X2 4400 Overclocks

BS Dave · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:02

OK so i'm thinking about splashing on an X2 now the prices have come down a bit, but before i go for it i wanna know how well they clock. My SD runs quite happily at 2.6 - which isn't fantastic compared to the new ones i know, but i don't really want to go to a dual core running any slower. As i'm sure there are a lot of people like me eyeing dual cores now game supprt is starting to filter through, how would people like to post up some overclocks they've got on x2 4400s (gotta have those 1 meg caches).

Can you give me, overclock, stepping, when you bought it, voltage and what motherboard you're running it on.

cheers ears

easyrider · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:16

Have you looked at the opty 170's for 20 quid more?

Mines running 2.6ghz with headroom still
people have been getting 2.8ghz with them

BS Dave · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:19

i though the opty's were a bit of a lottery?

kbc · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:23

BS Dave said:
i though the opty's were a bit of a lottery?

Not really, they'll both hit about 2.6GHz fine, not sure about the 2.8GHz though, you're going to need to push more volts to hit that I assume. I'm currently still undergoing some major stability testing on mine at 2.6GHz. My specs are in the sig.

easyrider · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:23

I haven't heard of one 170 not doing FX 60 speeds.

kbc said:
Not really, they'll both hit about 2.6GHz fine, not sure about the 2.8GHz though, you're going to need to push more volts to hit that I assume. I'm currently still undergoing some major stability testing on mine at 2.6GHz. My specs are in the sig.

what vcore are you at with your 4400?

I'm at 1.475 v @ 2.6ghz 12 hrs prime stable.

easyrider · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:26

oops double post

BS Dave · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:29

kbc, by both you mean 4400 and opty 170's right?

kbc · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:31

easyrider said:
I haven't heard of one 170 not doing FX 60 speeds.

what vcore are you at with your 4400?

I'm at 1.475 v @ 2.6ghz 12 hrs prime stable.

Hi easyrider, currently the vcore is set at 1.450v.

kbc · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:34

BS Dave said:
kbc, by both you mean 4400 and opty 170's right?

I would say so... providing the RAM doesn't let you down, I'm sure they'll both manage to hit 2.6GHz, never owned an Opteron myself, so I won't talk much about that, but I'm pretty much assuming you're going to need decent bit of cooling for the 4400+ to hit 2.8GHz... I've not seen many threads stating a successful 2.8GHz overclock... on air anyway... if you do, that'll be dual FX-57s.

easyrider · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:39

kbc said:
I've not seen many threads stating a successful 2.8GHz overclock... on air anyway... if you do, that'll be dual FX-57s.

Or FX 62 speeds

The new M2 fx 62 runs @2.8ghz dual core that is gonna cost a packet.

Devious on here has his (opteron 170) running at 2.8 ghz @ 1.488 vcore

here

kbc · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:48

easyrider said:
Or FX 62 speeds

The new M2 fx 62 runs @2.8ghz dual core that is gonna cost a packet.

Devious on here has his (opteron 170) running at 2.8 ghz @ 1.488 vcore

here

Nice...

Would like mine to hit those speeds, but I've seen my load temperatures at 2.6GHz hitting 52-53C and pumping more volts for 2.8GHz might get a bit too hot. I'll ensure full stability first on the current settings before attempting (though not sure if I will)...

What RAM is he using and what motherboard, can't seem to find out on that screenshot...

Anyway... don't want to drift... BS Dave - it's pretty much up-to-you what processor to get, if you can justify the budget, then get an Opteron 170, the 4400+ is a similar chip - from my understanding the server chip runs at stock .5v less than the 4400+...

Don't forget there's always the 165, match it up with a DFI board and some decent RAM sticks and you'll be away.

easyrider · 4 Feb 2006 at 01:57

Same ram as me Gskill HZ (higly recommend them)
As kbc says if on a budget get the 165.

But if you want the 10x mutli and the heights of 2.8ghz I would go for the 170.

juno_first · 4 Feb 2006 at 13:21

Best check see what your RAM can do first as your speed will be bumped up a lot if your RAM is running at 250 rather than 160 by divider.
I would guess an x2 4400 would run at 2.4 ok, perhaps further with better cooling but the question is whether an x2 @ 2.4 is quicker than a singlecore @ 2.6.
Personally I would go x2 as its quicker in Windows and games run quicker (clock for clock) on dualcore but unless you get water cooling or are lucky I would only upgrade from singlecore 2.6 if you could get an x2 running at 2.7 at least.
Check out 3dmk05/06 scores with single & dual; dualcore rules with 3dmk06 but is this a reflection on current games ?.

BS Dave · 4 Feb 2006 at 13:36

hmmm, after reading that 'principles of a64' article that's knocking around i assumed that A64'd take pretty well to using dividers - that's what i'm doing at the moment. my timings are better than the high htt chips and the mems still runnning at 216.

i used to run a couple of ocz 4000 vx sticks at 250 with awesome timings and even then the bandwidth wasn't that much more.

So to recap you reckon most 4400s will do 2.6 yeah? i'm happy to go over if this is the case, but don't want to swap if i'm gonna lose performance in old games, ie have to run the cores lower than this.

Also not sure i can be arsed to spend £200 on water for those extra couple of hundred mhz, when i can just keep that money for my next upgrade, so it's have to do 2.6 on air...

i have an xp90c with ys tech 92mm fan - you reckon that'll be enough?

easyrider · 4 Feb 2006 at 13:39

Your xp 90c will cool an opty 170 @ 2.8ghz I would have thought.People are doing this speed with air.

juno_first · 4 Feb 2006 at 13:50

Is an opty 170 dualcore ?
My x2 struggles hit 2.75 on water at 45c under load.

kbc · 4 Feb 2006 at 14:01

An Opteron 170 is dual core yes.

You'd be able to hit 2.6GHz as I've said for both processors (not guaranteed though), but anything beyond that I'd reckon some decent air cooling/circulation in your case is needed. Well I believe that is true for the X2 anyway.

I will undergo further stablity testing on my processor at 2.6GHz... though my RAM is running with a divider at 188 with tight timings.

But is it better to run it at 240MHz at slack 2T timings?

juno_first · 4 Feb 2006 at 14:10

I have noticed better performance at 250 with slack timmings CAS 3 rather than <200 on tight timmings as I only have 3200 RAM.
I had to experiment with the timmings to get the best latencies at 250.

kbc · 4 Feb 2006 at 14:14

juno_first said:
I have noticed better performance at 250 with slack timmings CAS 3 rather than <200 on tight timmings as I only have 3200 RAM.
I had to experiment with the timmings to get the best latencies at 250.

I will perhaps try it again later, but prime would just fail me immediately when putting the timings at 3-2-5 CAS3 and passing 2.85v into it. It wouldn't run at 1T either. I was told on another forum that it was the motherboard limiting the overclock, most have been successful with a DFI board.

juno_first · 4 Feb 2006 at 14:35

I have an a8N-SLI Premium, OCZ 3200 plat.
timmings at cas3 1T (1T boosts benchmark from 5.8mb/sec to 6.8mb/sec), cant remember other timmings & at work now

Let you know later if you want.
At 3v with 80mm fan over RAM sticks very important as get v-hot else.