my crippled a8n-sli dx

[stoutpuppy1]

i'm starting to feel worse and worse about this board. it's seems alright an all (it has its issues, but i live with them), but the one thing that's really annoying is it can't seem to overclock. i think it's a memory issue, but i kind what that damn dfi now. when i had generic ram i could overclock at least 10% no issues. now with my OCZ platinum EL DC 3200 1gb(2x512) rev 1 i can only pull off 5%, that's uber pathetic. what can i do? scrap the board? scrap the ram? hit it with a hammer until it complies? thanks

 

[GuitarDaddy]

What are your spec? what bios?

 

[akugami]

I overclock just fine. Sure, it's well documented that the RAM will not hit past roughly 240-250mhz at 1T timings but the price/performance ratio is out of whack when you get high performance RAM anyways. The biggest performance boost you will get out of your A64 systems is first and foremost CPU clockspeed, second a good video card. Then comes everything else.

 

[stoutpuppy1]

i've tried bios 1002-1006 (soon 1007).

the processor is a 3200+ AMD 64 939 512k boxed version. I do not know which core it is.

When I had generic ram i could overclock to 2.2ghz and 220mhz->440mhz or so. With this OCZ PC3200 1gb EL DC Platinum rev1 I can only reach 2.1ghz and 210mhz->420mhz. I have tried manually setting clock timings, even to low amounts, adjusting Hyper transport, multiplyer, max ram speed, etc and I still can't get anything better. Damn why was generic ram better? :/

 

[MatrixVPR]

I'm pretty sure my OCZ is based off the same chips that your running and i didn't have an trouble hitting 240-245 which is like a 20% overclock. I think you should check your settings. Also what kind of PSU are you running? you got one of those 20 PIN or do you have the ATX 2.0?

 

[stoutpuppy1]

yea i have a 20pin Antec Truepower 550watt, i bought one of those 20->24 pin adapters, should i plug that in? I have the 4 pin thing plugged in i believe, and also the EZPlug standard power connector type thing by the video cards. If i use the 24 pin adapter, do i take out the 4 pin connector? i wouldnt suspect this to be the issue, considering generic ram did better.

 

[Insomniak]

Adapter shouldn't really make any difference. It'll just pull more wattage through the same 20 lines your PSU currently has, resulting in more heat and wear on the wiring.

Have you tried a memory divider? You realize all chips aren't guaranteed to run even 1% over stock - your OCZ just may not be that good at clocking. Do the math, use a divider, and you won't lose anything.

 

[ericlala]

does the A8N-E have those problems? (crappy OC, loud fan, what else?)

 

[MatrixVPR]

I don't know about the fan but the OCing I herd was better. People weren't having the 1t trouble that we deluxe guys are having. Fan and OC are the only issues that I know of with the Deluxe, all the other issues have pretty much been taken care of by BOIS 1007. I would replace the fan regardless; in fact I did after like 3 days of trying to sleep with a Honda Vtech running in my room!

 

[Insomniak]

The 240 - 1T issue really isn't that much of an issue - I mean christ, dividers do NOTHING to performance, and even underclocked memory barely suffers at all on the A64 platform - as long as you keep cranking up the CPU speed, performance is going to rise.

You guys don't need higher memory clocks - you've already got dual channel, and the on-die mem controller of A64 ensures that it's swimming in bits at all times - the bandwidth only really matters to those of you who do MM work, and if you can't stuff it through a 6.4GB pipe in a reasonable amount of time, then f*ck it - either go home or pick up something from Tyan which can house all the DIMMs you'll ever need.

 

[MatrixVPR]

I agree 100% the only reason I run 1:1 is because 240 is where I want to be at and the memory seems to handle it so I'm tickled pink!