Couple of OC questions from newbie

[FaberM]

Hi all,

first post here, since I recently purchased the system listed in the signature.

 

First, I know too well the Geil I installed are not too good for overclock, which is not my primary purpose.

 

But of course I'm playing around a bit to find system limits, and there are a couple of issues which confuse me.

 

I tried a small overclock with these settings:

CPU frequency: 221

Hammer FID Control: x11

HT Frequency: 4x

DRAM Configuration: Default (that is, 1:1)

CnQ: Disabled

DDR Voltage Control: 2,8 V (default=2,6V)

CPU Voltage Control: 1,45 V

 

Quite conservative I know, but just a starting point

 

System runs Prime95 and SuperPi stable with these settings.

 

First question: in DRAM Configuration, Bios reports that CAS latency is 2,5 (from SPD). But my Geil should be set to 3 in SPD, and it reads 3 at post. This is normal?

 

Anyway, I tried to go a little bit higher (CPU frequency 225).

SuperPi is not stable anyway, almost certainly memory issue. So I gave some more voltage to DRAM (2,9V), to no avail. I am not confident increasing voltage any more, 2,95 should be max for this memory.

 

So I went the other way round. I increased CPU frequency to 240, Hammer FID control 10x, HT Frequency 4x, CPU: DDR 6:5 instead of 1:1.

I know that running CPU/MEM async is not a good thing, but I'm just testing

 

But, when system posts, memory is reported to be 333. Should it not be to 400 (240 / 6:5) ?? And SuperPi achieves, of course, worst results...

 

Finally, I tried then to set CAS latency to 3 in DRAM Configuration to see if memory goes further 221 at 1:1... But system does not post at all, I have to clear CMOS to boot again. This completely confuses me. It could make sense if I decreased CAS latency, but increasing it !??

I found that just setting CAS latency to 3, instead of 2.5, is enough to prevent system from posting. Just clearing CMOS and setting it back to 2.5 is enough to let it boot.

 

Ok that's enough reading....

 

Thanks everybody

 

Ciao

[PL4YD34D]

hi dude. welcome to dfi street.

 

your gonna have to do a bit of reading of the other threads about overclocking otherwise people are not likely to help you out.

 

that ram is not gonna be good for 1:1 with your fsb. you have to overclock one thing at a time. cpu then ram is a good way to go. and like you said that ram is not the best and you shouldnt expect great results. setting your cas lat. is the least of your concerns at the moment. (besides i think ive seen the geil value 2gb kits not being read properly for SPD settings in the past.)

 

check these and read THOROUGHLY before continuing

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823

 

especially this -

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.p...179&postcount=4

 

hope it goes well.

[FaberM]

hi dude. welcome to dfi street.

 

your gonna have to do a bit of reading of the other threads about overclocking otherwise people are not likely to help you out.

Thanks for your answer, that's exactly what I did before fiddling with Bios settings.... Of course there's a very good chance I missed/forgot something, there's a lot of information in there.

 

As far as what I understood, anyway, Ht frequency must be in the range 2000 (200x5x2).. and I tried to keep it at that value. I also tried to take RAM in the working range, just to see how much I can reach with CPU (one thing at a time )

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.p...179&postcount=4

This is exactly the link which gave me the idea that setting FSB to 240 and keeping FSB:MEM ratio to 6:5 would set memory to DDR400.

The table shown in that post seems to confirm that; the ratios available in there are different, but the formula is quite obvious.

 

You already answered to one of my questions (geil settings not being read correctly for SPD).

Anyway, the question about FSB:MEM ratio remains unanswered also after reading the memory settings thread carefully: where am I wrong? If FSB is 240, HT freq x4 (240x4=960... we are in range), why FSB:MEM=6:5 is not 400 DDR ??

 

Surely there is something I missed or which I did not understand from the information in the thread.

I hope someone will be so patient to tell me what it is....

 

Anyway, I did not find anywhere the reason why setting CAS Latency to 3 *without* changing other settings should prevent system from posting....

 

 

Thanks all

 

Ciao