Wolfdale/Yorkfield overclocking thread... - Page 5

PangingJr · May 9, 2008, 12:54 PM

just installed a Q9300 in EX38-DS4 Rev.1.1 board...

3:4 (Memory multi 2.66Dx. MCH Strapping - FSB 400MHz)

5:6 (Memory multi 2.40Bx. MCH Strapping - FSB 333MHz)

[hobo]eclipse · May 9, 2008, 06:26 PM

***NOT OPTIMIZED***

this has been running for 3 hours now, pretty impressed, i thought for sure i would come back to at least one of the p95 instances crashed. what is the best way to test with prime95 nowadays. i use 2 instances, run the torture test and select custom, using one thread for each instance and setting a max FFT of 448 (K). Is this a good way to be stress testing or should i be messing with the affinity? using the 2 instances i get the memory usage up to 3.6-3.8 GB.

thanks panging for the ex38 info, how do you get your alpha timings to default so low? before i thought that was p35 thing but i guess not, currently im using the same memory multi 2.40B. Do you know off hand which settings affect the
performance level the most? maybe i need to try with something other than a 9 CPU multi. Just that im not running the RAM any higher than before but the PL and tRFC keeps getting higher and higher the higher i run the FSB. Has to be
the memory multi/strap effecting this? Or maybe because im running 2x2gb modules?

what bios were you using on the ex38-ds4 panging?

**DOH! I see now, F3 bios

**

swimtech · May 9, 2008, 08:42 PM

Great overclock hobo[eclipse], and on less than 1.3volts! Wow, that is really encouraging!

Nice volts on that 9300 PangingJr, especially on the EX38-DS4 board.

[hobo]eclipse · May 10, 2008, 01:23 AM

Still messin.....

1 hour 10 mins prime95 (as described above) stable
11.833 seconds super pi 1M

Speed Step off
2.40B RAM multi
+0.30V RAM
+0.15V FSB
+0.25V MCH
Load Line calibration on
1.3375 Bios CPU V

seems my RAM is willing to play a bit

all memset options are bios auto except the usual 5.5.5.15 and I also set the tRFC to 68 as it defaulted to 74 with it on auto in the bios. Dont believe there is a PL setting in the bios on the ex38-ds4. Only thing that seems odd is the memory read bandwidth in everest. seems a little low doesnt it?

PangingJr · May 10, 2008, 04:35 AM

that's because the Performance Level is a bit high.

the RAM module itself effects Performance Level the most.
however, motherboard's chipset, BIOS's Memory Performance Enhance setting, voltage settings, MCH strap and processor, also tends to affect the automatically-set Performance Level.

the "tRD" value (or Static tRead value) in Gigabyte board's BIOS setting = Memory's Performance Level.

the setting below the tRD is tRD Phase Adjustment (or Static tRead Phase Adjustment, or Read Delay Phase Adjust),
it usually cause some booting problem if i change the value in BIOS, so i always left this setting to Auto.

PangingJr · May 10, 2008, 09:06 AM

below is the actual setting in BIOS (and values in Memset in Windows)

******** Standard Timing Control ********
CAS Latency Time......................5 ..............(Memset = 5)
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay........5 ..............(Memset = 5)
DRAM RAS# Precharge...............5 ..............(Memset = 5)
Precharge delay(tRAS)................15 ..............(Memset = 15)
******** Advanced Timing Control ********
ACT to ACT Delay(tRRD).............4 ..............(Memset = 4)
Rank Write to READ Delay...........4 ..............(Write to Read Delayed in Memset = 12.............. BIOS-set value +8 (for CL5), +7 (for CL4), +6 (for CL3))
Write To Precharge Delay............7 ..............(Memset = 15.............. BIOS-set value +8 (for CL5), +7 (for CL4), +6 (for CL3))
Refresh to ACT Delay.................48 ..............(Memset = 48)
Read to Precharge Delay..............4 ..............(Memset = 6.............. depending on BIOS, in some BIOS's the tRTP value that's set in BIOS will be the same as Memset's)
Static tRead Value.......................7 ..............(Performance Level in Memset = 7)
Static tRead Phase Adjust............Auto
Command Rate (CMD)................Auto

**ChaosMinionX** · May 10, 2008, 01:22 PM

Ugh.... that Q9300 did better than the X3350..... and Newegg is being slow shipping my other chips

PangingJr · May 10, 2008, 04:00 PM

now Q9300 prices start dropping quite a bit as far as i know

if i can get the Q9300 up to 3.55-3.60GHz. (or 480 FSB), i should be able to get all 10K MB/s in Read/Write/Copy and maybe below 50.0 ns in Latency.

mkk · May 10, 2008, 04:40 PM

My low cost E7200 upgrade seems to settle at 3.6GHz using a modest 1.31 core voltage. With a Thermaltake Ultra-120E that I got cheap it could easily do more but I don't feel like bumping the voltage much just to get a little higher. If anything I'll try 9x400 instead of 9.5x379, but I'm also glad not having to raise any other voltage in the system yet.

This relatively budget board EP35-DS3 from Gigabyte has a peculiar behavior on cold boots that puts the CPU voltage at default until I power cycle once more. Googling indicates it's a known problem and that something similar has ocurred on other early P35 based boards, but solveable through the BIOS. Being an old model board and a fresh CPU I guess I might have to live with it, and I could. Everything else is peach.

PangingJr · May 10, 2008, 05:21 PM

the cold boot problems in Gigabyte P35 was in some very early BIOS's i think it was gone (and never came back) for some time now.

my P35-DS4 rev.1.0 is a very good board, very stable and easy to overclock (i don't like the first one and i had to return it once for a new replacement board from local distributor),
i checked the new EP35-DS4 and it's selling for the same price of EX38-DS4, i like to buy an X48-DS4 but noone has them in stock (but X48-DQ6, which is too expensive for a board that i want to use it ).

mkk · May 10, 2008, 05:31 PM

Good to hear, I wrote to Gigabyte to keep them interested in updating this BIOS.

PangingJr · May 11, 2008, 01:41 AM

there's also a cold boot loop problem, like the system takes several power up and down cycles and then instead of loading the overclocked settings, it loads CPU's default clock speed and default memory multiplier but using all the voltage from the previous settings... in this case, the BIOS might be using a not so right setting, likes memory timings or memory multiplier, or might be voltage settings.

PangingJr · May 11, 2008, 05:10 AM

This is what i like to boot the system with and use it daily...

400x7.5 3.0GHz,
CPU's core voltage is set at below Normal,
Memory multiplier 3.0x 400 = DDR2-1200, 5-5-5-15, Performance Level 5, 2GB of RAM.

Another setting that i plan to use with this board is the CPU's default clock speed (2.50GHz 333x7.5),
Memory multiplier 3.20x 333 = DDR2-1066, 5-5-5-15, PL 5, 4GB of RAM,
All voltage settings at Normal,
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function [Enabled]
Gigabyte's Dynamic Energy Saver is launched.... CPU's core voltage is at around 1.0875 at most of the time.

PangingJr · May 14, 2008, 04:05 AM

the Yorkfield Q9300 was a bit hard to overclock with the EX38-DS4 board at first, and i almost hate this board.
tried to add any of the voltages, either Vcore, MCH or FSB, or sometimes even PCIe and Vdimm to the overclock was a bit hard, because it won't get stable.
so i decided to check on the web just to see who else is having the same problem, then i found this pages The Official Q9450/X3350 Overclocking Thread - Overclockers Forums yesterday.
there is a few guys at the forums who are using the EX38-DS4 also having some problem with a high FSB overclocking on Q9450,
it's at around 454-460 MHz under the EX38-DS4, and anything higher will require a fairly amount of chipset voltages increases,
but for FSB below 450 it won't require any of an additional chipset voltages, and the core voltage use in the overcloking is fairly low as well.

anyway, i now think, i end up liking this board after a few days of playing with it.
i hope it's not too soon to say this now, the EX38-DS4 might be the cheapest X38 board in the market, but it's a good motherboard indeed.
right now, i'm running Q9300 at 435x7.5 with a core voltage of 1.184V (in Windows), which's still below its stock VID, without any other voltages increases, and it's quite stable.

btw, ChaosMinionX, i think i also saw your posts on the forum as well.

**ChaosMinionX** · May 14, 2008, 12:54 PM

Yeah I posted there trying to sort my issue, thought maybe I was missing something.... That X3350 I had needed absurd amounts of voltage to even get into windows with 3.6ghz....

I am waiting to try some new chips.