Help related to overclocking please

Hi there,

Having read the overclocking guide on this site and browsing the internet for awhile, I have several question regarding my current PC spec and how to push it further; please understand the PC was made under budget as I am not rolling in the money, but i have the feeling I have made errors in my RAM purchase.

I bought OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 Memory GOLD DUAL CHANNEL Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18)

I don't think however this was the right RAM for my system as whilst of course it works fine on my Motherboard I think there may be some complications with the FSB:RAM ration I heard about in the guide because the RAM's clock speed is 400Mhz and the CPU (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+) is 199Mhz.

I include a link to my specs (built by CPU-Z) and would like to know of any recommendations you can make towards how to boost the system via overclocking, it also find it prudent to point out that CPU-Z reports "RAM Speed : 266 MHz (CPU/9) @ 4-4-4-12" however the specs on my RAM reports it should be 5-5-5-18. I understand these are Latency Timings, how important are these and what can it mean for the system if these readings are not the same as spec?

It may also come in handy to point out I have a cheap fan that has actually gone up in price :confused; however it was only a quick fix and i will happily replace it if needed; but it does a good job of keeping my current setup at a comfortable 30 celsius.

Anyways cheers and i look forward to hearing your valuable help, and also compliment everyone on an effective site!

 

well if you can run with the tighter settings and not crash you'r fine the timings are the settings that tell the system how and how-often to refresh the info in ram usely (but not always) tighter ram timings are faster
if you really wanna be sure that the timings are rock solid and there will be no errors download and burn this to a disk and run the test for AT least overnight http://www.memtest86.com/

my chips are rated @ 3-3-3-8 but I run @ 2-2-2-8
conversely if you do get a error after then memtest test most bios have setting that will let you manually set the timeings

unless its crashing or your getting strange errors I would not worrie about it to much

happy overclocking

 

Hi thanks for the speedy reply;

I am not currently experiencing any problems, other than perhaps some serious FPS problems in-game, however I am waiting on the funds to get myself a new external graphics card. Before i get the card though, I would like to try over-clocking the CPU..

Having not visited the correct area of BIOS yet, I am not sure on the ins and outs of it, however assuming all is standard I cannot change the multiplier which is at 12x at the moment.. What I wish to know is if was to, for example, up the HTT to 400Mhz (lol 4.8Ghz) would the RAM follow suite and match that automatically, and therefore create a vast increase in system performance?

Obviously, I am not going to go nearly as high as that, i think if i did do that, the CPU fan would literally jump on up to the desk, slap me, and burst into ashes ROFL! :-D

Anyways, I'm off to up the HTT a tiny bit see what the outcome is.. But any advice would be appreciated, ie. How much I "may" need to increase voltages by, the best way to insure stability etc.

 

lolzors..... http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=460272

Went ahead and overclocked it... I have a crazy amount of options in my BIOS it's friggin sweet I can change and set everything including my multiplier, so i have changed to 266Mhz HTT x 10 and got 2.6Ghz, with no upsets so far... if you check the above link it automatically changed the RAM timings to 332 which is odd, as that is above my HTT... but so far no problems..

PS. I used the memtest86 off an edition of Ubuntu I have lieing around, and no problems after at least 12hours!

 

Don't OC myself.My machine does not have the ability. But I do know that this is something you want to be very careful in doing. Small stages with a period in between to ensure that changes are stable before going further. Too much,too fast can destroy your investment.

 

good to here seems like the bios has some overclocking friendly options (ie the auto timings adjust) be careful when messing with the HTT bus settings they can be touchy

and hrlow2 has got the right idea don't push things hard and fast take it slow oc one level at a time & run this tool it will stress your system run for stability it over night http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103 please note that this tool STRESS your system and will cause the cpu to heat up quick keep a eye on the temps @ load I consider below 60c to be safe any hotter and start looking @ cooling upgrades

 

OK thanks for your help, I am indeed going to take it slowly, really don't wanna bust the PC and am a very cautious person;

couple of question about Prime95.. What settings do i want to run this on? and i assume its an overnight thing, what sort of results am I looking for, or is it just a "if it dies its broke thing"?..

Definitely need to get a decent heat monitor, so any recommendations? are there accuracy issues? I believe there is one that came with the motherboard, I will go and look on the site and use that in lieu of you guys recommending something else possibly!..
edit: Visited the downloads section of my motherboard and downloaded the utility that supposed to monitor my motherboard, but it errors out and says "Not for this Platform" lol" soo have downloaded "Motherboard Monitor" from this site!
Cheers

Illizian

 

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php fan speed and temp control

if prim crash it don't always mean something is broken it stress's even the most stable non overclocked systems to teh max id be on the look out for glichs when playin games (stuttering freezzing sound loops ect) or blue screens when gaming or just browseing the web


prime95 has a mode in the options call "Torture Test" once ya start it keep a eye on the temps for a good hour or so before ya go leaving it ( wanna make sure the stress test wont overheat it when your not there)

 

glad you should mention speed fan

I installed it earlier, after having no luck finding my model or revision in motherboard monitor...

It's reading a steady 38-43 celsius, whilst idle, and goes upto aprox 46-49 whilst gaming! I will launch the Torture test in a mo, and keep an eye on temps!

Cheers for all your help, i'll keep you updated!

 

*Wasn't allowed to edit my own post*

Update:-
Ran Prime on torture>Blend mode, however its only clocking the one core, it recognises both cores, yet no joy, it just seems to test the one core... but with the one core clocked fully, temp reached 57 celsius and stayed at that through the 30minutes i ran it, but wondered whether you could fill me in on the two core testings function.. Should I have just waited and it will start clocking the other core, and eventually both?

 

run a in place fft and make sure the thread count is set to 2 also you may need to set the affinity in the windows taskman after some googleing on that chip amd says it rates that chips max temp at 55-70c (depending on how warm it is in the room) 57c is a tad warm for single core load but nothing to stress over yet

 

Ran the test under normal conditions (2.4Ghz (200x12)) and clocked top temperature of 55.. However under 2.6Ghz hits a whopping 68 Celsius before i start cowering in the corner and wimp out and end the test...

I have also tried tinkering more, and went a little higher however at 280x10 windows BSoD'd just after the windows boot screen (didn't catch the error, it was a quick flash and then reboot) I am not sure what caused it, maybe it was too high, but I have an inclining that it's related maybe to RAM and HTT un-sync or whatever, but not sure whether or not to try higher to see what results I get from that...

This has however opened my eyes to future upgrades, New CPU cooler, and a decent graphics card (as currently it's the on-board Nvidia 7050 which is crap, and only used because my last card was AGP and I now have a PCI-E board and didn't have the money to get a new GPU at the time!) because after getting the damn right pitiful and embarrassing score of 292 on 3D mark 06 lol (on the 2.4Ghz setup i hasten to add) think its about time I defunct the shitty on-board GPU plus I happened to feel the heat coming off the chip today and Geze we're talking easily 70-80C!

 

68c is hot but its not in the critical zone yet reamber pime95 will heat a chip up a quite bit more then it will ever see in normal use 68c is pretty warm but i doubt it will ever get that hot in real world usage

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2882721&CatId=2545 a good cooler if ur gonna upgrade your cooler spend a littel extra so ya wont need to worrie

btw whats the current cooling on that fanless ?