Finally tried overclocking..but...

AlphaTrinityAlphaTrinity North Wales, PA
edited July 2006 in Hardware
Hey guys, I finally tried overclocking my amd socket 939 3000+ venice, and I've been somewhat successful.
I went into my bios (mobo is a msi k8n neo4 standard), and I've found that I cannot change the multiplier on my cpu, the maximum is 9. Instead, I changed the cpu fsb freq.
I started off by going from 200mhz to 210mhz, and that went well.
Then I tried 220mhz, and that worked. I decided that I wanted to try to get 2.1ghz, so I bumped the fsb to 233mhz.
When I went to reboot, my computer would not go anywhere. I reset the bios, and then went back in to see what was wrong.
That's when I noticed that my ram was also overclocking with the cpu, and I could not manually set the ram freq to stay at 200mhz.
I found out (on this board actually) that my ram (geil 1gb value ram) can't really be overclocked well, and I decided to leave my ram alone and just do the cpu.
So that's where I'm stuck :-/ I need to find someway to keep my ram from being overclocked along with my cpu.
I appreciate any help very much.

btw, running at 2ghz right now is very stable and my temp under 100% load is 36-37'c :)
<3 shortmedia <3

[Edit]: Yeah, my ram fails very often in memtest, and I'm pretty sure it's what's making me fail in prime95 too. Windows also randomly restarted on me :doh: (So much for stability)

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    I don't know that particular motherboard, but most motherboards designed for overclocking these days have CPU FSB/DRAM frequency "dividers". In your case I believe that should be an HTT/DRAM frequency divider. What that does is set a ratio between the CPU and memory. The wider the disparity between the two, such as 5:3 versus 5:4 (CPU:Memory) the less the memory will be pushed over default ratings. And you are correct, Geil Value RAM is very good stuff for the money, but it is not overclocking RAM.

    Your motherboard manual should have a second on dividers.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Yeah dividers are the way to go, I have my FSB at 240, but the memory stays at 200. I have the memory set to run at default 333MHz which of course means when I OC the HTT(or FSB) then it bumps the memory back up to 400MHz. So my CPU is 2.4GHz where as it's default is 2.0GHz. I have the X2 3800+... like your CPU, I am unable to adjust the Multiplyer becuase they have it locked. I think the only ones you can change are the opterons and the high end gamer chips which I forget the name of ATM.
  • AlphaTrinityAlphaTrinity North Wales, PA
    edited July 2006
    hmm, I could not find anything on HTT/DRAM frequency dividers in the bios.
    The closest thing I could find was HT Frequency and HT Width. :-/
    Will either one of those help?

    The manual was also lacking, but I did find something that I'm curious about.
    There's a thing called a CPU Spread Spectrum. The manual says to disable that function when overclocking, so I did that.
    What exactly does that do?

    Thanks again for the help, i r newb :(
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    CPU Spread Spectrum
    Yup, turn it off. I don't remember what it's supposed to accomplish, but it essentially has not significant effect on anything. Your motherboard's BIOS may indicated divders as CPU/Memory "ratio." Your motherboard may not have that option.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    I just browsed your motherboard's manual. I did not find any setting options for CPU-Memory frequency ratios (dividers). Looks like you are out of luck for higher overclocking unless you get RAM that is capable of higher frequencies. Frankly, I wouldn't spend any more money on overclocking for that motherboard. It's a great board for reliable operation under default CPU and memory settings, it's just not designed for high overclocking. That actually describes MSI boards: stable, high quality, easy to set up, but not overclockers.
  • AlphaTrinityAlphaTrinity North Wales, PA
    edited July 2006
    Leonardo wrote:
    Your motherboard may not have that option.

    If that's so, then I guess that means I can't overclock :-/
    ..crap :banghead:

    I'll look at my bios again, just in case I missed something :grumble:

    [Edit]: err..yeah
    oh well..it was a good try, and at least I learned a bunch of stuff from it.
    Thanks for all of the help btw
  • AlphaTrinityAlphaTrinity North Wales, PA
    edited July 2006
    I got a sympathy vote from a friend, and he said that he'll be glad to buy my ram.
    That means that I could buy this
    But I was wondering if my mobo supports ddr500 :-/
    if it does then I'll be really happy ^_^
    newegg says: DDR Standard DDR 400 (PC 3200) in their chart thing for my mobo
    so what do you all think? :respect:

    lol..I'm really milking this thing out
    *must have faster pc for college* :headbange
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    btw, running at 2ghz right now is very stable and my temp under 100% load is 36-37'c
    [Edit]: Yeah, my ram fails very often in memtest, and I'm pretty sure it's what's making me fail in prime95 too. Windows also randomly restarted on me (So much for stability)

    Whoa, I didn't see that earlier. Did you post it after I made my replies earlier?
    Your motherboard probably would support PC500, but maybe nut fully. By that I mean I'm sure it would run perfectly at default speeds - PC400, but I don't know if it would recognize the DRAM as DDR500 and allow it to clock up to 250 (DDR500). Someone more knowledgeable about AMD 939 board should add their comments now.

    My gut feeling as that it would work just fine, and would probably allow you some more overclocking headroom.

    BTW, what power supply unit is in your computer? That can make a huge difference in overclocking potential.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited July 2006
    Hi Alpha Trinity,

    The CPU multiplier is locked (in the upwards direction) on all Athlon 64 CPUs, with the exception of the FX series chips. As you increase the reference clock (sometimes incorrectly labeled as the fsb), your memory and HTT frequency will also increase.

    Not sure if you saw this guide yet, but check out the link in my signature. It should take you through all of the necessary steps.
  • AlphaTrinityAlphaTrinity North Wales, PA
    edited July 2006
    Leonardo, since it was an edit, I'm guessing that I put that quote in there before I posted a second time.
    I might buy oc-able ram instead of ddr500 (unless ddr500 will work)
    Who should I ask that knows more about 939 mobos that you mentioned about?
    Also, my psu is a thermaltake 480w. I'm not concerned that my psu is no good. <3 thermaltake

    lemonlime, yeah I read that guide, I've been reading it for the past week or two. It's an awesome guide and I've learned most about what I know about overclocking from it :rockon:

    Once again, thanks for the help guys, sorry I'm such a nub >.<
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    I'm sure someone here will pop in and advise you accurately on the higher rated RAM. It would probably work like this: the computer might not recognize it at the higher rating but would still clock it up as you overclocked the CPU, with much more memory headroom than you would have with the lower rated RAM.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited July 2006
    For all intents and purposes, PC4000 (DDR500) is not 'officially' supported by any 754/939 based systems. You'll have to increase your reference clock frequency to 250MHz to get the RAM up to it's rated speed as Leo mentioned above. Just remember that you'll have to decrease your HTT (or LDT) multiplier to 4X at 250MHz as well.

    There was some intentions to support DDR500, but AMD opted for the more future friendly DDR2. There are some beta bios revisions from manufacturers like DFI that even allow the memory to operate at 250MHz without overclocking the system. Since you are planning to overclock anyhow, DDR500 sounds like a smart choice to me.
  • AlphaTrinityAlphaTrinity North Wales, PA
    edited July 2006
    Leonardo wrote:
    I'm sure someone here will pop in and advise you accurately on the higher rated RAM. It would probably work like this: the computer might not recognize it at the higher rating but would still clock it up as you overclocked the CPU, with much more memory headroom than you would have with the lower rated RAM.

    yeah, that's what I'm hoping for.
    You made it sound like you weren't 100% sure though, so that's why I want "Someone more knowledgeable about AMD 939 board" to "add their comments now." :-/
    I was also thinking about buying corsair xms ddr400 memory, since it can overclock, and just overclocking it..lol. That might be my best bet

    [Edit]: err..thanks lemonlime :)
    I appreciate that info
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Lemonlime is the expert. He did answer your question.

    Now, are you sure you wish to upgrade RAM for a platform that is obsolete? DDR2 is the new standard...DDR3 within 18 months probably. Obsolete doesn't mean your system is slow or does not meet your needs, merely that both AMD's and Intel's new platforms have moved away from DDR(1).

    If you do choose to upgrade the RAM, you might get a better overclock out of inexpensive DDR500 than high-performance DDR400. With the 500, you have a really nice CPU overclock and wouldn't be stressing the memory, as it would be at or near stock frequency.
  • AlphaTrinityAlphaTrinity North Wales, PA
    edited July 2006
    Yeah, I didn't really think about the obsolete-ness of buying ddr500, but I'm on a very tight budjet and cannot afford to upgrade my mobo/cpu/ram all at the same time right now :-/
    And thanks for all of the help in this thread, I really appreciate it :)
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    I'm on a very tight budjet and cannot afford to upgrade my mobo/cpu/ram all at the same time right now
    Perhaps then, you should accept your system the way it is and start saving for a major upgrade instead of for minor upgrade now. If you can wait six months or so, you'll have a choice of the excellent Intel Conroe CPUs and probably the 65nm AMD X2 processors. By then, the competition will be back and prices should be good.
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