OCing a Opteron, Zalman or Thermalright

[DRAGoNX515]

I will soon be getting a Opteron 175 (OEM deal at Monarch), and I want to know, how do I OC it? I know the whole thing about raising up the bus speed, and changing around with RAM ratios and Latencies.
What I don't get is how the voltages come into play (like how high should I go), and should I do anything with the HT link? This will be my first move to socket 939, and a HT link altogher, so I heard it was like something like 200x5? Does that come into play at all?

If I left anything else out about OC it, please tell me. When I OC a $500 chip, I want to get it right.

Also about Zalman and Thermalright:

In another thread that I had about OCing Opterons, the SI-120 kept coming up as being better than the Zalman CNPS7700-Cu.

1.)Is this true? Could something be better than that Zalman Monster?
2.)Is there a review of the SI-120 being compared to the Zalman?
3.)I always thought Zalmans were the best, seems I was misinformed.

Thx
-dragonx

P.S. I seem to be asking alot of questions on these forums, please dont take me for an idiot, when I overclock a $500 chip, I want to get it right, and I want to learn.

 

[Chef Brian]

Voltage can allow your chip to run stable a higher speed than would be possible at def. voltage - at the expense of thermals lol. If you end up hitting a high bus speed you may have to lower the HTT multiplier, much like you would to overclock your ram without pushing the CPU beyond it's limit.

The Zalman 7700 series is designed as a quiet cooler, not a performance cooler - if you want performance, it has to be the Scythe Ninja, the (thermalright) XP-120, or the Zalman 9500.

 

[DRAGoNX515]

Originally posted by: Chef Brian
Voltage can allow your chip to run stable a higher speed than would be possible at def. voltage - at the expense of thermals lol. If you end up hitting a high bus speed you may have to lower the HTT multiplier, much like you would to overclock your ram without pushing the CPU beyond it's limit.

The Zalman 7700 series is designed as a quiet cooler, not a performance cooler - if you want performance, it has to be the Scythe Ninja, the (thermalright) XP-120, or the Zalman 9500.

Isn't the SI-120 better than the XP-120? and would the 9500 be better than the SI-120?

Also does the bus speed directly effect the HT speed, like the RAM speed?

Thx
-dragonx

 

[Markfw]

Thermaltake XP90 or SI120. Either is fine. I have the XP90 on my 170 Opteron.

Next, set vcore to 1.45, divider to 166, then fsb to 240, and HTT multi to 2x. Boot !

The SI 120 is more compatable with a larger set of motherboards, other than that, the same. The 9500 doesn;t work as good from what I have read.

 

[DRAGoNX515]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Thermaltake XP90 or SI120. Either is fine. I have the XP90 on my 170 Opteron.

Next, set vcore to 1.45, divider to 166, then fsb to 240, and HHT multi to 2x. Boot !

The divider for the RAM will be 1:1 on my machine. DDR550 with the new OCZ Platinum DDR500 3-3-2-8 stuff that anandtech just reviewed. 1:1 is better right? I guessing I can get 275x10 out of the proccessor? what sould I set my HHT link to then?

 

[Markfw]

cool on the memory. So try 260x10 first, then by 5. You also need to set the HTT to x3 when you get over 250

 

[DRAGoNX515]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
cool on the memory. So try 260x10 first, then by 5. You also need to set the HTT to x3 when you get over 250

I relize that setting it to 3 is nessasary to get above 250, but would it hurt performance at all?
Whats the default multiplier? Does the bus speed (of CPU) directly effect the HT speed? like it would RAM speed (ya know in mhz?)

 

[allies]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
cool on the memory. So try 260x10 first, then by 5. You also need to set the HTT to x3 when you get over 250

Why must one set the HTT to x3 when you get over 250 fsb?

 

[DRAGoNX515]

Originally posted by: allies

Originally posted by: Markfw900
cool on the memory. So try 260x10 first, then by 5. You also need to set the HTT to x3 when you get over 250

Why must one set the HTT to x3 when you get over 250 fsb?

Same Question.

 

[Doctorweir]

HTT should generally stay around the default 1000MHz. Lower does not matter (well, there may be a small performance impact...), higher may lead to instability what does matter.
Hence, 250x4=1000. If going higher, go to 3x, e.g. 300x3=900, etc...

 

[EXEEMLITE]

Good morning Guys,
Dragon I cant speak for the SI-120 or the 7700, but I can tell you that the 9500 is really sweet. I can say that oced to 2655 I am idle at 33 to 35, double Prime95 I havent seen over 52, ofcourse thats within 7 minutes because of failure of cpu1, then it goes down to 46.
I have been playing with the opty 165 and have got a pretty nice oc of 2655 as of right now, only prob is cpu 0 is stable prime over 8 hours and cpu 0 craps out within 7 minutes.
So needless to say I need to back off, or raise voltage... Either way I have htt x 3 and "frontside" set at 295. Ofcourse I had to divide at 5/6 and loosen timing to 2, 2.5, 2, 7, which isn't too bad. Any things I should change to get my second core stable?

 

[Markfw]

I find the same thing. At 2650, it takes a lot of vcore, and even then its not 100% at 2600, I can run relative low vcore, and perfectly stable. I think thats the "wall"

 

[allies]

Originally posted by: Doctorweir
HTT should generally stay around the default 1000MHz. Lower does not matter (well, there may be a small performance impact...), higher may lead to instability what does matter.
Hence, 250x4=1000. If going higher, go to 3x, e.g. 300x3=900, etc...

I realize this, but mark said once to have the HTT at 2x up until 250, then once over 250, bump it to 3x. I was wondering why.

 

[Markfw]

No, not me. FSB x mult <= 1000 thats what you want. So 4x up to 250, then 3x up to 334 (if anybody ever got that high)

 

[allies]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Thermaltake XP90 or SI120. Either is fine. I have the XP90 on my 170 Opteron.

Next, set vcore to 1.45, divider to 166, then fsb to 240, and HTT multi to 2x. Boot !

The SI 120 is more compatable with a larger set of motherboards, other than that, the same. The 9500 doesn;t work as good from what I have read.

Originally posted by: Markfw900
cool on the memory. So try 260x10 first, then by 5. You also need to set the HTT to x3 when you get over 250

I was wondering why you said put HTT at 2x in the first post, then once over 250 FSB kick it up to 3x...

 

[Markfw]

typo

 

[Madellga]

SI-120 here. At 2.5 GHz and 1.41V, I have 32C iddle 38C load.

I tried the Typhoon, the 9500 and the SI-120. I kept the SI-120 because:
1) Easy to install
2) Good performance
3) Silent (using adjustable fan).

The Typhoon is not:
1) Easy to install (horrible is the best I can say)

The 9500 has not:
2) Good performance WHILE silent (like the Typhoon or SI-120).
And if the fans breaks down, you have to dispose it. No easy replacement.

 

[drifter106]

Originally posted by: Madellga
SI-120 here. At 2.5 GHz and 1.41V, I have 32C iddle 38C load.

I tried the Typhoon, the 9500 and the SI-120. I kept the SI-120 because:
1) Easy to install
2) Good performance
3) Silent (using adjustable fan).

The Typhoon is not:
1) Easy to install (horrible is the best I can say)

The 9500 has not:
2) Good performance WHILE silent (like the Typhoon or SI-120).
And if the fans breaks down, you have to dispose it. No easy replacement.

This is worth as much as any review, to bad you had to eat the cost to prove it. Many people have asked this question and hopefully they are able to do a search and find out this info to help them and their soluton.

 

[allies]

Originally posted by: Madellga
SI-120 here. At 2.5 GHz and 1.41V, I have 32C iddle 38C load.

I tried the Typhoon, the 9500 and the SI-120. I kept the SI-120 because:
1) Easy to install
2) Good performance
3) Silent (using adjustable fan).

The Typhoon is not:
1) Easy to install (horrible is the best I can say)

The 9500 has not:
2) Good performance WHILE silent (like the Typhoon or SI-120).
And if the fans breaks down, you have to dispose it. No easy replacement.

From all of the reviews I've read the three perform almost identically... I don't know how you oriented your heatsinks and all the details, but I'd like to see some specific numbers.

 

[DRAGoNX515]

How would the SI-120 stack up against the XP-120?
Which one would be better?
And I still don't have a clear answer. I want best Cooling with a heatsink and a fan. Which way do I go, SI-120? XP-120? 9500?...
I want to do mad OCing w/o water cooling.

Thx
-dragonx

 

[Markfw]

OK, flat out the Big Typhoon is the best cooler, but its a pain in the ass to install.

 

[DRAGoNX515]

Edit:
NVM if you saw the other post, you mean this

How would the other compare to it, or is it the kind of thing were they are all pretty much the same.

 

[Markfw]

I just looked it up on svc.com, and the model number is the same, but they add the "big typhoon", so yes thats the puppy. Rated very highly. Somebody said a "ninja scyth" or something like that was right up there, but anyway, this one is a monster.

 

[Interitus]

The Scythe Ninja is a beast of a cooler as well. It can run a lot of processor fanless as long as you have good intake and exhaust. Drawback: It's F$*$@)*$@)# huge

 

[Madellga]

Originally posted by: drifter106

Originally posted by: Madellga
SI-120 here. At 2.5 GHz and 1.41V, I have 32C iddle 38C load.

I tried the Typhoon, the 9500 and the SI-120. I kept the SI-120 because:
1) Easy to install
2) Good performance
3) Silent (using adjustable fan).

The Typhoon is not:
1) Easy to install (horrible is the best I can say)

The 9500 has not:
2) Good performance WHILE silent (like the Typhoon or SI-120).
And if the fans breaks down, you have to dispose it. No easy replacement.

This is worth as much as any review, to bad you had to eat the cost to prove it. Many people have asked this question and hopefully they are able to do a search and find out this info to help them and their soluton.

True. I sold the 9500 but have yet to ebay the Typhoon. Shouldn't be a difficult task, given the price and popularity.