lethial
10-07-2005, 04:58 AM
Hey all
I have been a long time lurker here. And finally got around to register here. I will try not to break too many rules on my first post :)
So I have a problem with the combo of CPU mobo and the ram that I have. (See sig)
I know that many of you have very good results OCing with similar setup, but I wonder what are the intermediate steps that you guys took to get there. And how you guys overcame any problems that you have encountered.
Before I bore you with the specific problems, could you guys post the settings that you guys used and temperature for a stable OC using X2 CPUs DFI-LP SLI-DR mobo and Crucial ballistix? Did you guys add any after market heatsinks or fans to the MOSFETs?
Okay now for the boring part... sorry
Following the common convention, I first attempted to find the max of both the CPU and the memory. After much trial and error I found that one of my ram is defective, so all my testing were limited to 1 stick of 1GB ballistix PC4000 ram. Also LDT/FSB is always 3x
1) BIOS and memory slot choice. It seems that the 623-3 BIOS allows me to get more FSB on the ram >280mhz, using the orange slot. But 204-2bta seems to give me more play room for the CPU... My rams don't like the yellow slots at all. Is there any reason for this? Or do you guys have similar experience? (Did you guys somehow got around it?)
2) Memory bandwidth seem to be a limiting factor in OC? Or a better question, could you guys suggest if there is any part of my system that is holding me back?
I found that @1.55V the 3800+ X2 can go up to 295x9 full load temp 52oC, but the memory is running on a 1:2 memory fsb:cpu htt divider. Keep in mind that the memory maxed out at 280mhz fsb @2.7V.
Now if I proceed to try to change the memory divider to anything higher, my system will not even get to run memtest, and it will just constantly reboot. It seems that if the memory bandwidth >2000MB/s (from memtest86+) is not well liked by my system (I think this is the problem). At high HTT the system will crap out if the memory bandwidth goes above 2000MB/s (which is one of the thing that would happen if I change the memory divider)
So I am going to say that I have a CPU with poor memory controller?
3) Should I try to keep the CPU multiplier at 10x since that is the default setting for 3800+ X2? Do I gain anything from using it? (while keeping the over all cpu clock the same) I can see that increasing the multiplier while lowering the HTT could let me get into a overall stable OC. But say if I cannot run 300x9 dual prime stable for more then couple hours for one of the cores, would 270x10 make a difference, assuming that ram is running slow enough that the bandwidth problem from #2 above doesn't become an issue? (I don't have as much experience as most of you so I don't know if in practice there are any difference)
4) The PWM IC temp at full load is >70oC w/o a fan, 50's oC IDLE. Is there something wrong with my mobo? I am tempted to get some mosfet heatsinks, but I am worried that I got a bad mobo since from what I read most have much lower temp then I have. (NOTE: the system is right now not placed in the case yet, it is sitting on top of the mobo box atm :) )
Hmmm sorry for such long post, and thank you for even reading. I just have done so much testing lately that I cannot make sense of the things that I found out :(
thanks so much
/jumps into fire
I have been a long time lurker here. And finally got around to register here. I will try not to break too many rules on my first post :)
So I have a problem with the combo of CPU mobo and the ram that I have. (See sig)
I know that many of you have very good results OCing with similar setup, but I wonder what are the intermediate steps that you guys took to get there. And how you guys overcame any problems that you have encountered.
Before I bore you with the specific problems, could you guys post the settings that you guys used and temperature for a stable OC using X2 CPUs DFI-LP SLI-DR mobo and Crucial ballistix? Did you guys add any after market heatsinks or fans to the MOSFETs?
Okay now for the boring part... sorry
Following the common convention, I first attempted to find the max of both the CPU and the memory. After much trial and error I found that one of my ram is defective, so all my testing were limited to 1 stick of 1GB ballistix PC4000 ram. Also LDT/FSB is always 3x
1) BIOS and memory slot choice. It seems that the 623-3 BIOS allows me to get more FSB on the ram >280mhz, using the orange slot. But 204-2bta seems to give me more play room for the CPU... My rams don't like the yellow slots at all. Is there any reason for this? Or do you guys have similar experience? (Did you guys somehow got around it?)
2) Memory bandwidth seem to be a limiting factor in OC? Or a better question, could you guys suggest if there is any part of my system that is holding me back?
I found that @1.55V the 3800+ X2 can go up to 295x9 full load temp 52oC, but the memory is running on a 1:2 memory fsb:cpu htt divider. Keep in mind that the memory maxed out at 280mhz fsb @2.7V.
Now if I proceed to try to change the memory divider to anything higher, my system will not even get to run memtest, and it will just constantly reboot. It seems that if the memory bandwidth >2000MB/s (from memtest86+) is not well liked by my system (I think this is the problem). At high HTT the system will crap out if the memory bandwidth goes above 2000MB/s (which is one of the thing that would happen if I change the memory divider)
So I am going to say that I have a CPU with poor memory controller?
3) Should I try to keep the CPU multiplier at 10x since that is the default setting for 3800+ X2? Do I gain anything from using it? (while keeping the over all cpu clock the same) I can see that increasing the multiplier while lowering the HTT could let me get into a overall stable OC. But say if I cannot run 300x9 dual prime stable for more then couple hours for one of the cores, would 270x10 make a difference, assuming that ram is running slow enough that the bandwidth problem from #2 above doesn't become an issue? (I don't have as much experience as most of you so I don't know if in practice there are any difference)
4) The PWM IC temp at full load is >70oC w/o a fan, 50's oC IDLE. Is there something wrong with my mobo? I am tempted to get some mosfet heatsinks, but I am worried that I got a bad mobo since from what I read most have much lower temp then I have. (NOTE: the system is right now not placed in the case yet, it is sitting on top of the mobo box atm :) )
Hmmm sorry for such long post, and thank you for even reading. I just have done so much testing lately that I cannot make sense of the things that I found out :(
thanks so much
/jumps into fire