cannot overclock amd64 2800 NewCastle

[gotensan01]

For the life of me I cannot overclock my processor past 1800 mhz. Any suggestions?

EDIT: I know the board supports up to 2000 mhz.

 

[MalikChen]

Do you have Cool and Quiet enabled? When I did, my multiplier was at 4x and cpu speed was 800. Run something like super-pi and see if it goes up.

 

[gotensan01]

I disabled Cool and Quiet. What is super-pi?

 

[Mullzy]

super-pi is one of the many programs that will push your cpu to the max. Prime95 (run torture test) does the same thing.

I'm not familiar with AMD's Cool and Quiet... but I assume from what I've read it underclocks the CPU while not in use to save power and lower heat output.

 

[gotensan01]

Originally posted by: Mullzy
I'm not familiar with AMD's Cool and Quiet... but I assume from what I've read it underclocks the CPU while not in use to save power and lower heat output.

That's just about right. I've boosted the cpu frequency an extra 200mhz and upped the cpu voltage .05 volts. I don't even know if I had to up the voltage, I just figured why not. I'll try to boost this higher when I have time to run tests. I just use 3dmark03.

 

[gotensan01]

editted my original post

 

[gotensan01]

trying again to get some help

 

[cbehnken]

I have a 2800 Newcastle and I can't quite hit 2205 Mhz with it. I have the new Soltek 250gb board and I am kinda disappointed with my o/c also.

Prime95 dies after 35 minutes at 2205 at 1.550 volts.

I wish this board could do more voltage.


Maybe the 2800's are really binned correctly and won't hit the speeds the 3000s will. I wish I'd spent the 30 bucks and got a 3000

 

[Dman877]

K8V doesn't lock the bus speeds so you might have something else limiting your oc...

 

[Zebo]

what stepping? And you all above same Q? if it's a clawhammer newcastle ie old C0 w/ disabled 512 cache it won't get much higher than 2.2.

Every single NC AX I've seen hit 2.4+ so I'm positive you all have 2 yr old chips.

To overclcok this board you need to first update to latest bios. Then set HTT or FSB to 234 or 267, this is supposed to enable the 1/7 or 1/8'th pci dividers. You have a little leaway above those speeds but In between that, it will crash. Set Vcore to 1.60-1.75 too and you can back down on that after it passes prime.

 

[gotensan01]

Originally posted by: cbehnken
Maybe the 2800's are really binned correctly and won't hit the speeds the 3000s will. I wish I'd spent the 30 bucks and got a 3000

Ugh, please don't remind me of my mistake as well :disgust:.

Originally posted by: Zebo
what stepping? And you all above same Q? if it's a clawhammer newcastle ie old C0 w/ disabled 512 cache it won't get much higher than 2.2.

Every single NC AX I've seen hit 2.4+ so I'm positive you all have 2 yr old chips.

To overclcok this board you need to first update to latest bios. Then set HTT or FSB to 234 or 267, this is supposed to enable the 1/7 or 1/8'th pci dividers. You have a little leaway above those speeds but In between that, it will crash. Set Vcore to 1.60-1.75 too and you can back down on that after it passes prime.

I do not know how old my chip is. Could it be 2 years old if I bought it new, retail from Newegg about 3 months ago? I don't know about the C0 core or disabled 512. What's a NC AX?

I will try to set the HTT/FSB to 234 and Vcore to around 1.65. Is there anything else I need to change other than these two and maybe the CPU Voltage?

 

[Bumrush99]

I have a Newcastle 3200+ @ 2310 (110 OC), and can not get the bus to 220 without crashing. I have some great memory that is dying for an oc.

I also have the K8V SE, do you think I should go for 236, while raising my cas latency? 236 seems a bit extreme for me with that board, I just can't see my system running stable @ 2600 on air...

 

[gotensan01]

Originally posted by: Bumrush99
I have a Newcastle 3200+ @ 2310 (110 OC), and can not get the bus to 220 without crashing. I have some great memory that is dying for an oc.

I also have the K8V SE, do you think I should go for 236, while raising my cas latency? 236 seems a bit extreme for me with that board, I just can't see my system running stable @ 2600 on air...

I didn't know you could overclock that much on air. Are you using stock HSF? That would be amazing. So do you generally have to increase the cas latency when increasing the bus?

 

[Bumrush99]

Originally posted by: gotensan01

Originally posted by: Bumrush99
I have a Newcastle 3200+ @ 2310 (110 OC), and can not get the bus to 220 without crashing. I have some great memory that is dying for an oc.

I also have the K8V SE, do you think I should go for 236, while raising my cas latency? 236 seems a bit extreme for me with that board, I just can't see my system running stable @ 2600 on air...

I didn't know you could overclock that much on air. Are you using stock HSF? That would be amazing. So do you generally have to increase the cas latency when increasing the bus?

It is almost impossible to run with really agressive timings at a higher bus speed. You normally have to adjust your timings to get a stable overclock.

 

[cbehnken]

Mine is the new ax stepping. Just ordered the OEM chip from newegg last friday. Chip says ax on the heat spreader. Anyway to confirm this in software?

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Bumrush99
I have a Newcastle 3200+ @ 2310 (110 OC), and can not get the bus to 220 without crashing. I have some great memory that is dying for an oc.

I also have the K8V SE, do you think I should go for 236, while raising my cas latency? 236 seems a bit extreme for me with that board, I just can't see my system running stable @ 2600 on air...

Problem is you need to go to 234 for the PCI divider to kick in. At 220 you are running both AGP and PCI way out of spec since it's still using the 1/6th divider.

To find chip stable OC you need to set mem to 133 to eliminate that varible. Later you can find your mem and mobo max.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: gotensan01

Originally posted by: cbehnken
Maybe the 2800's are really binned correctly and won't hit the speeds the 3000s will. I wish I'd spent the 30 bucks and got a 3000

Ugh, please don't remind me of my mistake as well :disgust:.

Originally posted by: Zebo
what stepping? And you all above same Q? if it's a clawhammer newcastle ie old C0 w/ disabled 512 cache it won't get much higher than 2.2.

Every single NC AX I've seen hit 2.4+ so I'm positive you all have 2 yr old chips.

To overclcok this board you need to first update to latest bios. Then set HTT or FSB to 234 or 267, this is supposed to enable the 1/7 or 1/8'th pci dividers. You have a little leaway above those speeds but In between that, it will crash. Set Vcore to 1.60-1.75 too and you can back down on that after it passes prime.

I do not know how old my chip is. Could it be 2 years old if I bought it new, retail from Newegg about 3 months ago? I don't know about the C0 core or disabled 512. What's a NC AX?

I will try to set the HTT/FSB to 234 and Vcore to around 1.65. Is there anything else I need to change other than these two and maybe the CPU Voltage?

AX are real newcastles. Not cut old clawhammers.
You should see AX at the end of the product code on chip instead of AP.

Somthing like this ADA3000AEP4AX or ADA2800AEP4AX

Instead of ADA3000AEP4AP or ADA2800AEP4AP

 

[Concillian]

Most chips will be the AX stepping.

As Zebo said, it's probably not the chip that's limiting your overclock, it's probably the fact that the board does not have an AGP/PCI lock. Generally these boards are only stable about 10-15 MHz above each 33MHz step (200-215 or so, 234-249 or so, etc...). On these boards the AGP speed is not set independently, but it is DERIVED from the CPU and HTT speed.

AGP speed is default at 66MHz and PCI at 33MHz. at 200 MHz the AGP is 1/3 of the HTT and the PCI is 1/2 of the AGP. They use the HTT so the motherboard manufacturer doesn't have to have an independent clock generator, they can derive everything they need for AGP and PCI from clockspeeds that already exist. The problem comes in when you start overclocking. An HTT of 210 will have an AGP speed of 210/3 = 70 MHz and PCI bus will be half that, at 35 MHz. Now the AGP and PCI can withstand some overclocking, but eventually they get to the point of failure, generally well before the other components in the system. Because the IDE drives run off the PCI bus, this can be particularly dangerous, as you can cause data corruption ( I did that once on an old Intel 440BX board... not fun)

Now the newer BIOS enables a 1/7 and 1/8 divider for the PCI. This way at 233 MHz you use 1/7 and you are at 33MHz PCI and 66MHz AGP again. Similarly at 267 you use 1/8 and are at 33 MHz and 66 MHz again. This is why Zebo suggests using 234 and 267, this way you are very close to standard AGP/PCI clock speeds IF YOU HAVE THE RECENT BIOS RELEASE.

Based on the experience of others, the 2800+ should be able to get to 9x234 = ~2100 MHz without issue. It may even get to 9x267 = 2400 MHz.

The other factor that comes into play here is your RAM speed. RAM won't likely get to 267, it may get to 234. What you have to do is isolate the problems. Test the CPU/motherboard first by setting the ram for 100 or 133 MHz also called 1:2 or 2:3 ratios. If you set the RAM for 133MHz when your HTT is 267, your RAM is only running at 171MHz . If you have PC3200 RAM, as most do, this takes your RAM speed out of the stability equation altogether. Any instability would be caused by your motherboard or CPU. Similarly you can try 234 - 245 with a RAM divider to get an idea of how stable your CPU is at these speeds. Any failure there is most likely CPU related.

Once you determine your CPU is stable at a specific speed, THEN and ONLY THEN, should you start increasing your RAM speed. Don't even bother with 1:1 at 267 unless you have very special RAM. Above 200 MHz start with very loose timings like 3-4-4 (CAS - RAS to CAS - RAS precharge). RAS precharge is usually the easiest to tighten, followed by RAS to CAS then CAS. There are interactions between the timings as well. I've had RAM that runs at 2.5-3-2 and 2-3-3 but not 2-3-2, for instance.

If you have normal value RAM, at 234 you may be able to run 1:1 but I wouldn't necessarily count on it, even at higher voltage and latencies. 5:6 (the 166MHz setting for RAM) at that is just under 200 MHz. at 267, you may be able to run 5:6 as that's a 218MHz RAM speed, You can probably make that with regular CAS 2.5 PC3200 value RAM with some looser timings and some extra voltage. You want to be able to, because the next step down is a big one... all the way to 171 MHz.

Generally I use Prime95 on the max heat FPU torture test for CPU stability testing
For RAM I use SuperPi 2M digits as a very quick test to see if timings are remotely close (if it fails it fails, if it passes, I move on to more extensive tests), then memtest86, then Prime95 on blend test for 8-24 hours.

Good Luck and have fun. Most importantly do not go too much in between 200, 234, or 267, data corruption is not fun. Slightly higher than those is okay, but slightly lower is NOT OKAY.

 

[gotensan01]

Wow Concillian, very nice explanation of things. Thanks for taking the time to write it out.

 

[Gza]

Hey Concillian: I've recently tried o/c'ing my 3000+ (C0, I presume, as indicated by the label and cpu-z) and my XP got messed up (had to reinstall, which was a pain). The dilemma occurred at around 230 or so I believe?

I have the K8V basic BTW; does this too have the 1/8 divider, with the latest (1004) BIOS? I'm also running on the VIA SATA controller, single HD, and haven't managed to figure out how to use the promise, despite many googles (as my BIOS doesn't have a "promise - IDE mode" setting).

Somewhere, deep down, just craves for me to o/c... but I don't wanna risk having to mess up XP again. Plus, I always consider if the performance gains are worth it.

Thanks.

 

[Bumrush99]

I had the same exact problem with Gza @ 220.. Had to reinstall windows. I would rather have my bios fail then screw me again.. OMFG, I just realized I have 1004 bios to, yet I have the Deluxe version? Is it possible Gza that you installed the wrong bios for your board???

My bios does not have an option for dividers. Is it automatic??? I tried 234 with relaxed timings, I had to restard with a cleared CMOS to get back in.... I'm assuming I have to raise the CPU voltage, is 1.6 safe?

 

[Zebo]

Concillian did a good job of answering Q's/

Not a bios selectable option...The lock supposed to kick in automatic at 233 and 266 but to be sure I'd set 234 or 267..

Up to 1.8 is safe is long as temps stay below 60C. I would'nt go past 1.65 on air though.

 

[Bumrush99]

I'm not going to touch it then, @ 1.60 no boot, 57C!!!

 

[Gza]

Originally posted by: Bumrush99
I had the same exact problem with Gza @ 220.. Had to reinstall windows. I would rather have my bios fail then screw me again.. OMFG, I just realized I have 1004 bios to, yet I have the Deluxe version? Is it possible Gza that you installed the wrong bios for your board???

Nah, I'm pretty sure I got the right one, labelled 1004basic (or the like) from the Asus site. Although, I run fine at 220... just didn't wanna try anything higher before somethin got screwed up again.

And yeah, if I recall correctly, I think I did already try 233, but to no avail. What gives?

 

[MadOni0n]

quote:
Originally posted by: cbehnken
Maybe the 2800's are really binned correctly and won't hit the speeds the 3000s will. I wish I'd spent the 30 bucks and got a 3000


Ugh, please don't remind me of my mistake as well .

i was going to get the a64 2800+ tonight, what's wrong with it?

Does the chaintech vnfs3-250 have pci/agp slot locks?

and is this mwave.com combo a new Newcastle? http://www.mwave.com/mwave/vie...x?scriteria=MB-BA20095 doesn't say anywhere.

also, is cool and quiet suppose to be on? or not?