Hello everybody I am posting here because I know the basics for overclocking but i want to get input from anyone that can give suggestions on what i should do to push my system farther than it is now. I want to improve the speed of my system to make it better and help out the PCAPEX Benchmarking team. My current stats are as follows:

MOBO: ASUS A8R32-MVP DELUXE
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX-60(1.35v)
MEMORY: 4GB(4x1gb sticks) CORSAIR XMS DDR-400
VID CARDS: ATI Radeon 1900XTX and ATI Radeon 1900 Crossfire
HDD: 2x Seagate 250GB SATA 3gb/s

I figure these stats will be a rough start but i will add more on request.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ponch Hello everybody I am posting here because I know the basics for overclocking but i want to get input from anyone that can give suggestions on what i should do to push my system farther than it is now. I want to improve the speed of my system to make it better and help out the PCAPEX Overclocking team. My current stats are as follows: MOBO: ASUS A8R32-MVP DELUXE CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 MEMORY: 4GB(4x1gb sticks) CORSAIR XMS DDR-400 VID CARDS: ATI Radeon 1900XTX and ATI Radeon 1900 Crossfire HDD: 2x Seagate 250GB SATA 3gb/s I figure these stats will be a rough start but i will add more on request.

Welcome!!

My first suggestion is take out to sticks of ram so you can ran T1 command rate for faster SuperPi times

Here are the basic you will need to understand the "Theory" of Overclocking..the article is old..but still relevant! (Especially the voltage section)

MODTHEBOX.COM - Canada's Premier Case Modding Source - Articles - Overclocking 103: Turning Up the Heat with Voltage Adjustments
MODTHEBOX.COM - Canada's Premier Case Modding Source - Articles - Overclocking 102: Taking Your Overclock to the Next Level

MODTHEBOX.COM - Canada's Premier Case Modding Source - Articles - Overclocking 101: Overclocking Fundamentals

For purely benchmarking purposes..removing 2 sticks of the ram will help as Killert mentioned..it allows you to use 1T (CPC on..wich is command per clock)in the bios, wich is quite a bit faster than your current 2T (CPC off) settings AMD CPU's typically requires with 4 sticks of ram.


I suggest doing the Super Pi 1MB test with your current settings...and then save a screenie of it, then remove the extra ram, set for 1t and see how much faster it is (And save another screenie..post them both here)


Then...I would try running a higher FSB at the same CPU speed you have now..

Try these settings..they are general though for high end air cooling, typicaly anything higher than the max listed will require extreme cooling.

Also make sure your case has plenty of airflow too!

LDT-4x (See this link to understand what LDT settings do) http://forums.pcapex.com/amd_cpu_mot..._oc_guide.html
FSB 210-225
Multiplier 12x

Voltages:

NB-1.7-1.8v
CPU 1.4-1.55
LDT (Forgot the base number...1.3v? but raise it 1 or 2 notches above stock)
Ram 2.7-2.8v

Be careful when raising voltages..only bump them when things get unstable, knowing what ones to raise and how much is kind of the "Black Art" of Overclocking...

Typically when you raise only CPU speed, only the CPU volts need adjusting...

If you want to keep the same CPU speed, but raise FSB (Wich requires lowering the CPU "Multiplier" to keep the CPU at the same speed or less) then the other ones will generally need to be raised to increase the abilty of your motherboard to handle high bus speeds.

2.8GHZ= 14x200 (Stock LDT 5X) your current settings
2.8GHZ= 13x215 (LDT 4x) Fast
2.8GHZ= 12x233 (LDT 4x) Faster
2.8GHZ= 11x254 (LDT 4x or 3x) Realy fast..but probably beyond your rams ability!
2.8GHZ= 10x280 (LDT 3x) EXTREME! (DDR 600 for this and the settings below)
2.8GHZ= 9x 311FSB (LDT 3x) INSANELY FAST

Your CPU should be able to run higher than 2.8ghz, make small changes (5 FSB increments at first, then 2)and retest for stability using ORTHOS (Dual core version of Prime 95) most FX CPU's will run 2.9-3ghz with good high end air cooling.

Don't let your CPU temps get above 50c or so under full load using SPeed fan to monitor them (Or any other temps for that matter..except vid card, they can handle 60-70c..but I don't like to see over 60c myself)

You can find those programs and more in the link at the bottome of my sig.

For other AMD 64 tips..click on my profile and then "Find all threads started by Necro"...I have many of them on the AMD-64 939

EDIT:

Oh,and you need to ditch ATI's OC utility completely (You will have to remove the driver and reinstall to do this!) and use ATI Tool to get higher clocks on them..you will then have to create a profile and set voltages to them manually.


I have a link on how to do that below..but you need to sign up at OCX to be able to see it!

ocXtreme Forum

You may be able to play with those ram timings to get faster Pi times and better scores in other tests..but that is a bit more difficult, so try these and get back with us, this should keep you busy for now!

You won't go wrong listening to $SOLID$. If overclocking is what you want.
That's what he's gonna give ya. Good Luck. He won't steer you wrong. I'm
not needed here :-)

Slaymate, your input is always needed!

(Though we will have to wait and see where this gets him, and if he has more questions)

I try and cover all things, but having a second "Pro" set of eyes is great to catch things I may not is great... I often find myself not replying in threads you have helped in for the same reasons you have now!

Though we typically run similar hardware, we often have different experiences in what works and what doesn't.

Cheers to ya buddy, you always got my back, and I'll be right there for you too!

Alright everyone thanks for the advice so far. I looked over the information in the links Necro provided and im going to try some of the things listed on the posts here and the other info.

first things first here is my super pi time with the settings i provided in my first post. I dont think its a really bad time but i know it can be better

I will edit this post once i run super pi after removing 2 sticks of memory and tweaking the other settings.

And I forgot to mention i am using water cooling on my processor and vid cards so i dont see any problem with heat with higher overclocking.

alright the new stats and results so far are in and hears the update.



I havent had any post/boot up issues whatsoever but i did have two other issues. when i changed the bus speed from 215 to 220 the memory frequency dropped form about 220 down to 179 and the voltage on my processor fluxuates between 1.392, 1.404 and 1.424 volts fairly frequently. I dont know if that is bad but i figure i should mention it
ill be anticipating further suggestions and advice from anyone who wants to give there time to this.

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far.