Finally Deciding to Overclock..

Sargentwhitey · Nov 1, 2004, 01:14 AM

But I needs some help...
I got myself an A64 3200+ 1mb L2 Cache
512DDR266
and an Asus K8V Deluxe...
with quite adequate cooling for stock..
Im wondering.. what would be the best overclocking procedure for me to do to push some extra juice out of this... Ive been wanting to for a while.. but.. I never do it ...

Thanks in advance for the help

MythicaL · Nov 1, 2004, 01:17 AM

I'd say get some water cooling going. It's still the best way if you are serious about overclocking and want to push the numbers.

technonerd · Nov 1, 2004, 01:20 AM

Get a better ram also, like corsair. Something like PC3200 to pc 4700 memory. It'll help overclock better.

Sargentwhitey · Nov 1, 2004, 01:22 AM

I've been thinkin of getting some PC3200 ram... but I have no money at the moment...

and If im gonna go something with excessive cooling.. I'll probably just make a Phase Change Cooler... I've got a friend that'll help with that... but Id like to know what kind of OC i can get at the moment..

Vampyromaniac · Nov 1, 2004, 01:40 AM

You don't need to bother with exotic cooling while you have that motherboard. You will be held back by the AGP bus speed getting too high and unstable, before you have excessive heat issues.

With the K8T800 chipset, I think I've read the average stable overclock is about 10%, so around 2200 MHz. You might get a bit more, it depends on how sensitive your graphics card will be to the high AGP speed, as well as some other factors.

You might have to also drop the RAM to a lower speed too, so it can better cope with being OC'ed from the lower speed. If you don't get too high with it at default, put it in DDR200 mode, then OC from there. With your CPU at 2200 MHz, the RAM would then be at 220 which it can certainly deal with.

And here are some words from dipstick on the matter (the first tip is about PC3200 RAM though):

Quote:

Originally Posted by dipstick

I'll try to help as much as I can

Although 220 is very good, you might be able to squeeze out some more.

1. Do not leave the memory timings on Auto. Specify the timings in the BIOS, especially the 2:1 mode(DDR400)
2. Leave ECC off
3. Use the Promise controller if you are running SATA hard drives.
4. No matter what, leave the tRCD timing on 3(even if your memory can do 2)
5. The A64 will OC much better with more relaxed timings. For example I could only OC to 212 with 6-2-3-2 timings, but I can go all the way to 225 with 6-3-3-3 timings
6. Cooling the southbridge gave me an extra 5MHz of fsb(up from my max 225)
7. Disable anything you are not using like parallel, serial, and firewire ports.
8. Use the newest BIOS you can find. The new beta 1005.006 is very good

Hope that helps some.

Sargentwhitey · Nov 1, 2004, 01:55 AM

Thanks Dude... I'll have to try this out later tonight or tomorrow

I'll post back with the results

Sargentwhitey · Nov 1, 2004, 02:19 AM

alright.. It worked! hehe got a nice OC to 2200 mhz... with easy temps at around 100F

>.> now I just have to test out the real gains with this OC