AMD 64 3500+ wont go over 200 frequency??

[oompadroonka]

ok first specs:
Antec Trupower 500W
AMD 64 3500+ (winnie)
4 X 512 mb HyperX Kingston DDR500
Giga-byte SLI mobo
Sapphire X800XL 256mb PC-express video card
Audigy 2 SZ sound card
Seagate 200 Gb SATA 7200RPM
Danger den water cooling for GPU, bios and CPU.


Ok i disabled center sprectum in Bios, HT x 4, Multiplier 10, memory setting auto/disabled(this setting says it setup you memory for maximun performance for system), I upped the voltage to 1.65 (runs normal).
Once i try to increase the speed, i even tried going 1.65V and it doesnt boot in not of the moments i try to overclock over 200.

The video card overclocks good, got 110MHz extra on core and 150 Mhz extra on memory.

 

[WA261]

I would try 1 stick, maybe 2 of your mem. Set multiplier to 5:4..or 166. XT to 3. Bump your mem voltage.

 

[trickytraka]

it doesnt boot or it doesnt post ?

 

[trinketsummoner]

The problem is 4 sticks of ram on a A64 board. Generally, to even get windows to load you need 2T timings and even then most boards say 166FSB is the best you can get. I did get 200 on mine with 4 sticks of ballistix but it wouldnt overclock at all. Its all to do with the onboard memory controller on the A64. AMD is supposed to be revising the CPU this year so it doesnt have that problem anymore. If you really want 2Gb, get 2 x 1Gb sticks instead, thats what i ended up doing. I can get 220x11 @ 1.55v on my 3500 with 3-4-4-8-1T timings using 2 x 1Gb pc3200.

 

[oompadroonka]

thank you all for the replies, i was thinking that too. I will go ahead and just use 2 sticks and hold on the other ones for another rig i may setup or sell them on ebay. I hurts that the ram being new and cant use all 4, but i really want to get this cracking.

 

[oompadroonka]

ok i dropped to 2 stick in dual channel, also adjusted the timmings from 3-4-4-8 to 2.5-3-3-7. Oh man what a difference!:Q, my system is way more responsive now.

Still leaves the question..how do i overclock, i was following the guide in hardcop, there is a link in the dirty overclocking guide that says to check your max memory speed. I keep on going 5 mhz at a time using Easytune5 on windows on the fsb with a HT x 3, the multiplier at 9 and the memory at 1:1 to check what was the max memory frequency, it locked up in 280Mhz, so i figure the max for the memory is 275Mhz. Hmmmm but dont people some people say that if i got over the rated speed of the memory (in this case 250, DDR500), the i cant go at 1:1 anymore.

So i tried to boot with fsb 275, multiplier 9, HT x 3, voltage 1.4, and i doesnt boot pass the memory check, after it says it will apply the overclocking settings.

So i when ahead and said, hmm well, lets try fsb 220, still at multiplier 9, memory in auto, and it still doesnt boot.

If i run at fsb 200, multiplier 11, ht x 5, memory at 2.5-3-3-7 1T, it runs normal and smooth.

I am really confused now what should i do next, as i understand i dont mess with voltages until after i got a boot to windows in an overclock and prime95 starts to give me errors.

 

[gamerj]

(whoops...big delete ....i see u have ddr500 memory....)

Set the multiplier to 10

then up the FSB... u should be able to go to FSB 250 no problems...at FSB 250 u will run a CPU/Mem of 1 : 1 ..which is perfect... u might have to up the voltage on your processor (a little)..

have u tried setting the memory to 2 : 1 ?(which is actually 1 : 1 right?) instead of auto?

loosen the timings on your memory to default? what was it 3-3-3-8 or something?

 

[oompadroonka]

it was 3-4-4-8. I am going to try upping the voltage some and seeeing the difference, thanks

 

[gamerj]

maybe u should also try to set the FSB in your BIOS, instead of easy-tune...

 

[oompadroonka]

i was trying all those changes in bios straight, no joy. Tried upping the voltage to 1.475v and no luck...the only time it boots is when i have a multiplier of 10, fsb 210 voltage 1.4V (trying to keep voltage low until i really need to up it). I am starting to think is something wrong with BIOS, even tho is the last revision.

I am trying 250fsb, 1.425V using clokcgen, lets ee what happens, running prime95 now.

 

[oompadroonka]

i am running the blend test in prime95, u recommend another type of test?

 

[oompadroonka]

ouch, i specified 1.425V in clockgen, but cpu-id says i have 1.634V on processor? any idea why this discrepancy? i when ahead and tried to use easytune to change the voltage to 1.45V and cpu-id reads good, ran prime95 for 10 minutes no problems in blend, 5 minutes in small fft and no problems, going to try and boot, gona check if theres any setting on bios that make it stop booting.

 

[oompadroonka]

so what do you know, it got resetted at BIOS to fsb 210, so i checked multiplier 11, voltage 1.4 at 210 fsb for now. hmmmm.....going to try some more after some hours of sleep, had a long day a work, maybe once i get some rest something pops in my head, but thanks for the help so far, it feels great to have guidance during this process.

 

[gamerj]

amd64 3500 "clawhammer" ...didnt know they made those,,u sure it isnt newcastle or winchester?..

if its a newcastle...1.5 or 1.55 volts isnt all too high to use...maybe even 1.6V ..providing your temps dont go flying up (never mind,..watercooling)...(ive had mine as high as 1.7, only to run 1 bench though..lets not do that)

If you have some sort of "cool n quiet option" in your bios, u should definately DISable it..

Since u have 500mhz memory, u shouldnt have to use a divider, up to FSB 250...use 2 : 1 (iff i were u, i would set all those things in BIOS, except for the memory timings 3-4-4-8)


Iff u have the K8N, maybe this will help

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1742&page=4


U installed all the chipset drivers for your motherboard? (what mobo is it exactly? K8N XP or ultra?)


p.s, yes ive heard that the X800XL clocks pretty good!

 

[trinketsummoner]

Newcastle core default volts is 1.5, so dont worry about using 1.55 or 1.6v for overclocking, assuming you have a decent HSF. Double check you are using the right 2 slots for dual channel.

You should be able to run 250fsb with that ram. Try lowering the HTT to 4x, 2.8v on the memory, 9x multi and 250FSB. Set your ram timings to 3-4-4-8-1T and see if that works. Keep the CPU volts at default as you are running 2.25Ghz, which is almost standard. If that works ok, try tweaking the timings to 2.5-3-3-8-1T.

I had some crucial ballistix pc4000 that ran 2.5-3-3-8-1T @ 250FSB with 2.8v without any trouble at all. Even my PC3200 1gb sticks run 220FSB @ 3-4-4-8-1T timings.

 

[oompadroonka]

yeah is a winnie, sorry, i miss read lol

 

[oompadroonka]

also it is a xp mobo, not ultra. GA-K8NXP-sli

 

[oompadroonka]

just reading the reviews on that site i read they couldnt go higher that 214mhz, i wonder why!!!, this makes me real sad as i was expecting to get a high overclokc out of this.

 

[inveterate]

9X multipliers alwayz give me problems, Use either 8 or 10 or stock 11. You get higher htt and better ram speeds within 466 to 500.

 

[oompadroonka]

ok so i kept on reading. apparently this board has problems with the BIOS itself, the only way to overclokcing is thru windows using easytune 5. So far got a fsb 250, with 1.5 voltage, 2.7V going to ram. Ran it for 6 hours on Prime95 blendtest and no errors, so i looks good, the only problem is that everytime i log back into windows i have to run easytune so i can apply the overclocking setting.

 

[gamerj]

what multiplier? the winchester 3500 is supposed to be a really good oclock chip...

Isnt there a "apply at startup" option in easytune?

What memory divider are u using? 1:1 ? just wondering...having problems using 1 : 1 myself...altough the memory should be able to run that speed stock...

 

[oompadroonka]

so far i am using 1:! memory divider, running at fsb 250 1.5V, ram volt 2.6, multiplier at 10 and everything stable. I ran prime 95 for 6 hours in blend test, then i played starwars galaxies for another 3 hours and a half and downloaded some stuff. Evrything seems good. Except when i connect my usb external hard drive where i keep backups. When ever i want to use it i have to put the speed back to fsb 200 because if overclocked it constantly disconnects at an interval of 90 seconds. The rest of the usb equipment works 4.0


I am really happy thanks for all your help. I dont really mind having to reput the overlocking setting every startup as i dont startup too often. cheers!

P.S. Now i am trying to increase my fsb to 260, but will start it in another thread, as this one is kind of inrrelevant now because i am able to overclock to 250.

 

[akugami]

BTW, you need to use the 2nd option under the torture test in Prime95 for the real stability test. In place large FFT's which will test maximum heat and maximum power draw. Run this for 24 hours straight and it's mostly certified as stable. The blend test in Prime95 really doesn't stress the CPU.

Run something like HL2 which also heavily stresses the CPU. I'm not sure if the demo version can loop so that you can do a continuous test. Using HL2 is also a good way to test overall computer stability and not just CPU. Folding@Home is a good way to test for system stability as well. Leave it up with HL2 looping for at least 12 hours and do a 12 hour+ run of Folding@Home as well and you can certify the CPU as stable. Next up, run boot and run memtest98 from a floppy or CD for 24 hours and you can say that it's 100% stable for everyday use.