BigKohones Posted January 31, 2006 Posted January 31, 2006 Need help deciding which is the safest overclock; my objective is to get the most bang for the buck out of stock cooling without compromising system lifespan. All of the options below passed memtest86+ for a period of 4hours. Which one is the best overall to use with pure stock cooling. I'm thinking Option 1 is the safest, Option 2 is the most bang for the buck (assuming that the lost 16mhz on ram doesn't impact severely). I'm not sure what the ceiling is on the ram, but at 216mhz (260x10) it fail during the first pass of memtest86. So I assume the limit is somewhere between 208 and 215; which effective limits me to 208 or less since the multipliers don't yeild any numbers between 208 and 216, there either less than 208 or greater than 216. So I guess the real question is will 1040 (2080) for the HTT be too much, and will the loss of 6mhz on the ram severely impact the cpu overclock. Will option 2 be faster than option 1? Option 1: CPU: 250x10 = 2500Mhz HTT: 250x04 = 1000Mhz RAM: 2500/12 = 208Mhz Option 2: CPU: 250x11 = 2750Mhz HTT: 250x04 = 1000Mhz RAM: 2750/14 = 196Mhz Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thespin Posted January 31, 2006 Posted January 31, 2006 What is the voltage you are applying to your processor and what are the temps, idle and load ? Are both your options Prime95 stable for 8 hours ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKohones Posted February 1, 2006 Posted February 1, 2006 Yes both have run Prime95 for 10hours straight before manual termination, both have also passed Mem86test (one included in BIOS) for 10 passes (8~9hours). The temps are: 2.5Ghz@Load (Prime95-Blend): CPU=45~47 PWMIC=42 ~43 Chipset=45~47 2.7Ghz@Load (Prime95-Blend): CPU=47~50 PWMIC=42 ~43 Chipset=46~48 Further tests using Call of Duty 2 and Battlefield 2 show: 2.5Ghz CPU=~48, PWMIC=43, Chipset=~47 2.7Ghz CPU=~50, PWMIC=43, Chipset=~51 My CPU volatage is at 1.35v with special of 102.4%. Mem voltage is set to 2.66v. 2-3-2-5@1T I assume the rise in heat during game is due to other components (e.g 7800GT) generating more heat inside the case where as Prime only burns the CPU and Ram? Whats the thermal limits for the chipset, thats the only one turning red in SmartGuardian at 2.7Ghz. I'm also experiencing a pause during Windows boot, when the screen fades in there is a momentary pause then it boots normally. The higher the clock speed the longer the pause takes. If I go back to stock 2.2 then the windows boot screen fades in normal. Once in Windows I have no issues other than heat on the chipset @ 2.7ghz. I have a antec super lan boy case, the front has a 120mm fan bringing in cool air; the rear has a 120mm fan exhausting hot air. If I revers the rear to bring in cool air will that help cool or would i be further agrevating the heat concern by eliminating the exhaust port? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
palehorse Posted February 1, 2006 Posted February 1, 2006 what HSF are you using on the CPU? and dont reverse just one of your fans.. you always need an intake and an exhaust! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICON57 Posted February 1, 2006 Posted February 1, 2006 i would go with option 2 i would then try to loosen your mem timings to see if you can run your ram and cpu 1:1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKohones Posted February 2, 2006 Posted February 2, 2006 The HSF is stock AMD. I haven't had a chance to sit down and research how to overclock ram, mine is warrantied between 2.6v ~ 2.8v. They are PC3200 so I doubt I'll get them to 250mhz. I thought about replacing the stock AMD HSF with a Zalman 9500LED but that would probably be pointless since its the chipset heating up not the cpu. Any ideas on the weird boot up issue, it seems it may be a video card issue; Half-Life2 does it too, changes res with the desktop showing and playing the HL2 music then jumps into the loading screen a few seconds later. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thespin Posted February 2, 2006 Posted February 2, 2006 Your voltages and load temps are fine. You should be able to run option 2 no problem ... maybe switch from the stock cooler to a Thermalright XP-90 ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKohones Posted February 2, 2006 Posted February 2, 2006 I'm now running at the following: CPU volatage 1.35v with special of 102.4% Mem voltage is set to 2.66v Chipset voltage is set to default CPU: 250x11 = 2750Mhz RAM: 250x1 = DDR500 3-3-3-5@1T (50Mhz boost on PC3200, hope the chips don't fry) HTT: 250x4 = 1000Mhz 2.7Ghz@Load (Prime95-Blend): CPU=48~52 PWMIC=42~43 Chipset=47~52 If the nforce4 fan is not a full speed the chipset boosts to ~51 at idle. Looks like upping the ram to 250 is making other components work harder? Any recommendations, should I drop back to 196Mhz for the ram? I saw a nice boost according to Sandra's memory bandwith test from 5860MB/s to 7049MB/s. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thespin Posted February 2, 2006 Posted February 2, 2006 I don't see a problem ... but the cpu load temp coukl be cooler ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
palehorse Posted February 2, 2006 Posted February 2, 2006 http://www.jab-tech.com/product.php?productid=2291 get one of those for your northbridge cooling. It will fit perfectly without any mods whatsoever. And you should definately look into an aftermarket HSF for your cpu as well. I would highly suggest the SI-120 that I use paired up with a decent 120mm fan... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKohones Posted February 2, 2006 Posted February 2, 2006 Pale, did you mean the 'Evercool VC-RE Twinkling VGA Cooler' to cool the northbridge? My 7800GT covers the current northbridge in either PCI-E slot. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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