Opteron 146 CAB2E overclock

[wolfman11]

Hello all - first post.

I wanted to thank the group for all the information I learned here regarding overclocking. I picked up an Opteron 146 from www.tankguys.com and right now it is running stable and cool at 2.4 gigahertz with stock voltage and heatsink and fan. I haven't tried to go anyhigher as this seems like a good stopping point for now. Under light usage (internet, email, itunes) runs at 33C in my Antec Super Lan Boy case with stock fans. Under heavy load goes as high as 42-44C (using standard AMD interface material although I have some Arctic Silver 5).

May try higher later, but the confidence to try this was gained from reading all of the great posts here - thanks a lot!

Steve

 

[buzzsaw13]

2.4ghz on stock voltage is pretty good, but I'm pretty sure that you can get 2.7ghz+ with a small bump in voltage. I had my 146 running 2.8ghz with 1.45V for a while and temperatures never hit above 50C

 

[Boom782]

Let me know how it turns out. Im thinking of buying a 146 from tankguys too. Did you get the 0607 chip?

 

[wolfman11]

Yes, got the CAB2E 0607 GPMW stepping. I just received the chip yesterday and didn't try to overclock till today. Working on an ASUS A8N5X motherboard which appears to have fewer memory dividers than I'd have liked in retrospect, but right now with the 333 divider the ram is running right at DDR400 speeds. I don't know how high this chip will go, but I've very happy with the difference. I noticed much more of a jump in performance from the 2.2->2.4 overclock than the 2.0->2.2. For example with my eVGA 7600GT I was scoring 21,896 in 3dmark2001 (old benhcmark, but...). After bump to 2.2 went to 22,479. After bump to 2.4 went up to 24,046.

This is an excellent chip. I'm very pleased - and tank guys had it for $169 ($155 now) while newegg, etc had it for minumum of $210. Right now it's at 4000+ speeds for basically 1/2 price. Even if go no farther I can't argue with that at all.

 

[Fallengod]

Yeah monarch has oem for $150 total shipped with a coupon as well. I was debating buying one. I want one that will oc to at least 2.8ghz so... I havnt pulled the trigger yet. Trying to figure out which has the best stepping. Also been sorta searching the FS/T forum. I just want a friggin 146 for $140-$150 that will do 2.8-2.9ghz with low volts and ill be happy.

 

[Boom782]

Haha, just...?

You 'just' want a CPU for $150 that performs as well as one that goes for $800? I'd be happy with 2.4-2.6ghz. 2.8ghz would be amazing though.

I was looking to get the one from tankguys since its retail and I didnt want to dish out more money for a HS/F. Will the stock HS/F cut it?

 

[wolfman11]

I'm using the stock heatsink and fan on mine. And the stock thermal material that was on the heatsink from the factory.

 

[Boom782]

Any more luck with the CPU or do you not plan on taking it any further? Really curious as to what this will do.

 

[sodcha0s]

Push that sucker! I'm running my 146 @ 2.8, stock voltage. It will do 2.9 with a small voltage bump and I could probably get 3.0 with some major tweaking, but to me 2.8 at stock vcore is fine.... pushing further for minmal gains just isn't worth it.

 

[wolfman11]

I just bumped up to 2.5 this morning, running with the following settings:

HTT: 250
CPU multiplier: 10x
Memory divider: 333mhz (DDR 417 effective for my OCZ Platinum DDR400 2x1 gig sticks)
LDR: 4

Idle temp is 34C and under load is 43-44C - basically the same as at 2.4 gigahertz, hoping that is a good sign for maybe getting 2.6 at stock voltage.

So far, the scaleup on 3dmark2001 (eVGA 7600 GT) looks like:

146 @ stock: 21,896
146 @ 2.2 : 22,479
146 @ 2.4 : 24,046
146 @ 2.5 : 24,910

For SuperPI 1M:

146 @ stock: 43.7 seconds
146 @ 2.2 : 40.2 seconds
146 @ 2.4 : 37.1 seconds
146 @ 2.5 : 35.7 seconds

Going to stay here for a little while and decide how best to try 2.6. I think the lack of the 300 mhz memory divider is going to cause me to either push the ram harder or underclock the effective ram speed...running at CAS 2 right now, maybe if I underclock it and bump the command rate from 2T to 1T it will help offset some of the ram underclock...

 

[Boom782]

Very nice.

 

[wolfman11]

Well tried 2580 - no go, wouldn't boot. Now I need to try and determine what the issue was:

1) running the DDR400 at DDR433 effective
2) running the hypertransport at 1040

Either way, think I am going to give this a lot more thought. I'll probably sit right here for now. Right now overclocking the memory 8mhz which isn't much but I didn't want to overclock the ram at all which is why 2.4 was so attractive, ram was right at DDR400.

For this OCZ Platinum DDR400 ram - anyone have any opinions on whether or not over the long haul it's going to be a problem running this at 208 versus 200?

 

[wolfman11]

Very interesting. I changed the clock back to 2.4 and lowered the command rate from 2T to 1T (CAS 2). My 3dmark2001 score was 24,046 @ 2.4 2T. It was 24,910 @ 2.5 2T. At 2.4 1T it is 24,640.

Basically 3/4 of the performance gain I saw going from 2.4->2.5. Very interesting - suprised by that much of an impact.

 

[Boom782]

Ended up picking up an Opty 146 CABYE 0540 NEW retail on ebay for $170 shipped.

Heard this is one of the best cores to get. Thought for sure that it would have gone for $200+.

 

[Boom782]

Now im wondering if I should turn around and sell the 146 and buy a 165. People have gotten $230-250 for a 146 Cabye 0540.

 

[wolfman11]

Well, decided to try and move a little higher...still on stock volts and with the stock heat sink and fan. Running Prime95 in the background now, so far so good. I'm at:

HTT = 270
LDR = 3
Max Mem Clock = 266
Clock multiplier = 10x

So effectively 2.7 gigahertz and DDR360 with 2-3-2-5 and 1T RAM timings. trying to keep an eye on temps, 51C is the highwater mark so far...

How quickly do you typically move up? IE, if it's stable here and I want to try and see if I can get to 2.8, should I go to 2750 then 2800 or are those jumps too big? Thanks!

 

[wolfman11]

Well, it primed for about an hour fine at 2750 so I figured I'd try 2800 - no go, seems like I might need to up the volts a bit to get that, which I'm unwilling to do. So it appears that the upper bound of this chip is somewhere > 2750 and less than 2800 on stock voltage...I need to prime longer to ensure it's stable at 2750...

Still, I'm very happy - Now I guess the question is what to do with my RAM as I have the OCZ Platinum DDR400 CAS2 stuff running at DDR360 effective...would be nice to get that running 1:1 with the CPU...any recommendations on timings to try and relax or should I just move these 2x1 gig sticks to my linux box and grab some DDR500 sticks?

 

[n7]

10x270 with RAM @ 180 (DDR360) is fine.

I'm assuming your motherboard doesn't have a 140 or 150 divider?

Keep in mind RAM speed has a very minimal impact on performance for A64 architechture systems.

But i do have some suggestions you could try.

First off, you could try running 10x270 with 166 divider which would put your RAM @ 225 (DDR550). Now to achieve this you may have to loosen RAM timings. 2-3-3 or 2.5-3-2 or 2.5-3-3 or 3-3-3 etc; you'll have to fiddle around till you find what works. If you're really lucky, you might even get 225 w/o loosening timings.

Another option:
Run 9x300 with 133 divider which puts your RAM @ 192.86 (DDR386)

Another option...if your motherboard can handle a high HTT & has half multis.
Run 8.5x318 (2703) with 133 divider which gives you RAM @ 207.92 (DDR416)

I'd try the first way though...& unless you have loosen timings a ton, it'll likely give the best overall performance.

 

[wolfman11]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions...I'm trying to slowly move up from here and see where exactly I top out at...I've been tweaking for my temps as well. Currently at stock volts using an AMD quad heatpipe cooler and running 2753mhz with DDR367 effective and 2-3-2-5 1T timings. I've been running Prime95 for 10 hours or so and load temps is currently 47C, so I'm happy with the temps now (was getting up to 52C before I switched to this heatsink with artic silver 5 and swapped the stock 120mm exhast fan with an Antec Tri-cool 120mm running on medium).

I think I'll try option #1. I don't have a 140 or 150 divider, which kind of stinks...not sure why ASUS didn't provide that as it would really help me out in this situation (and a 183 would've earlier)...oh well for $74 I can't complain about this board at all.

 

[inveterate]

WHAT is wrong with you Pu55y5 GO TO 2.9 at least and try for 3..

DO 290 x 10 right away, u should have No problem with that. 1.552 volts GOGOGO.

I'm not lucky enough for 3ghz with my opty 144

BUT MAYBE U are

Mine tops at 2950 so i did the usual and clocked it slightly lower for stability and because of the 9x multiplier it was already pushin a really high HTT.

 

[wolfman11]

HMmmm...I am VERY LEERY to raise the voltage over stock levels for fear of risking the CPU. I started overclocking the chip with hopes of saving a few bucks (turned into saved a lot)..I'd hate to be greedy for a few hundred MHZ and lose the chip.

Looks like I am 10+ hours Prime95 stable (stopped the test no errors) at 2750. CPU won't boot at 2800 nor 2790. At 2780 I can boot into windows but BSOD within 5 minutes of usage. So I think to go any higher than 2750 I'll need to raise the voltage on the CPU...how much risk am I taking by doing that?!

 

[inveterate]

U are probably not fully stable at stock voltage at your current speed. go to 1.552 volts, make sure you read the CPU-Z voltage and not your mobo, cuz it isn't accurate

 

[wolfman11]

Ah OK - I'll check to see if there is a difference, thanks. Looks like there might be, CPU-Z is showing 1.424 for the voltage which I think is slightly overstock (which I think is 1.4)? In the bios is it still set to AUTO so ASUS must slightly overvolt stock...

I've run the small fft torture test for over 10 hours - should I run it for 24 hours to prove the CPU is stable here? I've been using it for pretty much anything and had no instability issues at all.

What risk am I taking by upping the voltage though? I'm very apprehensive about that as Intel says that is the #1 element in reducing the life of a CPU.

 

[wolfman11]

Originally posted by: inveterate
U are probably not fully stable at stock voltage at your current speed. go to 1.552 volts, make sure you read the CPU-Z voltage and not your mobo, cuz it isn't accurate

Turns out this was the case, I was 10+ hours prime95 stable (small fft's), but not 24+ hours stable at 2750mhz. I bumped back down to 2700mhz and am 30+ hours Prime95 stable. Should I jump from CPU voltage setting of "AUTO" in the bios (which appears to be giving 1.425v) to 1.552? That is a big jump or are you saying that is the max safe voltage and I should raise it very slowly?

Is there anything I should watch for other than temps as I raise the voltage to unsure I am in a safe range with the chip? I don't want to torch it. Thanks.

 

[sparkey]

congrates on a good chip ,just watch those temps closely and you should be ok go up the voltage ladder gradually you should be able te see a scale of temp increases