Newbie Overclocker

[Azraeluk]

Hi all

My old pc is starting to feel the strain of the newer titles and would like to eak out the last drops of performance from it. I have never dabbled with overclocking before so just wondered what I should adjust if anything to try to get a little more for the beastie.

Can tweak cpu, ram and GFX, not adversed to buying a new (cheapish <£20) cooler either

Spec is
Asus A8N-Sli (not deluxe one)
AMD 3800 X2 (stock cooler)
2gb Corsair ram (4x512)
ATI x1950XT 256 (powercolor silent one)
Hyper 540 Type R PSU
Windows Vista Ultimate (32bit) (Thinking of reverting to XP next week tho).

I know my way around the bios and the like, but never sure what settings to tweak. I have heard you can get 2.3-2.4 outta these chips.

It has to be a stable overclock for running games etc etc

Over to you guys

Ta in advance

 

[paradigm]

First things first, the biggest key to AMD A64 overclocking is to not let the HTT speed raise much beyond 1000MHz.

So drop the HT multi to 4x, and whack your FSB up to 240MHz, raise the CPU voltage by 0.15v-0.2v, and either drop your mem to the 333 divider, thus giving you your 200MHz RAM speed back (240 / 1.2 = 200), or increase your RAM voltage to compensate for the increase in clockspeed (may end up slackening off the timings/sub-timings also).

You'll also want to raise the chipset voltage by 0.1v-0.2v

 

[Azraeluk]

Ta ill give those a try tonight

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

First things first, the biggest key to AMD A64 overclocking is to not let the HTT speed raise much beyond 1000MHz.

So drop the HT multi to 4x, and whack your FSB up to 240MHz, raise the CPU voltage by 0.15v-0.2v, and either drop your mem to the 333 divider, thus giving you your 200MHz RAM speed back (240 / 1.2 = 200), or increase your RAM voltage to compensate for the increase in clockspeed (may end up slackening off the timings/sub-timings also).

You'll also want to raise the chipset voltage by 0.1v-0.2v

Why not let the HT raise... mines is running at 1123.8 the now :| Nice and stable

 

[paradigm]

Oh don't get me wrong, its not a certainty that it wont run higher than 1000MHz, but more often than not, the HTT going above 1000MHz is the cause of poor overclocks, instabilities, and the lack of being able to run high FSBs.

For example, if you have hit an FSB wall with your rig, or find that you don't think it can overclock much further, try dropping the HT multiplier, and you will most likely see a fair bit more headroom.

I thought the upper limit of my 3800+ was 2.4~2.5GHz, changing the HT multiplier got me up to 2.8GHz

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

Oh don't get me wrong, its not a certainty that it wont run higher than 1000MHz, but more often than not, the HTT going above 1000MHz is the cause of poor overclocks, instabilities, and the lack of being able to run high FSBs.

For example, if you have hit an FSB wall with your rig, or find that you don't think it can overclock much further, try dropping the HT multiplier, and you will most likely see a fair bit more headroom.

I thought the upper limit of my 3800+ was 2.4~2.5GHz, changing the HT multiplier got me up to 2.8GHz

Thats ok then...! Just had me worried, thought maybe it wasnt meant to be that fast hehe!

if i want to push it any faster ill no doubt drop it to 3x, as it seems ****** fast the now, doubt it will go any higher lol!