Overclocking an 'Oldie'.....

[OLD JUD]

Hi folks, i'm running this setup at the moment.....

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ Socket 939
Mobo - AsRock Model - 939NF6G-VSTA
Memory - 2 Gig OCZ DDR PC 4000

It's had a gentle overclock to approx 2.5 Ghz from the stock 2.4, what is this rig capable of and what bios settings do i need to alter to achieve this?

Yes i know it's old, but i'd really like to see what it's capable of before i upgrade it!

SORRY! i realised i've posted in the wrong forum!

 

[OrphanBoy]

I've got a 939 4200 (2.2GHz stock) and it starts to get a little flaky for me at 2.8GHz so I'd imagine that you would have similar results. I wouldn't expect to get 3GHz... I also have DDR500 RAM and so have my bus at 250MHz. I think the vcore's at 1.4v but could be totally wrong.

What kinda cooling do you have?

 

[matt_fsr]

I used to have an X2 4200+ 2.2Ghz clocked solidly at 2.75Ghz, never really pushed it much harder than that to be fair, seemed a decent enough clock.

That Asrock board may be your limitation, have a look for the newest BIOS for it and get it flashed.

You might find it doesnt have much option for giving more voltage to the CPU, so that might limit what you can get out of it.

Worth a go though, worst case scenario is a puff of smoke and a corrupted HDD

 

[mame]

Remember to lower the hyper transport multi. Default is 5x which gives 1000 (presuming the default FSB of 200) as soon as you start to raise the FSB then you must lower the HT multi. Don't let it go over 1000. And don't worry if you have to go to 3x and end up with hypertransport at 750, it really doesn't matter.

 

[OLD JUD]

I've got a 939 4200 (2.2GHz stock) and it starts to get a little flaky for me at 2.8GHz so I'd imagine that you would have similar results. I wouldn't expect to get 3GHz... I also have DDR500 RAM and so have my bus at 250MHz. I think the vcore's at 1.4v but could be totally wrong.

What kinda cooling do you have?

Hi Orphan, Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro Heatsink.

Thanks for your advice so far guys, anymore tips?

 

[OLD JUD]

The bios is the last available on this mobo, here are the setting i found in bios........

CPU frequency (MHz) 250
PCIE frequency (MHz) 125
Processor multiplier x10 2000MHz
Processor voltage 1.350V
Memory clock AUTO (133/166/200MHz options available)
CPU/LDT spread spectrum ENABLED
PCIE spread spectrum ENABLED

NOw what guys?........

 

[matt_fsr]

Well, without writing an essay on it, get that PCIE freq dropped to 100Mhz and lock it at that if you can.

Drop the Memory clock to 166, give it slightly more voltage, and then start upping the CPU frequency 5Mhz or so at a time, and test each time and keep an eye on your temps with Speedfan or similar.

Probably wont be able to get much over 280Mhz on the CPU freq, but it should help a bit.

 

[OrphanBoy]

Might need to change the timings on the memory too - look up what the ratings are for your memory at the chosen bus speed. For instance my stuff does CAS 2 at 200MHz yet I have to reduce it to 2.5 at >270MHz.

Also make sure that the hypertransport speed doesn't go over 1GHz else the machine'll get super unstable. This speed is derived from the bus speed so you'll need to change the HT multiplier from auto or 5x to 4x in order to keep it at 1GHz.

 

[OLD JUD]

Many thanks guys, it won't be long before this cpu/mobo/ram has a new owner, i just want to see what it's capable of.

 

[El Jimben]

Download CPUZ, take screenies of the main, memory and SPD tabs and post them, then we can see what settings you've got at the moment.