Need OC help - can't get above 2.3 GHz

R

Ressurection

n00b
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
10
Hey,

I'm a newb at overclocking (just started a few weeks ago), although I know the basics. I seem to have hit a dead end - 2.3GHz. Anything more than that like 2.35GHz and my PC will either reboot or get this error in Prime95:


FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file
Click to expand...

Here are the CPU-Z screenies:





Don't ask me why the timings are at 2-3-2-5 instead of 2-2-2-5, but that's what the BIOS made it when I selected latencies to be at 'auto'. If I manually set it to 2-2-2-5, my PC becomes unstable.


I've gotten some help from another forum, and they gave me the following tips:

  • Setting my LDT Frequency (which is called LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio in my BIOS) to x3 from 'auto'
  • Manually setting the DRAM timing to 2.5-3-3-6
  • Manually setting the drive strength to 7, data strength to 1, and Max asyn latency to 7ns/8ns (I have no idea what any of that means nor do I have any such options in my BIOS)
  • Setting my DRAM voltage to 2.9 v
  • Flashing my BIOS to the latest version (which I haven't done yet)

So I did 3/5 of those tips and set my FSB Frequency to 235 and now instead of getting an error in Prime95 a minute into the stress test like before, I'm getting it 53 minutes into the test after having done those 3 changes. So obviously it helped a little bit, but the error is still there.


Could you guys please help me reach at least 2.4GHz? This is how it looks like in my BIOS right now:


Code: 
DRAM Configuration | Press Enter

FSB Bus Frequency | 230

LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio | x3

LDT Bus Transfer Width | 16 Down 16 Up

CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio | x10.0

PCI eXpress Frequency | 100Mhz

K8 Cool'n'Quiet Support | Disable

CPU VID StartUp Value | StartUp



CPU VID Control | 1.450V

CPU VID Special Control | Auto

LDT Voltage Control | 1.20 V

Chip Set Voltage Control | 1.50 V

DRAM Voltage Control | 2.80 V

DRAM +.03V If it's not 3.2V | Disable

etc...

These are my PC specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
DFI LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D
1GB Patriot XBLK PC-3200
Antec TruePower 2.0 550W


Hope you understood all of that. If you need to know anything else, just ask.


Thanks a lot,
Ress
 
you can always mess with the dividers if you havent yet. Cant see your pics well so i cant make out what you are doing. but if you are running your ram at 230, try to keep it at 200 with everything else OC'd. Some people use 166-200 to achieve higher OCs because their ram cant take the higher frequency. gl.
 
yah, looks like ram divider time to me too... without knowing the specs on that ram at all... PC3200 is good for 25-35Mhz over stock, then it's divider time like Pkirk618 said.

You should be able to put some more Mhz on that CPU...

Good luck
 
GFreeman9 said:
Could you tell us what you are using to cool this comp?
Click to expand...

Stock air cooling.


Pkirk618 said:
you can always mess with the dividers if you havent yet. Cant see your pics well so i cant make out what you are doing. but if you are running your ram at 230, try to keep it at 200 with everything else OC'd. Some people use 166-200 to achieve higher OCs because their ram cant take the higher frequency. gl.
Click to expand...

Here are the direct links to the pics if that helps:

http://img421.imageshack.us/img421/9561/23ghzoc6rn.jpg
http://img421.imageshack.us/img421/2534/23ghzocmemory9xf.jpg


I'm not using any dividers, FSB:RAM are at 1:1. I'm trying to do everything I can to avoid having to use dividers, since I would really want synchronous FSB and RAM clocks.


Pierre said:
yah, looks like ram divider time to me too... without knowing the specs on that ram at all... PC3200 is good for 25-35Mhz over stock, then it's divider time like Pkirk618 said.

You should be able to put some more Mhz on that CPU...

Good luck
Click to expand...

Patriot XBLK memory is pretty high spec and is popular where I used to live before I moved a few months ago, Singapore. It uses the Samsung TCCD chip and also uses this technology called Brainpower PCB (don't know if you've heard of it). Anyway from what I've heard it's supposed to be really good at overclocking. I was expecting a much better result than this. As I said in the previous reply, I would really like it if I could keep the FSB:RAM clocks at 1:1.

Here are a few reviews I found for the memory:

http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/memory/other/patriot/DDR/pc3200/
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2390&p=2
http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/219/



Thanks guys for the help, keep it coming! :D
 
I guess by the fact that you are insisting on keeping the RAM in sync. that are a previous AthlonXP owner? The Athlon64 is insensitive to RAM running out of sync. so use those dividers!

As has been said put your voltage up to 1.5v or even 1.55v and all things being equal you should hit 2.4Ghz and beyond...
 
If you want to keep your dividers at 1:1, then you are going to have to loosen your timings to like 3-4-4-7 (the last number may be different) and you may even have to lower your command rate to 2T. You may also have to increase your Vdimm to 2.85 (according to one of the articles you linked).

But as others have said, using a RAM divider really doesn't hurt A64 performance. Plus, if you use a divider, you can determine if it is your CPU or your RAM that is holding you back.... so don't be stubborn.
 
Set a memory divider and relax the timings to rule out the memory.


If that doesn't get you any higher experiment with the HTT multiplier and any specific settings said to be relevant to the quirks of your board. If that doesn't help you probably need more voltage.
 
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