Bad overclock, sigh...

[jellysandwich]

Well, long story short, I've got a Mobile Athlon 64 3200+
CG Clawhammer that I can only get to 2.23 GHZ stable.

Here's the long part - First, rig:

Enermax Case
Antec True 430
ASRock K8S8X
Mobile Athlon 64 3200+ CG Clawhammer
Corsair XMS PC-3200 (512 * 2) 2-3-3-6
120 GB IDE
160 GB SATA

I know most of you don't know about the K8S8X much, so I'll
tell you what it has.

AGP/PCI lock
Multiplier 4X - Max
HTT (FSB)
HTT "Multiplier" -> LDT
Vcore
No Vdimm

The AGP/PCI lock is automatic. The HTT and multiplier is
obvious. There isn't really a HTT "Multiplier." Instead,
it just lets me set it to 200, 400, 600, and 800. The
Vcore is supposedly maxed out at 1.45 V for the mobile
chips, although all of my programs and the BIOS reports it
as 1.5 V?

(You can read a little about it here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/message...1&enterthread=y

Look for the K8S8X description in the first post).

Going on... I can't seem to get my HTT above 232, no matter
what I do. I loosen the timings, set a 5:6 ratio, use 2T
timings, and set the LDT to 200 (lowest possible). With a
multiplier of 10, I'm stuck at 228 HTT. And even with a
multiplier of 6, I'm stuck at 232 HTT.

What's weird is that other people with this motherboard
don't have the same trouble I do. They seem to be able to
hit 240-260 HTT without any hitches (read through that
thread I posted above). They can also run up to 240 or so
HTT with a 600 LDT, while I need 400 LDT to keep my rig
stable at 223 * 10. 600 LDT causes random reboots.

Am I doing something wrong? I'll admit it, I'm new to
overclocking. Nevertheless, I'm quite disappointed with
this weak OC, as everyone is getting better overclocks
than me. At the very least, I'd like to hit 2300 stable.

Or do you think that I have a bad CPU? Maybe bad mobo?

-jellysandwich

[Reflex1]

hmmz sounds like a C0 OC ...those CG's shud go to like 2.6 :D

what cooling?

[MRBIGSHOT]

have you considered loostening the ram timings slightly? i dont rember you saying the mobo has deviders but another option is to devide the memory speed 5/6 to see if it is the memory holding you back, corsair generally overclocks well and i have had good luck with it in the past. granted you are only running ddr400 and you may have hit the limit with the ram.
good luck

[EnJoY]

It could be the fact that you're using an ASRock motherboard...not exactly known for their overclocking prowess. ;)

[Lithan]

Yep. Your motherboard is a big fat turd.

[jellysandwich]

It's CG, and I'm already running 5/6 right now.

Is there a way I can test if it's my motherboard or CPU
without having to put these things in a new rig?

-jellysandwich

[Trixxy]

are you sure the pci/agp bus is locking? try sticking the agp on 67 or 68 just in case, and only use the ide drive if you can, to eliminate any sata probs (which some other board have).

[jellysandwich]

There's no way I can tell for sure, but people have
told me that it does indeed work, and that it is done
automatically. There's also no option to change it, so
I kind of have to go with what they said.

I'll try the SATA thing.

-jellysandwich