help with overclocking 3800+

[enwar3]

i got my ram yesterday (OCZ EL Platinum Rev2 v1.0) and brought my htt up to 230mhz (core speed of 2300) and started running prime. the memory passed memtest, too.

but core 1 keeps failing. the first time i ran prime95, core 1 failed at 8 hours 4 min. the second time, right after, it failed at 2 hrs 8 min. im running almost stock ram timings (2-2-3-5) stock vcore and vdimm, with the stock amd cooler for now. runs at 49C under load.

whats making the core fail, and what can i do about it? raise vcore, or loosen timings?

 

[onn2000]

I'm pretty sure it's your memory speed, coz when I overclocked my 3800, it accounted for 99% of my problems. I assume the memory controller of your CPU can't handle either the timings or the speed.

Either use a divider or raise your timings.

Edit: To check if it's a memory/controller problem, simply click on the large FFT test in Prime95, then click on custom (this way your settings for custom will be the same as for large FFTs), click on Run FFTs in-place, and put 0.4 X your max RAM. Set affinity to 0 or 1. Do the same for another instance of Prime, and set the affinity to the other core.

Of course, you do this at your own risk, but it worked for my troubleshooting.

I'm telling you this because you should run at 2.4GHz at stock Vcore with no problems. Mine's running at 1.26V.

 

[Hacp]

Bump voltage to 1.45 and see where you can go.

 

[enwar3]

k, i ran the large FFT like u told me to (400mb for the memory used) for both cores, and it ran good for 30 min then i stopped it cuz im too impatient lol..

my question is, could the core be failing because of the memory? or does vcore and the cpu itself come into it?

 

[Hacp]

Yes it could be failing because of the memory. Keep runnign prime with emphasis on the CPU and see how much it goes to .

 

[enwar3]

ok - run prime using small FFT's or the big ones like onn said, or what?

and if i loosen the timings, what should i change them too? as in what numbers..

 

[enwar3]

also, what voltages should i be safely running?

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

loosen the timings to 2.5-3-3-7 and then see if it's stable . . .

Your OCZ EL Plat. Rev. 2 1.0 uses Samsung TCCD so you should be able to run 2.5-3-3-7 1T up to around 275Mhz+ at 2.7-2.9V . . . so you have a good amount of headroom for higher OC as long as you use 2.5-3-3-7 . . .

As for voltages, 1.55v is probably the highest you'll want to run it on for everyday usage . . . benching with 1.6-1.64v is fine but not good for everyday use . . . but you shouldn't need that many volts . . . ~1.4-1.45 should be plenty

 

[onn2000]

From my experience, running small FFTs seem to last longer than when running large FFTs. So it's better to use large FFTs (and utilize most of your RAM) to test for stability. Make sure your Vcore is not higher than 1.45V, and Vdimm should not be higher than 2.7V.

Unless of course, you wanna push it.

Edit: Make sure when running the two Primes, you utilize most of your RAM to ensure you stress the system enough. Just keep some spare so that you can browse, etc., while priming. Using 90% (including memory needed for windows xp) of your RAM is good.