Phenom 9500 w/ MSI K9A2 Platinum

[KTE]

G-skill pc6400 2gbhz

I just installed memset.

4 4 4 12 24 2t 2.1 vddim at stock I think per cpu-z


I will try that version of AOD.

Ah, well then, you need to keep the RAM sticks at stock best possible. You need to test your RAMs capability before you start oc'ing because in your case, it sounds like your RAM is holding you back (settings found in Memset fully).

Find a setting with timings/subtimings/volts (sub 2.25V IMO) which makes your RAM fully stable (Memtest/Prime95blend/Systool 32M) at sub DDR2-1000. Then drop to a low RAM divider (1:1.33 is good) with those volts/settings and start oc'ing to find the max HT ref/GHz.

My RAM boots CAS5 DDR2-1450 at 2.35V perfectly, so when I'm testing HT ref./NB/HT/CPU I'm well clear of its limits, thus can know where the problem lies.

I have been reading this and the Overclocking the 9600 BE thread and waiting for a MOD to update my account..

Here is my Phenom 9600 BE story.

I have

k9a2 platinum, Phenom 9600 BE.
I was able to get to 2.7G stable (multiple days of seti, folding, other BOINC stuff, prime95) at 100% processor load.

I am using the msi ver 1.2 bios (I updated from 1.1 but I haven't tried any of the others).

To get to 2.7G I had to up my CPU VID setting to 1.3 volts but that is all.

Now I am running at stock HT ref freq and memory freq (800MHz).

When I try to get the memory to 1066 MHz (I am using 1066 crucial mem) It will not boot.

I will post photos later (I am at work right now).

Welcome

1066 memory won't run, don't even try it, it will give you no boot and make yu clear CMOS before booting. Only some BETA BIOSes run it.

1.2 BIOS has the TLB errata patch enabled. If you want to try the latest BETA BIOS, it allows you to turn the TLB patch off (better performance) and allows running 1066 RAM. However, it won't run anything below 1066 RAM at stock HT ref. bootup, I'll warn you that much.

2.7G for 1.3V looks very promising although rare so far, sadly.

[TheOtherDave]

Welcome

1066 memory won't run, don't even try it, it will give you no boot and make yu clear CMOS before booting. Only some BETA BIOSes run it.

The 2 times I tried it it did require a CMOS reset

1.2 BIOS has the TLB errata patch enabled.

I have been using AOD to turn the TLB patch off (at least I think that's what the little button at the top of the screen does based on my reading).

Or will the 1.2 bios not allow it to be disabled at all?

If you want to try the latest BETA BIOS, it allows you to turn the TLB patch off (better performance) and allows running 1066 RAM. However, it won't run anything below 1066 RAM at stock HT ref. bootup, I'll warn you that much.

2.7G for 1.3V looks very promising although rare so far, sadly.

I want to try the newer BIOSses sometime. I just haven't had the time
lately. I built this machine and then work got crazy.

[jonspd]

http://www.jonspd.com/jonspd_uploads...s/untitled.GIF

thats what it's at now.

I really don't want to revert to 1:1.66 divider as I said cpu clock is to far off with that divider. However I will be testing it again and post the SS of 1:1.66 in a few hours maybe.


It is totally stable at same setting as SS posted above with a 259 fsb. (prime/memtest/3dmark06/32mb super)


Edit: Shet I forgot to put the cpu-z dram pic in that ss but dram is at a 1:2 ratio ATM.

[Manicdan]

for those trying to help me, aka jonspd.

i installed using the cd it came with, this is a new OS and it worked fine on the last one that ended up dying due to hard drive corruption. loading up cpuz is fine, with everest's cpuid, memory testing, or any other part of everest locks the program up. i can run the stress test but i leaves the temp graph blank and the cpu load one works fine, but i cannot click on preferances, its greyed out.

also speedfan does not detect cpu temps either, core temp is working fine however.

either way it seems windows is not detecting motherboard sensors properly and i would like to reinstall them, but since its the mobo were talking about, i wanna make sure i dont screw things up in the process.

[jesteronyer6]

I was thinking of getting the DFi board but after reading this thread looks like I am gonna own a Platty again.

[jonspd]

Man

The everest is a beta and not an official release. There is a few problem with it and some of the stuff doesn't work in it however I don't have a problem with it reading my temp in the temp graph make sure you have that check under that tab.

[Manicdan]

ok weird, i loaded up some other apps and was gonna do some OCing without everest, and then i said screw it ill still use it to stress the system. and everything was working just fine. i dont care all i know is things are weird for my comp and always will be

[Manicdan]

ok so its worse than i thought

i loaded up these programs in this order and tested everest after each one
amd overdrive
cpuz
coretemp
atitool

and aparently ati tool switching from 2d to 3d clocks and back trigged everest to detect things properly

[KTE]

The 2 times I tried it it did require a CMOS reset

I have been using AOD to turn the TLB patch off (at least I think that's what the little button at the top of the screen does based on my reading).

Or will the 1.2 bios not allow it to be disabled at all?

It is a partial switch off, it restores ~70% of the performance in some software but not in others. Performance will still be slow, especially anything which depends on memory bandwidth/latency.

It's the same with thre BETA BIOS I mentioned actually. Perf. isn't the same with a BIOS without the patch at all (like BETA 1.3 and earlier)

http://www.jonspd.com/jonspd_uploads...s/untitled.GIF

thats what it's at now.

I really don't want to revert to 1:1.66 divider as I said cpu clock is to far off with that divider. However I will be testing it again and post the SS of 1:1.66 in a few hours maybe.


It is totally stable at same setting as SS posted above with a 259 fsb. (prime/memtest/3dmark06/32mb super)


Edit: Shet I forgot to put the cpu-z dram pic in that ss but dram is at a 1:2 ratio ATM.

So you're at +520 on 400 RAM? Have you tested Memest to see if your RAM is stable at that speed? I hope you have good RAM that can run that stable, ProMOS and Elpida chips won't, however Microns will run that and higher with ease.

The values I'm looking at are tRC and MaxAsyncLatency. They usually would need to be higher for stability of 400MHz RAM.

for those trying to help me, aka jonspd.

i installed using the cd it came with, this is a new OS and it worked fine on the last one that ended up dying due to hard drive corruption. loading up cpuz is fine, with everest's cpuid, memory testing, or any other part of everest locks the program up. i can run the stress test but i leaves the temp graph blank and the cpu load one works fine, but i cannot click on preferances, its greyed out.

That's the same problem with my use of EVEREST too. I don't recommend using it apart from preliminary testing though, it doesn't test CPU/RAM as rigorously and properly as done by P95/OCCT/Memtest/gaming/Videoing and the temps/power don't reach what they do with P95/some benches/OCCT neither did it catch easy errors caught by others, so its not an ideal reflection of common day to day loads. Because when load testing, you need to simulate max core load to show the core is stable no matter what as the core load-line voltage willl fluctuate under arious loads and thats what will decide if your core is stable/unstable.

also speedfan does not detect cpu temps either, core temp is working fine however.

Which BIOS are you on?

either way it seems windows is not detecting motherboard sensors properly and i would like to reinstall them, but since its the mobo were talking about, i wanna make sure i dont screw things up in the process.

ok so its worse than i thought

i loaded up these programs in this order and tested everest after each one
amd overdrive
cpuz
coretemp
atitool

and aparently ati tool switching from 2d to 3d clocks and back trigged everest to detect things properly

What do you mean exactly?
Opening these software made EVEREST start reading incorrect values?
If so, what exactly is being read incorrect?

Which EVEREST test did you run?

Opening AOD before oher monitoring tools is a regular thing I did because its buggy and unstable if another hardware monitoring s/w is opened before it -> not when after it though.

Same thing with many softwares, even HWMonitor.

I was thinking of getting the DFi board but after reading this thread looks like I am gonna own a Platty again.

Your choice really.

[jonspd]

Yes I ran memtest at 1088 (544) for over 2 hours without any errors. 2.2vddim

they are microns

F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ 4.0-4-4-12 @ 2.0 ~ 2.1V
Micron D9GMH (B6-3) 6-layer PCB
Micron D9GCT (B6-37E) (some)


Thanks for the info on the tRC and MaxAsyncLatency so that needs to be set higher? as in looser.

[KTE]

Well well, D9s, then officially, it'll be tRC 29 tRFC 75ns/105ns at 532MHz 5-5-5-5 quite easily stable at 2.1/2.2V, maybe at 2V too.

Max Async latency.... not sure how those stick go exactly, but 40-42 should be easily fully stable.

[jonspd]

Cool and plus memset will help me figure out the difference between the 2 different ram ratios


Yea I don't want to burn them up tho as the sticks I have for spare ATM are Elpida chips.


so I need to change 195 ns settings to 75 or 105 will this help bandwidth lol I already almost hit 12k

[Brains1]

WHAT IS THIS?????

K9A2 Platinum V2????????????????????

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?f...=1&cat2_no=171

[Brains1]

Ok this is to help me get my HyperX ram working in this board

I have bios 1.2 offical. I have just one stick installed in slot one right now.

I have not tried placing the sticks in the same color slot. The manual does say to do that. But I'm all for trying it if it will help. That would make it run in just single channel correct?

So here goes some pic of my settings

[KTE]

First of all, a few quick pointers to you oc maniacs.

Try these HT*Multi, if booting these then surely wait at least 3 minutes before resetting if it doesn't boot 1st time.

1. Keep NB 8x multi and try 240 x 11 (2640)

2. Keep NB multi 7x multi and try 265 x 10 (2650)

3. Keep NB multi 7x and try 260 x 10.5 (2730)

4. Keep NB multi 8x and try 250 x 11 (2750)

Now I know you're probably thinking "WTF, we can't even get 2.5G stable or plus 230HT so what's he talkin about??" -> but wait.

When I tried oc, Phenom had holes and hotspots. Those above combinations were the most stable and best for me and they worked with very good volts/temps.

Make sure to put 1.2VID or 1.25VID and try 1.475VCore too until you get it stable, then try lower. I'd like to see if those combinations run good for others (see the RAM though, it will be plus DDR2-1000)

so I need to change 195 ns settings to 75 or 105 will this help bandwidth lol I already almost hit 12k

I usually had 75ns but for high HT ref. you'll probably need 1st DIMM at 105ns and the rest at 75ns should be fine. MaxAsyncLatency affects bandwidth.. a lot.

12.5k should be quite easy.

WHAT IS THIS?????

K9A2 Platinum V2????????????????????

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?f...=1&cat2_no=171

They gave the pic of the old board there though.

Ok this is to help me get my HyperX ram working in this board

I have bios 1.2 offical. I have just one stick installed in slot one right now.

I have not tried placing the sticks in the same color slot. The manual does say to do that. But I'm all for trying it if it will help. That would make it run in just single channel correct?

So here goes some pic of my settings

Different color slots is dual channel, they wrote the manual incorrectly.

Your tRAS should be higher to 18 and your tRC should be 23 at 1.8V to stay inside rated specs. Those may add instabilty to your system unless you know it can do better.

[nate39]

Could I jump in here and ask how you got the Mem VVT not to be grayed out in AOD? thanks

[KTE]

Could I jump in here and ask how you got the Mem VVT not to be grayed out in AOD? thanks

On some boards, it's not grayed out but it's the same as being grayed out-> you can't move it.

[Brains1]

They gave the pic of the old board there though.

So what does this mean us for non "version 2 boards"?
Also what's the change?? Spec looks the same aswell. Same SB600

Different color slots is dual channel, they wrote the manual incorrectly.

Well.. What I meant to say was currently I have a non booting system with 2 sticks, I have one stick in one color and the other stick in the other color. So slot one and slot two. The manual says that is dual channel.
If I keep it in the same color.. say slot 1 then slot 3. Would that be worth trying? To get the system to boot... Would that then be single channel?

Your tRAS should be higher to 18 and your tRC should be 23 at 1.8V to stay inside rated specs. Those may add instabilty to your system unless you know it can do better.

That is true those were not default spd settings. I tighten them up because the game were a bit laggy with only one stick of ram. I ran prime95 for 15 minutes with no errors or warnings and played a little Call of duty 4 and Crysis with no problems with those timings.

What I really want to know is a good number to throw the HT at to make these ram work. That is the only thing I havent tried. I will try tomorrow. If nothing. I'm going to switch processors to see if the board is bad and cant handle 2 sticks.

[jonspd]

New bios are out again KTE

POH

LMK if you try them and if you do post us back some results....

http://www.msi-forum.de/thread.php?t...06ed13&page=13

[Blacklash]

Also, can anyone tell me what the button in the top-right-hand corner of AOD does? The little circle. A little red ring appears around the button when I click it, and I noticed someone else who posted earlier had a yellow ring.

What's that all about?

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost...91&postcount=1

[KTE]

So what does this mean us for non "version 2 boards"?
Also what's the change?? Spec looks the same aswell. Same SB600

NO idea yet, we need to see a pic. Maybe they've improved the CPU inductors, MOSFETs and resistors.

Well.. What I meant to say was currently I have a non booting system with 2 sticks, I have one stick in one color and the other stick in the other color. So slot one and slot two. The manual says that is dual channel.
If I keep it in the same color.. say slot 1 then slot 3. Would that be worth trying? To get the system to boot... Would that then be single channel?

Yes it would, but better is to place only one stick to boot first into the BIOS. This method: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...4&postcount=21

That is true those were not default spd settings. I tighten them up because the game were a bit laggy with only one stick of ram. I ran prime95 for 15 minutes with no errors or warnings and played a little Call of duty 4 and Crysis with no problems with those timings.

What I really want to know is a good number to throw the HT at to make these ram work. That is the only thing I havent tried. I will try tomorrow. If nothing. I'm going to switch processors to see if the board is bad and cant handle 2 sticks.

You'll first have to run defaults and then oc>test each component individually or you just won't know what to blame and guessing will make you error when judging. Find your RAM limits or CPU limits first, whiever way you want to do it.

New bios are out again KTE

POH

LMK if you try them and if you do post us back some results....

http://www.msi-forum.de/thread.php?t...06ed13&page=13

Probably will, never tried 1.32 or P0H. The performance with <1.3 BETA was just not there with any other BIOS since then, they all slowed everything down even when the patch was disabled through the BIOS. IDK why that is, frankly.

I mean, in the P0F BIOS with TLB patch off, WinRAR gave me 666KB/s at a speed (possibly 2.3G/2500/1066) whilst 2.2G/1800/800 gave me 1901KB/s in 1.3 BETA.

Same pattern with Sandra, with wPrime and with EVEREST.

[jonspd]

yep and until they come up with a bios that has the ability to enable or disable the patch I will probably stay with 1.13 or maybe perhaps try POD one day as I haven't yet.

[Daveburt714]

Hi Dave,

I installed wxp with a cd who hda driver packs integrated with discs in AHCI mode. So the AHCI drivers where installed during installation.
I can boot into windows but the system freezes after a minute so i had to switch back to compatibility mode.
You can prepare yourself a floppy with the ahci drivers and use it during windows installation if you don't want to make a customized windows cd.

So the AHCI drivers were so bad you had to go back to the IDE's?
And your running XP, I'm on Vista 64.... Pretty sure XP's drivers are better.. Maybe I'll just wait... Thanks for the input though!

The MSI K9A2 v2, after what 6 weeks? Man I wan't a $30 trade up option.. Yeah! and I want one on a B3 stepping too...

You know, I think I finally found the SS for my machine... 250x10x8x8, puts my Mem right at specs, runs real stable and the only V I had to crank up was Vcore to 1.299 (it's an MSI thing )

[KTE]

Some of you might be happy to know (or not ) .. I have another Phenom 9600 BE for testing

Testing later tonight, busy elsewhere all day for now, maybe spill into the morrow.

[SQjay]

They gave the pic of the old board there though.

New board (V2) is missing Promise T3 controler (only 4 SATA on SB600).