BIOSTAR TFORCE 550 and Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane 1.9GHz OC!!!

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Originally Posted by funnyperson1

Interesting, someone else on rebelshaven had the same problem, so I decided to try the 533 divider myself (even though I had to really loosen the timings with my valueram), and now I am fairly stable at 3ghz (still testing), whereas before I couldn't even pass a 1m SuperPi at 2.95.

What are the SPD ratings for your ram? Maybe you could try the 6-6-6-15 timings I am running right now with the 533 divider.

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I had the same problem with a Windsor X2 3800+ and Sempron 2800+. It's a combination of chipset, RAM, CPU, and high HTT. For me with the X2 3800+, adjust the clock skew to advance 600ps helped. With the Sempron, NOTHING worked except switching from ProMOS to Micron based RAM. With my current Brisbane, everything has been OK (knock on wood).

I hit a wall at 3.2GHz, it did not want to stabilize (errors out of Orthos in 9 mins) even at 1.65V and above. Currently stable at 3.13GHz @ 1.6V.

theelectic - by clock skew, are you talking about the "DQS Receiver Enable Delay" as reported by Systool?

I returned it to Newegg. Going to switch to Conroe. :(

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Originally Posted by bzo

theelectic - by clock skew, are you talking about the "DQS Receiver Enable Delay" as reported by Systool?

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No - I'm just now realizing clock skew might be exclusive to the 590 chipset. With ASUS boards it's usually called "AI clock skew". With my board it's found under the main DRAM timing controls, with 1T/2T, single/dual channel, etc.

The other thing you might try (again if available) is drive strength. Fire up Systool and see what your default drive strengths are (they're on the second AM2 timing screen) then go into the BIOS and increment them all up by 1 step.

Ruslan, what temps are you seeing after about 20 mins load with your cooling?

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Originally Posted by theelectic

I hit a wall at 3.2GHz, it did not want to stabilize (errors out of Orthos in 9 mins) even at 1.65V and above. Currently stable at 3.13GHz @ 1.6V.

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What kind of temps are you getting and what kind of cooling are you using? I thought 1.6V was kinda high. I'm stable at 3.00 @ 1.45V and my mobo sensor is giving temps like 58-63C (I'm using scythe mine air)

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Originally Posted by theelectic

No - I'm just now realizing clock skew might be exclusive to the 590 chipset. With ASUS boards it's usually called "AI clock skew". With my board it's found under the main DRAM timing controls, with 1T/2T, single/dual channel, etc.

The other thing you might try (again if available) is drive strength. Fire up Systool and see what your default drive strengths are (they're on the second AM2 timing screen) then go into the BIOS and increment them all up by 1 step.

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I actually have an Asus 570 board (m2n-sli dlx), but it doesn't seem like the bios has a setting for skew. I played around with the drive strength, but it didn't seem to help much. I sent a PM to bachus_anonym who was able to get the board to a 400 HTT in his AM2 testing thread, hopefully he will have some insight.

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Originally Posted by CraptacularOne

Ruslan, what temps are you seeing after about 20 mins load with your cooling?

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It stays at 40C after 2 hours
SS Here

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/asohangh.../threegigs.JPG

That was with 1.4V set in bios and it failed Orthos, but with 1.45V in bios, its been humming along in Orthos for the last 7 hours.

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Originally Posted by funnyperson1

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/asohangh.../threegigs.JPG

That was with 1.4V set in bios and it failed Orthos, but with 1.45V in bios, its been humming along in Orthos for the last 7 hours.

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Exact same as me. 3003mhz @ 1.45 volts...what kinds of temps are you getting?

Actually pretty similar to your temps in the afternoon when my room temp was like 78F, 57-62C. I opened the case and pointed a table fan at it, and temps were 55-59C.

Right now its 45F outside and I opened my window, closed the case, so its running 45-50C, room temp is 19C (66F).

I keep my home between 68 and 72F, so my room tempature should be pretty good when it comes to overclocking...

I'm trying...but our unit seems to be losing its touch...struggling to get under 72.

how does the abit kn9 ultra perform? Is it better or worse than the biostar offerings? And how does the 570U compare? Cheers.

i read a review on this board a while back and i remember the reviewers couldn't get a boot with the fsb past 240ish. i'm assuming the newer bios revisions corrected this, right?

i'm thinking about picking up a 3600+ brisbane and was hoping to get it up to around 2.8-3.0ghz with an aftermarket cooler with this board or the dfi infinity.

I think HardOCP was just incompetent. When I first got my 1.0 board it came with the 615 bios (the 4th one released) and was able to hit up to 287HTT no problems.

With the newest 207 bios I can boot at 326HTT and am stable at 316. The only caveat is that the 400 memory divider isn't stable past 305 for me (and a bunch of other people), so its better that you have DDR2 800 or better ram.

I'm looking in the AM2tools program and I do not see the 7 divisor available. How are you guys using it?

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Originally Posted by derektm

I'm looking in the AM2tools program and I do not see the 7 divisor available. How are you guys using it?

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What?? :confused:

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Originally Posted by Ruslan

What?? :confused:

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Like here:

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/asohangh.../threegigs.JPG

He has the CPU/7 divisor but in the AM2 tools program when you select brisbane it doesn't show the 7 divisor available.

The am2tools program is wrong. The 533 divider with a 9.5 multiplier is /7.

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Originally Posted by funnyperson1

The am2tools program is wrong. The 533 divider with a 9.5 multiplier is /7.

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Thanks! :toast:

It is like Mitsubitshi Evo VIII vs Lamborghini LP640 running in between the corner... ;)

No a good example since Jeremy Clarkson has shown that Mitsubitshi Evo VIII could beat Lamborghini LP640 easily when come to cornering...

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Originally Posted by arisythila

I personally don't think that its a bad comparison. E6600 runs what 350 bucks? This processor runs 100 bucks. The comparison, was for 100 bucks, it overclocks well enough to keep up with a stock E6600. It seems valid to me.


Its like saying my car, which is 4,000 dollars, w/ 5,000 dollars of mods, keeps up with a Corvette Z06, a car that cost 60,000 dollars. Thats a damn good value, I get the speed and handling of the Corvette for 9000 dollars.

Seems very valid to me.

~Mike

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Originally Posted by SunFlowerSeeds

It is like Mitsubitshi Evo VIII vs Lamborghini LP640 running in between the corner... ;)

No a good example since Jeremy Clarkson has shown that Mitsubitshi Evo VIII could beat Lamborghini LP640 easily when come to cornering...

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The Mitsubishi Evo VIII is less expensive than the Lamborghini ;)

Would I need pc6400 ram to overclock this processor to 3ghz?

The dividers work pretty much the same as they do on socket 939 right? Wonder how much performance would be lost with slower ram, since some cheap pc5300 ram is like 30-40 cheaper than ddr2 800.

Yea you can use the 400 divider to get the 3600+ to 3ghz+ without overclocking DDR2533 memory. Only thing is that some people (myself included) have noticed that the Biostar board doesn't clock as high with the 400 divider for some reason. With the 400 divider I was limited to 306HTT, but with the 533 divider I can hit 316-326HTT.

The good thing is that most 533 ram should overclock well enough to hit DDR2 800 speeds with some voltage, albeit with looser timings. I have some of the worst clocking DDR2 I have seen and I can hit 430mhz memory speeds with C6 timings and 1.95V.

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Originally Posted by funnyperson1

Yea you can use the 400 divider to get the 3600+ to 3ghz+ without overclocking DDR2533 memory. Only thing is that some people (myself included) have noticed that the Biostar board doesn't clock as high with the 400 divider for some reason. With the 400 divider I was limited to 306HTT, but with the 533 divider I can hit 316-326HTT.

The good thing is that most 533 ram should overclock well enough to hit DDR2 800 speeds with some voltage, albeit with looser timings. I have some of the worst clocking DDR2 I have seen and I can hit 430mhz memory speeds with C6 timings and 1.95V.

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Very nice contributions to the topic :toast: :toast: .Thanks for the 533 divider info :)
Also tnx to Ruslan and to all that tried this wonderful and very cheap CPU.
Mine arrives on next Tuesday ,so we'll se how it goes :D

Hey guys, I just got my delivery a couple of days ago and noticed that the Tforce is V5.0. Has there been any difference between the different versions of this mobo yet? What's the best BIOS so far to load on for stability at high HTT?

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Originally Posted by birdie800

Hey guys, I just got my delivery a couple of days ago and noticed that the Tforce is V5.0. Has there been any difference between the different versions of this mobo yet? What's the best BIOS so far to load on for stability at high HTT?

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Check out the 4th page for v 5.0 vs 1.3, etc.

Do you guys happen to know which bios allows past 300htt?

I can't get my system to budge past 300, I can get it to post up to 304 but it will reboot. I've tried everything, upping all voltages, even upping the pci-e freq a mhz or two.

I switched to the latest bios from biostar a few days ago, I'm wondering if this bios sucks. Any help would be great.

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Originally Posted by what?

Do you guys happen to know which bios allows past 300htt?

I can't get my system to budge past 300, I can get it to post up to 304 but it will reboot. I've tried everything, upping all voltages, even upping the pci-e freq a mhz or two.

I switched to the latest bios from biostar a few days ago, I'm wondering if this bios sucks. Any help would be great.

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What divider are you using? Try 533 as that works best on this board. Also, did you set your HT multi at 3x?

Ya ,I've done everything right. It just won't budge.

Guess I'm content for now at 2.85ghz (300x9.5), at least I got to drop my ram from cas5 to cas4 and its stable at 407mhz. Good enough until they release a new bios or something.

PS, does anyone elses vcore jump when they turn orthos on? Mine goes from 1.38 to around 1.41.

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Originally Posted by what?

Ya ,I've done everything right. It just won't budge.

Guess I'm content for now at 2.85ghz (300x9.5), at least I got to drop my ram from cas5 to cas4 and its stable at 407mhz. Good enough until they release a new bios or something.

PS, does anyone elses vcore jump when they turn orthos on? Mine goes from 1.38 to around 1.41.

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I wouldn't trust onboard sensors. Even if it is a jump, .03 is not bad at all. Better than a vdroop!

I have had great success with the 207 modded bios from RebelsHaven, but it only changes default bios settings.

Have you made sure all the Spread Spectrums are turned off?

Every spread is off for sure.

Im not worried about it. Its just weird because a few nights ago I was able to at least boot at like 314, then I updated bios because my system got f'd up. Now I can't boot past 304, either way I'm not hitting 3ghz yet. If i need more performance maybe I'll install the old bios from rebels haven.

Thanks guys.

It seems like the 533 divider works the best for this mobo/cpu for high HTT, but then most people aren't overclocking their ram at all? If you're at 300x9.5, then the RAM is only running at about 407mhz, right? What if I wanted to push my ram to 500mhz+, will I have to change the divider and sacrifice HTT and cpu frequency in order to do this with this board? I've got 2x1gb firestix that should hit about 1000mhz, but it's sounding like I may not be able to do this with this combo at high HTT/frequency. Ideally, I'd like to be somewhere around 300x9.5 (2.85ghz) and 500mhz (1000 effective) on the ram at cl4.

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Originally Posted by birdie800

It seems like the 533 divider works the best for this mobo/cpu for high HTT, but then most people aren't overclocking their ram at all? If you're at 300x9.5, then the RAM is only running at about 407mhz, right? What if I wanted to push my ram to 500mhz+, will I have to change the divider and sacrifice HTT and cpu frequency in order to do this with this board? I've got 2x1gb firestix that should hit about 1000mhz, but it's sounding like I may not be able to do this with this combo at high HTT/frequency. Ideally, I'd like to be somewhere around 300x9.5 (2.85ghz) and 500mhz (1000 effective) on the ram at cl4.

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With the 667 divider and 316x9.5 my ram was around 479mhz working fine. I think the 667 divider works great too.

amd needs to implement higher divider as 800 asap... or do something about it...

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Originally Posted by birdie800

It seems like the 533 divider works the best for this mobo/cpu for high HTT, but then most people aren't overclocking their ram at all?

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overclocking the RAM really doesn't do jack for me. I 300mhz to 450mhz is really not all that different on most benches, or games for that matter.

My guess is the higher latency of the brisbanes combined with a very efficient memory controller means that clock speed is a much bigger factor.

I'm hoping this will allow the K10's to perform well in my AM2 HTT2 mobo as opposed to that HTT3, it just doesn't seem like the HTT is the bottleneck.

Derektm,

Can you post or PM me your system specs and settings? Voltages, timings, CnQ, etc...

Anybody else agree with falqon? From every overclocking guide that I've read, memory freqency is actually a major contributor to system performance. If ram frequency wasn't that important in overall system speed, then why would there be premiums for higher rated DDR2?

p.s. Anybody try this mobo/cpu combo with 800 divider? Just curious....

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Originally Posted by birdie800

then why would there be premiums for higher rated DDR2?

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It starts with I and ends with ntel ;)

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Originally Posted by birdie800

Derektm,

Can you post or PM me your system specs and settings? Voltages, timings, CnQ, etc...

Anybody else agree with falqon? From every overclocking guide that I've read, memory freqency is actually a major contributor to system performance. If ram frequency wasn't that important in overall system speed, then why would there be premiums for higher rated DDR2?

p.s. Anybody try this mobo/cpu combo with 800 divider? Just curious....

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The 800 divider doesn't work at all for me. 400/533/667 all work perfectly. I'm still doing finishing touches on my voltages and other settings and should be done by tommorow evening and I'll PM you my voltages and timings. I have CnQ disabled.

Basic specs are this board, 3600+ brisbane, and G.Skill 2GBHK (ProMos).

Basic settings:

Memory running at 4-4-3-5 like their rated @ 1.950v. I'm running 2 kits of the G.Skill for 4GB. I'm not sure if the 800 divider won't work for me because I'm using 4 modules or not but like I said the other ones work perfect. 296*9.5 (Memory at 402 MHz and CPU at 2815 MHz). CPU is at 1.350v in bios. CPU-Z reads around 1.392 or 1.4x idle and 1.456 or 1.472 load (jumps around, can't trust onboard sensors).

Do your actual volts read higher than the exact setting in the BIOS?

What temp/volt monitor program are you guys using? The one that comes with the Tforce 550SE is difficult to read and has very little options. Also, which BIOS is best for stability and high frequency so far?

Also, does this motherboard come with the little internal speaker for post beep codes soldered on or loosely in the package at all? I think this little part normally comes with the case, but my P180B did not come with one, so I wasn't sure if one was supposed to come with the motherboard (either soldered or loosely to plug directly into header on mobo). Any idea where I can get one of these things from?

Speedfan works fine for me.

I agree with falqon about memory speeds, and empirical evidence backs it up. I just went from some Kingston Value Ram to Crucial Ballistix and went from DDR2 860 6-4-4 to DDR2 1000 5-5-5, and my Sandra bandwith benchmark gained a couple thousand points. However when running real-world benchmarks the improvement was minimal. Sure my SuperPi time dropped 1-2 seconds (about 5-7% faster), and I gained like 30 3DMark points (.6%), but you can't notice that improvement in actual usage at all.

Apparently this is going to be more difficult than I had though.

I can't seem to have hit a brick wall at 250.

I am running with this memory.
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820145034

Both in Slots #1 and #2.

I tried setting the volts to 1.47, and the CPU frequency to 255 and it will just reset itself.

Any suggestions?

Oh, and I am pretty sure I am running the newest BIOS dated in 02/07

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Originally Posted by Skillz

Oh, and I am pretty sure I am running the newest BIOS dated in 02/07

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Thats not the newest. It goes 0207, 0510, 0521. You can get 0521 from Biostar.cn here, and this bios includes half multiplier options in the bios.

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Originally Posted by Skillz

Apparently this is going to be more difficult than I had though.

I can't seem to have hit a brick wall at 250.

I am running with this memory.
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820145034

Both in Slots #1 and #2.

I tried setting the volts to 1.47, and the CPU frequency to 255 and it will just reset itself.

Any suggestions?

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This board will not clock for crap if you don't set each individual memory timing. Leave DDRII timing option off. Set your async latency to at least 12 to start off with. Also about the memory slots. I'm running 1x4GB and had no problems going to 340 FSB so I doubt it is your mem slots. Also don't use the 800 divider, it doesn't work so well. Try using 533... was the sweet spot for me.

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Originally Posted by Skillz

Oh, and I am pretty sure I am running the newest BIOS dated in 02/07

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What are your other settings ie HT divider, memory divider, etc.

Also have you changed the NPT FID Multiplier (CPU multiplier) most of those settings really killed my HTT oc, so I just left it on auto.

derek is right, you need to manually set the memory timings, otherwise they will be too tight when you start raising the htt speed.