Problems getting my San Diego 3700+ over 2.6 GHz :(

[Danne2k]

Hey, my first new thread here as a swedish member

 

My english kind'a sucks btw

 

I don't really know why I'm keep getting this bad luck in overclocking..

 

Anyway, here comes my system:

 

DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D

AMD 64 San Diego 3700+ (2.2 ghz) 1MB Cache

TwinMos Speed Premium BH5 PC3200 512Mb x 2

Powercolor X1900GT (No OC so far)

Hiper Type-R 530W (http://www.hipergroup.com/English/products/hpu-4m530.html)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA-II (Windows disk)

Maxtor 200GB IDE

Creative Soundblaster Live!

 

OC and Voltages

 

Motherboard:

 

Bios:

Date Code 2006/04/06

NF4LD406.EXE

http://www.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bio..._FLAG=A&SITE=US

(The one at the top)

241 Mhz FSB

Chipset: 1.5v (I think, its @ orginal voltage anyway)

LTD: 1.2v (same here, orginal voltage)

NB: 42 C

PWR: 36 C (I think)

 

CPU:

Vcore ~1.59-1.60V

241x11=2651 Mhz

Temps: Idle 35-37 C, Load: 45-50 C

HTT 3X

Cooler: Zalman CNPS 7000B-CU

At this speed its clearly unstable, can do PI 1M @ startup but if you try like 16M it fails and also Prime 95 (cpu test) fails after 9 minutes, windows however, works fine!

 

 

RAM:

Voltage: 2.9v

Timings 2.5-3-3-6

Allmost everything on auto in bios and the RAM is underclockt (can you say like that?) to 176mhz insted of 200mhz.

 

I'll show you some pics so you can see for yourself:

 

I want to find the MAX mhz for my CPU and I don't want the RAM to stop me.

 

And, in case you wonder, I have read the "DEFENITIVE A64 OVERCLOCKING GUIDE"

 

I see all these members with San Diegos @ 2800 mhz with just 1.45Vcore or something and I keep asking myself, how do they do?

 

So my problem is as you can see that my "sandy" dont want to go higher then around 2600 Mhz with 1.57 Vcore...

 

I have no idea why, but maybe some DRAM setting is holding me back (I heard some guy telling about that) or maybe the stepping is just worthless! I bought it from another guy for only 600 swedish crones (80 USD)..

Here is the stepping:

 

How do I know if it's good or bad stepping for overclocking?

 

Please help me to get this CPU to at least 2700 Mhz stable, even if it takes 1.65 V

 

:/

 

Thank you,

 

//Daniel

[amond]

Welcome to the forum! I hate to disappoint you but I think you have a bad stepping for overclocking.You might be able to get a LITTLE higher if you go with a watercooling setup but I doubt you will be able to get much higher than 2.7Ghz.Sorry for your luck.However,if you have heard of phase-change coolers,that might be another option for a higher over-clock.The downside of this is the price,these types of coolers aren't cheap and you must add extra protection to protect from condensation.Hope this sheds a little light on you.Good luck!

[Danne2k]

Welcome to the forum! I hate to disappoint you but I think you have a bad stepping for overclocking.You might be able to get a LITTLE higher if you go with a watercooling setup but I doubt you will be able to get much higher than 2.7Ghz.Sorry for your luck.However,if you have heard of phase-change coolers,that might be another option for a higher over-clock.The downside of this is the price,these types of coolers aren't cheap and you must add extra protection to protect from condensation.Hope this sheds a little light on you.Good luck!

 

****, I knew something wasen't right when i bought it from that guy so cheap!

 

Seems like I have to push more it with more voltage then

 

What would you say where the temp limit is? Is 50-53 C "okey" in maximum CPU load?

 

Another question, if I want to use more then 3.2v DRAM voltage, how do I do?

 

I know which jumper to move but manual says something about changing the cpu volt in bios first?

Can you help me out with this one?

 

and if I have moved the jumper, is 3.2v the lowest I can get or can I go down to 2.6v as usual?

 

Seems like my bh5 is stable (memtest 7 h) in 240mhz 2-2-2-7 with just 3.1v so we'll see how high they want to go! looks good anyway

[amond]

To answer your first question.....50c tops!!!!! I wouldn't go any higher.To answer your second question,I belive you set the voltage in BIOS then move the jumper.I don't see why you really need to do that unless you are wanting to lower your multi. and raise your FSB.when you get into higher bus frequencies you are going to want to raise your LTD volts also.Hope this helps

[sswilson]

Here's a pretty good breakdown of the different steppings for the San Diego 3700...

 

http://www.overclock.net/faqs/101138-info-...-san-diego.html

 

Unfortunately if you read through it you'll see that the max for the "cabbage" is around 2600 - 2700.

 

That said.... all is not bad news.... your memory should be a pretty good match 1-1 (or better @ high volts) with really tight timings.

[Danne2k]

To answer your first question.....50c tops!!!!! I wouldn't go any higher.To answer your second question,I belive you set the voltage in BIOS then move the jumper.I don't see why you really need to do that unless you are wanting to lower your multi. and raise your FSB.when you get into higher bus frequencies you are going to want to raise your LTD volts also.Hope this helps

 

Okey I hear you..

 

Of course I want to get a higher fsb becouse my cpu wont go especilly high..so I put my faith into my BH5's

 

yes I will lower my multiple when im serching for the max fsb for my RAM's.

 

So you set for exemple 3.2v VDIMM and then move the jumper? and then I can use up to 4V?

 

I dont anything about the LTD voltage, how high should that one be?

 

So far my BH5 are stable @ 240mhz with 3.2V, but if I go a little higher, the errors starts to come..so with 243 i got around 3 errors/pass which is good when you are "burning" them

 

So maybe with a little higher voltage the errors will be reduced, or what do you think?

 

 

@ sswilson: Thank you for the link, so its true then..I saw it to..

Maybe I will look for another 3700 with better stepping..

 

Yes im hoping to get at least 250-260 fsb with maybe 3.4-3.5V, do you know how high you can go btw? the limit is aroung 3.5-3.6 right? of course with a fan on top of them.

[Kingfisher]

My english kind'a sucks btw

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

Your english is fine compared to some others around here, and english is their native language.

 

Good luck on your overclock.

[Danne2k]

Welcome to the forums!

 

Your english is fine compared to some others around here, and english is their native language.

 

Good luck on your overclock.

 

Hehe thank you :> maybe it doesen't suck but it should be better then it is

 

Yepp I could certainly do need a "good luck" kick in my butt ^^

 

I've managed to move the jumper so now I can have VDD from 2.5v up to 4v

 

Only one problem, they say you need some kind of active cooling on your RAM's if you go over 3.2V..and i have som fan's just laying around in my room but I dont know how to put them in my Chieftec chassi so that they will blow strait at my BH5's..

 

My chassi is standing so I can't just put it over the RAM's..and to glue the fan to the ram's doesen't really sound like a good idea to me ^^

 

So if you have any tip on have to cool my ram's, please write them in the thread!

 

Thank you,

 

/Daniel

[3stars]

can you fix up your sig so we can see what you got in you rig don't forget to include bios's and the like

oh and welcome to the street

[sswilson]

If you just want to test out some form of active cooling you can always use "zap straps" (plastic ties) to hold a fan or two in place over your ram and then if it does the trick for you figure out some way to manufacture a mount. (some pics of similar setups over in the modifications folder).

 

Not sure what it would cost to ship, but there's a local on-line distributer selling new OEM 3700's for $109 CDN (little bit less than $100 USD). (If you're interested, PM me and I'll send you the link).

[Danne2k]

can you fix up your sig so we can see what you got in you rig don't forget to include bios's and the like

oh and welcome to the street

 

I just did but nothing seems to happen

 

Edit: Oh now it suddenly worked!

 

I fixed the mem cooling with a 80mm fan and some steal wire, it doesen't look good but I think i works

 

I give you pictures later, imageshack wont work atm.

[Danne2k]

So, here is some pictures of my RAM cooling, it works pretty good..

 

 

 

Another problem, im burning my bh5's in memtest every night, as I said before, they do 240mhz 2-2-2-7 @ 3.1v memtest with no errors.

 

But after that they seem to want so much more voltage! so I tonight I run 255mhz @ 3.5v (allways test #5) and got maybe 7.5 errors/pass, but when it came to 4096 errors it didnt go further, you had to look in "error summery" (I think it was called) to see how many more errors I got, and it was maybe 6 error/pass.

 

I've done this for only 10h so I will continue much more..

 

But can I get errors if the RAM is hot to? dont think so becouse of the fan but you never know..

 

My goal for now is 260mhz stable with 2-2-2-7 with max 3.6-3.7V

 

Any tip?