and i cant seem to find out where to unlock the multiplyer on my chip anywhere (see sig for specs), i heard it couldnt be done on the new 64's except the FX's but maybe thats just increasing... I havent tried an overclock of a CPU before so be gentle Thanx.

Hi, Welcome to the Forums .

First - your sig is too big - 4 lines of text max OR a pic of 400x75 max and 20kb max + 1 line of text, just change it before a mod sees it .

Now, you have an 3200+ venice - 10x multi is the default multi on that. You can decrease this multi all the way to 4x but not increase it, only the FX's can do that and unfortunately no-one has figured out yet how to unlock them (damn AMD ). If you want a good guide at clocking, if I do say so myself, look at my guide on P7 of this thread (orange writing, Crash course in clocking for n00bies ). This will give you all the basics but I suggest a more detailed guide once you have the basics down. Venice's clock well, so I can see 2.5ghz easily. Good luck.

One more thing too...this thread is a guide thread only, we're only supposed to post guides here but I didn't want your post to go unanswered. Just ask in the main O/C'ing and Cooling forum for an advice on anything you don't understand after reading one of these guides. There is an amazing one at i4memory but I haven't got the link at the second - i'll see if I can dig it up for you.

 

[Dyewitness]

Anyone have a P4 Northwood overclocking GUIDE???

 

[P-NVIDIA-Andy]

Hi guys, I'm a noob on the boord and to OC'ing , however, I was just wondering if anybody has managed to OC a similar setup to me. My specs and BIOS settings are listed below:

Specifications:

CPU: AMD Ahtlon XP 3200+ Barton Core
Mainboard: MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum MS6750-E (No MBM Support)
Memory: 2 Gig DDR3200 G.Skill 2GBZX

Defaults:

1. CPU Speed: 2189MHz
2. V-Core: 1.642
3. Multiplier: x11.0
4. FSB: 200.00MHz

Memory Timings:

1. T (RAS): 5
2. T (RCD): 3
3. T (RP): 2
4. CAS (Latency): 2.0

If anyone has any recommendations for me (such a noob), I would be extremely greatfull.

 

[smids]

Welcome to the forums. Unfortunately, you won't get much of a response in here - this is a guides only thread. Start a new thread in the main forum and you'll get much more response.

Just a side note, your sig is too big. 400x75 and 20KB max + 1 line of text (like mine)
OR
4 lines of text. Another thing is that you aren't allowed .gifs. They just try to keep bandwidth down on here - just get it changed before a mod sees it.

 

[P-NVIDIA-Andy]

Welcome to the forums. Unfortunately, you won't get much of a response in here - this is a guides only thread. Start a new thread in the main forum and you'll get much more response.

Just a side note, your sig is too big. 400x75 and 20KB max + 1 line of text (like mine)
OR
4 lines of text. Another thing is that you aren't allowed .gifs. They just try to keep bandwidth down on here - just get it changed before a mod sees it.

Thanks for the info there, new topic here.

 

[Chronictank]

I found this guide when trolling around for info about how best to overclock my gear.
No discredit to the authors in this thread but i found it very difficult mapping the instructions on there to the settings on my DFI Lanparty and uncovered this little jewel as a result

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823

I would like to add however that the guide is written for single core processors, so you need to run two instances of the program to test the stability of both cores, with Super Pi i simply copied the program folder, ran 2 instanced.
ctrl+alt+delete to open task manager
right click on one instance of Super Pi, and select "go to process"
right click on the process and select "affinity", select 0
repeat for the other instance of super pi and set the affinity to 1.
For Prime95 go here:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17561094&highlight=prime+affinity

Enjoy ^^

Edit: Dfi-Street website was given to me by cavemaloc
Link to prime 95 on duel core, i dont remember who gave me that sorry :<

 

[Monstermunch]

I found this guide when trolling around for info about how best to overclock my gear.
No discredit to the authors in this thread but i found it very difficult mapping the instructions on there to the settings on my DFI Lanparty and uncovered this little jewel as a result

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823

I would like to add however that the guide is written for single core processors, so you need to run two instances of the program to test the stability of both cores, with Super Pi i simply copied the program folder, ran 2 instanced.
ctrl+alt+delete to open task manager
right click on one instance of Super Pi, and select "go to process"
right click on the process and select "affinity", select 0
repeat for the other instance of super pi and set the affinity to 1.
For Prime95 go here:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17561094&highlight=prime+affinity

Enjoy ^^

Edit: Dfi-Street website was given to me by cavemaloc
Link to prime 95 on duel core, i dont remember who gave me that sorry :<

Not wanting to disagree with people here, but that DFI street clocking info is a load of crap. It states things that just aren't true... Saying that you need to keep the HTT to around 2000 is a load of rubbish when dropping it to 3 x 200 has no effect whatsoever on performance!

 

[drak3]

I have A8R32-MVP Deluxe. How I lock the PCIe on this mobo like the guide says? Thanks a lot.

 

[smids]

I have A8R32-MVP Deluxe. How I lock the PCIe on this mobo like the guide says? Thanks a lot.

PCIe is locked already usually.

 

[drak3]

Thanks man. This means I can move to step 2 now in the guide

oh you have the same cpu in your sig running at impressive speed

I ve been trying with mine for 5hours now and cant boot if I change a setting :/

 

[smids]

Look into the HTT multi - make sure you aren't going over 1000mhz as some boards are very fussy. Over 200mhz FSB = drop HTT/LDT multi to 4x.

 

[drak3]

If I understand correctly you mean the Hypertransport speed? Well after some hours reading threads I figured out that my motherboard is supposed to run stable up to 1500 and otherwise it sets the multi automatically to the best. But maybe I understood wrong Please help me if is not this. Thanks man.

 

[drak3]

HTT/LDT multi to 4x and cant boot with 220Mhz FSB. All these people running 1Ghz more than me with this board cant be lying fs

 

[comp builder]

I agree, it's a very good start but needs more. Maybe you could integrate some of this into your guide?

Firstly, I think finding the CPU limit is the easiest thing to do. Trying to find the fsb limit is a lot trickier because there a more factors involved, like:-

RAM voltage,
RAM timings,
RAM fsb limit (some RAM just won't go higher, no matter what)
Motherboard northbridge voltage,
Northbridge heat (can cause all kinds of problems, especially onboard features like sound)
CPU voltage,
CPU speed limit,
CPU plain old fsb limit ( I mean even a 2ghz CPU can't run at 400fsb x 5 = 2ghz can it? no matter what you do to it)

To find the CPU limit is as simple as upping it's voltage until it won't go any further or you think your heatsink can't keep it cool enough. Also when you know the CPU limit it takes a factor out of guessing what's failing when hitting fsb problems later.

This is what I do and is how I know my system could run at 2.3ghz (230fsb x 10) RAM @ 11 - 4 - 4 - 2.5 without problems
Though for the sake of my ears (from the fans) and just to be 110% on the safe side I run at 2.2ghz (220fsb x 10) RAM @ 11-3-2-2 for normal use everyday use.
When playing a game I just whack it upto 2.3ghz and turn the speakers up.

1. Get your system 101% stable, with all your OS and programs installed, patched, updated, etc. Create a backup! you aren't going to find any limits until things start failing, things fail, especially due to high fsb, can cause all kinds of problems with important files. BE WARNED!

2. Invest in the best cooling you can / or are willing to afford. This should consist of a minimum of:-

1x 80mm fan on CPU heatsink (preferably over 30cfm)
1x 80mm fan sucking air into your case
1x 80mm fan blowing air out of your case

I say 80mm fans because anything smaller and they'll need to be spinning real fast to move a decent amount of air about. Which means loads of noise, even 80mm fans are quite loud.
You could even 7v these fans, it will raise temps a little, but as long as you've got some air passing through your case it'll help.
A couple of quid on a couple of fans is a small price to pay for the gains you'll probably make. Remember heat is the enemy here, the cooler things are, the faster they'll go

3. Now start finding how fast your CPU will go. So up the multiplier by 0.5. I'll use same example.

Athlon XP1800+
Stock = 1533mHz
FSB = 133mhz
Multiplier = 11.5

3a Increase multiplier to 12. CPU now at 1596mhz
3b Make sure it's stable, if it is up it again to 12.5. CPU now at 1662mhz.
3c Repeat this process until either something crashes or it just won't post / start up.
3d Let's say it fails at 13.5 x 133 = 1795mhz. Up the Vcore by 0.025
3e This time it boots @ 1795mhz. Repeat steps above until it fails.
3f Let's say it fails at 14.5 x 133 = 1928mhz, up the Vcore again. Repeat until either:-
Upping Vcore doesn't help it boot, or
CPU temps are getting higher than you're comfortable with, or
You've hit the maximum Vcore on your motherboard.
3g Now let's say it hit 15 x 133 = 1995mhz by upping the Vcore a total of 0.75volts and it's stable. You try 15.5 x 133 it fails. Upping by another 0.025v doesn't help, another 0.25v still doesn't work but another 0.025v does and you're running at 2061mhz.

Now this is where personal preference comes in. You've just overclocked you're CPU from 1533mhz to 1995mhz by upping the Vcore 0.075v. A gain of 462mhz!! Is it worth trying to gain just 66mhz more by having to add another 0.75v?

I say no, and is the reason I run my system at 2.2ghz 24/7 instead of 2.3ghz. Others want the maximum and would disagree with me. (someone usually does)

4 Now you know you're CPU limit is 2061mhz with 0.15v of extra volts or 1995mhz with just 0.075 volts extra. So it's time to find the FSB limit of your system.

With extra knowledge that your CPU limit is around 1729mhz (13 x 133) at default volts (because it failed at 13.5 x 133 earlier and you had to up the Vcore to get it higher.) You can set the multiplier to 10 knowing that if your system fails with the fsb at anything under 170mhz, it's almost certainly NOT the CPU and is probably the RAM or motherboard.

NOTE-If it fails at 170 x 10 =1700mhz, it could possibly be the CPU because although it did 133 x 13 = 1729mhz earlier, the extra 37mhz fsb could put more of a strain on it. Doubt it but it's possible, if you're unlucky you just might have a CPU that doesn't like high fsb's.

Once you do hit 170mhz FSB, drop the multiplier on the CPU to 9 or lower so you can keep it at default volts.( for now!)

Now follow the earlier guide for raising FSB. Except this time you can try these tips once you think you've hit the max.
Let's carry it on from where they left off and 179mhz is your maximum with RAM at 2.7v.

5 Multiplier of 9, RAM @ 2.7v, fsb @ 179mhz = 1611mhz

5a Go into BIOS and find the option where you can change your RAM's timings. I can't tell you where that here as every motherboard is different (some older ones won't even have this option) nforce2 chipset's do.

It'll have options like Optimum, Aggressive, Turbo, Manual. We want Manual.

When you select Manual, the numbers below it that were greyed out before will now be selectable! There should be 4 altogether. The first one will be the biggest, probably around 9, the next two will be around 3 or 4 (may have the letter 't' after them) and the last one ( the most important ) can be either 2, 2.5 or 3 and is called CAS.

5b For an example we'll set these numbers to 11 - 4 - 4 - 3. Now it's a little murky messing with RAM timings as some RAM just doesn't like certain configurations in this department, but bear with it, it can be well worth the effort. I gained an extra 20mhz on the fsb just by changing these settings alone!

My RAM will not boot with the CAS at 3, even though it should make it easier than 2.5. It won't even boot at 3 with the fsb at 100mhz!! So if yours won't boot, try 11-4-4-2.5

This is called "slackening your RAM timings" by the way.

5c If you find some 'slack' timings your RAM likes and it boots at 179 x 9, it time to see if we can go higher. Try 180 for size first time.
5d Keep going in 1mhz - 2mhz increments.
5e Now lets say you've hit 189mhz x 9 = 1701mhz and it's booted, drop the multiplier on the CPU as you're getting close to it's limits again, or you can just up the Vcore by 0.025v to help.
5f Whatever you fail at now, could very well be your systems limit, but there's another trick up the experienced overclockers sleeve.

You should also try this if slackening the RAM timings doesn't help at all, as this could the problem and not your RAM. If this helps then go back to 5b and try again.

6 Up the voltage to your northbridge, ( can't think of the name for it right now I'll come back and edit it later ) it will be at 1.6v if on an nforce2 motherboard. So up it by 0.1v to 1.7v

Now when your system fails you now know your max FSB and max CPU clock. Let's say in this example 200fsb was the max.
You know it can't run at 200 x 10.5 = 2100mhz because your CPU won't do it. You could try 200 x 10 = 2ghz, it managed 1995mhz earlier. Maybe try an extra 0.025v so you've raised by a total of 0.1v Vcore.

If this is stable after running Prime95, 3D Mark2001SE congratulations!

An XP1800+ running at 2ghz on a 200fsb with 400mhz DDR is a seriously fast machine and a very good overclock from 1.53ghz on a 133fsb with 266mhz DDR.

I'd say about 40% faster, maybe more!

You can also try "tightening" your RAM timings slightly if it's rock solid stable. Maybe get it down from 11 - 4 - 4 - 3 to 11 - 3 - 3 - 2.5.
You could also try upping the RAM volts to 2.8v, it shouldn't be a problem as long as you've got good airflow through your case.

Now go and overclock your graphics card.

Maybe you could try integrating some of that into your guide NF7-S? It's a bit long winded I know, I can go on sometimes! Maybe with a bit of editing it'll help?

**EDIT There is also one more trick you can try to give your fsb a good boost, but I'm not sure how many motherboards have this option. The only one I know that has it for sure is the Abit NF7-S.
There's an option in the BIOS called "CPU interface". What this does is initiate the 1T command for fast performance. Disabling this option can in some cases allow for a huge jump in maximum stable fsb. Maybe as much as an extra 30mhz!

But...

it does make quite a big impact on overall system performance, so it's upto you to decide if the trade off is worth it. Maybe an extra 30mhz fsb is, but an extra 5mhz definately won't be.

As with every guide, there are no certainties. Every system is different so there's no point in posting your full system spec's and asking
" what will this overclock to? "
Every single system is different and there are way too many different configurations to list an exact guide for each one. Even 2 systems absolutely exactly the same in every single aspect will overclock differently.

Experiment and have fun.

how do i change the multiplier and vcore (i have a AMD Athlon 2000+ and a v333u motherboard)
thanks