Overclocking Athlon 3700+

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I started overclocking my Athlon 3700+ tonight, and I put it to 2.42 ghz pretty easily. It runs very cool on idle with cool 'n quiet (1.1 ghz, 25-27C). I'm going to try gaming later, but before, I'm concerned about my memory. Because I have 2gb and an Nforce4 board, it set itself back to DDR333 (4 sticks), and the computer won't stay on for more than a few minutes on DDR400. Right now it's at 183.33 mhz due to the overclock. I'm probably getting close to the limit, so could someone run me through how to do the memory divider thing I keep hearing about? This is my first time overclocking a processor, sorry for the probably simple question. The memory is also set to 2T in the BIOS, if that helps anything. It was set like that on auto.

 

[atybimf]

Huh? Turn off cool 'n quiet.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Why? It makes it run cooler and...quieter. It gets up to its regular fast speed in games.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The mem clock setting is the divider on the A8N

DDR400 is default 1:1
DDR333 is the 6:5
DDR266 is the 3:2
DDR200 is the 2:1


If you think you hitting the limit on the ram drop to DDR266 but I would try bumping the vcore and/or ddrvolts first or loosen the memory timings, you should be able to get it stable at or close to 200mhz 2T

 

[professor1942]

You shouldn't use Cool 'n Quiet when overclocking... bad bad bad

And you've got cheap memory, just leave it at 333 setting, you'll need to pass 2.8 Ghz with the cpu before the memory goes over 200, which isn't likely to happen. My 3700+ is stable at 2.61, memory at 186 Mhz, any more and I'd need to really crank up the voltage, which I don't want to do.

If you want a more moderate overclock, just set the CPU multiplier to 10x and FSB to 240, then the RAM will run at 200 Mhz exactly and CPU at 2.4...

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I'm turning off cool 'n quiet, but what's so bad about it? I did notice in Everest that the memory speed seems to go up when Cool 'n quiet puts the processor speed down, and vice versa. I have it at 2.53 ghz now.

 

[furballi]

C n Q simply reduces the CPU multiplier when there is little load on the CPU. The Vcore will also drop. Granted, it may take a few clock cycles to ramp up to the max CPU multiplier, but that should not materially affect speed or stability.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I don't plan to overclock high enough to need to raise the voltage. Actually, I think my 2.53ghz overclock was unstable, as it worked, but when I adjusted DRAM voltage to 2.8 then booted, it didn't like it. So I set the voltage back to auto and the DRAM back to DDR333, and it wouldn't boot. It would simply say "GRUB" at the bottom of the screen at POST. So I cleared CMOS and it worked again. Now I have it back at 2.42 ghz and it works fine. I think I'll keep it like this. I didn't alter the multiplier anyway, so should CnQ really be a problem?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

No CnQ is not a problem with overclocking as long as you overclock with the max CPU multi, I've been using it on an overclocked machine for over a year with no problems.

 

[Kevstir]

that wierd

im running a 3700 at 2500 stable on an asrock dual sata2 , all i did was up the fsb to 228 and mems running the same, been stable for around 2 weeks now. mems set to high voltage and timimgs at 2.5,3,3,7 1t, just noticed your on value select mem and im on xms , that could be your prob?? im no expert im new to this overclocking to lol

http://www.kevstir2000.myby.co.uk/images/overclock.jpg

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Yeah, XMS is higher quality. Has tighter timings and is capable of faster speeds.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I noticed that my hypertransport speed was also at 1150 mhz, and since the guide said having it way above the default is bad, I lowered the multiplier to 4 and now it's 920. Is having it that low going to cause any problems? Any performance decrease? Edit: I also put my HTT back up to 230 for 2.53 ghz and it's running stable. Did 32M in Superpi.

 

[bigKr33]

having the fsb at 920 is perfectly fine, as long as you stay above 800mhz, and not over 1000.

 

[inveterate]

MAN,, why u people go skimppy on ram all the time.. are u using 2 stix 1GB or 4 stix of 512s.... If your using 4 stix,, try to stay under 200 and above 190 with a Cas of 2

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Well, I didn't plan on getting 2 gigs when I got the computer, which slowed it down (4 sticks 512). I also didn't plan on overclocking much, and I still don't plan on overclocking so much that I have to change the voltages. I'll stick with my current oc, or I might try to break 2.6 ghz.

 

[inveterate]

2 gig with 4 stix of value is hard to OC... voltage is absolutely necesarry.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Well, the memory is at 186mhz now and stable, so I'll just leave it that way. I don't want to play with voltages.