My OverClock

[DrBlink]

Heres my overclocking exprience

 

Monday: i recieved all my parts to make my first pc- heres the list of parts not included in my signature

160gig maxtor / geforce 4 mx420 / plextor 8x dvr-+r / lite-on 52x32x52

i had a tuff time setting up that neo plate ( took me 3 hours to figure out that the neo plate doesnt go above the cpu )

so after 6 hours setting up all the pieces and double checking i finally powered it up. all looking good ( i really liked the lanparty logo on startup ) but to find that im running a REALLY old bios for a lanparty on my infinity ultra 400 -everything worked correctly and was able to get to 230fsb and boot up and stuff looked like it worked fine then i got some help from soundx98 and i succesfully flashed to 6/19 using winflash, now for the last 3 days i been tryin to see how HIGH i can go. i thought i reached my peak @ 240x10 which was fine with me - i tested with 8+ hours of prime 95 ( i stopped it ) and 3d01 worked fine ( my video card sucks so i get around 4000 pts ) then i savied the easiest for last or so i thought - i ran memtest #5 to see errors in the masses - it would give me 1200-2200 errors in 1 pass. so i start moving the memory around into diff slots but keeping dual channel active. still not looking good - i decide to try using 1 stick of ram ( maybe one was bad? ) so i run them seperately with memtest one for 8 hours and the other stick for almost 3 hours and no errors or anything - but combined they are error prone

 

so my next test was clear cmos have everything on default and only change ratio to 1:1 and raise fsb starting @ 200 and doing memtest for like 5 passes

i finally get to 225 fsb and the errors come - 2 errors a pass so i back down to 220 and raise multi to 11.5 - i run 3d01 and it passes w/o crashin to the desktop - so then i try 12x220 and i have problems booting into windows so im currently running prime on 11.5x220

 

but i dont understand why seperately @ 240fsb the memtest doesnt get any errors but together they get tons of them - the timings seperately tested was 3-4-4-8 and wen i combine them they change to 3-4-4-10 and i even tried using 3-4-4-11

 

reason i got this ram was cuz stock fsb was 250 with 3-4-4-8 and it was dual channel memory but i cant even reach 225 with 3-4-4-11 w/o having an error in memtest

 

Edit: forgot to include volts -

vcore 1.8-1.9 during most of these tests - im on 1.75 now

vdimm on auto but i also tried 3.3 no improvement in memtest

vagp 1.6

vchip 1.8

[RGone]

I really don't think the boards like:

with 3-4-4-8

for timings. In nearly 2 years now of NF2; it has been fairly plain that the NF2 memory controller is not at all fond of what appear to be looser timings. PC4000 memory is better suited for the controller on the Pentium rigs.

 

Now if you do a google search for the boards plus that memory you might come across the two DFI boards that I have glanced at before saying they were running that stuff and were up pretty high. About memtest? I don't really put much faith in it in test 5 and 8 as those tests are killers for 'any' AMD processor motherboard according to the orginal author of the proggie and the reason we use test #5 to try and burn the memory to faster speeds.

 

Memtest is my burn/in/up/over/down tool; but I use it for little else and I notice sometimes when I have loosened the timings to try and push the FSB up using memtest; the errors are way worse loose than tighter and that just means there is a limit either due to memory or the memory and how a particular controller wants to play with 'x' memory.

 

Sincerely, RGone...

[DrBlink]

thanks for ur post rgone it helped me realize that looser timings wasnt the way to go - so decided to lower the timings to 7-3-3-2.5 and im running GREAT @ 220x11.5

 

i havent tried anything else yet but i did go a lil crazy with the voltages n maxxed everything but hey i was deseperate! i was told that wen 3d01 crashes to desktop its cuz i didnt have enuff juice?

[RGone]

:cool: man glad you got some relief. The truth is in reality that NF2 was probably designed as far back as 3 1/2 years ago in the day of 'hot' 266A boards and then the KT333's and KT400's came on the scene and everyone ran for the hills so scared of the PCi speed which has never once caused me any stumbling. But I digress. The NF2 is very long in the tooth and what most forget is that the initial hot boards for NF2 were the Epox 8RDA and the NF7 series from Abit and many many consumers were just glad to get 217FSB or less with those boards and this after moving from the Via chpset boards in 'fear' and 'trembling' over Pci/Agp buss concerns.

 

Abit with NF2 boards quickly obsoleted the boards of the first buyers with 3 revisions and the boards were up and down depending on 'how' good a batch of chips Nvidia supplied the mobo maker. The Rev2 boards from Abit in the NF7 series had 3 types in which they would appear:1 the only 217FSB; 2 the only 217FSB until the wire mod and the 3 type board that with L12 wire mod and "exactly" the right memory would do 240-250 FSB with ease. It was the "exactly" right memory that was key.

 

Now fast forward about 18months and the NF2 chipset on the DFI sisters has raised the bar some but you still are dealing with a chipset that has its origins in the KT266A-400 days; nothing has changed about that except that the DFI sisters have extended the life of cheap AMD computing for some that have not kept up with technology to some degree. Stop and think if you believe I was impressed greatly by NF2 @217FSB when I had run over 220FSB with KT333A chipset and again think about me and a move from NF7@250FSB to DFI sisters at 252FSB? Humh?

 

And then the one's moving to NF2 now are coming from way back to a point that is faster than where they came from but not the talk of the day except in the sense of a cheap way to do some FSB. Here again it is perspective that is paramount in most user's eyes. How so? Well the most are unimpressed likely by the rig that is now my daily user. A DFI 8KM800MLVF that is using 2x1gig sticks of RAM at 220FSB with an A64 2800+ running right at 2000mhz with SSE2 instructions and 64bit software capable. About 230$ mobo and cpu. Hehehehehehee. Put it together and pop in the Driver CD and make my choices of drivers and bang we are gone to computing.

 

Point? It is the perspective! Computing versus tweaking. Right now DFI has really opened my eyes to computing on a level that I had forgotten about in the chase for glory shots. I been there and done the glory shots for the current crop of boards. The DFI sisters are a fine tool for getting some FSB when attention is paid to the details. That is a fact. I can crank either this LPb or the UI that are in cases with BH-5 memory and run 250x10.5 at an instants notice but it is the good power supplies, the good memory and the loud air cooling and all that make it possible on a motherboard that is really designed to haul booty and have tighter timings due to the design of the NF2 chipset and the controller that comes with that chipset.

 

Every now and then, I think it is paramount to realize what it is that is being used to try and get the job done and to realize what the original design was intended to accomplish. That design has not changed in the hands of Nvidia to any great extent in a long while. Just that DFI took the sisters to a new level for many that are nuts like me and tweak it till it hurts and chase the parts and pieces until I win or give up. Hehehehehehe. I won and now I am looking for the next challenge. The problem with the next challenge is going to be the financial hit required to get in and run in the top 10% as I am used to doing. It will cost this next go round for glory shots. The industry is in tremendous flux and many are going to be left far behind this next time and will be astounded by the cost to get in and run 'what they read' about.

 

Tune these sisters and get you a stock of mobile bartons and scan for the used BH-5 that is being let go by those going to the newer platforms that can run looser timings and need ultra speed memory and this will keep your DFI sister in the fray for a good deal longer and the cost ratio in some perspective.

 

For me right now I am very very happy with the DFI 8KM800MLVF with all the bells and whistles as it supplies me sound and LAN and reminds me of what I need a computer for on a daily basis. Hehehehehehee. But likely it is only a breather until DFI releases the next breed of rocket and 'woos' me into the fray again.

 

Till then, me is just RGone...1ster>:nod:

[soundx98]

Dang RGone, was your post above nice work.

 

I was wondering if you are using a "ghost writer" cause it's missing the usual RGonian phrases.:nod:

 

Thanks for the explanation and help as always.