Overclocking my PC!

nantucket66

nantucket66

nantucket66

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Ok, I want to overclock my FX57, I have never overclocked an AMD before as I've alway been with Intel until the 57 launched.

I could take my P4 3.2 (Prescott 478) to 4Ghz and have safely oc'ed all my previous machines (intel) safely and I new the in's and out's of my previous mobo's like the back of my hand.

O/cing Intels was easy but there seem to be a bit more to it with AMD, plus my mobo (see sig) has loads of features that probably need adjusting. Once I have my head around everything I know I'll be fine with it

Any members out there with this board care to offer some advice or settings to alter.

Thanks!!
 
Is overclocking that way better than reducing the multiplier and increasing your FSB/HTT?

Or is a case of 6 of 1 and.............

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but I thought doing it the latter way would get more out of the memory (DDR550)?

Anyone

Thanks
 
If your CPU is good for 3100Mhz you won't be getting that using whole multipliers and you want to avoid using half multis. Just upping the Multi is the easiest way but not the best.

As a rough guide try:

250x12=3000MHz @ 1.55v 5:6 divider=250MHz RAM HT Multi x4 or...
273x11=3003MHz @ 1.55v 1:1 divider=273Mhz RAM HT Multi x3 or...
300x10=3000MHz @ 1.55v 9:10 divivider=272MHz RAM HT Multi x3

All depends on what your RAM/Mobo is capable of and how good your cooling is. Your Fx57 is good for 3000MHz on reasonable air. Use 1.6v max vcore if cooling is good.
 
Thanks for that Dirk, really helpful

Is there a setting in the A8N-SLI Deluxe Bios that I need to lock in order to overclock or it automatic?

There is a setting relating to this (I think it's the one) in the bios that gives me options of - Auto, To CPU and 33.33, it's currently set to auto.

I have tried a couple of the settings you suggested and it falls over when benchmarking.

I remember on my old Abit IC7 Max 3 there was a PCI setting similar to this that I had to lock before I could get anywhere.

All of the current settings in the bios are standard apart from the PCI-e bandwidth which I have increased from 100 to 110Mhz to give my gfx cards a bit more.

At stock under load CPU is low-mid thirties. Cooling is all as sig suggests with 1 Dual Black Ice Radiator and 1 Single Black Ice Radiator, the CPU, Chipset and both GTX's are watercooled. Ram is Corsair Twin X 4400C25 (DDR550) x 2GB

Thanks in advance

David
 
I'm not familiar with the details on the Asus boards so i'm sure someone else here will be able to fill in the blanks for you. I'd drop the PCI-E setting back to default though if i were you.

Some things to try for stability....Raise the chipset voltage one notch, same with LDT voltage. Raise vcore to 1.6v-1.65v as your cooling is good. Keep an eye on temps though. Your RAM is good for any of those examples i quoted before...aim for the ones that have your RAM running 273ish.
 
Thanks again,

I give it a try tomorrow night when I've got a bit more time.

I put the PCI-E setting back to default until I get the CPU happy and stable at 3Ghz, I'll raise it again and see how it affects things once I've done this.

Excuse my ignorance of not understanding acromnyms but what's the LDT Voltage?

Re setting the multiplier/memory I am right in thinking I was to up to FSB from 200 to 273 but drop the multiplier from 14 to 11 to get 3003?

The next bit confuses me again (sorry - but until I crack this Intel's are easier to clock!!!!) - I set the v Core to 1.55 (or slightly higher maybe as you suggest in your last post) which is easy but the "1:1 divider=273Mhz RAM HT Multi x3" baffles me - is this set as soon as I set 273/11 or is it something else I need to adjust?

Thanks again and thanks for replying!!

David
 
I should have used some more punctuation :D

The 1:1 RAM @ 273MHz meant that you should raise the HTT,( not called fsb on AMD architecture), to 273 and use the 1:1 divider to set the RAM to the same speed as the HTT.

Yes to dropping the CPU Multi to 11x which will then give you 3003MHZ.

The LDT is the same thing as HT, (not to be confused with HTT), just different terminology according to which Mobo/BIOS you are using. To keep it simple HT=HTTxHT/LDT Multi and should total 1000 or less. So if you raise your HTT to greater than 250 you need to set this Multi to 3x. Don't worry about voltage on this as i'm sure on reflection that this won't have any effect on the o/c.
 
Right, I think (or hope) I am getting somewhere at last.

I have my machine running stable with the multiplier set to 15 and the HTT to 201 and the PCI Clock Sync set to 33.33, seems ok at 3.02Ghz. Everything else is unadjusted, left to auto.

I have not yet tried any of the settings that Dirk suggested above yet.

I tried it with the HTT at 205 but it locked up. I shall have a play later on today.

Any other Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe users care to offer some pointers as to any other settings in the bios I need to adjust?

Cheers

David
 
So you know that the CPU can reach 3Ghz now. Your RAM is rated to go 275Mhz stock so any of the examples given before should work fine. If you had problems @ 205x15 then you have reached your CPU limit using that vcore. Stick to around the 3Ghz mark for now and concentrate on getting your RAM upto it's rated speed @ 1:1 by using a lower CPU Multi.

i.e 273x11

I'm assuming here your 2GB RAM is 2x1GB not 4x512MB?
 
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1:1 may simply be listed as 200 on a page that gives you options like 133, 166, 200 etc. Again different BIOS have different terminology. (Edit: just to complicate things i've just read that the ASUS BIOS may have dividers listed in DDR speeds, so 1:1, 200, may be listed as 400!)


I thought it may be the case that you were 4x512MB. What was resolved with the newer memory controllers on newer CPUs was the issue where RAM speed was dropped to 166Mhz when all 4 dimm sockets were occupied. Although you can now do that with the RAM running at 200Mhz, having all dimm sockets populated still puts more strain on the memory contoller and makes it harder to o/c. One thing that you will find still is the command rate of the RAM running at 2T rather than the faster 1T. (If you have Command Rate set to Auto this will happen, as the name suggests, automatically).

I'd suggest you isolate the RAM and clock it to see what it can do in reality. To do this drop your CPU Multi to something low like x6 to take the CPU out of the equation. Set the HTT to 200 and the divider to 1:1,(200). Then up the HTT an increment of 5 at a time, booting into Windows, and stress testing each time to see how high you can go. When you reach the max where stability goes to hell try relaxed timings until you have a definate, stable max.

Post back and we can go from there ;)
 
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Thanks for this Dirk, you've been really helpful.

I'll post my findings when I get chance to have a play.

It's amazing how one Bios varies from another. The Asus seems a bit long winded and complex to me. The IC7 Max3 board was considered the best o/c board you could buy 2 years ago and that was a doddle, the bios was really well laid out and easy to use, the 1:1 ratios were clearly labelled in there as well!
 
Np for the help mate. It's always good to share the love ;)

As for the differences in BIOS it would be helpful if all the terminology was universal wouldn't it? Dividers are expressed in 4 different ways that i've seen...As a fraction i.e 1/2, as a ratio i.e 1:2, as an actual speed i.e 100Mhz and as a DDR rating i.e 200. (All of the examples given being the same)

Makes it more fun i guess :p
 
I've not really had time unfortunately to fiddle with the bios over the past few days so I'm currently no further forward than the other day.

However, I do have a question -

Is it going to be beneficial for overclocking to change my 4x512 sticks for 2x1gb sticks?

If so, what is currently the cream of the crop ram wise, since I bought mine (see sig) it appears that a couple of other brands have appeared on OCuk (Mushkin and D.Skill) - What are they like?

Thanks
 
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