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

[laco]

thx zebo, what cooling are you using?

 

[Zebo]

I made custom water cooled...not much better than air cooling because fans are at 5V barly moving for silence...

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Looking for some assistance with my overclocking endeavors. I've done edumacated myself on the intricacies of the A64 before I even bought one. That being said, I'm finding it difficult to get this 3000+ 90nm to anything above 250x9 without pumping it with voltage.

Specs:

A64 3000+ 90nm
CBBHD 0449 GPBW
XP-120 (AS3) w/ Sanyo Denki 120mm
DFI NF4 SLI-D - 02-09 bios (plugged 2 extra power connectors into mobo)
2x512MB pc3200 Corsair Value Select in DIMM 2&4 for DC
2.5-3-3-8 1T timings
PC P&C 510-SLI (rails look good-- 3.39, 5.12, 12.09)
Seagate 160GB SATA on ch3
2x BFG 6800GT @ 370 x 1000

At 250FSB, I've kept the HT at 4x, but when I try over 250, I'm dropping it to 3x.

First, to test the mobo, I dropped down to a 6x multi and used 300 FSB with ram at 100. No problems at all.

I'm not even going to try to see how far to push the ram, as I would doubt the Value ram would get anywhere significant. So, I plan to just use a divider, keep the 1T cmd rate and see if I can make the timings tighter if I am able to find something stable and RAM is under 200. I have the RAM at 2.8v right now as this DFI board seems to need more voltage for RAM.

I can run 260 FSB, 9x multi, 150 mem (2/3), but I have to hit it with 1.6+ volts and it (according to Everest) gets up to 53C.

I'm willing to admit when I'm beaten and accept that I have a bad overclocker, but is there something I am missing I can try?

A few concerns-- 1) There are A LOT of memory settings in this BIOS besides the standard CAS, CPC, Trcd, Tras, Trp. Like I said, I have those at 2.5-3-3-8 1T, but all others are set to AUTO. There things like Bank Interleave too (something that I know nothing about). And there's also an option to increase chipset voltage above 1.5v. 2) Heat. I'm surprised this chip is getting as hot as Everest says with the XP120 and 120mm high-speed fan. But, even then, 53C doesn't worry me really (but that will climb in the summer).

Sorry for being so long-winded. Any ideas?

 

[narcotic]

ah... I'm a sort of a newbie to OC (so go a head and flame me...), and there are a couple of term I didn't understand in the guide:

1. when you say "until you fail boot", what exactly does this mean? like, fail POST, or I have to let windows load completly every time?

2. "set memory to SPD and 100" - what's SPD, and where in the bios would I set it.

3. "Set multiplier to it's maxium" - isn't the multiplier set to max by default?

4. The entire mem section was impossible to me (newbie) to understand, like
-what's LL or Bandwidth and how do I choose.
-what's 1T, and the notation 2.5-4-3-7 1 T stand for, and how do I set this things?

Before you flame my arse to hell, I know those might be lame q's for most of you, but I'd like to understand perfectly what de hell I'm doin' before I start messing with my new (and long saved for) rig. I don't expect you to chew the stuff for me, and teach me everything if you don't feel like writing, so even quick links to articles that can clear those terms/issues for me will be appriciated.

 

[Amaroque]

Zebo, I am so glad you wrote this guide. I was getting tired of answering the same questions constantly.

Now I can direct them here. Thank you. :thumbsup:

 

[Zebo]

deadseasquirrel
Nice setup.

When you were testing chip out @ 260x9 where you leaving memory at 100 (1/2)? Just to rule memory out as being culprit? But then again 150Mhz over 3500 speeds is pretty good, no? I would'nt push more volts. In my guide I say 1.55 as max but 1.6 with that cooler is alright but I would'nt push it past that because I err on the side of caution.

Second Have you DL latest bios or a beta bios?


As far as memory timings I would'nt mess around with the extensive selection other than maybe tRFC to 15, if that does'nt give better results leave SPD or AUTO and just mess with these to start:

1T/2T Timing: 1T
Cas Latency: 2.5
Ras to Cas Delay (Trcd): 3
Ras Active Time: (Tras): 8
Row PreCharge Time (Trp): 3


Then tighten up with volts applied, on your board there is some danger of overvolting due to awesome DFI capabilites...so no more than 2.9.

Ideallly?

1T/2T Timing: 1T
Cas Latency: 2
Ras to Cas Delay (Trcd): 2
Ras Active Time: (Tras): 8
Row PreCharge Time (Trp): 2

Gluck

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: narcotic
ah... I'm a sort of a newbie to OC (so go a head and flame me...), and there are a couple of term I didn't understand in the guide:

1. when you say "until you fail boot", what exactly does this mean? like, fail POST, or I have to let windows load completly every time?

2. "set memory to SPD and 100" - what's SPD, and where in the bios would I set it.

3. "Set multiplier to it's maxium" - isn't the multiplier set to max by default?

4. The entire mem section was impossible to me (newbie) to understand, like
-what's LL or Bandwidth and how do I choose.
-what's 1T, and the notation 2.5-4-3-7 1 T stand for, and how do I set this things?

Before you flame my arse to hell, I know those might be lame q's for most of you, but I'd like to understand perfectly what de hell I'm doin' before I start messing with my new (and long saved for) rig. I don't expect you to chew the stuff for me, and teach me everything if you don't feel like writing, so even quick links to articles that can clear those terms/issues for me will be appriciated.

Narcotic, I appoligise.. did'nt relise this would be stickied and just went though real quick. I realise some editing needs to happen since I use lots terms many may not be familiar with.

1. Yes exactly, POST. When you fail to reach bios, then back down 5% that's your max HTT.

2. SPD or Auto are synonymous. They mean serial presence detect, which is the information the memory manufacturer has stored in an EEPROM chip on your memory module. Tells timings and speeds mem is spec'd at.

3. sometimes. depends on mobo, chip, bios. Mine booted at 8 but was 9..YMMV. (your mileage may vary)

4. It just depends what kind of ram you have and what you want to go with.

LL means low latency
High Bandwidth means high Mhz.

When I refer to timings such as "2.5-4-3-7 1T" (which is convential/steet order not nessesarly bios order since they all differ)

2.5 = Cas Latency

4 = Ras to Cas Delay (Trcd)

3 = Row PreCharge Time (Trp)

7 = Ras Active Time: (Tras)

1T/2T Timing: = Command rate lower is better.

 

[DrCrap]

Yo zeb, nice guide, but some things are hard to understand, like your memory explanations there's too much OC'er jargon - you wanna claer these up for me? Anyone else is also welcome.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: Zebo
When you were testing chip out @ 260x9 where you leaving memory at 100 (1/2)? Just to rule memory out as being culprit? But then again 150Mhz over 3500 speeds is pretty good, no?

Actually, I had it on 133 mostly. Even 150 had it under 200 (would be 195 oc'ed). And make no mistake... I'm very happy with my system and any mhz over stock is something for nothing. But only as long as it's stable and not pumped with too much voltage. Which is where I see my main problem is. I (mistakenly) assumed I would be in the clear with an XP-120 and 120mm fan since many out there can take their 90nm chips to 2.6+ with stock voltages and retail cooling.

I played more with it last night and found something interesting. Seeing as how I could finally get stable at 260*9 with 1.65volts, I figured 2350 would be about my max stable. Well, I dropped the multi to 8x and upped FSB to 300. And, get this, dropped the voltage down to 1.55v. Ran prime stable all night (8 hrs) til I shut it off before leaving for work.

Somehow, lowerinig the multi allowed me to get a higher overclock on less voltage. Seriously, I changed nothing else.

It has me wondering if I could try 350 * 7 successfully with similar or lower voltage. I may try this tonight. With 350FSB, should I bring the HT down to 2x or leave at 3x (and be 1050)?

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: Zebo
As far as memory timings I would'nt mess around with the extensive selection other than maybe tRFC to 15, if that does'nt give better results leave SPD or AUTO and just mess with these to start:

1T/2T Timing: 1T
Cas Latency: 2.5
Ras to Cas Delay (Trcd): 3
Ras Active Time: (Tras): 8
Row PreCharge Time (Trp): 3

Also, forgot to address this part. When setting RAM at 100 (1:2 and very underclocked) and leaving everything else to AUTO, the memory speeds up other settings-- i.e. it will boot at 2.5-3-2-5 instead of 2.5-3-3-8 that I want it to. Well, I can easily change those 4 manually so they are not on AUTO.... but that doesn't do anything for the 15 other RAM options that are set to AUTO. See pic1 and pic2 of the DRAM page in the BIOS. How much is it speeding those settings up??

 

[John]

Here's an excellent thread for DFI NF3/4 bios settings and memory timings.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=329627

 

[Leper Messiah]

nm, answered my own question 24 bios has 7:1 and 8:1 dividers. Funny how they don't work too well past 232...but If I force to 6:1, I can boot at 245 and prime at 240. PSU doesnt have enough guts for consistent gaming, although it'll run through 3dmk easily enough...voltages are obscene though. Have to run a 1.85 volts to get 245!!!

 

[Trey22]

Prime95 halts after 31 minutes w/ my 3200+ Winchester @ 1.65v (BIOS setting) @ 2.5GHz (10x250 w/ HTx4). CPU-Z shows the actual voltage at 1.632.

This is the weird part, in CPU-Z the CPU voltage fluctuates between 1.616 and 1.632, every 2-3 seconds... is this flucuation normal?

I'm running a Shuttle SN95G5 w/ a gig of Ballistix set at auto voltage (2.6) @ 2.5-3-3-11. If I up the voltage, it won't boot.... same if I tighten the timings. I'm installing a floppy now to try to run memtest. Memtest wouldn't run off a bootable CD (something about address line A20 already enabled).

EDIT: Does memtest test the memory at SPD, regardless of any BIOS memory settings? Or do I need default memory settings in BIOS before running memtest?

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: Trey22
EDIT: Does memtest test the memory at SPD, regardless of any BIOS memory settings? Or do I need default memory settings in BIOS before running memtest?

It will run at whatever u set it to in BIOS.

 

[Trey22]

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel

Originally posted by: Trey22
EDIT: Does memtest test the memory at SPD, regardless of any BIOS memory settings? Or do I need default memory settings in BIOS before running memtest?

It will run at whatever u set it to in BIOS.

Nm, answered my own question by reading the OP (imagine that!)

 

[aznman]

Zebo, thanks for helping out new guys like me...ima need this next week when i get my x800xl in...final piece of the puzzle

a64 3000+
chaintech vnf4/ultra
1gig(2x512)kingston hyperx pc3200
seagate 80gig sata
powercolor x800xl(no way in hell im waiting for another month for the price to drop 70 bucks)

i hope it will overclock well....not hoping for a grand overclock(like majorpayne's.what a nice job) but hoping to fetch some decent numbers....wish me luck

thanks again for the guide bro
-ricky

 

[AznSensation]

Hi I currently have this setup and tried your guide. However my computer wont post...

3200+ winchester
2x 512 DDR 500 (3-4-4-8)
Asus A8N-SLI

I've tried 250 x 10 with 4HT 1.5v at default memory timings/ voltages. but no luck... what shall i do?

 

[werver]

No problem with no OC, MemTest-86 and Prime95 ok.
First I tries to detect the max HTT/FSB. According to this article I put the CPU multi to 6, the memory to SPD, 2T and memoryclock to 100.
HTT to 4.0. CPU spread spectrum, PCI-e spread spectrum and SATA to disabled. Vcore 1.50V and Vmem 2.60V
FSB 200 en 210 ok. Then FSB 220 the BIOS doesn't start anymore. THe power- and the HDD-led lights continuous and no image on the screen.
I have to reset the BIOS with the button on the board to get back to normal.
I haven't tried Clockgen. As soon as I have results a report back.

My system specs:
BeQuiet Powersupply 400W, +12V 20A
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum BIOS 1.1
Winchester 3200+
Leadtek Geforce 6600GT
2 x 512MB Crusial Ballistic PC3200
120 Gb Maxtor
Windows XP Pro S2
nVidia nForce4 standalone driver v6.39

 

[werver]

I used Clockgen with the following settings:
HTT 4x, Memory 2.5-3-3-8, 1T. Vcore 1.55V, Vmem 2.7V
I could reach 245 MHz under Windows. 250 MhZ gives BSOD.
So between overclocking in the BIOS and in Windows using Clockgen makes a difference of 25 MHz. Still low for what I expected to reach with this components

My system specs:
BeQuiet Powersupply 400W, +12V 20A
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum BIOS 1.1
Winchester 3200+
Leadtek Geforce 6600GT
2 x 512MB Crusial Ballistic PC3200
120 Gb Maxtor
Windows XP Pro S2
nVidia nForce4 standalone driver v6.39

 

[Lazerous]

Strange dilemna here.....


I just boosted my CPU up to 2.52ghz and now i get worse benchmark scores.

scores with cpu@2.439 were:

3dmark'05 - 4956
3dmark'03 - 12,127

with the new clock@2.52ghz:

3dmark'05 - 4883
3dmark'03 - 12,027

Granted this isn't a huge loss but shouldn't it go quite a bit higher instead of going down?
why would this be? because of the command rate of the ddr being set to 1t maybe? is there a logical explanation for this?

what i changed:
ddr command rate to 1t (from 2t)
ddr voltage to 2.80 (from 2.65) *2.8 is the highest the bios allows.*
cpu voltage to 1.525 (from 1.5)
htt to 210 (from 203) *ddr by itself would only stay stable to 220mhz*
DRR latency timings are: 2-2-2-5

I didn't really change alot. just enough. lol
The system is running very stable though and passed prime95 with no errors in over 12 hours of tests.

* Silly question here. Would the fact that I have a 754 socket affect the way that the HTT is set or how high it can be boosted?

Any answers here?

 

[SpideyCU]

Very simple question here. I own an Epox 9NDA3+, and I can't find any ratio settings for my RAM bus vs. FSB. There is only a generic setting for "100/133/166/200/Auto" under "Max Memclock". Now, I can't tell if those are flat limitations (166 = 166 MHz), or if they're ratios (166 = FSB*0.83). Anyone with this board able to shed some light? WCPUID doesn't show a RAM bus speed, so I can't figure out which is which!

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel

Originally posted by: Zebo
When you were testing chip out @ 260x9 where you leaving memory at 100 (1/2)? Just to rule memory out as being culprit? But then again 150Mhz over 3500 speeds is pretty good, no?

Actually, I had it on 133 mostly. Even 150 had it under 200 (would be 195 oc'ed). And make no mistake... I'm very happy with my system and any mhz over stock is something for nothing. But only as long as it's stable and not pumped with too much voltage. Which is where I see my main problem is. I (mistakenly) assumed I would be in the clear with an XP-120 and 120mm fan since many out there can take their 90nm chips to 2.6+ with stock voltages and retail cooling.

I played more with it last night and found something interesting. Seeing as how I could finally get stable at 260*9 with 1.65volts, I figured 2350 would be about my max stable. Well, I dropped the multi to 8x and upped FSB to 300. And, get this, dropped the voltage down to 1.55v. Ran prime stable all night (8 hrs) til I shut it off before leaving for work.

Somehow, lowerinig the multi allowed me to get a higher overclock on less voltage. Seriously, I changed nothing else.

It has me wondering if I could try 350 * 7 successfully with similar or lower voltage. I may try this tonight. With 350FSB, should I bring the HT down to 2x or leave at 3x (and be 1050)?

A little over 1000 is no big deal. In fact some posters have reported sucessful 1200Mhz HT. I just stipulate 1000Mhz is inportant to hover around to eliminate another variable which could negativly effect overclockability.
Besides there is no real benefits to High HT anyway.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Trey22
Prime95 halts after 31 minutes w/ my 3200+ Winchester @ 1.65v (BIOS setting) @ 2.5GHz (10x250 w/ HTx4). CPU-Z shows the actual voltage at 1.632.

This is the weird part, in CPU-Z the CPU voltage fluctuates between 1.616 and 1.632, every 2-3 seconds... is this flucuation normal?

I'm running a Shuttle SN95G5 w/ a gig of Ballistix set at auto voltage (2.6) @ 2.5-3-3-11. If I up the voltage, it won't boot.... same if I tighten the timings. I'm installing a floppy now to try to run memtest. Memtest wouldn't run off a bootable CD (something about address line A20 already enabled).

EDIT: Does memtest test the memory at SPD, regardless of any BIOS memory settings? Or do I need default memory settings in BIOS before running memtest?

Ya vcore fluctuation is normal. I don't know why though but seems more pronouced with winchs. When it requires power, like gaming or priming, it will raise Vcore but ~.05.


Memtest checks stabilty of memory at whatever timings you have set in bios. If you have set SPD or Auto ir will check at those timings and speed. If you adjust timings and/or speeds it will test at the new settings.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: aznman
Zebo, thanks for helping out new guys like me...ima need this next week when i get my x800xl in...final piece of the puzzle

a64 3000+
chaintech vnf4/ultra
1gig(2x512)kingston hyperx pc3200
seagate 80gig sata
powercolor x800xl(no way in hell im waiting for another month for the price to drop 70 bucks)

i hope it will overclock well....not hoping for a grand overclock(like majorpayne's.what a nice job) but hoping to fetch some decent numbers....wish me luck

thanks again for the guide bro
-ricky

That board kinda sucks for overclocking. Do a search in mobo forums..has hard time past 220 HTT.. my advice is get MSI ultra or DFI ultra from monarch with free bundle.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: SpideyCU
Very simple question here. I own an Epox 9NDA3+, and I can't find any ratio settings for my RAM bus vs. FSB. There is only a generic setting for "100/133/166/200/Auto" under "Max Memclock". Now, I can't tell if those are flat limitations (166 = 166 MHz), or if they're ratios (166 = FSB*0.83). Anyone with this board able to shed some light? WCPUID doesn't show a RAM bus speed, so I can't figure out which is which!

This is the rough way to calculate IE close enough..

"Max Memclock".

200 = HTT Mhz
183 = HTT x .90 = Mhz
166 = HTT x .83 = Mhz
150 = HTT x .75 = Mhz
133 = HTT x .66 = Mhz
100 = HTT x .50 = Mhz