Opteron 170 & DFI LanParty UT CFX3200-DR - Journal

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  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    OK - I changed a few things mainly - max async latency and read preamble all done manually - as the board is a bit tight

    This is great - I just went to 240 and continued from there prime-ing CPU at 260 at the moment - just shy of 1.4V and its not getting hotter than 44C - going to see if I can go up to 2.8Ghz - apart from that stumble this is great - keeping an eye on my memory too!
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited April 2006
    VR Zone just did a review on this board and they hit a hard wall at 225 HTT/FSB at 5x. They were able to get the board up to 355 HTT/FSB at 3x HTT and an 8x CPU Multiplier.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Thanks for the info

    Some news - I am using all my free time playing with this and after I corrupted windows - (probably due to not enough Vcore) I started again with a fresh install of windows.

    Currently 265 x 10 with my RAM running a 166 divider.

    32M Super PI - no sweat - 28 mins 38 secs

    RAM is running at 2.8V and CPU has 1.42V running through it. Doing a Prime95 stress test now - and seems solid - 15 mins so far. ( I know I need to do more, but am thinking about that 2.7!)

    The only thing is my CPU temp - 51C - Full load. idling at 41C

    I think my next step is keep everything as is and see if I can drop the vcore a fraction - to ease that temp........any suggestions?
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Am now rock solid 2.7 Ghz (I hope) but its prime95-ing very nicely now. Bit upset I cannot overclock my card as the PSU is not up to the job, but I am getting 11600 ish on 3dmark 2005 - not sure if that any good with stock 1900XT. DFI board - once configured is fantastic, also got about 1min 12 for a Super PI 2M calc - is that any good for 2.7Ghz??
    Yet to test with any games - stressing it as mentioned with prime95 and its 52C tops. Then I need to transfer over a few hundred gig to the HDD and get all my programs on it. Then game time...

    Anyone want settings and pics - cool, but making sure its stable first - then will post them.

    Probably more (def more) in this rig but sadly I do not know enough extreme detail regards memory to squeeze more out. 2.7Ghz is enough for 24/7 anyway.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited April 2006
    Krazeyivan wrote:
    Am now rock solid 2.7 Ghz (I hope) but its prime95-ing very nicely now. Bit upset I cannot overclock my card as the PSU is not up to the job, but I am getting 11600 ish on 3dmark 2005 - not sure if that any good with stock 1900XT. DFI board - once configured is fantastic, also got about 1min 12 for a Super PI 2M calc - is that any good for 2.7Ghz??
    Yet to test with any games - stressing it as mentioned with prime95 and its 52C tops. Then I need to transfer over a few hundred gig to the HDD and get all my programs on it. Then game time...

    Anyone want settings and pics - cool, but making sure its stable first - then will post them.

    Probably more (def more) in this rig but sadly I do not know enough extreme detail regards memory to squeeze more out. 2.7Ghz is enough for 24/7 anyway.

    Fantastic Krazyivan! Glad you got everything running smoothly now. 2.7 is an impressive clock for a dual core. Lets see some screenshots! :)
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Thanks - your guide really helped! I reckon this processor will walk 2.9Ghz, its just the heat - Am thinking about the Tuniq tower - as its the best Extreme air cooler, then I could maybe go to 1.5 or 1.55 vcore and have a nice 2.9Ghz machine to eat benchmarks - yip screenys coming ... hopefully prime is still running when I get back from work, will then post some pics tonight.

    Plus you get to laugh at Smart Guardian's 127C temp reading for PWM Area!
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Damn! Prime failed on one of the cores after 13 hours and 57 mins

    Vcore has now increased to 1.47! (This looks better as my monitoring software was showing the CPU jumping from 1.43 to 1.45 before) its rock solid 1.47 now and the PC seems faster, which is strange...

    Fear not will get some pics uploaded for everyone - together with my BIOS settings to help others with this great board - still needs work on the second SATA controller (jumping in over the SATA2 one) but its going to rock hard when all is nailed, the options are overclockers heaven. All you suffering with the Asus boards have my sympathies !
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    cpu.jpg


    Def more in this ... with prime failing before with the lower vcore its upset my idea of a screen with all benchies and stuff, but this gives an idea of where I am at. When prime comes back stable (which it will!) I am gunning for 275 x 10 - but will post more pics before I try that first!

    End up with a nice, stable (hopefully) and fast computer for 24/7 use.
    cpu.jpg 216.1K
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    Hi Guys

    Some advice please - I recently got this posted on another board I visit ...
    1) Will this work??
    2) If so HURRAH! 2.9Ghz on its way!! :rockon::thumbsup:
    What you want to do is find the max stable overclcok at standerd volts by that i mean 1.35v, use prime 95 or SP2004 and run two of them so both cores are running at full load check this with windows task manager making sure both cores are running and at full load on each, you will need to let this run for at least 10 hours then arfter that go back to the coms and lower the volts by one place by this i mean try 1.325, and again run prime or SP2004 for 10 hours, if this does not pass the go back to 1.35 volts and burn again for anouther 10 hours.

    what you are trying to do hear is keep the same speed but lowering the volts, by doing this it will run a lot cooler thus giving higher overclcok when volts are added.

    A full burn in takes anything from 40-60 hours,like i said start of with 1.35 volts and find your max overclock this may be 2.2 0r even 2.6GHZ it all depends on the steping of the chip, then run each sesion for 10 hours after each burn in try lowering the volts by one place leaving the clcoks at the same speed you started with.

    I replied with the following...
    OK - I take it this method is designed to get more overclock with less vcore.

    So if at 1.35V I can get something like 40 hours easy - then bring that to 1.325V and try again, when it eventually fails under 10 hours - move it back up a step and re-burn correct?

    This I take it would have an effect like - maintaining a stable overclock at 2.6Ghz say with 1.375V instead of 1.4 or 1.425 yes?

    Since this runs 24/7 - I consider stable to be at least 60 hours of prime95 on both cores.

    To be honest I may rip the thing apart and redo again the CPU thermal compound with the Artic Cooler (I use the instructions on the artic silver 5 website - even though I use formula 5 - just a small amount in the centre of the chip not spread over all of it) - and then do what you suggest - if I can get 2.8 or 2.9Ghz out of this thing air cooled - that would be sweet.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    Just a small update - this board is new and with mountains of things to tweak its taking a while, some things definately need patched by DFI in a bios revision - drive strength being one of them.

    I have reached 2.8Ghz on air - but its not prime stable, all I need really is a little more vcore but the temp is getting a bit too much - I can say this chip will go to 2.9Ghz+ if I got watercooling but I am hanging fire with that just now, conroe is coming and thats my next build in a year or so when some stable mobo's appear (or AMD route if they look strong) this system is going to operate at 2.6Ghz as its getting warm weather wise now, and I am running in a fairly hot room anyway.

    When some bios revisions appear I will flash them in - killing the cmos first (seems to iron out the niggles) then do a burn in with the processor at stock and see if I can get this thing to run at 2.7Ghz with lower vcore.

    I am currently deep into oblivion and it runs tasty at 1680 x 1050 with most settings on - HDR rules!
    I have just got FEAR too so i am trying to shoot people by casting with "C" :smiles:
    Ahh its a tough call!
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited May 2006
    I stopped on my GF's comp at 2.6 on the opty. Could have pushed it a little further but she is going to school in south florida and the thing is running at 38-40C idle and 50C full load.

    If her damn grand parents would turn the temp down to a human level...like 72 degrees, that would make a hell of a difference.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    Am going to strip it down and restart as I am not totally happy with it, a few things I think I can improve on, may even drop the temp on the CPU (hopefully)

    Its folding on both cores flat out.

    Here is a shot from the PC - have a laugh at the temp ! no idea why but it runs OK.

    computer.JPG
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Don't worry about that temp (127*C) on sensor 2. That is very common - not the temperature, but that extreme reading for the particular sensor. Essentially all that means is that the software and the sensor aren't cooperating. You might want to check the northbridge's heatsink. Perhaps remove it and install some premium thermal paste. That is standard procedure for me with motherboards. The CPU temp is just fine, considering you are running full load. My D820s run at around 56-57*C full load with premium heatsinks, but you must consider those CPUs are energy hogging, heat-belching Intel Smithfield pigs.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    Leonardo wrote:
    Don't worry about that temp (127*C) on sensor 2. That is very common - not the temperature, but that extreme reading for the particular sensor. Essentially all that means is that the software and the sensor aren't cooperating. You might want to check the northbridge's heatsink. Perhaps remove it and install some premium thermal paste. That is standard procedure for me with motherboards. The CPU temp is just fine, considering you are running full load. My D820s run at around 56-57*C full load with premium heatsinks, but you must consider those CPUs are energy hogging, heat-belching Intel Smithfield pigs.


    Thanks Leonardo

    I have rebuilt my PC now (again) and the temp reading is now normal! :)

    I am running stock again to just burn it in and see how cool it can run, the first problem I have ran into now is the BIOS allows me to change the vcore and the settings stay - but windows and Smart Guardian & CPUID always show the vcore at stock, it will not allow a higher setting. So I am going to have to solve this one, took some photos too so will get them up soon.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    OK some photo's from my recent reset and rebuild - sadly I sort of got engrossed on the putting it back together and forgot to take photo's but this gave you an idea of the wiring problem - Not as bad as it looks here - kept nice and cool as I had 120 akasa amber fan in front airtake and supplied 120's running for rear and roof.

    There are some problems with this board (its new) - mainly revolving round the HDD's and the controllers RAID - DFI are on the case, some are similar to the ASUS and the ULI controller (asus have more resources to throw at fixing things)

    My problem is my Disk lockup every hour or so (one of the problems) and the ULI controller will not allow ACHI mode with HDD's

    I included what I posted there.....

    "Here is a quote from a review from CustomPC regards the same ULI controller on the ASUS A8R32-MVP mobo

    The culprit was perhaps the M1575 Southbridge, which ran our S-ATA II Samsung test drive in 'Emulated PATA mode'. Attempting to switch to 'ACHI' mode caused all manner of problems, including corrupted Windows installations.

    I am getting the EXACT same thing!"

    BUT this board is quick but you have to nail it all down, memory wise DFI have it VERY tight memory timing-wise.

    Still at stock and going down - am Priming my CPU at 1.22V at the moment - 1.24 passed 20 hours no problem. If I get to something silly I will post a few pics!
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    1.24v burn-in @ stock
    PC.jpg 287.6K
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    From my first burn in - I took it back to stock 1.35 and started overclocking. Smart Guardian is reading 1.32v on the core.

    Currently at 2.5Ghz priming, before I had to increase vcore at 2.4Ghz - improvement!

    Flat out its 44C - when I fold thats more like 41C - looking good so far
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited May 2006
    Krazeyivan wrote:
    From my first burn in - I took it back to stock 1.35 and started overclocking. Smart Guardian is reading 1.32v on the core.

    Currently at 2.5Ghz priming, before I had to increase vcore at 2.4Ghz - improvement!

    Flat out its 44C - when I fold thats more like 41C - looking good so far

    Wow, those are impressive results from the burn in! I'm definitely going to give that a try with my new 4200+ since it hasn't been properly worked in yet :)

    What burn in procedure were you using?
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    hey, if you dont mind, how much did you spend on the rig all in all, im looking at building an opty 170 rig as so many people are saying they rock, and why wouldnt they, at 2.7 they are faster than a fx-60.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    hey, if you dont mind, how much did you spend on the rig all in all, im looking at building an opty 170 rig as so many people are saying they rock, and why wouldnt they, at 2.7 they are faster than a fx-60.


    Hi - about 1450 pounds (UK Sterling)

    But you can get the bits cheaper now, also the mobo was very expensive, but I wanted the best at 939 and I think with a few BIOS revisions this board is it.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    lemonlime wrote:
    Wow, those are impressive results from the burn in! I'm definitely going to give that a try with my new 4200+ since it hasn't been properly worked in yet :)

    What burn in procedure were you using?


    Well hopefully I can go into full detail with an article for you, but to get you started a few words here.

    (The photo's show my PC at the moment about 9 hours into priming, Still fine - even with a warm room!)

    Quick Guide
    MAKE SURE you have anything important backed up first off your hard disk for safety.
    Make sure everything is at stock vcore etc - make sure your memory settings are TOTALLY stable and if possible manually entered - you do not want to be second guessing yourself later on.
    What I did was start from stock which was 1.35v for my CPU. I then did a long burn on the CPU - about 24 hours more if you like, really HAMMER the processor with everything, I was bored so as well as priming I SuperPI'd it and watched some HD trailers etc - Remember dual core needs two copies of Prime95 or whatever you use running. (If you need help to do this just ask)
    Then via my BIOS I went down 0.025 steps in vcore, at each step - reburn - this is a SLOW process - 2 weeks just going down for me, but it seems to do the job.
    When you reburn - at minimum do 10 hours - really I like 24 hours, had a lot of failures around the 13 or 14 hour mark in the past (on the way up with overclocking) but still 24 hours is good. When you get low you may get a hard lock, freeze, prime failure or whatever, I was down in the 1.1's when this happened.
    Move back up a step and reburn for 10 hours minimum.
    Then go back to stock vcore and SLOWLY go up with the overclocking leaving vcore well alone. I went up 5Mhz steps. You may get a little increase, a big increase or you may get no increase its purely luck of the draw, but if you get more speed with less heat its all good and you have a big smile on your face.
    If you really have time (and you got an increase) REDO all steps - I know of one person just shy of 2.8 at stock vcore.

    Best of luck with it.
    burnin.jpg


    burnin2.jpg
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    2.5Ghz @ Stock vcore - 22.5 hours prime stable - time to move on up!
    burnin3.jpg
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Krazeyivan wrote:
    Hi - about 1450 pounds (UK Sterling)

    But you can get the bits cheaper now, also the mobo was very expensive, but I wanted the best at 939 and I think with a few BIOS revisions this board is it.

    DAMN!! Money Sucks, and the lack of it sucks even more.:grr: , being poor sucks, my whining aside, that looks like a great set up. When I piece together a system like that, I am usually sitting right around $2000, without the monitor...:Pwned:
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    DAMN!! Money Sucks, and the lack of it sucks even more.:grr: , being poor sucks, my whining aside, that looks like a great set up. When I piece together a system like that, I am usually sitting right around $2000, without the monitor...:Pwned:

    Full Spec....
    Antec P180 SPCR Advanced Super Midi Tower Case
    Seasonic S12 600W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply
    DFI LanParty UT CFX3200-DR RD580 Crossfire
    BIOS - (25/04/06)
    AMD Opteron 170 Dual Core
    Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler
    OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC4000 Dual Channel Platinum Series EB-DDR
    2 x Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB
    HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
    Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Dual Heatpipe VGA Cooler
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme
    Asus DRW-1608P2 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
    Plextor PX-130A DVD-ROM
    Belinea 20in 102035W Monitor - (Widescreen Gaming is awesome)

    Paid for mine on the smiley face of debt .... VISA!
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited May 2006
    Well I'll be damned, Krazeyivan! I'm seeing results from the burn-in already.

    I started burning the 4200+ in at about 1.25V and the default 2.2GHz. It failed prime after about 2 hours on the second core. I increased the vcore to about 1.275V and let it run for about 12 hours.

    I then took it up to default vcore, and was able to prime at 2.6GHz no problem for for over 12 hours. I used to get instability after about an hour previously. I have since cranked it up to 2.63GHz and it still appears rock solid!

    The biggest surprise however was when I took it back down below default vcore. I am now able to run 2.45GHz at only 1.25V (prime stable for 8+ hours). I used to get failures at only 2.2GHz! That is a pretty significant gain. The gain on the top-end is smaller, but there are definitely positive things happening to the CPU.

    I'm not sure if this is simply because the chip is now worked it a bit, or if it is a direct result of the burn in procedure. In any rate, I'm going to stick with this for a little while longer and see what happens!

    This thing will be put under the vapo soon!
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    lemonlime wrote:
    Well I'll be damned, Krazeyivan! I'm seeing results from the burn-in already.

    I started burning the 4200+ in at about 1.25V and the default 2.2GHz. It failed prime after about 2 hours on the second core. I increased the vcore to about 1.275V and let it run for about 12 hours.

    I then took it up to default vcore, and was able to prime at 2.6GHz no problem for for over 12 hours. I used to get instability after about an hour previously. I have since cranked it up to 2.63GHz and it still appears rock solid!

    The biggest surprise however was when I took it back down below default vcore. I am now able to run 2.45GHz at only 1.25V (prime stable for 8+ hours). I used to get failures at only 2.2GHz! That is a pretty significant gain. The gain on the top-end is smaller, but there are definitely positive things happening to the CPU.

    I'm not sure if this is simply because the chip is now worked it a bit, or if it is a direct result of the burn in procedure. In any rate, I'm going to stick with this for a little while longer and see what happens!

    This thing will be put under the vapo soon!

    Wow, great news - hope your enjoying it a bit cooler!!
    Burn in can be done again and again till you see no more benefit - I would love to see if it helps the vapo in any way.

    UPDATE - on my results, I got 135 Mhz increase on 1.32v - I have now increased the core to 1.34-6v (it varies!) and its priming solid at 2.6Ghz. Going to go faster still when I have done 24 hours of this, then back to low low voltage and start again.... this is a marathon not a sprint!
    Also when I am back down to around 1.1v - going to see what I can overclock too and if it makes a difference at stock.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Krazeyivan, if you want to write a detailed article about your burn-in procedure, we will most certainly publish it... :thumbsup:
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    In the early stages at the mo (just doing a new resume - first!) - Just had a look at lemonlime's new article - the man is a pro! Wow - very detailed, makes it look easy!
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited May 2006
    Just a quick update on overclocking status 2.6Ghz about 8 hours into prime still good...
    burnin4.jpg
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