Help on overclocking Opteron 146

[mrdavidpham]

My specs

A8N - SLI - Premium
OCZ PC4000 EL GOLD 2x512
Antec Smartpower 2 350w
Opteron 146 CAB2E 0546 FPAW - Blue Orb II

My temps are 30 idle and 45 load

I did everything but I can't seem to get higher than 2.5ghz on this cpu.
I don't know what I am doing wrong. I would think it would be the psu or my ram or just that the asus board isn't a good overclocker.

Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.

 

[JustStarting]

did you read This??

 

[noluckjim]

I share your pain. I have the exact same cpu (stepping and week) and it can barely do 2.4. I had a friend test it and he found that his heatsink was cool to touch (38C idle) where as on his 2.7 A64 3000+ Venice the heatsink gets quite hot. I've yet to retest it but we think it may have poor contact with the IHS.

 

[mrdavidpham]

Yes I did just what that guide told me to do. I got htt up to 320 max, memory to 288 max but max ghz only got to 2500. I am sad that it could only go so far. Is there a reason for this or did I just get a crappy opteron. Guess me and jim just don't have any luck.

 

[noluckjim]

Well.. if my name's anything to go by...

 

[boyRacer]

Someone here got 2 of them to 2.95 and 2.85. Same stepping and week. 2.85 was on the same board as yours too.

EDIT: Just search for 0546

 

[TheRyuu]

I don't know what the max multiplyer for the FSB speed is on that chip (9x??), but what ever it is, why not try this:
-Drop the bus speed to something Rather Low (in terms of OCing) like 220, or something like that.
-Then Bump up the Multiplyer to MAX, but drop the K8 to NB Multi to 3x and the RAM to w/e divider works best for you (but lower ram speed might be better).
-Then boot into windows and Prime it for 5 minutes.
-Reboot into Bios
-Bump up 5mhz
-Boot into windows
-Prime for 5 minutes
-Repeat...

I find that finding the max htt first doesn't seem all that logical. I'd rather find a good mid point and just keep it there first. It's kind of pointless to get your htt speed to 320 and then find out that you can't boot with a hight multiplyer STABLE. But hey, thats just me. Other people might disagree with me but I think that finding a speed that will never be used is a bit of a waste of time (and I'm just lazy like that).

Good luck with your Opty. Mine is a 175@2.6 stable (primed for like 5 minutes, but based on what other people are getting to be stable on stock voltages, I just say in my mind that "its stable".

 

[mrdavidpham]

Thanks bR, I guess i have to pm him for some help. It seems he couldn't get it up to 3ghz either.

 

[noluckjim]

My gripe is that a lot of the 146 CAB2E 0546 FPAWs seem to be hitting 2.8ish without too much difficulty. I've searched. Google. Ebay. Anandtech. XS. Very few seem to be stuck around 2.4/2.5

wizboy11, I've already tried running a lower multiplier (HTT and CPU). I think it managed 260*9 (default multiplier is 10) which is 2340 MHz. I guess I'll have to wait til I can find the time to retest the Opteron

Edit: Oops, I meant to type 10. must have slipped my mind

 

[vanvock]

I think it's a 10 multi, is it not? That PSU looks lite to me.

 

[mrdavidpham]

yeah it is a 10x multi, yeah I think it might be the power supply since everything nowadays is like 500w or more. Planning to get a Seasonic S12 600w for my sli. Just don't have the money right now.

I will try those settings wizboy and post results.

Currently at 2.5ghz 250 x 10.
Ram at 2.5 3 3 7, with 166 divider (5/6)

Idle temps are 27C and 40 load.

 

[phr0m]

try a .5 multi like 8.5 ot 9.5

 

[StumbleBum1]

I have the same chip running @ 2.8 but it needs 1.45v

 

[designit]

Originally posted by: mrdavidpham
My specs

A8N - SLI - Premium
OCZ PC4000 EL GOLD 2x512
Antec Smartpower 2 350w
Opteron 146 CAB2E 0546 FPAW - Blue Orb II

My temps are 30 idle and 45 load

I did everything but I can't seem to get higher than 2.5ghz on this cpu.
I don't know what I am doing wrong. I would think it would be the psu or my ram or just that the asus board isn't a good overclocker.

Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.

your problem is PSU. SLI require at least 450 watts.
make sure the 12 v rail is at least 20 amps or more
what vid card are using?
also try your ram at stock speed using dividers.
but first thing to do is get a 450-500 watts PS w/ at least 35 amp single 12v or 17+18v dual 12v rails.
also you might want to check and make sure asus is not limiting vcore voltage. Asus is known to do this. lately asus mobo's only goes as high as 1.55v vcore.

 

[factorydiecast]

I have this same cpu
Opteron 146 CAB2E 0546 FPAW ,
on a EVGA sli board, the highest I can get is around 2.45

I think my problem is the board. I have Kingston hyper X mem, and 450 Antec Power supplie.

I just cant get the thing to overclock past that . I also have problems with setting up the EVGA bis settings.

Can anyone help me??

 

[mrdavidpham]

My vcore is at 1.45, the maximum I can go on my asus board is 1.55v, which really sucks. Is there a mod to increase it? Hopefully a new bios would let me go higher. Yeah I think I am going to get a antec truepower 550w instead of the s12 600.

You think if I get the ocz platinum rev. 2 or the g skill F1-3200DSU2-1GBLE, it would help with the overclocks after I get the psu?

or should I just buy a dfi sli dr board. I like this asus board but it limits my overclock. Kind of suck that I spent 160 on it.

 

[mrdavidpham]

I am currently using a 6200 while I wait for my RMA EVGA 7800GT to come back to me than I am going to return this video card.

 

[mrdavidpham]

well i just bought a dfi ultra d and a seasonic s12 600! hopefully i can overclock higher on this board. all i need now are some g skill ram!