Noobs alive Batman, we have a green OC'er here

[KimTjik]

Not all Opteron 165 will overclock well. You say startup is set to 1.5v which looks strange since you're running it as low as 1.35v. Just so the voltages don't have to jump up and down I would suggest some settings which are more equal. Next, have you tried to give your CPU a bit more power? You haven't mentioned the "vid special", but if this would be set to 104% - or what option you have in "Genie Bios" - does it improve stability? It could be you need to raise voltages in getting a decent overclock (but, don't go beyond 1.5v at this stage; the total voltage of vid * special).

 

PWM IC area: 52C while running Prime isn't critical at all. Of course it could be nicer with temperatures below 50C. Overall the general airflow in the case does a lot, but you could also direct a fan at the area. You mentioned that you do just have exhaust fans, which mean you've got some possibilities to improve airflow in the case by somehow adding an intake fan. The temperatures you get while fans are working at full speed are pretty good.

 

Another question: are the fans connected to the motherboard or the PSU? Using the motherboard to supply power to the fans could decrease stability.

[Limnos]

Sounds like you changed a bunch of settings all at once & right off the bat, why not try reloading your CMOS back to stock BIOS settings and then keep things on auto/stock and see what it will do. Then if it does not run just change one thing or a couple things at a time. At least that way you will have some idea of what the impacts of your changes are.

 

Just as an example, I left all but the bare essentials on stock and gradually kicked my 170 up to 250 (RAM @1:1, 4x). It ran just fine on the stock settings @ 250 and then I went about tweaking things to tighten up some of the more critical values. Then I bumped it up to 260 and am sitting there on stock volts. Still not sure where my upper limit is for my CPU or RAM, but all I wanted out of it was 2.6GHz with stock voltages so I am fine leaving it there...for a while anyway :nod:

[sparkison]

I set my FBS to 245mhz and my ram divider to 166mhz. That would have put my CPU at 2205mhz and my RAM at 200.45454545 mhz. Didnt raise Vcore at all. Set HTT multi to 4X and tried to boot... didnt even get into windows... crashed at the windows loading screen.

 

Just an FYI, I have had the same problems putting the G.SKILL's on a divider. Try and set them at 1/01 if at all possible. I could only get into windows with my PC3200 512 G.SKILL sticks at 1/01 and 2/01, all else would cause the comp to reboot right after the windows load screen, it was a continuous cycle. And my new G.SKILL F1 doesn't like many other settings than 1/01. So I guess what I'm trying to say is put it a half divider and try it again :nod:

 

The only thing is that at 210x9 with a 1:1 ram divider the temps were way to high. CPU went to 41C load, and PWM IC went to 51C while chipset didnt go up that much... it fluctuated at 48-49C on stock cooler.

 

41c load isn't bad. And the PWMIC (pulse width modulation - intigrated circuit) at 51c is about the norm when OC'ing, and as long as you can keep the chipset under 50c your a-ok

You can also lower your PWMIC and chipset by pointing a fan at them, I have a 120mm blowing on right at them and it lowered the temps about 8c.

 

All im saying is that theirs a chance this board and or its temp sensors are faulty. Espically the temp sensors... I get 35C idle in bios and 29C idle in windows... to much of a difference for my likeing.

 

What are you using to monitor temps? I would go by the BIOS and not what Windows gives. I use MBM5 with the data file from soundx98 http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6798

 

Lastly, post your setting so we can see whatcha got? Maybe that will help shed some light on the matter...I don't know the opty's that well, but I'll do what I can :nod:

[WoWchamp]

Well... leaving the settings for ram timings to auto was the issue I think. I have it rock solid stable at 2.2ghz. Temperature is the only thing keeping me from pushing to much farther ahead. Before I try 2.5hz I want to add a 3rd 120MM case fan as an intake (the two 120's in my case now are exhaust) and I want to install my Arctic Freezer 64 Pro along with a new evercool chipset cooler.

 

I dont think it was that my ram didnt like the dividers, I think it was that the ram timings were all set to auto. And the CPU multi, HTT mulit were both set to auto. I also bumped up the PCI-E frequency from 100 to 102.

 

About voltages... Ill try to set startup volts to 1.350 and see what we get. CPU VID speical isnt set or is at the defualt setting. Should I really set this??? Whats it really do???

[11dayz]

Unless you keep it 30 C in your house, I think your idle temperature is high, even for the stock HSF. If your extra fan doesn't help, I would reseat the HSF. If you didn't do it already, scrape off the thermal crud that was on the stock heat sink and use some Artic Silver or a similar quality paste. The overclocking guide explains the vid special control. You really should read it closely to get the most out of the board and CPU. I have been tweaking this system for about 3 weeks and I'm sure there are still things I can tweak.

 

You have the same memory (I found max at advertised timings to be 210 MHz) and CPU stepping (which is apparently a bad one) as I do so below are the settings that got me the most from the CPU as of yet, maybe it will save you some time. Your mileage may vary, of course.

 

Genie BIOS Settings:

 

FSB Bus Frequency - 280

LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio - 3

CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio - 9

PCI eXpress Frequency - 102Mhz

CPU VID StartUp Value - 1.5v

CPU VID Control - 1.5v

CPU VID Special Control - Auto

LDT Voltage Control - 1.40v

Chip Set Voltage Control - 1.70v

DRAM Voltage Control - 2.70v

 

DRAM Configuration Settings:

 

DRAM Frequency Set - 140=RAM/FSB:07/10

Command Per Clock (CPC) - Enable

CAS Latency Control (Tcl) - 2.5

RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd) - 03 Bus Clocks

Min RAS# active time (Tras) - 06 Bus Clocks

Row precharge time (Trp) - 03 Bus Clocks

Row Cycle time (Trc) - 09 Bus Clocks

Row refresh cyc time (Trfc) - 13 Bus Clocks

Row to Row delay (Trrd) - 02 Bus Clocks

Write recovery time (Twr) - 03 Bus Clocks

Write to Read delay (Twtr) - 02 Bus Clocks

Read to Write delay (Trwt) - 02 Bus Clocks

Refresh Period (Tref) - 2048 Cycles

Write CAS Latency (Twcl) - Auto

DRAM Bank Interleave - Enabled

 

DQS Skew Control - Auto

DQS Skew Value - 0

DRAM Drive Strength - Normal 2

DRAM Data Drive Strength - Level 2

Max Async Latency - 8.0 Nano Seconds

DRAM Response Time - Normal

Read Preamble Time - 5.5 Nano Seconds

IdleCycle Limit - 64 Cycles

Dynamic Counter - Enable

R/W Queue Bypass - 16 x

Bypass Max - 07 x

32 Byte Granularity - Disable(4 Bursts)

 

Good luck

[WoWchamp]

Im stable at 2340mhz... super PI passes in 33M 19S and SP04 (modded prime95) runs 20mins with no errors. Ill let it prime for about 14-16 hours tonight and see where that goes.

 

Is 2500mhz your highest OC, what HSF are you using???

 

And yes I cleaned off the stock crud and put on MX-1

[WoWchamp]

Update:

 

Got into windows at 285x9 =2.565ghz

 

Had to raise vcore up to like 1.475V though and I dont like how much its takeing now. 1.35 took me all the way to 2340 and and 1.375 got me to 2430. Its taken another whole .1V to get into windows at 2565 and I dont know if its even stable yet.

 

I may be selling this opteron off... will I get decent money for it as I can guarentee this opteron is stable up to a 600mhz OC so far?? I would only want like 300$ back out of it so I can try my hand at getting a 0610 or something.

[J Dev]

Hey WoWchamp it sounds like your RAM is the issue. I have a thread titled "Need Opty 170 Oc Help" and I was(and still sort of) having issues getting to higher OC'ing numbers also. Somewhere in here is a guide where RGone(I beleive) tests different types of RAM and has pictures to show you exactly which ones are best. If anyone here knows where to find the RAM guide please let WoWchamp know. Check out my thread and see if any of the advice I was given can help you.