K8N Neo4-F

[SGtheArtist]

Thank you cobalt,

I have downloaded the v1.71b BIOS off of the website Serpentor posted earlier in the thread for future use when I decide to build the system.

That will be a nice cheap solution ~$220 for the mobo & CPU then OC it to 2.7GHz

 

[DoobieOnline]

SG, don't be too disappointed if you only hit 2.6GHz with a 3000+ Venice. Many of the newer chips won't quite make it to 2.7 - mine included. Hopefully you'll be one of the lucky ones and get a great OC'er. I'm not exactly heartbroken that mine will only do 2.6 because that's pretty sweet considering the chip cost me $117 shipped from eWiz.

 

[SGtheArtist]

DoobieOnline,

I will probably be happy with anything at or above 2.4GHz I really think that having working dividers & multipliers from the BIOS is probably more important than actually hitting 2.7GHz. Atleast I would feel good about knowing that my CPU wasn't limited by my motherboards capabilities.

Then again anything beyond specs is free and you can't complain about the free stuff you get .

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: SGtheArtist
According to the script Serpentor posted the optimal setting for someone just wanting to overclock the CPU to 2.7GHz with standard value DDR400 RAM would be as follows.

HTT (FSB) 300
CPU 9 x 300 = 2700
Memory 2:3, 133, DDR266 = 192.85 (DDR386)
Hypertransport 3 x 300 = 900

Wouldn't these setting require the 133 divider that only appears to work in the 1.71b BIOS that cobalt has used?

I have the same system on the way - MSI Neo4-f, Venice 3000+, 2x512MB Kingston DDR400 ValueRAM...

What kind of performance boost would I see from this overclock (or even to a more conservative 2.5ghz) as opposed to the stock 1.8ghz?

I'm just wondering if it's worth overclocking in terms of real world performance (not just artificial benchmarks).

 

[DoobieOnline]

What video card will you be running with it? The faster cards released in the last year or so are a little more cpu limited than some of the older models.

 

[SGtheArtist]

brikis98,

If you can OC it to 2.4GHz it would be like compairing the A64 3000+ vs A64 FX-51, relatively speaking.

The following motherboard setting would be required to obtain 2.4GHz with DDR400 RAM.

CPU Multiplier=9
FSB=267
RAM Divider=140 (RAM would run at DDR374)
HT Multiplier=3 (HT would run at 801)

That's assuming this motherboard does FSB increments by 1MHz.

Here's Toms Hardware's CPU charts you can compare the CPUs at different speeds. It makes a Big difference.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html

 

[brikis98]

i'll be running a ATI x800 XL, and will do a fair bit of gaming (BF 2, HL 2, other FPS and some sports games).

Seems like the results are pretty noticeable... how much of a risk is it? in other words, as a newbie at overclocking, how do I make sure to not melt anything?

I have the skyhawk aluminum case, and will stick 3 or 4 fans in it. the CPU was bought OEM and i'll prob use the TR2-M6(K8) HSF with it. the video card has stock cooling. other parts were as mentioned above (A64 3000+ venice, 2x512 kingston ddr 400 valueRAM, MSI Neo4-f).

 

[SGtheArtist]

Well you try the settings I just posted for the 2.4GHz mark. If it doesnt work then you can "Load the default settings" in the BIOS and it will return thing back the way there where.

Usually, if its clocked too high Windows will freeze or crash but you should still be able to get to the motherboard BIOS.

http://math.gogar.com/athlon64.cgi

You can go here and set the following for the Maximums.
CPU=2700
RAM=200
HT=1000
HTT/FSB=300
MULTI=9x

Then press Go it will give you a list of all the setting that you can try without burning up anything.

Note: This motherboard does not have all the setting that are listed as results.

 

[Serpentor]

Can anyone who's running the 1.6 BIOS confirm whether or not it has the 150 and 140 mem dividers? thanks

 

[DoobieOnline]

1.6 does have the 140 and 150 dividers.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Serpentor - tried to reply to your PM but it said you weren't accepting PM's. Doh!

Monk never got back to me on the 1.6.1 bios. I downloaded 1.6 from the link you'd given cobalt and it seems to be working great for me so far.

 

[brikis98]

hey, you guys that have experience with this board, please take a look at my thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=32&threadid=1648356

I can't even get the Neo4-f to POST, and am clueless as to what to do.

 

[Serpentor]

Originally posted by: DoobieOnline
Serpentor - tried to reply to your PM but it said you weren't accepting PM's. Doh!

Monk never got back to me on the 1.6.1 bios. I downloaded 1.6 from the link you'd given cobalt and it seems to be working great for me so far.

Thx Cobalt, strange that my PMs were off, they're back on now. Monk never got back to me via email either. I can't imagine there's any significant difference between 1.6 and 1.6.1. It's odd that MSI's site doesn't have either revision up yet, even though the other site I posted early on says that 1.6 is an official release.

 

[Cobalt]

After switching back to 2T on my RAM, it seems my problems have gone away at keeping the RAM at 250mhz/166 divider.

 

[SGtheArtist]

So cobalt,

Your CPU is stable at 2.7GHz if your memory is 2T. How does that effect performance? Would it be better to decrease the HTT(FSB) and keep the memory at 1T?

 

[Cobalt]

Threads here show that the difference between 1T and 2T are negligible, between 1-2%. So by all means, whatever gives you the highest clock speed, use it.

 

[Serpentor]

Cobalt, what do you have the 2 settings beneath the 1T/2T option in the BIOS set at? ("Read Preamble Value" and "Async Latency Value"). I'd prefer to leave these on auto and let my RAM's SPD value decide, but if I want to force 1T the Neo4 doesn't leave an auto selection for those 2 settings (which I think I have both set at or around 6ns).

 

[Vegitto]

Hi, you guys. I'm having some trouble with my dad's rig. The max FSB I could reach (5 min Prime stable, according to Zebo's guide) was 312, my 2-3-3-8 memory crapped out at 206 MHz. Now, it craps out at 275x9 @ 1.55V, HT multi at 3x. This voltage is the max I wanna use, it doesn't have a really high-end cooler, just a mid-end one. I'm not sure what BIOS it runs, but do you have a suggestion what BIOS to use to reach 2.6 GHz+? I know this needs a little over 288 FSB speed. I'd wanna do 290 for good measure .

Thanks in advance.

 

[SGtheArtist]

Vegitto,

If you were running at 312MHz HTT(FSB) with a 9x CPU multiplier then that would have been running at 2.8GHz

However you state that your memory wont go past 206MHz or (DDR412) and something "craps out" at 275x9 @ 1.55v which is infact almost 2.5GHz

But you want to achieve 2.6GHz, I don't know exactly what you have done or what you've tried but I would recommend the following settings.

CPU Multiplier = 9
HTT(FSB) = 289
HT Multiplier = 3
Memory Divider = 133 (2:3)

This will give you a 2.6GHz result & your DDR400 memory & HT will not be overclocked.

 

[Vegitto]

Originally posted by: SGtheArtist
Vegitto,

If you were running at 312MHz HTT(FSB) with a 9x CPU multiplier then that would have been running at 2.8GHz

However you state that your memory wont go past 206MHz or (DDR412) and something "craps out" at 275x9 @ 1.55v which is infact almost 2.5GHz

But you want to achieve 2.6GHz, I don't know exactly what you have done or what you've tried but I would recommend the following settings.

CPU Multiplier = 9
HTT(FSB) = 289
HT Multiplier = 3
Memory Divider = 133 (2:3)

This will give you a 2.6GHz result & your DDR400 memory & HT will not be overclocked.

Thanks. No, the 312 FSB was achieved with the memory @ the 100 devider, and the multi at 5x. Do I need another BIOS for this? Cause I tried this setting, and I can't get it stable no mather how much voltage I feed it.

 

[SGtheArtist]

It's been mentioned on this thread that the 1.71b BIOS if you have this exact motherboard supports the 133 mem. divider.

You can read back I believe Serpentor linked to the page where you could download it.

Also HTT(FSB)=312 & CPU multiplier=5x would run the chip at about 1.5GHz (With the mem. divider= 100 RAM would run at DDR312). I say CPU multiplier because I do not believe that the HT could run at 1560MHz most HT only overclock to 1050MHz (there abouts).

Thx cobalt \/

 

[Cobalt]

http://www.lejabeach.com/MSIK8N/k8nneo4ultra/k8nneo4.html

 

[Vegitto]

I will try. Thanks for the help, I'll let you guys know if it works out.

 

[Cobalt]

Any updates Vegitto?

 

[Vegitto]

Yep. It still didn't work. I had it Prime Stable at 290x9 for 12 hours. And suddenly, it just stopped working at those speeds. We're back at 275x9 for now, till I figure something out. BTW, that might take a while, since we've got a virus. Yay!