Getting nowhere overclocking my x2 3800

El Jimben

El Jimben

El Jimben

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24 Jul 2006
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Essex
Currently, the setup in my rig is running at 10 x 214 = 2140 MHz, ram @ 1:1, HTT x4 (856 MHz). I've changed the divider to 166 so that the ram's running at 178.3MHz but when I up the FSB to 220 (so the ram would be at 191 MHz), my PC won't post and I don't know where I'm going wrong.

I'm still using the above at stock volts, as I'm sure the chip should be able to go some way before I need to increase the vcore. I did up the NB voltage to see if that made any difference but it still won't POST. Do I need to slacken my RAM timing (2-3-2-5) or something :confused:
 
The Pci-E frequency is locked@ 100MHz so that's not the problem. The RAM i'm using is G.SKill ZX DDR 400 2x 1GB Kit and the default timings are 2-3-2-5. As for slackening the timings, if it will do 214MHz at 1:1 with the default timings, then it should be able to 256 on 5/6 (DDR333) i.e. 256 divided by 6 = 42.6, 42.6 x 5 = 213MHz ram, 2560MHz CPU shouldn't it? My knowledge of dividers & timings isn't that great though.
 
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Ok, I got it into windows with FSB @ 220 by increasing the vcore to 1.4v but something's still screwed up, as I was getting error messages with SuperPI more or less as soon as it started. Wouldn't post with 225 FSB.

Am using the 0502 bios, could try updating to 0602 but I just don't see that this will help me. Maybe I could try slackening the RAM timings, how should I go about this?
 
But if you look here, some people were getting 2.5 GHz http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17578954 :( Anyway, the plot thickens! I flashed my mobo to the latest BIOS and it will now post @ 220 FSB, DDR333 at stock volts instead of 1.4v as before!? Same problem though, won't do 225 FSB no matter how many volts I give it. As above, how should I go about loosening the RAM timings, this mobo has tons of options.
 
After some semi-extensive googling, I'm thinking that the stepping (LDBFE 0623 XPMW) of my chip ain't so great :( Even so, I should be able to get a lot further than I'm getting!
 
Thanks to everyone for their help, this nut is cracked! Turns out it was RAM timings after all :p Dropped them down to 2-3-3-6 and have got 240 x 10 = 2.4GHz @ stock volts :D Idle temp is only 1 degree higher too! I'm gonna start priming to check for stability and then see how high I can go.
 
I've got 2 instances of prime running and have set it so that 1 core is used for each, which is what I think you're supposed to do. However, 1 seems to be stuck on the first test whilst the 2nd is already on the third. When I stop the first one, it does it straight away whereas the second takes a while to stop?
 
Damn, I knew something else would go wrong! Basically, I can't get 2.4GHz from a cold boot. I can get in to windows ok with 230 x 10 and then I restart, go into the bios & change the fsb 240 and it's fine, boots no problem :confused: 2.4GHz seems stable enough when running apps though, primed each core for an hour and then played BF2 for 2 hours last nite anyway. Help!

EDIT: won't cold boot @ 230 x 10 either. If I go into the bios, change nothing & then save and exit, it boots fine. Weird.
 
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Thanks for the input people :rolleyes: For anyone that's interested, I fixed the cold boot issue by changing the RAM voltage to 2.7v from auto. Now @ 2.5GHz on stock volts, 8.5 hours prime stable.
 
Trial and error is your friend I guess. Sorry for the sarcasm, I just thought I'd get a better response seeing as a lot of ppl from these forums had the chip I have before going to the dark side :p Wish I could go conroe...
 
Ok bump. I know this chip can do at least 2.8GHz, settings were 280 x 10, RAM @ 233MHz 2.5-3-3-6 but this wasn't stable and to be honest, I didn't want to slacken the timings anymore.

So I've lowered the divider to 133 and am now running 300 x 9, 1.4v vcore, RAM @ 193 MHz, 2-3-3-6 but if I try and increase the FSB to 305, the PC won't boot. I've tried upping the vcore to 1.5v and I've also upped the board and HTT voltages by 0.1v (tried various combinations of this) but I get nothing. Any ideas where I'm going wrong?

Here's a screenie of where I am now http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/494/27ghzjp3.jpg
 
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