OC noobie advice?

Drefsab · 19 Feb 2006 at 01:11

Hi I hgot my new parts today and got my system up and running nicely.

Then I started to looking to overclocking the beast.

So I drop the ram frequency to 100mhz, the cpu multiplyer to 4x, and the HTT multi down to the lowest I could set it. When stepping up the fsb I got a clean post at 280mhz everything seamed to be running ok, but then the pc powered off and when I powered on again it gave me the ram error beeps. Clearing the cmos etc got it all up and working again, I check the temps etc all seamed fine.

Do you think i hit a problem with the cpu or the ram or even the board?

ps.

My specs are

AMD Opteron 165
DFI nF4 Expert
and 2x1GB g.skill pc3200 ZX (matched pair).

Any advice on what went wrong would be apreciated

Zefan · 19 Feb 2006 at 01:13

I dunno how those boards work, but maybe the pci lock was off? This would cause your disks to just say "No" at windows boot. SHould be somewhere in bios to turn it off.

:edit: Read again....., RAM error beeps.... :confused:

I dunno then

Drefsab · 19 Feb 2006 at 01:19

definatly had a pci lock on, I actually had it in windows running super pi, the thing that confuses me is the ram error beeps cos with underclocking the ram it shouldnt have been that which caused the crash but Im certainly no expert so I though I would check in you guys ^^

ryansm · 19 Feb 2006 at 08:11

Having a quick look at your system,

I would aim for your FSB around 280 (maybe more???)
Keep your CPU multi at x9 (280x9 = 2520mhz)

Watch your HTT - generally try and get it near as possible to 1000mhz
So your HTT multi should be set to 3x (280(FSB)x3 = 840mhz)
When you start upping the FSB you will get closer to 1000mhz again.
Obviously if your FSB is at 250mhz then you want to set your HTT to 4x as 4x250 = 1000mhz HTT and your CPU would be at 2250mhz (9x250). If you could get your RAM running at 333mhz that could be a good OC for your system. Once you start OC'ing past 250mhz bring your HTT multi down to 3x to gain more stability.

I would set your RAM at 333mhz first and see how far you get with your FSB until either you get stability probs or your system does not boot. Then take it down to the next level from there. Try loosening your timmings to 3-4-4-8 to get more stability from them being OC'ed.

Remember when you system becomes unstable add a little voltage to get more stability. However Voltage=Heat=Not Good. If that does not work either drop down your FSB or your RAM mhz etc...

Keep going up in 5mhz increments and see where you get. It takes time but is worth doing properly.

Its all a trial and error game - the fact is you should stop once you are happy - and dont be tempted to keep pushing imo. I could get more from my system if I wanted but I have a good balance and it runs great. Having the highest CPU speed does not mean your system will run faster if your ram and HTT is well underclocked.

Dont get me wrong - what I am saying may differ from the way others OC. I am certainly no expert and I am here to learn also. This is the way I do it and it works...but it may not be entirley right???

Hope it helps though.

Drefsab · 19 Feb 2006 at 12:08

thanks for the reply, im still definatly in the early stages. I manged to get a stable system with 400mhz with my cpu multi to x4, I stopped there as I didnt think I would get my system any faster that that. Currenly im running at 9x 300mzh for 2.7ghz, The HTT is running at 1200 or I could have gone for 900 but seams stable atm with this. The ram I havent started on but I have it at 225 with timings of 3,3,2,5,7.

I took a screen shot http://www.drefsab.f2s.com/oc.jpg, as you can see its running nicely so I think I have more room for improvment, when I pushed the fsb to 2.8 I had some crash's so I stopped for the night and dropped it down a little.