Athlon 64/XP overclocking guide

[jjcom]

**Update** June 30, 2005
Went through some of the history and updated, updated the processors in the guide alittle.

**Update** June 18, 2005
Added new processors to the guide. Still here (http://home.mindspring.com/~jjcom/Athlon%20OC/)

**Update** April 16th, 2005
Go here (http://home.mindspring.com/~jjcom/Athlon%20OC/) to find the latest revision of the guide. I've got a processor table also in that directory. The processor table is in Open Office.org format and in Excel format as well. If needed in other formats, contact me. -jjcom

Hey,
As the title might sugest, this is a overclocking guide. Saaya and I were bouncing ideas back and forth about different things and this was the result.

http://home.mindspring.com/~jjiles1/

I'll always have the word latest in the latest guide so go for that one, I'll be keeping the old ones on the server incase I delete something I shouldn't, you guys just want to look at it, etc. Anyway, I need some feedback, theres only so much I can do on my own. This guide is to be for people new to overclocking so don't start giving me this volt mod stuff. Keep it simple, something that someone new to OCing can understand. BUT if you give me those sugestions I may make a similar guide with more info (Board quirks, RAM problems on certain boards, etc) I don't know about that one, but if I can I'll do it. I'll have 2 weeks around X-mas where I can do stuff so that should work....

Saaya, Ressurection, and a few others have helped me out on this, so thanks for answering my questions, looking it over, point out errors, etc.

jjcom

EDIT: just found out you guys don't like using external links, sorry.
EDIT2: OK I got that cleared up, it appears I just shouldn't have links in my sig going to out side website, but its alright to have the link to my personal web space here. :D I'll probly have the latest ones here on XS and move the old ones to the server. So consider the server for archives :D

jjcom

[Karnivore]

Link needs editing JJ :) leads to Earthlink Homepage.

[jjcom]

alright, fixed...the link in my sig is broken as well...mmmm...I thought it worked..lol o'well

thanks
jjcom

[iljs]

I like it alot, tons of info. I only really read the last 2 pages and it seems really good / well written. Good job :P

[jjcom]

thanks, I spent awhile trying to get it right before I started this thread, only letting a few people see it at first, not like its a secret or anything, I just didn't want to lead anyone astray..

jjcom

[NoX]

Nice job, very useful. Thanks!

[jjcom]

anything that needs changing? Cleaning up? made more clear?

jjcom

[corvus_corax]

Its a very good guide. Like suggestion it could be useful to talk about memory timmings in AXP and A64.

Good Job!

[jjcom]

*UPDATE*
Added more to the RAM timings section on the guide. Thanks for the idea corvus_corax!

jjcom

[DGeNeRaT3]

sweet guide, very usefull.

[mcnbns]

I just finished proofreading and editing your guide, jjcom (the latest update). Great stuff! I have attached a copy that I edited. Most of the changes are simple grammatical issues, but I also changed a few small things about RAM voltage and heat spreaders, and critical CPU temps. I also added my name at the end in the "thanks to" section because I'm selfish. :p:

Heatspreaders DO NOT cool RAM any better than having them "naked", they just look really cool. 2.8V is a safe voltage for any DDR RAM, so I included that.

Also, in the interest of keeping newbies safe, I changed the highest recommended CPU temp to "50 C or so". I know you operate your CPU at higher temps, but I've found that not every CPU (only tested AXPs, though) will be stable above 50 C.

I didn't mean to be nitpicky but I thought some of the points were worth clarifying. You don't have to keep the technical changes I made, but I just thought I'd throw them out there. Excellent job on the guide! :toast:

[jjcom]

thanks...I'd just heard someone (maybe here..(?) say that about RAM before and I thought it made sense...it had something to do with cooling of RAM...what was it...o'well I'll remember at some point..lol maybe
no its not bad that you added your name to the thanks section.
I like the changes you made..very infomitive. thanks!

jjcom

[mcnbns]

I'm here to help. :)

[jjcom]

I read, instead of just skimming through. I like what you did. You reworded a few things so its easier to understand...I like to go off on a limb some times...lol so thats good you kept me from confusing new people. Thanks for doing that grammar check thing, could you tell I'm not great with that sort a thing? :D

jjcom

[drifter106]

I must say that I truely enjoyed reading your article...not only was it easy to read and follow but I was able to walk away from it understanding the concept of o/c'ing better (I have read several articles but this one kinda just stuck to me "mobetter". There seems to be wealth of information here on this site and I know I will make an effort to visit frequently. If I do post some questions just remember, I am not stupid... just ignorant.

thanks

jd

[Pimp!]

havent read it yet as its 2am, but found 1 thing to add, theres also a 2400 Barton, doesnt stop at 2500 :p


yes i know very small thing, but you asked for changes :p

[MUCHO]

Thanks for the guide!
:toast:

[jjcom]

*UPDATE*
Athlon XP 2400 Barton added

all updates added will be added to the guide that was grammar checked/corrected, thanks

jjcom

[jjcom]

IDEA! I know its scary

Could people post some steppings for the AXP/A64s that overclock well?

jjcom

[MaxxxRacer]

jjcom.. that thing is nuts.. a 10 page guide to overclocking... hell by the time i could get done reading that thing i would have.. well i dont know what i would have done.. but yah...

good article from what i say.

about the steppings... the weeks dont seem to matter so much as of now. the new week 41 winnies are insanely inconsistent. some ppl are hitting 2.4ghz while others are hitting 2.9... with the axp's its better though.. not sure about nc's though.

[jjcom]

yeah, now that the fabs have the making of the chips down, it doesn't matter as much for the AXPs. The A64s on the 130nm...it depends on the chip. the 2.6 Claw and the .6 NC seem to be doing well...from something like week 35 and on up. So sometimes weeks matter, but they matter less as time goes on.

jjcom

[Disposibleteen]

are you planning on writing one for P4 systems? (prescott mainly but northwood would be nice) my friend is trying to learn and i would teach him but he lives in a different state and with work and school i dont have time to write up a nice manual like that...

[reject]

nice guide i read the first it was a bit hard to follow but will be good i can tell
wat are the 2.6 and .6 chips i keep hearing about them but i dont know what they are

[jjcom]

I believe its something like .6 NC and 2.6CH...they seem to overclock higher and no one is sure as to why. I believe the theory was they used some type of SS, but we don't know.

Pentium 4 overclocking guide...darn a beat me to it :D, I already typed a little up if you like to see it.

jjcom

[Disposibleteen]

im not saying im making one, i wish i could but with school and work i dont have the time, im just saying that if you do have the time it might be apprectiated by some people in this forum and some friends of mine, you can PM me what you have already if you want... i wouldnt mind reading it and telling you what i think.

[jjcom]

its just alittle...bascily what is at the beginning of this guide, a genral over view of parts in the computer and some on memory timings...

jjcom

[reject]

ah i think i know is it this?

[jjcom]

thats nice to know as well, but I was refering to the stepping code on the CPU it self...but thanks Lanparty I forgot about those screen shots that include the .6 and 2.6 etc versions of the CPU

jjcom

[jjcom]

Cool my first sticky! Thanks who ever did this :D :up: :up: :up: :D

*UPDATE* a few added things...fixed a few mistakes on the RAM section. added more to the "thankyou" at the end
jjcom

[reject]

downloading now
you called me lanparty :ROTF:

[jjcom]

lol all I saw was the avitar...sorry. O'well. ok reject what do you think? :D

jjcom

[IvanAndreevich]

Checking it out right now. Why .doc? Why don't you make it HTML?

Quickly looked through it - seems like you are trying to cover everything :stick: Try more in-depth approach IMO. You need more than 1 author to cover all of it :toast:

[jjcom]

Checking it out right now. Why .doc? Why don't you make it HTML?

Quickly looked through it - seems like you are trying to cover everything :stick: Try more in-depth approach IMO. You need more than 1 author to cover all of it :toast:

I chose .doc since pretty much everyone will be able to view it. I guess I'll look into putting .html files on my webspace.

Yeah i know its simple. Its just so new people can get the basic idea. yeah so far I've been the only one writting, just gotten idea from Saaya and a few others and ran with it...can you give me a few expambles of what I need to cover in more detail? I don't think I'll do much more with the history part tho...I think thats been covered enough.

jjcom

[G|-|oST]

Its just so N00bs can get the basic idea.
jjcom


Noobs??? :stick: This is xtremesystems, not [H].

So you are the expert then? Writing a guide on OC'ing mostly outdated CPU's? Hmmm... You recently upgraded to an NF2,
a platform most of the people here have moved on from some time ago, and yet here you are writing guides on A64 OC'ing. :rolleyes:

If you care to learn, here (http://www.google.com/) is an example of what a well written guide looks like.

If you are going to write a guide of any sort, you can at least give a little more credit/respect to the people who might be reading it.

[jjcom]

I just wrote something that someone new to overclocking would understand and walk away from knowing alittle more than what they did before. Something simple, thats what Saaya and I talked about from the beginning. They're new people to XS who don't know awhole lot about overclocking so I wrote something that would help them.

And I'm not saying that I'm an expert, and I don't believe I ever said I was one, if so let me know. I dont own an Athlon 64 true, but that doesn't mean that I haven't done my research. I included the AXP because if someone who is new to overclock wants to test it out, they can do it on a low cost machine. And that thing about most people having moved on from...well...I can't afford to move on to the A64 and still have some money saved up.

jjcom

[Karnivore]

Noobs??? :stick: This is xtremesystems, not [H].

So you are the expert then? Writing a guide on OC'ing mostly outdated CPU's? Hmmm... You recently upgraded to an NF2,
a platform most of the people here have moved on from some time ago, and yet here you are writing guides on A64 OC'ing. :rolleyes:

If you care to learn, here (http://www.google.com/) is an example of what a well written guide looks like.

If you are going to write a guide of any sort, you can at least give a little more credit/respect to the people who might be reading it.

No noobs?? LOLOL, where you been?? you actually think everyone who posts here is an automatic Guru?
Regardless... I really see no point in diss'ing his efforts, He has already asked for others input, so if you feel you CAN DO BETTER, or want to add something constructive PLEASE do so.. Otherwise don't post in the thread...

[jjcom]

lets see...you told me learn how to write a guide...thanks...I did look at that and did think it looked good tho. But thats not the look I'm going for. That wasn't the point of the guide.

jjcom

[RADCOM]

Nice one JJcom; this is a nicely written informative guide for people like me who are PC aware but not experienced in the dark art of overclocking. Thanks.

[jjcom]

EDIT:...that was meant for another thread...no idea how it ended up here :S

jjcom

[reject]

ok i forgot i had it, but read it today and its good
this is a really useful thing not only for nopobs but also if you want your friend to oc this ciomputer, you can just send him this. or noobs at gaming forums
keep it up man

[MailmaN87]

Thanks mate, I needed this... A64 is so diffucult to overclock :( . Things was much easyer back in the good old days. :D :D

[shadowing]

Great guide!! I needed help. It's pretty good. But I'm still reading. Good job!!

[jjcom]

thanks...I had a thought about using google or something and making this guide avilible in german as well. Whats your thoughts and can I do this or is there something aginst this...like using google to translate your work or something

jjcom

[shadowing]

Probably. I'm kinda stuck here... What should the multi. usually be for NC? And for the FSB, when do you know to unlock your RAM timing?

[jjcom]

The New Castle has different multipliers for different models.
Socket 754:
2800 9x
3000 10x
3200 11x
3400 12x
Socket 939:
3000 9x
3200 10x
3500 11x
3800 12x

First, try to up the voltage to your RAM, up to 2.8v is safe and I don't think any RAM will lose its warenty if thats what your worried about. So say your RAM's rated for 2-3-2 @ 200mhz, you increase the FSB keeping the RAM running 1:1 to something like 210mhz...you fail mem test. Then try giving it up to 2.8v, if it works then keep pushing the FSB. Lets say it fails then you need to look into loosening the RAM timings. So then you would try 2-3-3, if that works then again keep pushing the FSB. If it fails then try doing 2.5-3-3 if that fails, well then I wouldn't be pushin' the RAM since you'll just kill the preformance. So up to 220mhz or so 2.5-3-3 once you break that then 3-3-3 maybe alright, but it depends on the benchmarks. Otherwise you might just be killing preformance by loosening them too much. For me, the "sweet" spot is 218mhz dual channel 2.5-3-3-10 with 2.8v. I have yet to push is, but that should happen tonight...dang I want to see 3600mb bandwidth in Sandra...anyway I hope that helps. Maybe I should start adding responces like this to the guide. Like have a FAQ like section with people posting Questions like that and then it has my responce like I would type on the forum...sounds good. I might work on that this week end as well.

hope I helped ya!

jjcom

[shadowing]

Yeah, it helped. I have an Athlon 64 3400+ Newcastle. What should i put the multiplier as? Should the RAM timings be loosened whenever it doesn't boot? And how do you set up a RAM divider? Thx for answering these questions.

[jjcom]

12x should be the multi for stock. If the computer doesn't work than it could be RAM timings...the best way to find the max on your RAM is to drop the multi down to 9 or 10 on the processor then, set the HT multi to 3x and start pushing the FSB up about 3-5mhz at a time. Then let it go through a pass of memtest if it works up it another 3-5mhz. That way you know for sure that its the RAM thats holding you back. After it starts to fail, lower the FSB by 3mhz and let it go through something like 6hours of memtest, chances are you've found the max or near max of your RAM. If you want to push it farther than you should up the FSB by 1mhz and then see if it passes mem test for 6hours or so. test 5 I believe is a good test to allow loop. Prime95 can also test memory, just set it so it uses more memory and let it run for awhile something like 8hours. 3Dmark 01 lobby and just letting any of the 3DMark series loop will also test stabilty.

RAM divider's would probly be with either the CPU settings or the RAM settings. 6/6=1:1 then you've got the other options, depending on the board it may say things like 6/5 or it might say DDR333, just depends on the board.

jjcom

[shadowing]

Thanks for all the info so far. I would however like to know what's HT and if you know what Memclock value is. Sorry, if these questions are kinda stupid... But thanks for all your help.

[jjcom]

HT= Hypertransport bus. Its your FSB time what ever you HTmulti is. keep that number under 1000 and you'll be fine. mem clock value...? not sure if i know what you mean there. You mean where it says something like DDR400 or DDR523 or something along those lines? If thats what you mean, it just shows what the speed your RAM is running at.

jjcom

[shadowing]

Thx for all your help. Now to go overclock my processor and hope it doesn't go to death.

jjcom, your guide is really good. Hope you keep it up!!!

[jjcom]

lol yeah I know how you feel...the first time the computer didn't post...:eek: but whats great about these newer motherboards is if you overclock too far, you don't always have to reset your Cmos...just restart the computer and in my case your fine.

What kind of cooler do you have on that processor? stock?

jjcom

[shadowing]

Nope. It's not stock. It's a plain air cooled MCX6400-V with a Vantec Stealth 80mm Fan. It's not that bad. I just need to upgrade th fan. But i'm too lazy and i don't want it to loud.

The K8N-E Deluxe mobo I bought seems to have no RAM dividers....

[jjcom]

they've got to be somewhere. Just keep looking around. Some BIOSes can be hard to go through...Abit sticks memory timings in the Advanced Chipset section I believe...which doesn't make sence to me

jjcom

[shadowing]

I found the RAM controls at the BIOS in the Chipset section. These are the options I found...

memclock mode (auto/manual)
memclock value (appears when mode is set to manual)
CAS latency
DRAM RAS to CAS delay
DRAM RAS Prechange time
DRAM Active time
1T/2T timing

Other than that, I can't find anything else related to RAM. No wonder people call this mobo bad for ocing.

[jjcom]

that ain't too bad I guess. On my Abit board, the RAM dividers are under the "Softmenu" under my ASUS board I believe they were under the Advanced section. But these are both Athlon XP boards so things change...

And I started on this "cheat sheet" about 10 mintines ago...ran spell check and thought I'd post it. Sugestions are welcome, but try to keep them so I can keep this one 1page, no more than that.

jjcom

[shadowing]

Thx for the cheat sheet. I still can't find the RAM divider. Maybe this is the reason why everyone hates this K8N-E Deluxe board...

[jjcom]

could very well be it. Maybe try out another BIOS...TicTac is a master when it comes to BIOSes and info on them so maybe shoot him a PM? Glad you like the cheat sheet, hope it came out good.

jjcom

EDIT: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44867&page=1&pp=25
link for a thread in the "Best of AMD" section. This should be able to help you out.

[shadowing]

Well... I finally found it. Thx for all your help jjcom. If i can, I'll look at your guide and attempt to port it to html, or edit it.

[mad mikee]

When hunting for dividers, look for something that has values including 200/auto, 166, 133, 100, etc
That will be the divider settings.

Probably in at least one guide but never actually seen a good way to track em down.... :toast:

[jjcom]

yeah, agreed its can be hard to find on boards...I think its the memclock mode on this one, set it to manual and it gives more options (6/6, 5/6,4/6 etc.)

jjcom

[shadowing]

Yeah.. True. You should also add in your guide that some mobos put it as 400 and etc. That's what mine is like.

[jjcom]

yeah, good idea :up:, so does mine...I'll add that sometimes...Algebra really stinks...brain is currently dead and hurting...

jjcom

[shadowing]

How much should the AGP and PCI be? If its 66/33, then somethings odd. I saw my AGP as 70. Can someone help?

EDIT: What are PCI latency timers? I can't even find a way to set the PCI...

[jjcom]

Leave the PCI Latency timers thing alone, yeah AGP/PCI should be 66/33, but if the bus isn't locking then it will go up. up to 75mhz on the AGP shouldn't cause any problems tho. Its just best left at stock. Sometimes you have to select 67mhz in the BIOS to lock the AGP bus

jjcom

[shadowing]

Thx. I was worried when my AGP went 70. I set it to 66, but I start to get rounding errors in Prime at only 205FSB at 12X multiplier. Should I lower the RAM timings?

[jjcom]

you mean lossen from something like 2-3-2 to 2-3-3 then yes, but first try and increase voltage to 2.8v. then loosen the timings. If that doesn't help, try a divider to rule out RAM. Then increase the Vcore if the divider doesn't work.

jjcom

[shadowing]

Is it a better idea to run the multiplier at a lower multiplier at the same speed with the timings loosened?

[jjcom]

so you mean something like:
220mhz 11x 2.4ghz vs

240mhz 10x 2.4ghz

well it depends...if your RAM can do 220mhz with 2-3-3-x timings and at 240mhz it does 3-4-4. Well then I'd probly pick the 220mhz. Since...3-4-4 is bad unless your doing something much higher. But it also depends on benchmarks...maybe you'll get a better score even tho the timings are really loose.

jjcom

[shadowing]

Thx. My ram and my CPU is really odd... I'll see how far it can go.

EDIT: How much volts does the CPU usually take? Mine's taking 1.550...

[jjcom]

Stock for Winchester is 1.4v and stock for CH/NC is 1.5v...1.55v ain't bad. Taking them to 1.65v shouldn't cause issues either as long as your temps aren't bad

jjcom

[pontifikas]

I 've read you guide jjcom.
Neat and clear!

Though somewhere you are reffering to a Ram suggestion table on this forum.
I wasn't able to trace it. Could you give me a link?
I'm having a really hard time with my Ram and I want to see what brands are being suggested for my Mobo.

Thank you.

[jjcom]

Ahh. you mean the TCCD RAM table?
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43659
a nice big thread.
Some Gskill or OCZ RAM would be best, I like OCZ so I would say the DDR400 EL PE rev.2.
In that case, rev.2 signifies TCCD chips, while no rev.2 signifies some other RAM chip. I'm not really sure, never bothered to take the HS off my EL PE RAM.

As for me reccomending OCZ, Gskill's just as good, but i like OCZ RAM for no real reason.

jjcom

[pontifikas]

Thanks again.

The OCZ are very expensive mate :(
For the moment I'm stuck with the Kingston 2x512 I've ordered.
My previus pair (Kingston again) with 3,3,3,8 was crashing my PC.
I now wait for CL2.5 hoping for stability. If these too go awry then I'll sell them
and buy a pair of OCZ.

You'll be seing me again I'm afraid :( (on a seperate post of course) .

[jjcom]

If your willing to volt mod or get a Booster the, TwinMOS Speed Premeium sticks are doing very well. Their basicly CH-5.

jjcom

[sevenka]

EDITED:

Link Removed. No Spamming Allowed.

[jjcom]

I can't read that...I only speak English and google can't seem to make heads or tails of it lol. So yeah, could you post an English version of that?

jjcom

[jjcom]

You know, I just relised you posted that link in many, many threads...so I'm going to assume that its just spam. Thats a very good way to be banned so if you have plans of just posting random links than XS is not a good place for you to be.

jjcom

[shadowing]

jjcom, do you know how to use the A64 Tweaker? A guide about how to do some usual tweaks on it would be good.

[jjcom]

jjcom, do you know how to use the A64 Tweaker? A guide about how to do some usual tweaks on it would be good.

nope, :( I dont have an A64. So I haven't been able to learn how to use it. :( sorry

jjcom

[perkam]

nope, I dont have an A64. So I haven't been able to learn how to use it. sorry

For a person without an A64 you sure do make a good OC guide for them. :D

Perkam

[Chriviper]

Hey awesome thread! thanks for the rock solid advice!!!

[jjcom]

thanks for the compliment. Anything need work on?

jjcom

[Magnj]

hey nice article, Still kinda confused, but i guess its hard without an Ocable PC in front of me.

[jjcom]

what's got you confused. Yeah, it can be alittle confusing without a OCable comp.

If your sig is right, your looking for RAM...is that it?

jjcom :D

[rzonealley]

hi, anyone using newer batch of amd like mine 0503... seems the newer batch cant reach high clock. so far doing 2.43...

[jjcom]

I'm not using one, but they aren't doing well. There was a theory discussed on why in another thread

jjcom

[jjcom]

**Update**
I added FSB and Multipler entries to each processor along with the addition of AMD's dual core model info. The dual core models are my speculation only, since its still up the air what it's going to be for sure.

This thread (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=59344&page=1&pp=25) has more info on dual cores.

jjcom

[jjcom]

Update to the guide, haven't posted to bump it up in awhile. I've added on the Athlon 64 X2 processors, Venice and San Diego, FX-57, 90nm FX-55, and I've made a table for processor model numbers and clock speed.

jjcom