Overclocking A64 3500+ on Asus A8N-E

[Yoshi64]

Hi,

I need some help overclocking my system. My cpu runs att 2200 Mhz (11x200) default, and my goal it to get it up to 2400, which is 11x218.
I guess/hope that my Kingston value PC3200 can run @ ~440 mhz with slow timings, so I hope to keep a 1:1 FSB:RAM ratio.

My problem is that I changed the CPU frequency in BIOS from 200 to 210, and when I got into windows CPU-Z said that I was still running at ~2200 Mhz. I also run a benchmark to conclude that the cpu is indeed running at stock speed. How can this be?

Also, my main drive is connected to SATA-port 1. Should I move it to 4, or is it safe in port 1 for these relatively low bus-speeds? I have locked the PCI and PCI-E frequency to 33 and 100 Mhz respectively...

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The Asus boards will revert to stock if they fail to boot with the O/C settings.
Don't worry about the ram speed it doesn't really matter, run the DDR333 divider and you should be able to O/C easily. If you want to keep your ram at stock, use 240x10 with the DDR333 divider and your ram will run stock 200mhz DDR400.

You can likely get quite a bit better than 2.4ghz out of that chip if you want too.

 

[dwcal]

My A8N-E has a BIOS bug where if the floppy drive is disabled the bus speed sets itself to 201 MHz (or sometimes 216MHz) no matter what speed you set. Try enabling the floppy drive in BIOS even if you don't have one.

 

[Yoshi64]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The Asus boards will revert to stock if they fail to boot with the O/C settings.
Don't worry about the ram speed it doesn't really matter, run the DDR333 divider and you should be able to O/C easily. If you want to keep your ram at stock, use 240x10 with the DDR333 divider and your ram will run stock 200mhz DDR400.

You can likely get quite a bit better than 2.4ghz out of that chip if you want too.

Should I lower the HT-multiplier from 5 to 4 if I run 10x240? Is it ok to have my SATA HDD connected to port 1 ?


dwcal: Thanks for the tip, I will try it!

 

[Effect]

Yep, 4 would be best. If 10x240 works well, you could try upping it to 11x240 for 2640mhz, just to use the 11x multi (i think it's kind of a shame to run it at a lower than stock multi, seeing as you paid extra for it, but that may just be me, lol).

 

[Yoshi64]

Originally posted by: Effect
Yep, 4 would be best. If 10x240 works well, you could try upping it to 11x240 for 2640mhz, just to use the 11x multi (i think it's kind of a shame to run it at a lower than stock multi, seeing as you paid extra for it, but that may just be me, lol).

Well, I think 2640 will be a bit too high for my stock cooler and average ventilated case (2 fans in, 2 out, all low rpm). But it would be nice

 

[GuitarDaddy]

You might be surprised, most of the 3500's clock pretty well. 2640 is probably doable with a slight vcore bump.

And yes set the HT multi to 4x, and sata1 will be fine. All sata ports are locked

 

[Yoshi64]

Hmm, I seem to have gotten quite a good sample.

Running 10x250 now, with 5/6 memory divider and 4 HTT multiplier, thus memory @ 208 Mhz and HTT @ 1000 Mhz. 1.40 V.

Running Prime95 torture test "blend", and been stable for about 1.5 hours now. The CPU temp max out at 45C. Is this too high? If it's stable now, I'll try the same speed @ 1.35 V, to get the temp down a bit... Idle temp is 32-33C