Help me get a better oc from my 3000+

[spacegrass]

I have recently installed a 7600gt sli setup into my rig, and Ive been trying to overclock my cpu so that games run smoother.

At the moment the core speed is 2ghz which is only a little above stock, Ive tried pushing it slightly further by upping the clock speed in bios but the computer wont boot...Im not sure ive done this right.

Anyway, heres my readout in cpuz;

Ive read here people decrease the multiplier, but since you multiply the multiplier with the htt to get your core speed surely this results in a lower overclock?

 

[Joe42]

Start from stock settings and do the following:

Lower the htt multi (not the cpu multi) to 4, and put a divider on the ram to ensure that it does not exceed 200mhz, use cpuz to keep an eye on it.
Then raise the fsb, using prime95 to test the stability and keep going until prime95 fails. Then raise the voltage a little.

You have reached your limit when temperatures are >55 or voltage is >1.55. When you reach this point, run prime95 for 12 hours or so to ensure absolute stability.

While you are raising the fsb, if you get to 250 you must lower the htt multi again down to 3 to keep the htt < 1000mhz. Remember you will also need to change the ram divider again at some point aswell to keep it < 200mhz. You also need to make sure the pci or pci-e clock it set to 'lock' if you have that option.

 

[spacegrass]

Im using a ram divider of 333 mhz, my pci-e clock is set to 33mhz and this is my readout in cpuz

core speed 2208mhz
multiplier x9
htt 245mhz

Im now going to raise the clock to 250 and set the ht multiplier to 3, does it sound like im making proper progress so far?

 

[Joe42]

Sounds good.
333 + 50 = 383 so thats ok.
When (if) you get to 267 then you will need to lower the divider another notch.

What temps and volts?
Are you running prime95 to check stability?

 

[Pulse]

this may be rushing into it a little bit but these are the settings for my 2.8GHz 3000,

FSB - 311
CPU Multi - 9
HTT - 3x
Memory Frequency - DDR266 133MHz
CPU volts - 1.62V
RAM volts - 2.8V
Chipset volts - 1.6V

Effective CPU speed - 2799MHz
Effective RAM speed - 207Mhz

 

[spacegrass]

im not going to alter any other ram settings so im not going to change the voltage for that.

my cpu voltage is 1.47, idle temp is 32 degrees

 

[spacegrass]

this may be rushing into it a little bit but these are the settings for my 2.8GHz 3000,

FSB - 311
CPU Multi - 9
HTT - 3x
Memory Frequency - DDR266 133MHz
CPU volts - 1.62V
RAM volts - 2.8V
Chipset volts - 1.6V

Effective CPU speed - 2799MHz
Effective RAM speed - 207Mhz

correct me if im wrong but the guy above says you should use a htt of 2?

 

[Pulse]

ok your wrong he said 4 lol, doesnt make that much difference mine is lower cos i have a higher FSB.

 

[spacegrass]

ok your wrong he said 4 lol, doesnt make that much difference mine is lower cos i have a higher FSB.

ok im confused, what did he mean when he said this then

"When (if) you get to 267 then you will need to lower the divider another notch."

 

[Pulse]

he meant if you change you FSB above 267 then you would have to lower your ram from 333MHz to make sure you dont overclock your RAM too much...

for instance my FSB is at 311MHz and my RAM is at 133MHz because my FSB is so high my RAM has to be low to compensate for the FSB overclock.

 

[Mikebert4]

What RAM/MoBo you have?

I've said it about 4000 times, but I run my 3000+ at:

FSB: 289 (2.6Ghz)
RAM: DDR333 (~235Mhz)
HT milti: 3x
Vcore: 1.52v
VRAM: 2.9v


basically, start at stock, lower HT milti to 3x, lower RAM to DDR333
Put FSB to 240, and try booting
If it suceeds, continue in incriments of 5Hz on the FSB until it fails.
When it fails, add 0.05v to the Vcore, or the smallest incriment you can, and try again, keep going until temps reach >55'C and don't go putting more than 1.65v through the core (mine was -Ok- at 1.7, but I REALLY wouldn't recomend it).


basically, keep HTT below 1000 (HT= FSBxHT multi)
Keep RAM ~200MHz using dividers,DDR333, DDR 266 etc. (though with a little extra voltage it can go faster)
Keep temps sub-55'C under load (prime 95- the test the generates heat = load)
keep going!

When you've reached as far as you can go (on air 2.4-2.7Ghz is good going) and it'll still boot, you want to test it with Prime95, 12-hours on all three tests is considered 100%stable, but you only need to worry about that if your going to be folding using FAH or somthing similar.

I'd say about 4 hours on all three tests is stable for days and days of gaming.

If you fail Prime 95, back down the FSB or increase the volts (depending on temps) until you pass it.

at which point, you've reached your max stable overclock! huzzah!

if it's lower than you expected, leave it at that speed for a month or two and trya again, after some burning in, the CPU will probally do another 0.2Ghz

Mine now boots at 3.4Ghz, and is stable up to 3.1Ghz, but the RAM gets strangled somewhat, in a week or two I'll try again see if i can get 3.2 stable on 1.6v then i'll run that 24/7

Overclocking's a game of fiddling, testing, checking and waiting.

Hope i've been some help, Good luck!

 

[Pulse]

very good explanation Mikebert4, should help any one in need.

nice post

 

[Joe42]

ok im confused, what did he mean when he said this then

"When (if) you get to 267 then you will need to lower the divider another notch."

Dividers are for ram, the htt is a multi. Thats the point at which memory running at 333 will go over 400, so you would have to go down to i think 266 to keep it less than 400.

Looks like you've got the hang of it anyway.