Gigabyte SLI

[TGK]

I recently built a new machine, specs are:

Athlon 64 Winchester 3200+ OEM
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI F6 BIOS
OCZ EL Platinum Rev. 2 (2x512)
XFX Geforce 6600GT
Antec True480blue
Western Digital 120 gig PATA
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Artic Silver 5

It is watercooled with a Exos-al with the 300 series waterblock. It is stable and doesnt break 33^C

The problem is, the system does not appear to be capable of a 220+ FSB overclock.
The system runs fine with a 10x mutlipler 212 FSB. (2120mhz)
It craters with a 9x multiplier and 225 FSB. (2025mhz).
- bsod + reboot, or complete hardlock of system.

This leads me to believe its a FSB/Ram issue.
I have tried setting the HT to 3 and 4x and no difference.
I have tried setting the ram to 2.5CAS no difference
I have tried switching dimm slots and running only 1 dimm and no difference.
I have tried voltage ranges from 2.6 to 2.8 volts. The 2.8 volts got me a very slight improvement to hit 220mhz but no higher.
I have tried enabling/disabling the spread spectrum and no difference.

The RAM felt quite hot to the touch when I was running it at 2.8volts.

Can someone please help me on what to try next?

 

[LifeStealer]

My advice is to return it for a better board if you want to o/c. The gigabyte does not o/c well.

 

[TGK]

Originally posted by: LifeStealer
My advice is to return it for a better board if you want to o/c. The gigabyte does not o/c well.

Have you tested this yourself? The anand reviews said this board overclocked very well.

 

[LifeStealer]

No, just from looking it over and reading owners threads from places like the ocforums.

 

[JohnAn2112]

What timings are you running your RAM? Try 2.5-3-3-10 at 2.8v to see if you can get stable.

 

[fixxxer0]

Maybe you got a F'd up board... Anand went up to 280FSB with thier board.... which was store bought as well (so they didnt get a super demo board).

Maximum FSB:
(Lower Ratio) 284 x 9 or 10 (2840MHz) (3x HT)
(1:1 Memory, 2 DIMMs in DC mode)
(+42% Bus Overclock)


Whats the highest mutliplier you can run on the 3200? I think the 3500 lets you goto 11x or 12x but I don't have a board to put mine in yet.


Thats some expensive RAM, can you run memtest on it for a long time and get no errors? Try this at maybe 215 or something that the system runs at. If its F'ing up there, try it at stock too..... it might just be flat out bad from from the start.

If you have another brand of ram laying around maybe try that, or try higher rated ram... this isnt usually available though and somewhat costly, so run memtest first.


If for some reason after all this you are convinced its the board and can't RMA it just because it "doesn't OC good enough for you" what you can do maybe is sell it on ebay , I'm sure u can get your money back for it in full, if not more, due to the lack of these available. You wouldn't be ripping anyoung off cuz it runs fine stock , and even goes up to 220. And who knows, maybe it will work out good for them.

 

[TGK]

Where can I get memtest? Is this memtest86 that requires the boot disk? I'll try this next.

 

[LifeStealer]

Yup. You can download the iso and use the CD to boot it, much easier to keep up for me.

 

[LifeStealer]

http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.2.iso.zip

 

[fixxxer0]

let us know how it goes, im buying a gigabyte sli when i can find one in stock and i plan to OC my 3500+ winchester to 2.6ghz


crossing my fingers that u got F'd ram

 

[TGK]

Ran memtest through a loop, no errors detected. Next idea?
Tonight I'm going to try it out in a friends machine that will take ddr 400 and see how high his fsb can get.

 

[TGK]

ttt

 

[TGK]

ttt any ideas please? need to decide what to RMA if im going to.

 

[barkeley]

Originally posted by: LifeStealer
No, just from looking it over and reading owners threads from places like the ocforums.

Bizarre. Just looked there, no one is reporting any OC problems.

 

[dnavarro]

You have the same board as me (Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI) and whatever the previous guy said about it not OC'in well is crap. I am at 282x11 (Vaporcooling). I also have similar memory to yours. You have the OCZ 3200 R2, I have the GSKILL 4400. Both are basically the same Samsung TCCD on brainpower PCB. Both should overclock well on low volts. Here's the deal. You need to be at 2.5-3-3-7 (or 2.5-3-3-X basically, I think 10 works the best for X). Make sure "2T Command" is disabled (in ram timings area of bios - see below if you do not know how to see this as an option). When you stay at Cas 2, Samsung TCCD will top out at 215-220MHz. This sounds like your problem. And make sure you have put both dimms in the correct memory slots for DUAL CHANNEL! This board has them next to eachother for dual channel. Most boards don't do it that way (Asus A8N-SLI). If you put them in two slots (not in dual mode) you will get a bad overclock and have to run 2T command)! Also, make sure you have put some decent voltage on the CPU because the A64 mem controller is doing all the work. I would put 1.6V+ depending on your cooling. As far as voltage for the TCCD (your OCZ 3200), mine likes 2.7V and no more. You may want to start at 2.7 and move up from there if you get better results. Lastly, make sure you know the bios. You want to be at 200MHz for the memory (that means 1:1 so it follows the Front Side Bus in speed as you bring that up). Also, make sure you know the "ctrl-F1" trick for gigabyte bios'es. When in the bios, hit "ctrl-f1" and you get the "special" memory timings page and an "extra" option in the "MIB" overclocking area (at the bottom). Set those timings as recommended for TCCD. In the MIB area (after ctrl-f1) at the bottom, choose your memory type from "auto" to "samsung/samsung". That alone gave me a 10 MHZ higher memory clock/FSB clock boost. Also set your HTT (hypertransport) to "auto". This will "scale it" to fit your needs. If it gets too high it will automatically lower it. I had issues bringing it down to 3x, but at auto it worked great (and I verified it lowers the HTT).

Also (I use SATA), if using SATA you NEED to use the NVIDIA SATA2 ports. The Silicon image will crap out at 240FSB because it is tied to the PCI Express bus and get whacked when you overclock. The NVIDIA ports are locked and do not get unstable at high FSB speeds. BTW I noticed this with the ASUS A8N-SLI also. So Silicon image = low overclock! Also, if you are using the PATA drives then DO NOT install the NVIDIA IDE driver (in the NFORCE Chipset drivers). Search around these drivers are horrible and cause lock ups and random crashes....STAY AWAY from them!

Other than that I suggest using "+.2V" for both the "core" voltage and "HTT" voltage in the MIB area. That is where I am at with great stability. Lastly, make sure you have a good PSU. This is a high powered board (especially with SLI). I have a PCP&C 510-SLI and I need every bit. If you have a noname flaky PSU that can be a problem. And make sure it is at least 480 Watts.

Hope this helps. If this all fails you got a bum board (or CPU memory controller). But this motherboard kicks ass and is the best AVAILABLE overclockers NF4 board easily. I had the A8N-Deluxe and dumped that as soon as this was available. And look my results mirror anand's....>280FSB 1:1 @ 2.5-3-3-10

D

 

[Dookie]

I have a somewhat related question.

I'm planning on getting the same motherboard and i'm wondering if a thermalright xp-120 will fit. I'm worried the DPS might be in the way.

Thanks

 

[dnavarro]

Currently, I do not use the DPS (I got the same results without it go figure). So you do not need it to run the board (And I am highly overclocked). So you should not have a problem. In fact, the guys at xtremesystems.org (my favorite overclocking forum) say DPS on Gigabyte boards doesn't do very much at all.

Also, even with DPS I could fit my vapochill head on the CPU (and it is very large). So it may even fit with DPS installed. Hope this helps.

D

 

[Dookie]

Cool, thanks.

 

[peroxide]

I am having the SAME problem i can only go as high as 212! After that it becomes unstable. I'm using a 420W power supply. What gives?

AMD 64 3000+
GA-K8NF-9
Geil 512MB
Nvidia SATA

 

[dnavarro]

besides making sure you have the newest bios and following my instructions above I can't think of much to suggest. What type of memory do you have? What timings are you on? What voltages are you set in bios?

Also if you use SATA make sure you are on the NVIDIA controller (not the silicon image one).

It sounds like your memory is maxed or needs different timings....

D

 

[ZeroZero]

Originally posted by: Dookie
I have a somewhat related question.

I'm planning on getting the same motherboard and i'm wondering if a thermalright xp-120 will fit. I'm worried the DPS might be in the way.

Thanks

Consider also the XP-90, it is smaller but apparently the performance difference is tiny.