Overclock Questions

[Cdizzle]

Well, I have it back at 2.40Ghz, at 1.40 volts, I was playing unreal tourny 2k4 on it, and it ran at a max of 155F, now that im on the web, and talking to some friends, it is at 142F. It seems pretty stable, ill see how it turns out in a day or so of leaving it on.

How in the hell did you get that processor up so high, you must have had EXTREMLY OVERCLOCKABLE parts, I thought this motherboard was good with overclocking, well compared to my last one, the max my last one would let me do was 2.40, i could go to 3.00 if I had the right cooling.

[Cdizzle]

Well, after having it on for a few hours and playing some games it decided to crash while I was checking my mail in Outlook, it lasted a lot longer then it did, I think that is because of the up on the volts going to the processor (1.40V). Like I said earlier, when I up the clock speed, the ram goes up to, well I noticed that when I went down a little further in bios, the voltage for DDR was "Normal" so I upped it 0.01 volts or my other option was 0.02 volts. I dont know if this will do anything, but since the comp will crash if the processor is under powered, i thought that I would give it a shot with the RAM, any thoughts?

The above didnt seem to work, it was on for about 20 min, and I was looking at a tour of Norton Ghost when it just froze... I dont know if I should continue testing with the fan setup, cause I fear if I make the voltage higher on the processor, it will burn out. I think that ill wait for liquid cooling. Thanks guys for the help.

Edited May 2, 2007 by Cdizzle

[audiofanaticz]

A great overclocking site is overclock.net. they are really helpful there and there is alot of knowledge in their forums. Sorry steve if its not allowed giving out other site names.

A helpful program is cpu-z.

Again, what kind of motherboard do you have? Asus and DFI are the best overclocking motherboards with the most options for a good, fast, stable overclock.

Putting more voltage to your processor or ram will increase your temps. I got a 800mhz overclock on my amd 3700+ san diego processor and run fine, and never peak over 50 degrees C at full load.

When you are overclocked, run cpu-z and see what your memory frequancy is. If you are running 2 ddr sticks, your resulting freq should be around 200mhz per stick. Look at my added picture below of my specs in cpuz. It says 174.7, and that is my frequancy per stick, so my resulting frequancy with both sticks would be 349.4 mhz. Do if you got ddr 400 memory, and you are running over 200mhz per stick (400mhz both sticks combined) your ram may be maxing out (or running too fast). Some cheaper brands of memory cant handle the extra speed, and this is when ram dividers come into play. So going into bios and setting a slower divider such as a 266 divider will make your ram speed run slower, but the processor overclock will make up for it, so right now with my system overclocked at 3.0gigs, my ram is running 50.6mhz slower then when Im not overclocked.

Also look at your HTT speed in cpuz. You should be no lower then 800mhz, and now higher then 1200 mhz. If you are lower or higher change your htt setting in bios. Mine is at 1080.4 which is right in the middle of the two for the most part. Most motherboards have htt 1, 2, 3, and 4 settings.

Overclocking can be a pain in the rear and will take time. But again it is hard to help without knowing what kind of memory, and motherboard you are using. Ram, and ram dividers play a big part in a good overclock, along with keeping your ram, and processor cool. Good case ventalation is a must, and a good zalman heatsink on your processor is almost a needed thing, but I had my pc clocked for a long time without having a good heatsink and didnt limit my clock too much.

Also if you know how, Flash your motherboard bios....... Most motherboards allow you too flash in windows which makes it a breeze to do!

[Cdizzle]

I have 2 sticks of Corsair XMS ram, and 2 sticks of Corsair Value select (512x4) making 2 gigs of ram.

I have a GA-K8NSC-939 motherboard

Edited May 2, 2007 by Cdizzle

[audiofanaticz]

Ok. Im going to make this a long shot, but your ram is what is killing you

Your ram dividers seem to be fine at the moment, but the mis matched memory is the thing.

I have 2 sticks of Corsair XMS ram, and 2 sticks of Corsair Value select (512x4) making 2 gigs of ram.

I have two 1 gig sticks of Corsair XMS Pro, beautiful memory with the led activity led's

But when mixing up 2 different types of ram (ie xms and value select) is where you run into probloms. The xms will have faster timings then the value select ram. The xms will also be more stable then the value select ram.

One thing I would try is pulling out your 2 sticks of value select and run your computer with just the xms and try doing your overclock again. and see how that works. Im willing to bet that it is your ram kicking a error.

Also another thing too, you cant run faster ram timings with 4 sticks of memory, you can still get your timings pretty tight, but you can run faster timmings with 2 sticks over 4 sticks.

[BassJunkie]

I totally did not realize this, when I first got my computer I was reading up on overclocking my Pentium D. I read 2 or 3 sites telling me how instable they were, and not to overclock the the dual core processors, but I guess that was 2 years ago and about a month after the processor came out. Sorry for the misleading info

[BassJunkie]

i overclocked my Quadcore 2.66 to 3.47 NO problem at all. Im watercooled though so its easier to keep the processor chillen'. Keeping that processor cool is probably the most important thing when it comes to overclocking.

Is this also the computer you're getting the blue screens on?

[audiofanaticz]

Most the time when overclocking, bsod (blue screen of death) is related to a memory error. If you into settings and turn off the thing to automaticly restart after bsod, right down the bsod code and check it online you will know what is causing the bsod.

To turn it off, right click on my computer, goto properties, click the advance tab, under startup and recovery click on settings, and where it says system failure uncheck the box that says automaticlly restart. So next time you bsod, it wont restart, it will just site there with that blue screen. Right that long code down, and then once you restart google it to find out the cause of your crash.

Cheers

[Cdizzle]

Alright, so far so good, I have narrowed the ram down to the XMS, and it seems to be running well, 147F under a slight load 153F when playing unreal2k4. Now I was wondering if you could inform me on how I can set timing and overclock my ram? Thanks

[audiofanaticz]

If you didnt change any ram dividers in your bios, your ram should be slightly overclocked from the processor overclocking you did.

Just go into cpuz again, and look at your ram frequancy and see what it says. It should be around 200mhz per stick. If it is higher then 200mhz then it is overclocked. I dont know how high you can take your ram up, but Im guessing at least around 220mhz per stick if not a little more giving you ddr440 speeds.

BUT remember the more you overclock anything the more juice it needs. My Corsair XMS Pro is getting 2.9 volts (which is maxed out in my bios settings), I dont know if you can up your voltage that high, or where you currently have it set at. Best idea would be to goto corsair.com and find the specs of your memory just so you dont toast it.

Open up cpuz again, and post a screen shot of your memory timmings where it says 3-3-3-7 or whatever (under the memory tab of cpuz). Them are usally recomended timings for the ram. I know tho that when I bought mine, my recomended timings wherent correct and could go a lot faster.

Id almost try the times im going with in my screen shot of cpuz. 2-2-2-6 with a 1t command rate. Otherwise if that is not stable, try for a 2-3-3-6 and a 1t command rate.

I didnt know you where posting that to meade bassjunkie. I remember reading that once Steve installed Windows Vista that he hasnt had any more bsod probloms which is good

Edited May 3, 2007 by audiofanaticz