I persuaded my friend to start building an Athlon 64 rig. He got a Athlon 64 3200+ winchester cpu, an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard, and some GSkill RAM with the TCCD chips.

He has an X-connect power supply, so I know it pushes enough wattage. It's all sitting in a Tsunami case, so he has good ambient temps for the heatsink.

The heatsink is the stock retail AMD heatsink. The load temp is 45C at stock

He is having problems overclocking, he can't seem to get past 209 FSB. He also lives far away, so I am having troubles walking him through the overclocking procedure over MSN Messenger.

Any ideas? Maybe someone with a similar setup can help him out.

EDIT: He got the PQI turbo dual channel memory with the TCCD chips, not the GSkill.

I wrote a AMD 64 OC guide over the weekend using a 3200+ socket 754 on a DFI LP, it should help your friend. The specifics may be a bit different, but it should help him understand what settings hes changing and why.

I went into detail as to what memory timings and voltages to use, plus a few other tips.

http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread.php?threadid=37951

Oh, andSpike, I think the Sata issue on channel 1 and 2 is a DFI specific issue.

Sorry for not giving more specific details.

Above 209FSB it just seems to boot at the normal FSB(200), even when the BIOS says 210+. I have had him increase voltages for memory and cpu. I have had him loosen the latency of the memory. We have played with it quite a bit.

Oh, and he is not running SATA. It is an 80gb IDE hard drive.

I just wish I was there to play with his BIOS some. I just read reviews to try to help him.

I haven't had him try a memory divider yet, since that ram should be perfectly capable of higher speeds than 400mhz. Especially @ 2.5cas latency.

I'll drop you a PM spikeshot.

And I'll link him to that thread Necro, but we have pretty much tried most of all that.

EDIT: He flashed the latest BIOS. For some reason he can't change his HT settings. It locks up.

I sent my MSI mobo back because of flakey BIOS problems I keep getting.

What are you using to OC? Is he doing it in the BIOS or with a windows program?

I recommend using A64 tweaker inconjuntion with clockgen to get an ideal of what is the problem.

Just my 2 cents.

I will send ya my bill later...

He found the problem. He was having problems adjusting the HT in the BIOS. It was set to X5, so that's why the FSB wouldn't go up.

It is set to x4 now. All he had to do was a little reading, and some more fiddling.

Already @ 2.25ghz now , stock heatsink.

edit: 2.3ghz now

I'm doing it in the BIOS. So far the only prob I have run into is the HT submenu not working i found i have to use the -/+ keys to change it. Thanks everone for the help. I'm up to 2.3GHz with the stock cooling which is good for now.

K8N Neo2 Platinum BIOS 1.4
AMD Athlon 63 3200+ Winchester with AMD Stock Cooler OCed @ 2.3GHz
2x256MB pqi TURBO Series Dual Channel Platinum DDR PC-3200 (Samsung TCCD)
Ultra XConnect 500W 3.3V/28A 5V/30A 12V/34A
Windows XP Pro

Quote: Originally Posted by turbopsi And I'll link him to that thread Necro, but we have pretty much tried most of all that.

So...it was the LDT, something I had a small section on in the Guide, is that what tipped you guys off? Or did you guys figure this out some other way?

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro So...it was the LDT, something I had a small section on in the Guide, is that what tipped you guys off? Or did you guys figure this out some other way?

Your guide did give me a better understanding of what I was doing. I guess in a way you could say it tiped me off but me and turbo both was thinking thats what it was seeing as it was x5. I didn't know you could change it by useing the -/+ keys. I found that out over at the msi forums. If somone here has the K8N Neo3 Platinum mobo might want to read this http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=70882

Good deal, yeah, the old "+or-" thing goes way back...

On most of my older computers it was the only way to change things, so it would be real easy to overlook that if you are new to the game.

That is one of the most frustrating parts of trying to help people OC, If I could just figure out a way to "Remote Access" their bios, I'd have everyone Overclocked!

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro That is one of the most frustrating parts of trying to help people OC, If I could just figure out a way to "RemoteAccess" their bios, I'd have everyone Overclocked!

Ever heard of KVM over IP?

No..

I don't possibly see how I could access the bios, the machine has to be running for Windows to be connected to the net, as far as I know.

I'm all ears

You don't connect to the computer itself using a KVM over IP switch. You connect to the switch itself, and use it to control the computer. You have total remote access, and can diagnose a computer even at the BIOS level.

Avocent Makes some very nice ones.

Yea I found those kvms you were talking about they look great. But at 600 dollars id rather fly Necro out for a day.

http://www.provantage.com/buy-7avoc0...m-shopping.htm

Somthing I forgot to put in my other post.
K8N Hidden BIOS features:
When you are in the BIOS, hit Shift+F2 and then ALT+F3, when you then go into subsections, it will give you more options to set in the BIOS

Quote: Yea I found those kvms you were talking about they look great. But at 600 dollars id rather fly Necro out for a day.

Hmm, let me see, buy one for 600$ and charge 25$ for a quick overclock...

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro Hmm, let me see, buy one for 600$ and charge 25$ for a quick overclock...

yeah but the kvm has to be at the person's house that wants the oc so would be a pain shipping to and back an what not =/