A little help for a newb's A64 system

I've been attempting to overclock my system for quite a while now, but I can't seem to get very far. This is the first computer I've ever built and my first attempt at overclocking, so I know I'm missing something or doing something wrong. I've read a couple tutorials and I sort of get the main idea.

I basically have stock cooling, but I have a Thermaltake Xaser III with 7 fans in it to help keep the system temp down. The fans however don't seem to be blowing very hard. When I open up the case and put my hand over the fans I really don't feel much at all. Is this normal? They're only 90mm fans but hmm I don't know...

Well anyway, back to the OCing. Below are my BIOS settings, I have the newest BIOS version for the K8N Platinum SLI.


DRAM Configuration: I have everything in this submenu at AUTO
High Performance Mode: Optimized
Agressive Timing: Enabled
Dynamic Overclocking: Disabled
Adjust CPU Frequency: 220 (Whenever I go above 225 half of the time the system hangs and the other half of the time I try to boot into Windows and get this weird error message saying I'm missing a critical Windows file and that I need to put in my WinXp disc and repair the OS, but all I have to do is restart into the BIOS and change the FSB back down to 220 and it boots fine... What in the hell is up with that?)
HT Frequency: 5x
HT Width: Down16 Up16 (I have the option of changing the up and down into any combination of 8 and 16. What's the difference? What does it do?)
CPU Spectrum: Disabled
SATA Spectrum: Disabled
PCI-E Spectrum: Disabled
PCI-E Clock: 100MHz
SSE/SSE2 Instructions: Enabled
Cool n Quiet: Enabled
Adjust CPU Ratio: x10 (It doesn't really matter if I drop the multiplier and raise the FSB... Once I get over 2.225GHz the system hangs or gets that windows error whichever combination I go with.)
Adjust CPU VID: 1.450v
Extra CPU Voltage: Over VID 6.6% (With the CPU VID at 1.450v and the VID over 6.6% it says in BIOS that I should be getting a grand total of 1.545v but you can see in the pics below that's not what I'm getting.)
Memory Voltage: 2.55v
NF4 Voltage: 1.55v


Which of these setting need to be changed? As you can see, I've done a slight voltage bump in the memory and NF4 chipset... Does this really make a difference? Should I increase it a little more? And you can see I've done a lot heavier voltage bump with the CPU. I should be getting 1.545v according to the BIOS, but it fluctuates from 1.456v to 1.472v to 1.488v in CPU-Z. Is this something to worry about? On top of this weird voltage issue I can't overclock more than 200MHz without crashing or getting some crazy ass missing Windows file error. Can I be helped or is my system being held back because of the Winchester core?

Here are a few pics showing what's going on under the Windows environment... A little different from what it's saying I have going in BIOS

im sorry if this is completely wrong, im completely new to overclocking also, but i think you need to reduce the ht frequency, that should allow your cpu frequency to go higher? Take this with a grain of salt, im post here more of as a test for myself to see if i know my stuff the slightest bit or if i need to go back to the stickies

edit: also could be your memory thats holding you back, or the fact that you should be getting an increase in voltage, but as you noted cpu-z says its actually below 1.5. I dont know what would fix that problem, but that could be why

im a a64 newb too but lower your HTT to 3x and your DRAM ratio to as low as it will go (just to find your cpu limit). Stress test for stability.

How do you lower your DRAM ratio? And also, in the BIOS in the DRAM configuration submenu should I configure any of those settings? I have cheap RAM but should I change any of the timings that you guys can see in the memory tab pic I posted?

I also was wondering what vCore and those other type of voltages were like the 3v, 5v and 12v you can see in CoreCenter... Where do I go to configure these voltages. I don't see them anywhere in the BIOS.

If you haven't already done so, read (cf)Eclipse's OC Guide as it is very well written and works like a charm.

Then here's my suggestions :

DRAM Configuration: I have everything in this submenu at AUTO
High Performance Mode: Disabled
Agressive Timing: Disabled
Dynamic Overclocking: Disabled
Adjust CPU Frequency: 220 (Whenever I go above 225 half of the time the system hangs and the other half of the time I try to boot into Windows and get this weird error message saying I'm missing a critical Windows file and that I need to put in my WinXp disc and repair the OS, but all I have to do is restart into the BIOS and change the FSB back down to 220 and it boots fine... What in the hell is up with that?)
HT Frequency: 3x
HT Width: Auto
CPU Spectrum: Disabled
SATA Spectrum: Disabled
PCI-E Spectrum: Disabled
PCI-E Clock: 100MHz
SSE/SSE2 Instructions: Enabled
Cool n Quiet: Disabled
Adjust CPU Ratio: x10 (It doesn't really matter if I drop the multiplier and raise the FSB... Once I get over 2.225GHz the system hangs or gets that windows error whichever combination I go with.)
Adjust CPU VID: 1.450v
Extra CPU Voltage: Over VID 6.6% (With the CPU VID at 1.450v and the VID over 6.6% it says in BIOS that I should be getting a grand total of 1.545v but you can see in the pics below that's not what I'm getting.)
Memory Voltage: 2.60v - 2.65v
NF4 Voltage: Auto

With current settings, you had the htt bus @1100, which when you tried, 225htt x 5 = 1125...keep below 1000

You might want to drop your cpu multi, and try for max htt first, if so set your ram to 100.

Good luck, and show us your progress.

switch your main OS drive to sata port 3 or 4 and youll be able to pass 225

DruSi3r said:

whys your sig say you made it to 2.775?

Click to expand...

I don't recall my sig ever saying anywhere that I made it to 2.775

0mega said:

switch your main OS drive to sata port 3 or 4 and youll be able to pass 225

Click to expand...

For some reason, my board doesn't recognize my HDD if I put it on ports 1-4, it only recognizes it on ports 5 and 6... If I can fix this will that really make a difference? I don't see how it would...

SpoogeMonkey said:

With current settings, you had the htt bus @1100, which when you tried, 225htt x 5 = 1125...keep below 1000

You might want to drop your cpu multi, and try for max htt first, if so set your ram to 100.

Click to expand...

So let me get this straight... The "HT Frequency" multiplied by the "Adjust CPU Frequency" relates to the bus speed, and I want to keep this below 1000. And the cpu multi A.K.A. "Adjust CPU Ratio" multiplied by the "Adjust CPU Frequency" relates to the CPU speed.
To get a higher CPU speed I drop the "Adjust CPU Ratio" and increase the "Adjust CPU Frequency" after I "set my ram to 100."
What does set your ram to 100 mean? How do I do this?

I'm also wondering what the HT Width is... I don't think that there is a configuration that will set it to Auto... Only different combinations of Down and Up of 8 and 16.
You also want me to disable agressive timing and cool n quiet? When you let the MSI BIOS optimize your computer these become enabled. I'll trust you and disable it, but doesn't agressive timing increase your performance and doesn't cool n quiet keep my system at a lower temp?
And increasing the NF4 chip doesn't increase any performance?

I'm still getting these weird voltages also. Has anybody else had a problem like this? Does anybody know how to fix it? Spooge should I leave the voltages like they are or should I bump the over VID to 9.9%? And how can I configure the voltages on the CoreCenter app like the vCore, 3.3V, +5V, and +12V?

Reading eclipses guide is very helpful.

It looks like you are using an MSI board, what model is it? If its a K8N series you need to have the 1.6 bios because there is a bug that prevents overclocking the fsb higher than about 220-230.

You want to make sure your HT Bus is under 1000 so most likely you will wint a HT Multiplier of 3.

Your HT Bus speed is FSB x HT Multi

You want your HT to always be 1000 or less as anything over 1000 is usually bad news.

For example a 250Mhz FSB x 4 HT Multi will get you to 1000
or

A 300Mhz FSB x 3 = 900Mhz HT speed.

You will want to run your memory divider at 133 most likely or 166 depending on what clock speeds you are trying to achieve. The 133mhz divider I believe is 13 the 140mhz is 12 the 150mhz divider is 11 and the 166mhz is 10.

Memory speed is core clock speed / (divider) For example a core speed of 2500 / 12 = 208Mhz memory speed.


Hope this helps...

I'm an A64 newb as well by the way but this is what I have come to understand after reading several guides.