Unofficial ASUS K8N-E thread

[jkresh]

lowering your ht from 4 to 3 will almost definitly increase your overclock. Lowering multipliers may increase your maximum fsb but wont increase your maximum clockspeed, so if your memory can go higher then your processor using a lower multiplier makes sense ex with 2.7v my memory has problems over 430 at 2.5-2-2-10 (with 2.8 or 2.9 I can go much higher), so I am running my dtr 3200 @ 9 * 258 for a clockspeed of 2322 and a memory speed of 429.6mhz (memory is set to 333 in bios). If I left memory at 400 and multiplier at 10 i would hit a wall around 218+- so changing memory settings and multiplier allows me to maximumize my overclock. Assuming asus can get a fix and give us more memory voltage i will be making some major changes to those settings, but for now they are pretty good.

 

[beflythis]

what does an HT value of 4 mean? What does changing it to 3 affect?

-beflythis

 

[jkresh]

You can look it up on this forum, but since you?re new I will explain. HTT is hyper transport, which is AMD's high-speed interconnect between processor memory and components. The HTT speed is the 1.2.3.4.5 (with a 939 board) times your fsb. It doesn?t have a significant effect on performance and on most 754 boards tops out around 900-1000mhz, so if you want an fsb over 250 you will almost definitely need to drop it to 3 (going from 1000 to 750), and on some boards much over 220 requires dropping to 3 (880 to 660).

 

[imported_ST]

a little update to my previous post. as someone noted, the c0 steppings of clawhammer were notoriously overclock unfriendly, and turns out mine was a c0 stepping. with the help of some buds i picked up a 3200 NC for real cheap ($140) and this baby flies! interestingly enough, even with my crummy samsungcl3-3-3-8 pc3200 dimms, i was able to go up to a 228fsb/ddr rate (2500MHz), with somewhat good stability with an air cooled HSF. this is with voltage at 1.575V core and 2.7V dimms. Atlhough all Sandra tells me my system kicks ass, with other benchmarks, i'm barely eeking out above my OC 3400+ CH (2310MHz). Maybe the benchmarks i run (aquamark/3dmark05/etc.) are more gpu intensive, or the 1MB cache makes a huge difference, I'm not sure.

Anyhow, I will be getting some good mem today and a nice power supply to correspond to it (saw the AT article on how much a good 500W+ PS is in their system in the Athlon memory tests), and hope to push it up to 2600MHZ.

One last note, AT talked about issues with the 228MHz on the K8Ne with SATA drives. I have run this up to 230MHz with no boot issues whatsoever. Could it be that this was addressed in BIOS 1005 (my present one)? I'm starting to like this board more and more....

 

[LocutusX]

yes in fact the first time i heard about SATA/overclocking issues on the K8N-E was in AT's review.
most of the "user testimonies" i read on this thread and @ amdmb.com didn't indicate any hugely negative impact that SATA was having on high HTT's. which is why its better to look for user testimonies rather than Tech Site Reviews.

3dmark03 and 05 are pretty much pure gpu intensive... are you comparing your NC and CH chips on the same system or different systems? i.e. same gfx card, memory, mobo, PSU, blahblah.. ? (ram timing settings?)

a better way to compare your NC and CH would be to use cpu/memory-subsytem intensive benchmarks. The old CPUMark99 might work. SuperPI should work well too. 3dmark2001 might work, but if you don't like futuremark then try benching a game like Doom3 at a really low rez (640) to eliminate videocard GPU from the equation. also video encoding like encoding a chapter of a dvd in CCE, Virtualdub, whatever you use.

 

[imported_ST]

locutusX - i am using the exact same system with just different cpu's. I was hoping with the increased cpu clock gain, i would net at least a comparable percentage in benchmarks, but it seems negligible, except again for Sandra tests. I'll try some of the ones u suggested. i had read somewhere that gpu intensive tests/programs, would still benefit from cpu gains, especially with a high end gpu card like a 6800 ultra i use.

im glad im not alone in the sata inquiry, because i almost thought of giving up my precious raptors (blasphemy!).

 

[cownipples]

I found a nice comfort level and stable overclock settings ht 3 264 fsb x9 multiplier at 2508 mhz memory seems to fly at this setting.

 

[Kador]

mem @ ?

 

[gechu]

I use can use my mem @ 250 Mhz, (maybe even more). Lowered my multi to 4x, and lowest HTT multi.

Which is the best way to get the most of my system? Are there greater chanses that one of the two methods mentioned wil be more successful?

1. Lower multi * high HTT (with memratio scaling so the mem freq doesn+t exceed 250)
or
3. Higher multi * 250Mhz HTT (mem ratio 1:1)


Right now am I using this settings:

244Mhz HTT
3X HTT multi
10x cpu multi
vcore 1.5
vdim 2.7


SPECIFICATIONS::
3200+ NC Asus k8n- beta 1006.008
512 PC4000 Corsair XMS 3-4-4-8 ratio 1:1

 

[LocutusX]

Originally posted by: gechu
1. Lower multi * high HTT (with memratio scaling so the mem freq doesn+t exceed 250)
or

You need to determine whats the highest HTT your system can handle. With this board, I'm guessing it's around 260... anyone gotten it higher (even with LDT multipler of x2)?

 

[beflythis]

i know how to change the HTT multiplier, but how can you change the HTT mhz? (or is it the same as FSB) ???

-beflythis

p.s. how can I find out the stepping code on my chip

 

[LocutusX]

yes, in the bios the field that says FSB speed is actually referring to the *BASE* HT speed, before the multiplier is applied.

to get the final HTT bus speed, you take the base HT speed and multiply it by 2, 3, 4...
to get final CPU speed, you take the base HT speed and multiply it by CPU multiplier (10, 11)
to get memory speed, you take the base HT speed and multiply it by mem. divider (1/1 , 5/6)

stepping code = run CPU-Z. or read the product code on the actual chip, look for "AX"

 

[beflythis]

cpu-z results:

newcastle brand 4

family F
ext. fam. F
model C
ext. model C
setpping 0
revision DH7-CG

good for OC or did i get SOL?

-beflythis

 

[LocutusX]

it's good for OC.

 

[Maximus96]

it says your revision is CG, CG is better than C0

 

[imported_ST]

Another update: dropped by the nearest Fry's and picked up some PDP (Patriot) XBL Memory. These 512MB sticks are based on the new Samsung TCCD sticks, rated at 2-2-2-5-1t at pc3200, and has bandwidth to pc4200 3-4-4-8-1t. I also changed out my generic 500w ps in favor of a coolermaster real 450W PS, and ditched my "old" coolermaster vortex ultra for a newer bigger coolermaster vortex dream 7 (kinda looks like the zalman unit). although the new hsf was a pita to install, it did a masterful job, lowering cpu die temps to the 35c area idle. through experimentation, benchmaring, and stress testing, I was able to stabilize on 2563MHz CPU (233MHz FSB), with PC3700 timings of 2-3-3-6-1T (I was able to go as far as 245MHz, but Super PI started having rounding errors). With this, my system was finally able to join the 70k club in aquamark 3 (71250 to be precise!), so I'm a very happy camper!

Thanks to everyone who started this thread and drilled on Asus! This mobo does rock afterall!

 

[LocutusX]

ST,

nice job. can you give the full final specs of your new system now? incl. o/c settings.

 

[beflythis]

good for OC, you say? then WHATS GOING ON!

hrmm I'm running at 225 fsb, 4HT, 10x multi with stock voltages except for RAM which is at 2.7 (DAMN THE CAP... ) [ current ram settings are 2.5-3-3-10 -1T ]

my system stock is 200fsb... are my current settings a *good* overclock for my chip model? with the cooling, PS and RAM i've got (OCZ Premier pc3200 2.5-3-3-7 w/copper heat spreaders, enermax noisetaker 470W and a thermaltake venus 12 HSF) I should be hitting 240 FSB easily, no?

even though my vid card is only a gf4 ti4200, (ew i know) i still want to hit higher OC's...

Can some pro OC'ers suggest other settings that might increase my overclock and thus, overall perforance?


SUGGEsTIONS/advice PLS!

-beflythis

 

[LocutusX]

1. change HT multiplier to 3x
2. increase CPU core voltage to 1.55 or 1.575
3. RAM goes in slots 1 & 3
4. try 240 FSB

- any improvement?

if not, change ram divider to 333mhz. if it works now, tighten ram timings to the max. RAM is running at 200mhz now, so it's still a worthy overclock, as you have an effective "3400+". and you can use tighter timings than at 240mhz.


your components sound good... how are temps @ stock: prime95 after 1 hour?

i have OCZ 3200 also, and the highest it can go at 2.5-3-3-10-1T is 235mhz.

so i'll probably use 2500mhz cpu, 208mhz ram, 2.0-3-3-10-1T.

 

[imported_ST]

LocutusX, final specs running are:

NC 3200+ @ 2563MHz @ 1.6V
233 HTT X 11 (HTT = 3)
233 DDR 2-3-3-6-1t @ 2.7V 1:1 in slot 1/3

I'm no pro at this, but the best advice i can give is:

1) Get the lastest 1005 bios from Asus, as it fixes a number of limitations for OC
2) Check ur CPU revision (hopefully it's not a C0 and instead a CG)
3) Get some decent RAM, if you hope to achieve above 210HTT (Samsung TCCD's seem to work good)keeping in mind the max 2.7V available to the mem. for the K8Ne
4) Set HTT to 3 once asap. It looks after 800MHz HTT, things start destabilizing, and u're not losing that much by going to 600+ (remember this is NF4-Ultra 250)
5) Experiment slowly and methodically, in small increments. you must find out the limitations of both ur mem and cpu, so mess with ur cpu mulitplier / ram divider
6) And most importantly, keep an open mind. OC is not guaranteed in anyway! some systems will clock higher, some won't. u have to trade of the risks (stability) for the rewards (speed).

 

[Forte136]

I justed installed my new K8N-E with a AMD 64 3200+. On the first boot o got an error, it told me there was a cpu overvoltage. So I looked in the bios and I found Vcore changing every second, from values between 2.7 and 5.2 !!!!!. The cpu temp however always remained stable and system does post ok, when I ignore the vcore in the bios. I installed windows, cpu-z couldn't show me the cpu voltage. The nvutil can only read the cpu voltage (no ddr and agp voltage displayed) and it tells me cpu voltage is 5 !!! I alse noticed that the overal system performance isn't wat it should be. Could this be a motherboard problem ? Just a faulty readout or should I rma it ? I can't determine if it is cpu related because I don't have another one laying around to test.


Screenshot


Full specs.

K8N-E deluxe
AMD 64 3200+
Infineon DDR 512mb CAS 2-4-4-8
Radeon 9700 PRO
2x SATA 80gig Maxtor
1x IDE 80gig Maxtor

Greetz

amgin-E

 

[LocutusX]

Never heard of that error before, and I've been reading a lot of K8N-E threads.

IMO either the CPU or the motherboard is faulty. Perhaps the PSU, but I've never heard of a PSU causing that particular behaviour before.

Could try taking your CPU to a store and asking if you could install it on one of their machines to test it out...

 

[gechu]

got my HTT working above 250Mhz @ 2.7v 1:1 ratio. It´s corsair PC4000 XMS mem (3-4-4-8).

I´ve read that when overclocking a A64 system, the RAM timing is the no 1 priority, is that low timing, or keeping it a ratio of
1:1?

Does any have got Clockgen working with this board? My just keep freezing whenever I change something. And I have used a HTT higher than 200 to enable the pci/agp lock. What have I missed?

 

[beflythis]

dropped ram frequency down to 333 (from 400), dropped HT multi to 3 (from 4), and i was able to hit 240 FSB x 10... @ 1.575v, i got a bsod loading windows, at 1.6v i got a bsod at the login prompt, and at 1.650 or 1.675 (can't remember which), I was able to load windows and run fine...

I ran MEMTEST at this setting for... more than an hour, and my comp was fully functional when I got back, but then it would crash randomly at other times.


btw, my cpu core was at 40C after the memtest.... (fan on FULL) which is too hot for me, so I'm down to 230 fsb w/ lowered voltage.

is 40c too hot to idle? will my chip burn up @ that rate (if i decided to run 2.4) ? pretty neat that I'm able to run a practical 3800+ after buying a 3000+

-johnny

 

[Kador]

Stange, I am able to run 2.5 with 1.6v, which version / steeping you have ?

For me I have a problem with my ballistix : I get memtest errors at any speed, any latency. The problem is that the recommended voltage is 2.8, and I can test it and determine if it's a voltage problem or a real memory failure. Damn ASUS !