AMD Athlon XP 2400+ @ 2GHz Question

[Boethius]

So, I threw some creditcard numbers at newegg and got myself an A7V8X with a 0.13 micron processor clocked at 2000 MHz, 2 Corsair XMS 512MB DDR PC3500 with a CAS Latency of 2.

Now, my question is: what in your experience is the optimal multiplier settings and RAM timings? I have the latest (stable) BIOS revision, 1008 for the A7V8X.

I am actually worried about my cooling as well, as I find that 64 C at the highest and 54 C at the lowest CPU time seems a little too hot. As far as I am aware of, if I hit 75 C ill have to start worrying, but so far this hasn't happend. My case is a regular viper case, one intake chassis fan that propells heat onto my two 7200 RPM hds, a 2200 Stealth fan for my Swiftech heatsink, Arctic silver 3 and of course a really expensive 2d card (ATI Radeon 9700 ) adding heat. Luckily, I am getting an aluminum case with tons of case fans, the CoolerMaster ATC 201 with a 400W Leadman PSU tomorrow... But will this case do me any good? I am going for a quiet and fast as possible PC, and according to THGs cooler guide THGs Cool Bunch the Swiftechheatsink is a good choice.

So what would you think is the best possible? Should I up my fan for the heatsink? What are the best possible BIOS settings?

 

[EKAtBzboyz]

id say you should up the fan for heatsink
i had xp1800+ system at 1.8ghz at 1.85v running 40C idle and 42C under full load, with mcx462

right now you should concentrate on trying to get the fsb to 166 (as the 1/5 pci divider kicks in there) and then worry about multiplier

but sometimes you have to drop the mult down so i would suggest unlocking the cpu first, then lower the mult to like 10 and go from there (maybe 9 if you are shooting for highest fsb)

the reason why i say up the fan (get abetter and powerful one) is becuase usualy you have to up the vcore from the default of 1.75 to maybe 1.8-1.85 (maybe higher)

//edit
forgot about ram settings lol
first put them to the biggest number possible (relaxed settings) and oc, then when you are around you max oc (you will be able to tell) start playing around with the ram settings

 

[Abhoth]

Well let's see... not sure of what help I can be here. New to the OC thing more or less. But running the same rig as you in respect to the mobo, cpu, memory, video card....
I'll talk cooling first... running an Antec PII case, Antec PS, twin Antec blowers in the rear, one sucker up front, Thermaltake Volcano 9 for the CPU. I idle at 44c... high temp during benchmarks and burn runs generally tops out at 51-52c. CPU fan varies in speed from 3000rpm to 3300rpm, temp controlled.
Conclusion: Hell I don't know, I'm new to this! ;-) I've heard Swiftech's are damn good but haven't researched them or had experience there... the Thermaltake is holding it's own it seems. The new case and fans will certainly help.
Memory & BIOS: First, you mention you got 2 sticks of the PC3500... I'm running just the one 512mb. And if you want to run it at 400mhz (or more), that might be an issue. According to my info, and A7V8X warning, it'll only run one stick at that speed. As far as the BIOS I've tried a few things... first I just messed with memory timings, running stock CPU mult @ 15x. And used Corsair's test setting running at 434mhz. Benched pretty well but locked in the 3DMark.... things just aren't talking nice.... dropped those settings down a bit, running at 420mhz and 4,4,8 all was good, then went to 2, 2, 8... that was better... Benched UT2k3 at 171/61 & 3DMark2001se at 13451. I'm thinkin' hell that's not too shabby!
Then I tried this..........

Instead of 15x140 or 145 as I tried above, go for 12x175:
CAS Latency 2.5 -> 2
RAS to CAS Delay 3 -> 2
RAS Precharge Delay 3 -> 2
Active Precharge Delay 7 -> 6
1T Command Control Auto -> Enabled
Bank Interleave Auto -> 4 Bank
AGP Capability Auto -> 8X... 4X gets about the same thing.
AGP Performance Control Enabled
AGP Fast Writes Enabled
Have Turbo enabled and such... but above are the primary setting..... stock voltage btw.

Benched it and got this.... UT2k3 at 181/66 & 3DMark2001se at 14270! Now that's a pretty good jump for what are actually some fairly relaxed settings.... Before the above settings it would idle a few degrees higher, although the top end stayed the same as the fan would just kick it's butt.
Seems to me that I still have room to work with... plenty for air cooling. By the way, those settings were gathered from THIS site, I'll track down that thread I was reading and thank him.
Thus far, that's my experience with this rig I built a few weeks back... still twitchin' and tweakin'. Hope that helps some...