After finally getting hold of some new parts, I've got my new X2 3800 system running. Specs are:
Athlon X2 3800+ (2.00GHz)
MSI K8N SLI mobo (NF4 SLI), BIOS v1.3
1x1GB Crucial Ballistix PC4000 (rated 3-4-4-10@2.8V to 250MHz) - yes I know I'm not running dual channel, but I'm intending to run this system at 2GB in the near future and I want some room for expansion later.
Samsung SP2004C 200GB SATA drive, installed on port 1.
Gigabyte 6600GT graphics.
I've been experimenting with overclocking (as my old PC is an old KT133 with only the FSB and the CAS latency to change!) and I've seemingly hit a wall at 235MHz.
I'm currently running at 2-2-2-5 1T, RAM on 2.8V, CPU on 1.40V 10x (2.35GHz), NF4 at stock voltage, HTT at 4x (giving 940MHz, so below the 1GHz mark), and with the PCIE locked at 100MHz. There is no PCI lock that I can see, but SiSoft tells me it's on the same divider, so it should be running at 33MHz.
I jumped to 240MHz. Black screen - had to clear the CMOS to get it going again. Tried 236MHz - won't boot. I'll jump straight to the point: After changing various options one at a time, I ended up with the RAM at 3-4-4-8 2T @2.85V, CPU ratio at 8x to ensure it's not the problem, still running at 1.40V as that's the board's maximum, NF4 overvolted by 0.1V, and yet I still can't get the FSB above 235MHz.
Having read numerous guides, I find it odd that it goes from fastest near-normal settings and working fine, to overvolting everything and underclocking everything except the RAM and not working within 1MHz!
There are about 15 memory settings in the BIOS on this board, some I can't even find reference to on the internet. Changing these had no effect either. I also found that the "Aggressive Memory Timings" option messed everything up at about 205MHz, so that's been killed as well. I'm seemingly running out of options. Am I missing something here?
Athlon X2 3800+ (2.00GHz)
MSI K8N SLI mobo (NF4 SLI), BIOS v1.3
1x1GB Crucial Ballistix PC4000 (rated 3-4-4-10@2.8V to 250MHz) - yes I know I'm not running dual channel, but I'm intending to run this system at 2GB in the near future and I want some room for expansion later.
Samsung SP2004C 200GB SATA drive, installed on port 1.
Gigabyte 6600GT graphics.
I've been experimenting with overclocking (as my old PC is an old KT133 with only the FSB and the CAS latency to change!) and I've seemingly hit a wall at 235MHz.
I'm currently running at 2-2-2-5 1T, RAM on 2.8V, CPU on 1.40V 10x (2.35GHz), NF4 at stock voltage, HTT at 4x (giving 940MHz, so below the 1GHz mark), and with the PCIE locked at 100MHz. There is no PCI lock that I can see, but SiSoft tells me it's on the same divider, so it should be running at 33MHz.
I jumped to 240MHz. Black screen - had to clear the CMOS to get it going again. Tried 236MHz - won't boot. I'll jump straight to the point: After changing various options one at a time, I ended up with the RAM at 3-4-4-8 2T @2.85V, CPU ratio at 8x to ensure it's not the problem, still running at 1.40V as that's the board's maximum, NF4 overvolted by 0.1V, and yet I still can't get the FSB above 235MHz.
Having read numerous guides, I find it odd that it goes from fastest near-normal settings and working fine, to overvolting everything and underclocking everything except the RAM and not working within 1MHz!
There are about 15 memory settings in the BIOS on this board, some I can't even find reference to on the internet. Changing these had no effect either. I also found that the "Aggressive Memory Timings" option messed everything up at about 205MHz, so that's been killed as well. I'm seemingly running out of options. Am I missing something here?