Quick Overclocking Questions?

[keogh]

Howdy,

I'm still a newb, but I understand the do's and don'ts of overclocking quite well now after plenty of help from people on the forum. I did do some overclocking yesterday, but I kinda done it the wrong way round and was just getting stability issues, so I want to gather some answers together and I will use Jokesters guide to the letter. I have a couple of questions regarding Jokesters (excellent) guide though.

Finding Max FSB
First off, for CPUs that allow you to change (lower) the CPU multiplier, it is handy to determine what the maximum stable FSB of you're MB is. If you don't have the option to lower multipliers skip this section.

1. Increase the FSB by 5MHz.
2. Reduce the multiplier and RAM divider if requried so that both are at stock speeds or slightly less.
3. Boot into windows and run SP2004 Blend Test, this will also stress the chipset and RAM so will be testing the FSB not just the CPU.
4. Run it for 30mins monitoring temperatures, if it doesn't fail goto 1 again, if it fails, go to step 5.
5. Increase the chipset voltage a notch and go back to 4.

Eventually increasing the voltage will have little effect on increasing the FSB. At this point run a full range of tests and increase the duration of your SP2004 testing to 8 hours (some recomend more, some less, for me 8 hours is how long I'm at work give or take). If it fails any tests, reduce the FSB by 5MHz and retest until the required level of stability is achieved.

Finding Max CPU Clockspeed

1. Increase the FSB by 5MHz.
2. Decrease the RAM divider if required to keep it at stock or less
3. Run SP2004 Small FFT to test stability
4. Run it for 30mins, it may be worth testing for FSB stability as well if you haven't already proven FSB stability at this point. If it passes return to 1, if it fails goto 5. Keep an eye on temperatures whilst testing.
5. Increase the Vcore a notch and repeat the testing phase until temperatures are getting close to the maximum for your CPU, or the voltage increases don't allow you to overclock any further.

Once you've reached a point where you've maxed out voltage/temperature or you've reached a point where you're not comfortable with the voltage you're using run SP2004 for longer and also a full range of test to check for stability. If you find that it's not quite stable after the longer testing knock 5MHz off the FSB and retest until stable.

== QUESTION 1 =====
Now this all makes perfect sense apart from two problems I have, the first is under Finding Max FSB where Jokester says:

5. Increase the chipset voltage a notch and go back to 4.

Chipset Voltage? Does this mean Vcore? I assume not, because vcore is specifically mention on the second part of the guide? I only see two voltage options in my BIOS, thats vcore and DDR voltage... and I'm pretty sure its not that? Any ideas?

=== QUESTION 2 =====
My second question is to do with the vcore? Jokester says:

5. Increase the Vcore a notch and repeat the testing phase until temperatures are getting close to the maximum for your CPU, or the voltage increases don't allow you to overclock any further.

Now how would I be able to find what my BIOS sets my vcore at by default? 90% of my BIOS settings are at "auto" when I go in there, and vcore is one of them. So if my FSB is running at 200mhz by default, what is my vcore running at?

I know I can look in my hardware monitor or CPU-Z etc and that will give me what the vcore is at at that time, but that fluctuates and defluctuates constantly so I cannot get an exact reading as what it would have selected in the "auto" selection in the BIOS?

Do I watch it for a bit and see what the highest volt it went to was and use that as my starting point? Or is there another way to find what it has set it at as default?

=== QUESTION 3 =====
Also whilst I'm here Would you say there is a limit to the vcore? Or would that just depend on temps? For example, if I set my vcore to 1.5 for example, as long as the temps are ok then it should be fine? Or is there a point where you stop, for example DO NOT go beyond 1.6 or something?

Although I doubt this matters, cos my BIOS will not let me go beyond 1.450v? Before I updated my BIOS though it went way beyond that?


Thats all for now, as mentioned, the guide Jokester wrote is very good and after the help I got from loads of people on here, I get a full understanding of ocing, and i will start from scratch at somepoint and try to find my peak. Probably straight after I find my peak I will end up buying a new PC

Any help appreciated!

Tanks

Steve M

 

[Jokester]

Vcore isn't chipset voltage, it can typically be called Vnb, or Vchipset. You'll probably find these days that chipset voltage won't actually have that much of an effect, as most modern board will do high FSBs on default chipset voltage.

You generally want to turn off all the auto settings to their default stock voltages when overclocking and only change them when required, otherwise the BIOS can do wierd and wonderful things with them.

As for what Vcore is safe, if you're on air for any modern processor (A64 or C2D dual cores) you will be limited by the CPU temperature. I personally say don't go over about 60C full load when stability testing though you may be able to get it stable with load temps above 60C.

Jokester

Edit: What hardware have you got?

 

[keogh]

My spec is:

ASUS A8N-SLi Premium [w/ Zalman ZM-NB47J Northbridge Cooler]
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ [w/ Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro]
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200 Twinx
BFG Geforce 7800 GTX OC [With Zalman VF700-CU]
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type-R 580W ATX2.2 PSU

So how do I fiind the defaults for most my settings then? Cos most of them are on auto, and I know what a lot of them are, but some of them I really don't?

At default, my VCore runs at approx 1.28v according to CPU-Z, so I would assume I would set my default vcore to 1.28v right?

Although I havent a clue what my DDR is defaulted at? According to Corsair, my RAM was tested at 2.75v so I would be inclined to set it at that?

When I start my overclock I am going to start with the below settings:

FSB: 220mhz (cos I know its stable at that)
Multiplier: 10x
DDR Voltage: 2.75v
VCore: 1.28v
HT Link: 3x
Ram Timings: 3-3-3-8 2T 133 (get that really low)

Does that sound about right?

And do you have ANY idea why after updating my BIOS, I can only get my vcore to a max of 1.450v, when it was beyond 1.5v before?

Thanks

 

[keogh]

Jokester?

Also, what is the max MHz I should put the HT Link (Hyper Transfer Frequency) to? I was told 1000MHz, but with my BIOS at default, it runs at 1011MHz?

ta