AMD X2 6000 / nForce 570

Antnee

Antnee

Antnee

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Joined
13 Feb 2009
Posts
42
Hi guys,

For my first post I'd like to pick your brains a little if I may? My mrs bought me an Athlon X2 6000 (Brisbane) for my birthday to replace the 4200 that has been in it for the past two years. After applying the latest BIOS update (from Alienware, the PC builder, rather than Foxconn, the motherboard manufacturer) the CPU is detected correctly, but everything is saying that each core is only opperating at 3GHz, when it should be 3.1GHz.

I have checked the BIOS settings and set it to 200MHz bus, 15.5x multiplier and 5x HT link, but still it only seemed to operate at 3GHz. I changed the multiplier to 15x and it remained at 3GHz. Methinks that ain't working properly for some reason.

Anyway, I ramped the bus speed up to 210MHz and I'm currently testing stability with OCCT3. I've been advised to drop the HT link, just in case, but it was only running at 1050MHz previously. It's now at 840MHz as a result of turning the link speed down to 4. I've been running for just shy of two hours and I'm seeing the following performance:

CPU0: 43°c (started 14°c)
CPU1: 45°c (started 20°c)
Chipset: 64°c (started 36°c)

I powered the machine on after being off for 8 hours and went straight in to the test. I should point out that the chipset fan is failing (does that pulsing whirring noise) and I've ordered a replacement earlier today.

My question is whether the the bus speed will be an issue. Am I likely to blow anything up if I continue to operate at 210MHz or am I safe to keep going? I am going to put the HT link back to 5 in a mo and see how that works.

Thanks all
 
OCCT3 has finished, and I've uploaded the graphs here:

2009-02-13-13h52-CPU1.png

2009-02-13-13h52-CPU2.png

2009-02-13-13h52-VCore.png

2009-02-13-13h52-Volt12.png

2009-02-13-13h52-Volt3.png

2009-02-13-13h52-Volt5.png
 
If you lower the multi and and raise the bus speed, you will be able to achieve the same overclock with a higher HT link :) But remember to make sure your ram isn't running outside of its specification, unless you want it to ;)

Run CPUZ to see what the CPU is being reported as. Those temps look fine bar the chipset.
 
Hi Happy. So I should keep the multiplier at 15x, or even lower, and raise the bus speed? I've turned the HT link back up to 5x (now 1050MHz) and OCCT3 passed OK again after a two hour run. I've attached the images below again. The memory is DDRII800 and CPUZ reports 393.8MHz at present. It's only Kingston Value RAM (don't ask; long story) so I'm not keen on pushing it much harder.

Ultimately, rather than wanting to be overclocking and getting the maximum out of the CPU, I just want to get the performance that was advertised; ie 3.1GHz per core, rather than the 3GHz that it was doing on standard settings.

Anyway, the tests had concluded a while ago now (10 minutes) and I've got the following temperatures now:

CPU0: 30.5°c
CPU1: 23°c
Chipset: 37°c

I'm sure it will be better when the new chipset cooler is on next week

2009-02-13-16h09-CPU1.png

2009-02-13-16h09-CPU2.png

2009-02-13-16h09-VCore.png

2009-02-13-16h09-Volt3.png

2009-02-13-16h09-Volt5.png

2009-02-13-16h09-Volt12.png
 
Ok, well download and run CPUZ to check what your CPU speed is. You might find that Foxconn have a more up to date bios, and it could be a cause of the mobo currently not recognising you CPU correctly.

However I suspect that that if the bios is showing the multi as 15.5x then the CPU will be running at 3.1Ghz.

CPUZ - Click Me :)
 
Already using CPUZ. The CPU is running at 3150 at the moment (210MHz x 15), even though the BIOS multiplier setting says 15.5x. If the 210MHz ain't gonna do any harm then it can stay as is for me. I did consider using the Foxconn BIOS update, which I have already downloaded, but (and you'll laugh at this) it will remove the Alienware branding from POST, and I can't bring myself to do it :D I know, idiot
 
Each to their own :p

I would imagine that such a small overclock is fine, especially since you have passed OCCT. So I would just stick with those settings :)
 
Which X2 6000+? The original two steppings were 3.0Ghz with 1Mb L2 cash. The latest version is 3.10Ghz with 512kb L2 cash.
 
He has the latest, which is why the bios has allowed a 15.5x multi, and thoses temps are a bit cool for the old one (I have one :D)
 
That's right. The Windsor (original) is 2 years old now, ran at 3GHz (200MHz * 15) and had 2x 1MB cache. The Brisbane (mine) is 8 months old, runs at 3.1GHz (200MHz * 15.5) and has 2x 512MB cache
 
Well my new chipset fan turned up today. It's EnzoTech SLF-1 low profile, copper heatsink. I've fitted it and noticed the BIOS was unable to report the speed properly. Hardware Sensors Monitor says that it's spinning at 16,129rpm. Does that seem likely? I know it's only small, but that seems REALLY fast to me.

Also, after only five minutes of OCCT3 the mainboard temperature is being reported by HSM as 68°c, which seemed to be a quick climb. The machine powered off a few minutes ago only a couple of minutes in to the test. The CPU temperatures are fine. I'm hoping it was unrelated, and something just went wrong. I can't imagine what though.

One upside to having been upgrading the PC recently though is that I've been able to investigate how Alienware make their PCs, and also how the LED colours are controlled. The cables are so neatly tucked away that I was worried about disturbing them. There are eight fans in the case too; one on the front, one on the back, one on each side (one blowing air over the HDDs and the other extracting from over the VGA card), the CPU and chipset coolers, the VGA cooler and one in the PSU. At the bottom of the case is a small PCB with what looks like a SODIMM or mini-PCI slot on it (it's neither). In this is a small card with three DIP switches on it. This is the AlienFX control card (rather than the higher-end AlienIce card which is software controlled and allows different lights per zone and even flashing effects). One switch controls red, one green, and the other blue. Mine had blue lights when I bought it, and for the last two years. Now it has red LEDs in a black chassis. Very nice :D

Anyway, just over 10 minutes in to OCCT and the chipset temperature is now reported at 67°c. Bit warm, but as long as it doesn't get as hot as it was doing I'll be happy, considering it won't ever be under this much load in normal use. When it's done I'll start preparing my new 1TB HDD :D I don't know how to partition it mind you. One large 1TB partition would be silly, wouldn't it?
 
Hello mate and welcome, I have the same chip and also running 570i (check my sig) I have my chip to 3.4ghz stable so dont worry about upping the FSB. If you search my posts i put up some screen shots of my desktop while testing not long ago. One other thing the 65nm 6000 chips are screwed up temp sensors common fault, i was useing an old coretemp which was reporting load @ 44c on 3.5ghz after reading about the problems the new core temp reports fine but i dropped to 3.4 as i was really running 61C :eek: down to a safe 48c on load :D
 
Thanks. That's worth bearing in mind. I must admit that I'm a bit old school in that I consider a HSF to be too hot when I can't bear to touch it. I guess it's because I used to deal with over heating PCs before they started putting hardware monitors in there :D The CPU heatsink is always cool to the touch, which I thought was very impressive considering it's a stock AMD box cooler. The chipset cooler also feels OK, even under heavy load. I've been testing in OCCT3 and also running fr-041_debris, which I must admit doesn't load the CPU 100%, but does seem to push the GPU and chipset to high loads. No tests have resulted in anything being too hot to touch.

I'm emailing Alienware about a possible BIOS update from them too. Obviously they're giving me the spiel about not supporting non-Alienware upgrades, so they won't support the CPU upgrade. Neither will they support any software or BIOS updates that haven't come from the My Hive support section of their own site. But since their BIOS update doesn't support my CPU, but Foxconn do have one that does, then I'm tempted. I'd actually like to try running it at 15.5x and leave the bus speed as it is, as this will yield a 3,255GHz clock speed, which I know is far from extreme, but it's a fair whack better than the 3GHz that I was getting originally. The memory is clocked a bit faster too which is nice, and the HT gets a small boost too, so it's all good as far as I'm concerned :D
 
I have noticed that a lot of places have been selling the old 6000+ (3ghz) as the new one (3.1ghz) in my opinion the origonal is better due to cache. the smaller process on the newer version is better for overclocking though. you can be certain if you check the product discription on the box or top of the cpu. many bios will display multiplier options that your chip cant actually support. you can even select them but it will slip back to default regardless.

your ht should be fine up untill about 1050 atleast.

ram should be ok to 220ish voltage and timing adjustments should gain you more also.

as for your hdd i always place a 20gb partition infront of all my storage drives incase i ever need to use them for boot.

also your nForce NB is a bit of a hottie so i dont find those temps odd however you could check the contact, thermal compound etc. it does seem a little week for a nvidia heatsink
 
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