Hi all, finally read thru the thread, but I'd appreciate a little bit of help.

I'm stuck at the 9*375 wall. I'm looking for a stable 24/7 use overclock, not just a super pi bench, but I'm not afraid of a little voltage, I generally upgrade every 6 months. I feel like I ought to be able to achieve more from this system as I'm good with stock voltages all the way to 9*370!

Here's the hardware:

e6600 week 29
AW9D Max bios 13 beta 3
Corsair HX 620W
Gecube x1900xtx
WD 150gb Raptor
Cooled by:
cpu-lapped TTBT with a Delta 120x76mm fan (typically keeps it under 45c load)
northbridge-socket 370 aluminum heatsink--roughly 1.5x size the original cooler + 50mm fan
AS5 replaced under PWM block and southbridge

Ram: Crucial Anniversary 2x1gb, Crucial Ballistix PC8000 2x1gb


Here's my approach to 9*375

Crucial Anniversary sticks:
9*371 memory at 1:1, 3-3-3-12-35
CPU voltage (bios settings) 1.2375V, MCH 1.52, RAM 2.2V
This is utterly stable, and my usual setting. Folding 24.7 for several weeks now.

9*375 memory at 1:1, 3-3-3-12-35
CPU voltage 1.2625, MCH 1.64V, RAM 2.25V
Orthos blend stable 1 hour.

9*380 orthos unstable.
I've tried 3 notches on the cpu core voltage, MCH all the way to 1.85V, Ram to 5-5-5-15-42, and Ram voltage to 2.35V. I can't get it more than 10s orthos blend stable.

I've tried dropping the multiplier to 6x, same wall.

In 4:5, I can achieve:
9*316 memory at 4:5 or 395mhz, 3-3-3-12-35
CPU voltage 1.2625, MCH 1.52V, Ram 2.3V
or
9*340 memory at 4:5 or 427mhz 5-5-5-15-35
CPU voltage 1.2625, MCH 1.55V, RAM 2.35V
These were my max's 1 hour orthos stable.


Thinking, maybe its my RAM holding me back, I sprung for the Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 for some RAM that is qualified for these speeds. And guess what, they are WORSE than my Anniversary sticks. This was my maximum overclock:

Crucial Ballistix DDR2-8000
9*340 memory at 1:1 5-5-5-15-35
CPU 1.2375, MCH 1.55V, Ram 2.35V

Oddly, enough, the Ballistix stix performed BETTER at 4:5
9*350 memory at 4:5 5-5-5-15-35
CPU 1.2375, MCH 1.6V, RAM 2.3V
Again 1 hour orthos blend stable




So to summarize:
Ideally I'm looking to get past the 9*375 1:1 wall for a stable use overclock. I've got 2 sets of RAM that ought to be able to do it easily, by rating or by stable operation at faster speeds in 4:5. I've got a cpu that's still hovering at stock voltages. I'm in the range requiring increasing MCH voltage, but 1.85V didn't help at all.

I understand orthos blend is coming under question, but at 9*380, it is unstable. Orthos only seconds. Will not pass 3dmark05.

And WTF is up with my Ballstix RAM? Can't do 340mhz in 1:1?


Anyone have any thoughts? I greatly appreciate it!

Future plans: replace the nb with the ol' copper dynatron XP, as well as the southbridge with something else.

VFSB mod? Could someone help me post the link to the Vfsb mod?

Thanks,
navig