Quick and dirty A64 clocking guide **UPDATE** X2 OC information!

[peonyu]

Originally posted by: peonyu
Nice guide, ot question but what is the highest safe voltage for these A64s [130nm & 90nm], Im running at 1.78 now which got me from 2650mhz @ 1.68 to my current speed 2.72ghz, and ive booted as high as 2800 but it crashes as soon as i enter windows. I think more vcore and i can go higher but is it safe above 1.8 for a newcastle ?

Bumpage !

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: peonyu
Nice guide, ot question but what is the highest safe voltage for these A64s [130nm & 90nm], Im running at 1.78 now which got me from 2650mhz @ 1.68 to my current speed 2.72ghz, and ive booted as high as 2800 but it crashes as soon as i enter windows. I think more vcore and i can go higher but is it safe above 1.8 for a newcastle ?

peonyu, this guide is for safe n00b clockers. if your running 1.78 you obviously know what you're doing... I did'nt recommend such high voltages and gave what I feel is a safe cool range for air clockers...I don't consider 1.78 safe even with water... maybe phase is ok. But mainly I don't want to break peoples stuff with my advice so I play safe.

No one really knows safe Vcores with A64 because AMD has thus far has refused to tell us, unlike they did with bartons... I suspect some of mem controller frys are from too much voltage. Why? Mainly because A64 is 95% barton and bartons could handle 2.0V all day long... not these..only culprit is mem controller fail IMO.

Besides, AMD 64 does'nt respond to heavy voltages in my experiances.. .1 over volts is major gains..after which more voltage has marginal effect w/o extreme cooling.. and if you had that..you have no need for n00b guide.

 

[n7]

Remind me not to try OCing this mobo again

Not only did i get major Windows corruption, i also could not even re-image for some reason, since somehow that was messed up.

So i deleted the OS drive (Raptor) through Drive Image so that it would be unallocated space thinking somehow maybe that would allow me to re-image...but nope.

And now to top it all off, when i go to reinstall Windows...i get to "Windows is inspecting setup" & then nothing but a black screen.

Woo-mothereffing-hoo wtf did i do now

 

[Zebo]

I overclocked that same mobo and same chip. I had 4 of these combos though a deal with AMD wish I never sold..

Anyway. Set everything back to defaults reinstall. Unless your board is borked or old bios, and therefore has no lock it works at 234.

 

[n7]

I didn't realize there was a newer bios out last night when i was trying the OCing, but if you had 4, you had those before the latest bios came out, so i'm not sure why mine fux0red up so bad.

I now have the latest bios...getting Windows to see my Raptor is the thing i am trying to achive now...

Did you use the Promise SATA ports or the VIA ones?

Or neither?



Oh, & BTW...this deserves a sticky

 

[21stHermit]

Nice Guide, I'll have a go at it. :beer: :beer:

Too bad I got the wrong mobo, MSI K8T Neo2-F, SATA isn't locked.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Sticky

 

[Avalon]

Good for a gloss-over on a great method of fine tuning your overclock, but I wouldn't trust this guide in the hands of a new overclocker.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Sticky

Yet another awesome thread by Zebo. Give him Elite title already

-Kevin

 

[Icepick]

Excellent guide. Nice work Zebo.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Sticky

Yet another awesome thread by Zebo. Give him Elite title already

-Kevin

Ditto...

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Upsy Daisy!

 

[DCypher]

Lets get him a sticky

 

[huges84]

Pardon my n00bness,

When you say make sure the computer boots, how far do you mean? Gets past the POST, gets to logon screen, or gets to desktop? If POST, then should it be a quick POST or a full POST? The difference in time between these checks really adds up as I keep bumping MHz.

Also, you say at the beginning that hypertransport needs to be around or below 1000. Does that mean that when I'm finding the max HTT I need to keep adjusting the hyper multiplier down to maintain that 1000 target?

One more thing. Any particularities I should know about my system? (since A8N is pretty new to market)
A64 3000+ Winch Rev. DH8-D0
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
Stock HSF
Corsair VS PC3200 2x512 (2.5 Cas version)
Leadtek 6600GT


oh yeah,
!! THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP !!

 

[tarv]

this is a great guide. Unfortunately I am not having any luck getting any really good results.

Hopefully someone can tell me if I am doing somehting wrong or what the weak link is.

First off my system is:

Asus Sli board
Winnie 3500
Antec 430 true power
Ocs PC3200 cas 2 ram
Gt6600 card
WD 74 gig raptor
Audigy 2 card

First I put SATA on channel 4 to make sure its locked. I also lock pci at 33.3 mhz.

I was able to isolate the HTT and that went up to 1075

The memory part is where it gets confusing. In my Asus NF2 board i could get my mem up to 225 w 2.8v Now here the most i can get is 220 @ 2.9v

Now when i try to combine both i have no luck at lower settings @ 220

My cpu runs under 39c under full load at stock speeds and I have a really nice Zalman 120 mm Copper heatsink/fan with AS3.

Some of the things i have noticed were:

When i upped to bios 1003 on the last write part it always say no update on 2 of the squares when writing.
I also have problems whenever i look up certain parts of the bios. If i check Sli mode, nothing is listing under the headers and I can't get back to regular menus. It basically freezes up and I have to reset. Never had anything like that happen in a bios before so that seems weird to me.

My PSU also shows the v numbers

4.81v - 5 V
11.71v - 12 V
3.21v - 3.3 V

Not sure if I this PSU is not supply enough juice.

I was also getting random reboots at stock setting when CPU and Mem voltage weren't bumped up to 1.45v and 2.8v

The max voltages I can hit the CPU for are 1.55v on this asus board with bios 1003. Airflow and cooling shouldn't be a prob as I have 2 120mm chasis fan with plenty of airflow .

 

[Bunnn]

Right now my 3200+ winchester is running at 2.7GHz
ram timings are 2.5-3-3-10 1T
voltage is 1.55

HTT is 3x
multiplier x 10

is there anything i can change to make it run higher?
or can i still lower the ram timings?

my specs are in my sig, helppp

 

[Zebo]

Busy day.. promise to answer all q's later this evening or in morning (nobody pays attention on fridays)

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Busy day.. promise to answer all q's later this evening or in morning (nobody pays attention on fridays)

Take a break... :beer:

 

[mickles]

Originally posted by: Bunnn
Right now my 3200+ winchester is running at 2.7GHz
ram timings are 2.5-3-3-10 1T
voltage is 1.55

HTT is 3x
multiplier x 10

is there anything i can change to make it run higher?
or can i still lower the ram timings?

my specs are in my sig, helppp

You probably should have started your own thread, but I'd say you're at your peak for clock speed on air. Those ram timings are pretty tight too, nice OC.

 

[bryer01]

Ok I am a real noob here. Please explain this to me.

"set memory to SPD and 100, this will take memory out of equation " What is SPD?

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: bryer01
Ok I am a real noob here. Please explain this to me.

"set memory to SPD and 100, this will take memory out of equation " What is SPD?

SPD means pre-programmed default timings the mem manufacture has set. It's also known as "auto" in some bioses...

 

[Zebo]

When you say make sure the computer boots, how far do you mean? Gets past the POST, gets to logon screen, or gets to desktop? If POST, then should it be a quick POST or a full POST? The difference in time between these checks really adds up as I keep bumping MHz.
------------------------
Post means being able to get into bios. You only do this with chipsets test. with a8n i'd start high like 280 and go 10Mhz increments... should see 315HTT w/o issue

Also, you say at the beginning that hypertransport needs to be around or below 1000. Does that mean that when I'm finding the max HTT I need to keep adjusting the hyper multiplier down to maintain that 1000 target?
-----------------------
Yes LDT or HT in some mobos needs to be set when raising HTT(FSB) to at at or around 1000.
EX
200 x 5 = 1000 = cool
250 x 4 = 1000 = cool
280 x 3 = 840 = cool
etc/


One more thing. Any particularities I should know about my system? (since A8N is pretty new to market)
A64 3000+ Winch Rev. DH8-D0
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
Stock HSF
Corsair VS PC3200 2x512 (2.5 Cas version)
Leadtek 6600GT
--------------------------
Get lastest Bios. and do a search in motherboard forums.. there are many niggling issues with this mobo.. but I'm not familiar with it (waiting for DFI)

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: tarv

The memory part is where it gets confusing. In my Asus NF2 board i could get my mem up to 225 w 2.8v Now here the most i can get is 220 @ 2.9v

Now when i try to combine both i have no luck at lower settings @ 220

My cpu runs under 39c under full load at stock speeds and I have a really nice Zalman 120 mm Copper heatsink/fan with AS3.

Some of the things i have noticed were:

When i upped to bios 1003 on the last write part it always say no update on 2 of the squares when writing.
I also have problems whenever i look up certain parts of the bios. If i check Sli mode, nothing is listing under the headers and I can't get back to regular menus. It basically freezes up and I have to reset. Never had anything like that happen in a bios before so that seems weird to me.

My PSU also shows the v numbers

4.81v - 5 V
11.71v - 12 V
3.21v - 3.3 V

Not sure if I this PSU is not supply enough juice.

I was also getting random reboots at stock setting when CPU and Mem voltage weren't bumped up to 1.45v and 2.8v

The max voltages I can hit the CPU for are 1.55v on this asus board with bios 1003. Airflow and cooling shouldn't be a prob as I have 2 120mm chasis fan with plenty of airflow .

Initaly it sounds like your HT is too high.. try and stay less than 1000.

What model PSU? What Video card(s)?

You can test PSU fairly easy by finding a stable prime settings. After that reboot and run 3dmarks like 2003 and 5.. If it crashes it's your PSU..

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Bunnn
Right now my 3200+ winchester is running at 2.7GHz
ram timings are 2.5-3-3-10 1T
voltage is 1.55

HTT is 3x
multiplier x 10

is there anything i can change to make it run higher?
or can i still lower the ram timings?

my specs are in my sig, helppp

Looks good to me I would'nt touch a thing

What's your mem speed and HTT? You could try and tighten the timings/increase volts and run memtest per guide.

 

[humble71]

I'm a newbie to ocing and I'd like to have some things clarified. I have a amd64 3200 winchester and an msi k8n neo2 plat.

when you talk about maxing the htt/fsb which would I be increasing?
My mobo has a 3 options: CPU fsb frequency (which is at 200), HTT (5x), and DRAM (200)
Which one would be the htt/fsb?

What's the difference between the CPU fsb freq and the DRAM freq. TIA