Quinn

This should not be a problem. I did an advanced RMA. They'll fax you a credit card authorization & RMA form. Fill em out, send/fax em back, and you'll be on your way.

Hi folks, Since I WC'd my setup and no longer have a cpu fan, I've noticed that the fan cooled more than just the cpu. The fan also partially cooled the RAM and Mosfets. At 2.7GHz @ 1.425v, at idle, my PWMIC temps were around 43-44C and while running dual prime, I've seen my PWMIC temps hit 71C. :eek: I know this chip is designed to handle a lot of heat, but I was still uncomfortable with those temps. So I decided to buy and install a fan, centered over the RAM/Mosfets/PWMIC. I decided on a 120mm fan to get a wider coverage. I chose a slower, quieter one, in this case 2000 RPM max. I have to say I was amazed at the difference this made. My PWMIC temps have dropped to 36C at idle, and now only rise to 48C with dual prime load. In addition, my RAM, previously extremely hot to the touch, now doesn't even feel warm. As an added bonus, the increased airflow has drop my chipset temps 1-2C on top of what the Evercool has done as well as dropping my GPU temps 3-5C. :cool: All in all, this was great improvement for me. If your concerned with your temps, this might be something you want to consider.

At 290x9 @ 1.31v, ambient at 80F, seeing: on WC (in sig) 26-28C idle, 42-44C dual prime

Another update: At 294 FSB, dual prime passed at stock voltage. Was able to drop vdimm down to 2.7v and dual windows memtest passing 3000% coverage. So it seems, I no longer have to pump megawatts into the RAM, to make them work. I must've had an overly tight setting before, OR BIOS "Auto" setting produced unexpected behavior when dropping divider. Previously reported tcore differences between stock vcore and +.1v, was not correct. The tcore differences were between dual windows memtest at stock vcore, and dual prime at +.1v vcore. I think dual prime alone generates about 3-5C more tcore, even tho each drive the cores to 100%. ToDOs: - Try vdimm at 2.6v. Haven't stepped back down to this level. - Try divider back 166 5:6 with stock vcore. Just curious to know and ensure they will operate at their rated speed. - Find stable cpu speed for vcore 1.55v. Wondering what speed & tcore will at this vcore. Hoping to reach 2.8+GHz.

Good news and not so good news. Good news: At 3/4 mem divider, dual windows memtest completed 2300% coverage w/o failure. Additionally, I managed to get dual prime stable. At stock vcore, core 0 would fail within seconds, with vcore of 1.4v, core 0 failed in 4 mins, With vcore at 1.45v @ 2.7Ghz, dual prime ran for 10+ hrs w/o failure. (I need to go back and see if vcore of 1.425v might be ok.) I'm a little disappointed that due to the "weak" core 0 in my cpu, that I wasn't able to manage 2.7Ghz at stock vcore. I've also noticed that even small changes in vcore result in rather large temp increases, even on WC. For me +0.1v vcore up my max tcore from 38C to 47-48C range. I'm actually surprised that cpu got that warm. I expected my WC to be able to disappate this heat better. Perhaps I'll remount the block to see if anything improves. BTW: at these settings, ambient 80F, idle is 30C, dual prime load is 45-47C. PMWIC is pushing into the low 60s at full load. Gotta concoct an additional fan mount to cover this "dead spot" on the board. Chipset temps around 40C, setting SG to max chipset fan RPMs drop this from about 50C. Things that still need investigation: - Remount waterblock to see if better heat removal possible - See if other RAM settings changes will allow me to lower my vdimm below 3.0v and hopefully back at a divider setting of 5/6, closer the rated the speed of this ram. - See where the dual prime failure occurs at stock vcore. Curious to how much extra CPU speed I'm getting the for apparant extra 8-10C the added vcore is creating. I'm curious to know of others experiences on Opty max OC abilities at the various testing stages. At stock vcore, I found I could successful run BIOS memtest at FSB 320+ and 2.8v vdimm. To get windows to boot, I had to drop FSB to 300 and increase vdimm to 3.0v. To get dual prime stable I had to up vcore by 0.1v. Is it typical to have such a large swing (20+ FSB), to go from BIOS memtest max OC to windows boot max OC? I was thrilled when BIOS memtest passed at 320. But now a little disappointed that I can't even seem to run at 2.7Ghz without bumping the vcore and generating a significant increase in heat. Is my difference in "max OC" stages normal? and its just lack the experience to realize it? For those, like you Praz, can your system that run at FSB 330+, run BIOS memtest w/o failure at 350 or higher? As always, your thoughts and comments are welcomed.

Thats my feeling as well. I'm pretty sure I'm dealing with two issues ATM. One being the memory. Dual memtest have run longer now, with divider at 150 3:4, than ever before. But its still climbing its way to 2000%. The second being the CPU itself. After memtest completes (hopefully successfully), I'm going to play with vcore to see if I can core 0 to prime. After that, I'll go back to attempting to get the memory to run well with less vdimm (its still at 3.0v).

Yes, I used that thread when I had set it up, so I believe its configured properly. I'm running the dual windows memtest with the divider set to 150 3:4, and at about 500% coverage and no errors *fingers crossed*. If this completes successfully, I'm up vcore and see if I can get prime to run on core 0. Will post an update as I get more results. Thanks

Made those three changes. SuperPI 32M ran successfully Dual windows memtest failed :eek: Dual prime failed on core 0 :eek: Going to try drop the divder now.

Ran a few more stability tests. SuperPI 32M failed after 12 mins: "Not Exact Round" error. Dual Windows Memtest: 2 failures after 800% coverage. Will try. Will try this too. My bad, didn't update my sig (have corrected this). I purchased 2 sticks of OCZ PC4000 Gold GX XTC. This is the memory I've been using since yesterday and one of the reasons I believe I got something settings way off because of the amount of vdimm I seem to need with this quality memory. I'll try the settings changes both of you suggested and report back. If stability doesn't improve, I might try dropping the memory divider a notch and see if it will pass more stress tests. Since dual prime keeps failing on core 0, I'm not sure my failures are all from memory. Think I might need to up vcore a tad? Thanks for your help.

As was originally suggested, I went back to play with RAM timings. The vast majority previously had the default BIOS setting of "Auto". I found what looked to be a reasonable match in the OCDB, and changed my settings to match. I'm currently using: DRAM Frequency Set............................ - 166=RAM/FSB: 05/06 Command Per Clock (CPC)....................... - Disabled CAS Latency Control (Tcl)..................... - 3 RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd)..................... - 4 Min RAS# active time (Tras)................... - 8 Row precharge time (Trp)...................... - 3 Row Cycle time (Trc).......................... - 13 Bus Clocks Row refresh cyc time (Trfc)................... - 16 Bus Clocks Row to Row delay (Trrd)....................... - 03 Bus Clocks Write recovery time (Twr)..................... - 03 Bus Clocks Write to Read delay (Twtr).................... - 02 Bus Clocks Read to Write delay (Trwt).................... - 03 Bus Clocks Refresh Period (Tref)......................... - 2560 DRAM Bank Interleave.......................... - Enabled DQS Skew Control.............................. - Increase DQS Skew Value................................ - 220 DRAM Drive Strength........................... - 8 DRAM Data Drive Strength...................... - 1 (Reduce 00%) Max Async Latency............................. - Auto DRAM Response Time............................ - Fast Read Preamble Time............................ - Auto IdleCycle Limit............................... - 4 Cycles Dynamic Counter............................... - Disable R/W Queue Bypass.............................. - 4x Bypass Max.................................... - 2x 32 Byte Granularity........................... - Disable(4 Bursts) With these settings the strange problems on various divider settings seems to have gone away. I can't say I completely understand them all and believe some of these can be tweak this way or that for better optimization. The RAM is running at 245Mhz @ 300 FSB, with DRAM voltage at 2.80v. I booted windows, and started OCCT. The system froze as OCCT was loaded. Since I'm pretty sure my CPU can handle this speed and higher, I decided to bump the RAM voltage to 2.9v. At this setting, I was able to start OCCT, but it failed during the "idle" test stating a computational error. So I bumped the RAM voltage upto 3.0v, and now OCCT loads and executes w/o problems. Still need to dual prime, tho. And I might still be able to raise the FSB another 20 or so, at least from a CPU standpoint. For now tho, 2.7Ghz is fine. From looking throught the OCDB, it would appear that requiring RAM voltage of 3.0v is a little high for most rigs. It seems many get their memory running at this or higher speeds with around 2.8v. Do this mean I have a problem? Or is 3.0v really ok and should I not worry about it? Will fine tuning the memory settings more be likely to allow me to reducing the voltage i'm using? My gut feel is the answer is NO, but I'm a rookie, and am hoping it can be. Thoughts? Some basic details on the OC at this point: 300 FSB, stock cpu voltages: about 1.32v ambient temp is about 80F, at idle: 26-27C cpu, 42 PWMIC, 36 chipset at load: 38C cpu, 55 PWMIC, 43 chipset Appreciate your help.

Latest update: I bought a 2x1GBr of OCZ PC-4000 Gold Edition GX XTC (OCS5002048ELGEGCT-K) memory sticks. I replaced my 4x512MB generic ram with these. I put them in the "orange" slots (3 & 4, I believe). I attempted to boot at 260MHz FSB, which has worked fine with the generic sticks, and it hangs right after BIOS initialization. Now I'm figuring "what the heck". The only thing that changed was the RAM. So I drop the FSB, down the 250, still no boot. I decide to try memtest, to ensure I'm not getting any errors. Guess what, it hangs as it starting memtest. Drop it down to 240 and change the divider to 1:1 (from 5:6), memtest runs. I didn't let it run long, now I'm curious. My default RAM voltage is 2.6v. I decide to raise to 2.8v. At 250, Memtest still won't run. I bump it up to 2.9v, and memtest runs! Ok, I'm making some progress. I try 260, memtests runs. I try 270, memtest runs. I let it run thru test #5. It fails all over the place. I move the voltage upto 3.0v, and still fails at test #5. Ok, this is wierd, this is good memory, it should be running fine at these voltages (me thinks). So I decide to drop the divider down to 180. Memtest won't even load now! What this makes no sense. 1:1 divider runs, and 9:10 doesn't? Ok, since I'm really trying to determine max cpu speed, lets try to get the memory out of the equation. I drop the divider down to 100 1:2, memtest runs. I let run thru test #5, everything is good. I advance the FSB 10 to 280, and memtest loads (wow, this is highest this rig has run). memtest thru test 5, no problems, I continue to advance by 10 the FSB, and I get all the way to 330 before it fails. So I drop it back down to 320, figuring thats close to my max cpu. I willing to sacrifice a few Mhz for stability. So I then advance my mem divider. Move to 120, memtest runs ok. I move it to 133 and as memtest loads, i get all sorts of screen corruption. Even at 320 FSB, I'm still below the 250Mhz this memory is supposed to handle. Hmm, I ask myself what it means, but I don't know, this doesn't make sense. I put the divider back to 120, and figure, lets try to boot windows. Well, nice idea, but no joy. I get the splash screen, then it reboots. Ok, drop the FSB down 300 to try. Windows boots, but then freezes. Hmm, more puzzlement. What should I do? I decide to try to up the RAM voltage a bit more. I move it up to 3.1v. Windows boots and stays running. I load OCCT, and it fails during the "idle" test. So now I'm trying to figure out what I need to tweak next. I'm confused why the RAM dividers don't appear to work the way I expect. Why in my earlier tests, did 200 work when 180 didn't?. At the current speeds (300+ FSB), why does only 1:2 and 3:5 work, when 2:3 doesn't? 2:3 at 300 FSB should equal 200Mhz memory speed, which is well within the 250Mhz this memory is suppose to support? How much voltage can OCZ gold stick handle? Is 3.1v too much? Or can I push them 3.2v? Should I need to push them this hard? I got memtest to run w/o errors at 320 FSB. Is it reasonable to think I should be able to get windows to run at or near this speed? Or is max succesful memtest speed typically higher than what one can see running stably with windows? I'm glad to have broken through the barrier preventing me from going about 260 FSB, but now I'd like to get my ram running close to it rated speed. One last detail, is I'm obtained these speeds I've not raised anything but the ram voltage. Is this pretty good speed for stock voltages? I apologize the rambling, and all the ramdom questions, but I wanted to relate the steps that I had followed, so I could get advice on any mistakes I have likely made. Bear with me please, this is my first OC and much of the settings and techniques are new to me. I'd appreciate any feedback you'd care to share with me on my current set of issues.

At my (low) max speed of 260x9 @ 1.31v, ambient at 80F, seeing: on air (Stock HF) 34C idle, 45C full load on WC (in Sig) 28C idle, 40C full load If I can figure out whats holding my OC back, am hoping to have higher speeds and likely higher temps. :eek:

As with the vast majority of these CPUs and mobo combination reaching well above 275Mhz FSB speeds, I was attempting fairly coarse steps forward initially. As I approached the limits of this HW combinations, I fully expected and planned to step forward in increasingly smaller increments. However, I don't think I'm close to where this HW *should be* capable of reaching. I can do the fine grain steps you describe, and now I'd likely end up between 265-270Mhz. However, I'm looking for that breakthrough setting that'll make my rig OC in the neighborhood of other like systems. Since this is my first DFI/AMD combo, I am assuming (and hoping) I'm got something configured wrong and that is what is holding me back. Not sure the +0.1v on the LDT & Chipset made it any worse. But, I bumped these things simply because the Sticky said to set them to even higher level than what I did and I was curious to see if those changes allowed the system to run at 275.

I've seen a few OC database settings with higher LDT, but it was unclear to me if that was THEIR default, or they had increased it. With tolerable case/radiator fan speeds, my PWMIC is 48C at idle range and 55C range at full load. Having tried many of the tips and techniques identified here, and having good components for everything BUT my ram, I beginning to suspect it as well. The part that confuses me is that this RAM runs fine at speeds upto 230Mhz. However now, even after dropping to very slow speeds, it doesn't quite make sense to me that it would be the problem. But, things don't always make sense. I'm considering dropping by a local Fry's to "borrow" (buy & return) some decent memory just to test this theory out. I'd be quite happy to find it was my ram that is limiting me, even if it can't understand why. In the meantime, I'll try reducing to 2 sticks and do some swapping around and see if anything changes.

Ok, a few more attempts at 275 FSB: Things I set: (from working 260Mhz settings) - all the DRAM timings to "Auto" - RAM divider to 100Mhz - CPU startup to 1.45v from "startup" - CPU Core to 1.45v from 1.31v - LDT voltage to 1.30v from 1.20v - Chipset voltage to 1.60v from 1.50v - FSB to 275Mhz from 260 - LDT divider "Auto" to 3x Attempted to boot. Got past BIOS initialization and failed complaining about not being able to load a Windows file. Next changes: - DRAM voltages to 2.80v from 2.60v Attempted to boot, actually got the windows splash screen. Few seconds later BSOD about a bad IRQ. Next changes: - DRAM voltages to 2.90v from 2.80v - LDT voltage back to 1.20v - Chipset voltage back to 1.50v Attempt boot. At end of BIOS initialization, it rebooted. Returned settings to working 260Mhz.... Complete set of "before" and "after" settings attached. Considering the stepping level of the CPU, it seems I should be able to pass this point easily. Must be something I'm missing.