Am I missing something?

Donut

I'm trying to oc a pair of 848 E stepping Opterons. (sorry I incorrectly reported them as 248's in another thread) and can seem to only get to 2475 (up from 2200 stock).

specs: Asus K8N-DL
2- 848 Opterons
6- 512mb pc3200ecc ram
2- Ninja HSFs
Tnt 2 pci for video
160gb pata hd
Sparkle 550w psu (36a on 12v rail)

Due to board limitations I have to oc via software. Some options are available, but instability results in boosting fsb to high. Here's what I have so far, I upped the fsb. to 210 to lock the pci bus. I'm using Ntune for any software adjustments. (I can't seem to find the proper version of clockgen).

I have dropped (in bios) the HT multi to 4, from stock of 5. dropped the ram to 166, from 200. I can run 225 HTT ok, (been priming for about 4 hrs now) but when I tried 230 HTT it would fail prime on 1 cpu, in about 20 min. I tried to bump voltages up a touch is the bios, ram, chipset, etc. I didn't think they would max out this quick. Maybe they did? I feel I'm missing something, this is my first shot at ocing these "newfangled" procs.

Could it be the 6 sticks of ram?
Btw, highest temps have been 52c reported by Everest home ed. (that is the closest to the bios temps I've found.)

Help please?

lemonlime

Hi Donut, are you sure that your PCI/AGP/PCI-E bus is locked on that board? prime95 failures are usually due to memory/CPU only. I would try your luck with only 2-4 sticks of ram first. If there is a difference, that could be the culpret.

Donut

Thanks for the tips,

Bus locks "should" be in place, anything above 200fsb in BIOS should lock them.

I'll check the memory, it's possible when I dropped the ram to 166 it tightened up the timings too much (still on auto for the timings). I'll try playing with the ram a little. (don't forget it's server ram).

I wouldn't think the procs would run out this fast, maybe I'll swap in my 242s and give them a go.

Thanks, (this is a nice little rainy day project.)

Donut

A quick update:

Looks like the procs were the bottleneck. I found the proper Clockgen and couldn't push the 248s higher and be prime stable. However, swapped in my old 242s (1.6ghz-8*multi) and are now priming at 2150mhz. (HTT-270) damn close to the stock speed of the 248s. (2.2) and a whole lot cheaper. Might have to go looking for an inexpensive pr. of 244-246s

all this for a short-time playtoy, and long term folding box.

Donut

How far out of spec can the HTT bus be run? I hope I have the right terminology. I've been trying to keep it as close to spec as possible, right now I'm at 810 from 800. (810=3*270, 800=4*200-stock) I'd like not to have to drop to a 2 multi as I don't feel it would be worth it.

lemonlime

Donut wrote:

How far out of spec can the HTT bus be run? I hope I have the right terminology. I've been trying to keep it as close to spec as possible, right now I'm at 810 from 800. (810=3*270, 800=4*200-stock) I'd like not to have to drop to a 2 multi as I don't feel it would be worth it.

You should be fine there. Do the opterons run a 1600/800MHz HTT bus? I assumed it was 2000MHz/1000MHz. Ideally, you should keep it as close to stock as possible, but 10MHz over should be perfectly fine. I'd recommend keeping it below 900MHz if you can. The 2X HTT multi will likely only make things worse.

TBH, Dount, I'm surprised those 'E' series opterons topped out at only 2.4GHz. I'd expect 2.6 at a minimum. Then again, overclocking is never quite the same when using server/workstation boards and ram Sounds like it should make a great folding rig!

Donut

I'm kind of surprised the Es topped out so quick also, seems to be 1 cpu that was giving me problems. Maybe the extra HTT links to make it an 8 way? (they were 848 cpus) I can only guess.

My 'E's are 2000/1000HTT bus, my 'CG's are 1600/800 bus. I'm not sure how old the 'cg's are, but the board they were pulled from will support "up to" a 248 proc. Kind of funny how that works out. I've owned the 242s about a year now, and I got them used.

I'll see if I can go a little further with the 242s, right now with the settings above it's been prime stable about 36 hrs with the 3 gigs of ram. The other procs have gone into IC6 for a temporary upgrade. Maybe I'll start looking for a pr of 244,246s cheap.

Thanks lemonlime for your words of wisdom.

edcentric

Did you try with only one CPU and one stick of memory? Maybe this will give you an idea of where the hardware will get to.
The multiple sticks of memory could be hte issue. You may be stressing the mem controlers too much.

Donut

I only knocked it down to 2 sticks of memory in single channel mode, I couldn't see trying to run with less than a gig if I plan on using it for anything else. Same with the cpus, kept both on the board (if I'm going to pull 1 cpu, may as well pull both), cpu #2 failed early while running prime. I tried the 242s and it verified (in my eyes anyway) that it wasn't board or ram issues.

My other board will only run up to a 248 proc. . The board is a pure server board no ocing options and MSI won't release a newer bios to support anything higher, much less dual core.

The Asus board is a little more future proof, as it will support dual cores. Also has PCI-E and NUMA support. Will also do up to 8 SATA drives (IIRC)

Now if socket 940 dual cores would only drop in price....:rolleyes2

BTW, the 242s are currently priming @290HTT (a little over 2.3ghz) and they are about 5 hrs into it. (crosses fingers)

Donut

update: 1 cpu failed prime at the 6 hr mark, dropped back to 285HTT and trying again.

Donut

Newest update- 285 Htt prime stable, folding stable (so far, i'm only a couple of days into it):smokin: