A few questions for you guys (X2, OC, OCZ Platinum, etc)

[clone304]

Hi All,

 

This is my first post to these forums. I'd like to thank you all for all the information you've gathered together. It's been an enormous help to me in getting to this point with my new system build. I'm a DFI and OC newbie, so I've been learning a lot.

 

I have a few questions that I'm sure those who've been around longer can answer. So, here goes.

 

1. When overclocking an X2 4400+ Toledo, what's the highest CPU temp that I should find acceptable under full load? I've seen the page that says that the limit is ~60 or 65 (I forget). I don't have any intention of allowing it to get that hot, but I'm curious to know what temp you guys would be able to live with. At the moment, I'm running dual SuperPi's at 240 x 11 and my CPU temps are hovering around here: CPU: 49-51 PWM: 50-52. Do I still have breathing room or should I stop pushing it up?

 

2. I'm having trouble getting either version of Prime (Prime 95, StressPrime) to run both of my cores at 100%. I've set the affinity in Prime, and also in the Task Manager, but still one process will take one core all the way while the other backs off. Then, they'll switch. I've noticed that their eating up all my available memory and pushing my page file usage up to 1.65GB. I saw a link to "the proper way to run 2 primes on an X2" link somewhere, but can't find it for the life of me. Is there a way to get prime to push both cores to 100% simultaneously?

 

3. A week ago, I was a whole lot more ignorant about RAM than I am now. So, I picked up what seemed like a good deal, the 2x1GB OCZ PC3200 Platinum (Rev.1) kit. One stick of it has been consistently giving a particular one bit error at a particular address during Test 6 in memtest86+. OCZ are going to RMA it, so that's no big deal. However, I've been trying to figure out just what settings I should use and discovered that most of you guys are after TCCD's (such as Rev 2) or some other BH5 stuff. Anyway, I have no idea what all this stuff really means, so I'm wondering.. Did I buy some crap RAM? Or, did I just buy some mediocre RAM for the purposes of overclocking. Also, is this Rev1 stuff consistent across the product line as far as overclocking capabilities and the timings and voltages that are required to make it perform? In other words, is there something that I can use to guide me in juicing up this RAM or will I need to tweak/reboot/test for each individual setting to get it right?

 

4. Does anyone know the safe temp range for the Chipset? Mine has hovered between 45-48 degrees so far whether idle or under full load. It certainly doesn't seem to vary as much as the CPU temp. However, if I find that it starts to climb once I get my CPU up into the higher ranges, I'd consider pulling the fan off and doing the arctic silver mod. My question is, at what threshold should I make that a priority?

 

5. Do you DFI guys have anyone on staff who's qualified to fix the forum search? As it is, the search can tell you if a word occured in a thread, but it would be sooo nice if the search could assemble a set of links to posts that contained the search terms. That would definitely decrease the number of times you guys need to answer the same questions repeatedly. I know how it is, though, there are always more important day to day tasks that are much more integral to the job that really needs doing. So, just a humble request.

 

Anyway, thanks guys. Happy Clocking!

[supraboytt]

Im not an expert or anything but heres what I can answer

 

1) 55 @ load is my acceptable limit.

2) Options-> Torture Test -> Custom -> memory to use 800mb per cpu

3) I dunno either

4) Mine hovers around 46-50, doesnt ever go about 50 so Im not too worried as of yet.

5) Angry or any of the forum moderators. I 2nd this, I think the search function is borked. Google anyone?

 

Happy clocking lol. Kinda corny....

[clone304]

Ohh Yeah:

 

5. Is there a more appropriate BIOS revision, possibly one of the betas that would be more appropriate for my CPU/RAM combination? According to the only RAM type list I've been able to find my RAM is either TCCB (yes 'B'), CH-5, or some other stuff I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else.

 

Thanks

[supraboytt]

whats your bios date?

[clone304]

It's this one found here:

 

http://us.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bios..._FLAG=A&SITE=NA

 

Date: 2005/12/07

Filename: NF4EDC07.exe

 

Hope that means something to you. I haven't seen it mentioned on the forums yet. Though I can't say I've read every post..

[clone304]

BTW, many thanks supraboytt. Prime is now doing 100% on both CPUs. Just had to pull the RAM down in each prime to half of the available system memory.

 

Now priming 250 FSB x 11 @1.55V (previous memtest results lead me to believe that I may be able to drop the voltage some at this speed, minimum of 1.425 to boot at all).

 

Memory is at 1:1. Timings are based off of the stock timing database entry for this RAM off of the bleedinedge OCZ forum. Loosened up the CAS to 3.0 and voltage raised to 2.74V. I think I'll be able to tighten this up as well. I'll post the timings once I get them worked out.

 

CPU Temp is fluctuating between 52-53. I've seen it hit 54 for a second one time. Every now and then it drops to 49, then hops right back up to 52. Chipset is sitting at a very predictable 47, and PWM is doing 52-53 for the most part. Not real concerned about the PWM anyway.

 

That's it for now. I'm gonna hit the sack and hope my rig doesn't fry before morning. Though... I think I'm just paranoid enough to shut it down. It'll still be there tomorrow.

 

PS.. I LOVE how fast this thing boots XP. The post is slower than the OS boot to Desktop, amazing!!

[SpeedFREAK]

Careful with the tempture reading on the Expert. it reads the temps LOW!

so add 8 to 15 deg to that.. check this ...

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31509

 

Get an external probe and attach it to the IHS/Heatsink edge.