help needed for overclock on X2 3800

Foehammer2003 · 23 May 2006 at 01:49

Ok, so here it is, my frustration with my lack of knowledge!

Got an Asrock 939 dual SATAII, X2 3800, 1 gig Corsair pc3200 and can only get a measly 2.3Ghz, anything more (2.4) and it fails to boot into windows.

I set the RAM to 133Mhz divider, chanded to cpu, pci-e, Async in
BIOS, increase the cpu freq to 240, set cpu NB link speed to 800mhz and voltage at max 1.4V. I'm not after a huge OC but know that everyone else can get so much higher.

I've set the above in BIOS from other threads i've read of the same cpu/mobo combo, but i know sweet fudge about how it really works... only got a basic understanding... so if anyone has any suggestions that would be great

Oh HSF is Gorb2 and temps are a nice 32C idle and a max of 43C load thus far, so i kinda ruled out temps being a problem.

A.N.Other · 23 May 2006 at 10:48

Don't have much experience with that board but everything you've done there seems to be OK on a scan. Try setting the NB-SB link to 4x (800) as well, see where that gets you.

// EDIT // Make sure you've disabled Cool'n'Quiet as well!

lee87 · 23 May 2006 at 10:52

Have you tried the latest bios?
Try disabling spread spectrum, not sure what this does but I get an extra 100mhz with it turned off.

Arthalen · 23 May 2006 at 11:03

IIRC, Spread Spectrum allows the motherboard to vary the signal to the processor slightly to maintain better stability.

Foehammer2003 · 23 May 2006 at 15:36

thanks for the reply guys!

Will try raising the nb sb speed, oh and lol, guess it might help if i disable cool and quiet eh!

will let ya know if it works

EDIT: although i'm not using the latest BIOS i'm using 1.6 and the only update to that (1.8) is for the board to support the AM2 board add on, so i presume its not detremental to my overclocking... could be wrong though

sablabra · 23 May 2006 at 16:16

Remember to disable C&Q. I had my x2 [email protected] when I had this mobo

Foehammer2003 · 23 May 2006 at 16:27

lol what a fool

Yeah as soon as i disabled C'n'Q put the cpu freq to 240 and it booted no probs :rolleyes:

... Thanks again! gonna see how much i can get out of this chip then post my results

sablabra · 23 May 2006 at 16:36

Foehammer2003 said:
lol what a fool

Yeah as soon as i disabled C'n'Q put the cpu freq to 240 and it booted no probs ... Thanks again! gonna see how much i can get out of this chip then post my results

np. You could also perform a Vmod to increase the Volts up to 1.55V. Should help you a bit on the way

Foehammer2003 · 23 May 2006 at 16:42

Well i wanted to see how far i could go on 1.4V as i really wanna keep temps low so i can keep this chip for a year or so without damage

Dont suppose ya have a link for prime 95 download do you? Found a couple of sites with it, but last updates were '05... not sure what the latest

Foehammer2003 · 23 May 2006 at 17:56

Ok so im just seeing how stable 2.4Ghz is with SiSandra using the CPU benchmarking and @ 2.4 is about the same performance as the x2 4800... in both multi media tests and the cpu arithmetic benchies, surely that can tbe right, i thought 2.4 ghz was equal to a stock 4400, no? to compensate for the extra cache that the 4400 has. any ideas?

A.N.Other · 23 May 2006 at 19:14

Cool'n'Quiet is a pain in the ***! Seriously!

Anyway, glad you're sorted. As in the table, you should be able to get 2500 at 1.4 VCore - a lot (including me) have this clock. Anyway, regarding the extra cache of the 4400, it is said that the extra 1Mb (512Kb per core) equates to about 200Mhz in real terms.