Suiggestions for setup?

[t_ski]

I just picked on of these up and I'm trying to overclock it, along with some Patriot PDC5123200+XBLK (2 x 256MB) and a 3200+. It runs fine at stock settings, but when I try to overclock it I run into a wall at ~215FSB. So I figure it would be the memory, and I try to lower the timings. I've tried 2.5-3-3-6/7 and 3-4-4-8 with voltage up to 2.9v as suggested by Patriot, but if I run the memory at anything other than 2-2-2-5 it is completely unstable and reboots at the POST screen (looping).

 

I've looked up the board in the OC database here and found some settings to try. RD580 HT PLL Speed = high, CPU HT Bus Drive Strength = Strong, and setting NB (both) and LDT voltage to 1.34v are common settings, but they don't seem to help the stability at all here.

 

Do you have any suggestions?

 

BTW, since this is not my main rig, here are the systems specs for the setup:

 

DFI CFX3200 (7-28-06 BIOS)

AMD Athlon 64 3200+

Patriot PDC5123200+XBLK - 2 x 256MB sticks in orange slots

Gigabyte nv6200 TurboCache in top PCIe slot

36GB WD Raptor connected to SATA 1

56X CD-rom Drive connected to IDE 1 (master)

Stock aluminum heatsink for the moment (watching temps)

Xion 450W power supply with 4-pin 12v connector in top 4 holes of EPS header on mobo

 

Using drivers from the CD for the motherboard, latest NV drivers for the vid card

[t_ski]

I just got done trying to run MemTest at 3-4-4-8 @ 200FSB. Three loops ran without a problem, but Windows gets a BSOD during loading. One problem seems to be how the DRAM Speed setting keeps changing back to Default by SPD.

 

So right now I've got and changed the timings to 2-3-3-6 @2.7v to see how that works. I'm going by Patriot Moderator recommendation right now to just change the first four settings and leaving the rest at auto.

[t_ski]

That seemed to help a little. i was able to get up around 240 that time.

 

Is there not any kind of lock on the PCI bus for this board?

[CPDMF]

The PCI bus locks solid, but there isn't any way to adjust.

 

Tref defaults to 0064 on the board so try 3120, 3684, 4708 since you are running TCCD mems.

 

Try not to let your secondary timings get too loose, the board likes to be run tight and fast.

 

It's been a while since I had my CFX but as things come back to me I'll post them up for you.

 

EDIT: Try to keep Nmos and Pmos drive strengths in the 7 to 11 range, if these are too high it will act the same as memory DS being too high.

[t_ski]

Thanks for the info. I'll go try iy out now.

[Guest Lavell]

I do agree with CPDMF. This board likes fast and tight timings. Try the settings he suggested. As I stated in my PM, this board is very picky with RAM when it comes to overclocking. This board loves RAM from OCZ and Corsair.

[t_ski]

OK, thanks. Like I said in my PM back to you, I've got the OCZ from my main rig I can try, as it was going to go in there anyway when I swapped the boards out. Then I can put the TCCD in the Ultra D for testing.

 

The main CFX3200 thread is rediculous for finding info. OMG it's over 100 F'ing pages :eek2: :sad: Fortunately, I was able to get some info from Extreme Systems and Bleeding Edge, so hopefully that will help.

[t_ski]

Got tired of trying to go through the sticky from the front, and decided to try from the back. Now I notice all the negative comments on this board. Is it really a bad board overall, or it it another case of noobs getting in over their heads? I mean, I know DFI OC boards tend to be picky, finicky and moody, but I need something I can rely on for my main rig.

[CPDMF]

I gave up on them, I had a couple that had some issues that kept them from being capable of being my main rig. The issues weren't major, hard drive timeouts on the ULI controller and poor USB performance but I always felt like using the board was somewhat of a compromise.

 

The board is probably the best 939 overclocking board ever, it was just never finished and DFI completely dropped support for it so if you have any issues just know that DFI will not be doing anything about it.

[t_ski]

So is that the general consensus on these then?

[Guest Lavell]

That is normally the case with these boards. Surprisingly, my board wasn't plagued with the "ULi freezing issue" like majority of these boards are. Very weird. I can only consider myself lucky.

[Quazi]

Well I must say this is the finest board, along with a DFI SLI-DR I owned before I got into a CF setup, that I have ever owned. I has done everything I have asked of it. The bios isn't all that complicated once you get in there and work with trying different settings. And when I would go to far with it, CMOS Reloaded took me right back to where I wanted to be as far as bios settings go. Imho, the 939-pin mobo doesn't get any better than this. And I can't wait to move on to another socket next year because I am definitely going with one of its' sister boards.