which bios is best for you? some things to think about in overclocking

[Angry_Games]

From Rgone's post in the 5/10 Beta BIOS thread...you should read this and get an idea of why there is no 'best' anything...then leave us your comments or insights!

 

et al. No one is doing any bios recommending by variation for many reasons; paramount of which is > each board has preferences not common to another as seen by most users.

 

The first thing to know and understand is in this link...

 

The possible which version is contained in this link... and is loosely based on what or how your setup acted previously and what configuration you were able to use before.

 

Now those of us who fool with bioses all the time have learned not to do much recommending because of such widely experienced, variances. Especially not in an open forum where every single suggestion is met with why/what/ or oh my oh my > mine is failed or did not boot or I don't know what to do next.

 

I have already seen too many that have failed to boot up entirely when they flashed and had to go to some supersaver memory just to boot again. Therefore it really is not up to those without ways to recover and skills to recover to flash these beta bioses > see first link above.

 

Be frikken careful if you do not know what is what. It really is a truth and will keep you from harm or pulled hair.

 

RGone...

[Angry_Games]

]No sir that is not a doom and gloom speach nor post. It is a reality check. It is the truth and not anything anymore.

 

I have to agree. RG's posting was definitely not doom n gloom.

 

the point of his post that maybe a lot of you missed can be pretty much boiled down to a simple sentence or two:

 

There is no best bios. There is only a best bios for YOU.

 

couple that with this statement that RG and I both adhere to like religion:

 

You want to overclock? You had better be prepared with the right hardware, and even more, the right frame of mind. Overclocking is not just popping a rig together and cranking out 2750Mhz instantly.

 

Overclocking is a process that takes me (AG) anywhere from 3 days to 10 days to complete and verify that it is right and stable. I reboot my overclocking rigs about 500 times during this phase because I have a single (or multiple) setting(s) wrong and it has to be changed.

 

The worst part is when you finally get about 3-4 hours Prime95 stable, and then it fails...and you have to go back again and again and fiddle with one setting that you THINK might or might not be the cause of the problem, and then wait 3-4 seconds to find out it isn't Prime stable, or wait another 3-4 hours to find out that it is or is not.

 

 

the moral of this story is very clear.

 

Overclocking is not easy. Some of you might jump right in here and claim its the easiest thing in the world.

 

The thing is, I don't see but a couple of entries in the OC Database..and sure your rig might be overclocked and stable and you might not give a crap about the OC Database...but really, until you can pass all of those tests to where you have a legit entry for it, you aren't really stable.

 

And those entries I myself have put in there have required about a weeks worth of work on each one. Tweaking, rebooting, flashing, tweaking, rebooting, testing, rebooting, tweaking, testing testing testing testing.

 

RG and I sometimes shake our heads when we see guys that post about trying the new bios, and then post again an hour or two later claiming it just isn't stable...how can you possibly know if it is stable in an hour or two? How can you know if it is stable in a day even?

 

honestly...you cannot.

 

remember our saying that RG and I tell just about everyone that is new around here?

 

just because your hardware worked on your last rig DOES NOT mean it will work like it did (if at all) on this new DFI rig

 

well, overclocking follows that same rule...

 

just because you could do 280x10 @ 2.5-3-7-4 on your previous bios does NOT mean you will find stability at those exact same settings on a different bios

 

that should be logical, since a bios changes settings within the bios....or else there wouldn't really be a need for a new bios right?

 

I think some of you guys are just impatient, and give us that 'i paid $2000 for this stuff and i expect it to be stable @ 2900Mhz right out of the box' and that just doesn't fly.

 

You paid $2000 or whatever for your hardware, but that doesn't mean you have an inkling of what it is capable of, nor how to get there 'right out of the box'.

 

RG and I have been doing this day in and day out for a couple of years (on DFI overclocking boards), and longer (just not as a job lol). When we got the new NF4, it took us...2 or 3 months to really figure out exactly what we had in our hands. And we are pretty experienced at this, and get to talk directly with Oskar and the engineers in Taiwan...so why would YOU expect to know everything possible about how these board perform and react right out of the box within the first day or two that you have them in your hands?

 

I have no doubt there are a lot of you that are much smarter and possibly better overclockers that Rgone and I...but that doesn't really mean diddly-squat when it comes to a new board like this that has an incredible amount of options and really has to be tweaked and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked to find what it likes...

 

a little patience is something that most are lacking, and I sincerely hope that if you ARE going to overclock, you have the foresight to take our bits of advice to heart:

 

patience, logic, and then some more patience combined with hard work.

 

Rgone and I try very hard to show you guys the initial path to success...but it isn't up to us whether you succeed or not. It is up to you. We are here to guide you, and sometimes hold your hand...but beyond some guidance and a little hand holding, you are really on your own because your machine is yours, and even if we have the exact same hardware down to the exact same stepping/serial #'s, that doesn't mean we are going to get the same exact results as you, even if we supply you with the exact settings we used to achieve it.

[Aurhinius]

I have to say that having had a hard time with my venice CPU, being one of the first to get one that this totally holds true.

 

I have read so many posts about what settings people use, with my memory and what bioses etc etc.

 

Every time I go to tweak my bios I find some different combination that appears to be more stable or allow a slightly better clock than the ones before.

 

Honestly it is a full time job. I am sure Rgone and AG would testify to this.

 

You need to be prepared to put in the time and try things that perhaps you wouldn't expect. There is is a very rough baseline and beyond that it is open water folks.

 

If you are truely keen to get the best out of your system then you need to as was said be patient and put in the time.

 

Do I think my system after 4 weeks is running as well as it could? Not a chance. I have a lot left to learn.

 

Great thing is AG and Rgone are here to help. They can't give you THE answers but they can give you options and point you in the right directions.

 

I for one am mighty glad of their support. They are support, not solutions. Treat them that way.

[zeus_999]

I completely agree. To find the highest stable overclock can take days or even weeks.

 

When I had a FX-53, it took me 2 weeks to get it stable with a 240Mhz overclock. And with my old XP-M 2600, it took a month to get it stable @ 2.7Ghz on air cooling.

 

Once I get my new ram (G.Skill PC4400 TCCD), I'll have a target of 3Ghz with my SD 4000+, but I know that it might take weeks or even months to get there.

 

Newbies to overclocking just don't realise how much work it can take to overclock a CPU.

[Dread-Star]

Yeah, I agree it really is a game of chance and patience. My new SD 4000 has seemed to be stable many times only to fail Prime after 5,6, even 9 hrs. Even though I tried the new 510-3 bios, it was not really the new Bios that caused me to flash back to 310p. It was the 100+ hrs I already had working on the 310p, and it is damn close. I could have stuck my OC in the Official thread as I watched Prime pass 8hrs. But, I never call 8hrs of Prime stable anyways so I pushed it farther and it failed at 9:** hrs which is not stable to me. :cool:

 

The whole OC thing is common sense and patience, also you had better be fairly good with math otherwise it is going to take a long time, to even get a mild OC.

 

Hell, I have been extracting performance from everything I have ever owned for longer than most people on this forum have been alive and it is always the same whether it is Cars, Motorcycles , boats, PC's or even damn lawnmowers. There are only two things to remember.

 

1. Find out what increases performance.

 

2. Find out how to use it.

 

 

 

But, here is the bottom line "where the rubber meets the road" per se.

 

This new AMD stepping is far harder to OC than the old NC's, because of the short time they have been out, and other factors of course.

 

Also, there are what 10 or 12 beta bios's. lol

 

No wonder its such a cluster.

 

At least it shows that DFI is always working to make their product function better.

Most manufactures are far slower to respond in any way. So DFI deserves props for customer support for sure.

 

 

 

DREAD

[THunDA]

I agree that there is no perfect bios .. I like to flash bios for the fun of it (gives me something to do..hehe ).. Ive done it with nf2..nf3.. and now nf4.. I have to say that normally dont see much of a difference between bios versions in oc'ability.. But I like to test and try different things ..

 

I also know I can recover if something goes wrong.. I use a bios savior... I have spare bios chips.. I know how to hotflash if needed.. and I have extra ram and parts to test with..

 

Now would I mess with all these bios if I didnt have the above..? No prolly not..

[pershoot]

I agree that there is no perfect bios .. I like to flash bios for the fun of it (gives me something to do..hehe ).. Ive done it with nf2..nf3.. and now nf4.. I have to say that normally dont see much of a difference between bios versions in oc'ability.. But I like to test and try different things ..

 

I also know I can recover if something goes wrong.. I use a bios savior... I have spare bios chips.. I know how to hotflash if needed.. and I have extra ram and parts to test with..

 

Now would I mess with all these bios if I didnt have the above..? No prolly not..

 

im a flash monkey ever since the nf2 days. and i had no bios savour then and have none now! hehehe. i like to contribute and test. i can recover though (i hope? hehe).

[ZyberNeo]

Well I couldn't agree more PATIENCE is everything and i must admit that when I first got my DFI board I thought "lets get some speed" but it took me a lot of time to get a stable clock higher than 2,4GHz and after a BIOS corruption and some new mem (Hynix D5 was'nt good for my DFI) but finally the 310 bios was online and it gave me the oppertunity to get a little further (2,6GHz) and now i'm struggling with the 510-2 bios and my new mem...

 

Can anyone tell me what mem the 510-1 is setup for?

[RGone]

ZyberNeo, that question is not what this thread is about and in your quest you need to be looking in the 5/10 bios thread where the users are reporting their findings instead of being lost over here in a thread basically speaking to doing one's tuning homework and why to do it and the need to do it. You will find more karma there for sure.

 

RGone...

[Angry_Games]

bump as i pull it off sticky

[Angry_Games]

*bump*

[Angry_Games]

*bump* tho i should sticky it again