Llano in the house... (as Charged :-) )

[Yeroon]

Well I had a post saying i found a solution, but then it seemed like I had a double post, so I deleted it, only to see it wasn't. Awesome.

Anyways, stumbled across Asrock's tuning program helping out my crashing issue. If I open AXTU, my comp is actually decently stable, in both tf2 and 3dmark11. Same bios settings, but without opening it, I fail before the first 3dmark test finishes loading. Open, I finish the test if everything is good. No clue why, but it works. It ain't magic, I know, but now its just normal overclocking "work". Got my best test score to date, 1453 at 132. Hoping to breaking 1500 with the new ram. tf2 had some playing issues at 132 but I think my NB was too low volts, fixed a similar issue at a lower clock later on.

I'm just glad to be able to play crash free, at least more then before, and I can make headway when it does. Right now at 3.49Ghz and 1.375 cpu volts to make it 3dmark11 stable, its using 150w at the wall, doing boinc science 4 cores @100%. It did this fine at 1.325v, but bugged out the physics test/combined.

I'll keep you guys updated if you want. I use the watt meter as a good oc tool, real easy to see when its not going to boot, verify crashes, etc.
Yeroon

[The Stilt]

Once more baby..

This was my final run on Llano, and now it is time to say goodbye

As my Asus board is beyond repair I had to fix the (also previously broken ) Gigabyte for this run.
Replaced the burned VDDP controller + a resistor and it was good to go.

Unfortunately Gigabyte boards set the NCLK divider quite high and the lack of adjustment will be seen as a major performance hit.
Also the DRAM does not overclock as high as on Asus boards, so the memory bandwidth and IMC were heavily oversaturated during the run. In addition the buck controller on GB has a tendency to lock in fixed voltage mode eventhou it should always operate in offset mode.

After maxing the offset to +300mV I could not set the GNB VDD any higher than 1.325V, which most likely limited the clocks heavily.
I have run the chip at the same voltage on air cooling, 970MHz was not a problem.

Anyway a 100% overclock for a second gen. IGP is reasonable in my opinion

3DMark11_1.2GHz_SCLK.jpg

http://hwbot.org/submission/2300757_...50d_2063_marks

[Lightman]

Reasonable is not the kind of word I would use

Now where is your Trinity to torture?

[S1nn3r]

So everything has now arrived, but due to some issues there is gonna be a little delay before I can start build and get in (late) on the Llano fun finally.

One of the issues perhaps someone here can help advise me on, im "retooling" as my existing screwdrivers are not in ideal condition. Trying to find a nice driver and extension(for getting to motherboard screws) without magnetic grip for the bits is a huge pain. But im wary of such things near HDD's and the like. As long as the bit itself isnt magnetic does it matter if the grip for the bits is would anyone say ?

3670K came today from Amazon, no none mentioned how little and cute the box these come in is smallest retail CPU/Cooler box ive ever had anyway. Also ordered the final 3 items on the list ..

Cooler: Coolermaster TX3 Evo
Storage:
OS - 120GB Sandisk Extreme SSD SATA3
Media - 500GB Western Digital Caviar Green SATA3

I have some other things to sort out before I can start build in addition to waiting for the above to arrive but all being well should have this thing up and running by end of next week.

Total including all shipping for this build is £574.64 .. which I think is pretty damn good for what I have crammed into it, 8GB RAM,OCable Quad Core,SATA3,USB3,fast SATA3 SSD and with all good quality components. Though we shall see once its built if this low budget gamble will pay off, this is the least ive ever spent on a new build by about £1000 or more.

[The Stilt]

Now where is your Trinity to torture?

Here you go:



(Click to enlarge the image)

[Lightman]

Here you go:



(Click to enlarge the image)

That was funny!

Thanks for getting my hopes high!

[FlanK3r]

nice Piledriver avatar..

[Yeroon]

Well,

I'm done with my over clock. Took me 2 days with most of my spare time trying, but I hit my goal. Then I did one better.

Hope this isn't too big.

Yeroon

EDIT: dropped my cpu multi since I wasn't planning on running that high anyways, down to 3.43ghz at 1.335v, and tried th mem back at 11-13-11 since it did that at 134 bus, and got the same 1517 score! Very happy with that.

[Miwo]

nice results. I get P1405 with my 3670k running at 3.4 / 960Mhz and 1866MHz DDR3
Quite amazing what these fusion chips can do. I play Tribes Ascend regularly at 720p Medium details. Max Payne 3 is also quite playable with IGP, maintain over 30fps at 720p in crazy Multiplayer matches.

We've only seen stock Trinity benchmarks, but Im a bit skeptical on how much it will be really better vs a similarly clocked Llano IGP. Power Consumption-wise, it should be a nobrainer but at stock, the A10-5800k's IGP is 33% faster than a stock A8-3870k GPU. 800MHz IGP on Llano is pretty easy to obtain and it seems to cap out around 900-1GHz on conventional cooling. Trinity OC headroom has yet to be seen though.

[Daveburt714]

I've finally finished the rebuild of my HTPC/Server rig using the Llano 3500 I mentioned earlier...
I'm really impressed with the power consumtion compared to the X2 550/785G rig it replaced!
Performance wise it seems better too (for my use), especially video performance.
Alot of the gear is the same, but I was going for power efficiency since this machine runs 24/7/365.

Keep in mind this rig was built to be low power, not a hot rod (although I did OC a little)...
All in all, I'm only into it for ~$170, and I'm confident it was money well spent!

Anyway, heres the gear used:

CPU: Llano A6 3500
Mobo: GBT A75-D2H (combo deal @ MicroCenter for $90)
Mem: Samsung 2x4gb lovo kit 1600 CL11 , running ~1800 9-9-9 @ stock voltage ($45 @ MC)
PSU: Antec Neo Eco 400w (NewEgg deal $30)
SSD: 128Gb OCZ Vertex (old gear/OS drive)
HD's: 3x 1.5tb Seagate green drives (4.5tb total/old gear)
Video: Haupagge dual tuner card (old gear)
NIC: Wireless D-Link N-Extreme (old)
Opti: DVD Lightscribe re-writeable (old)
Phone: Magic-Jack (old)

Considering whats under the hood you have to admit these power numbers are pretty impressive!

Idle:


Load (Prime Blend):


Here's some shot's showing the mild OC (Undervolted by .10v ):


Turbo Mode OC:


The OC isn't impressive, but it's been VERY stable and theres no exotic cooling involved (just the box cooler from a 965):




Sorry if I'm rambling... I'm just pretty happy with this upgrade!

[BeepBeep2]

Nice dave, could you tell what kind of ICs are on those?
If they are the new 30nm Samsung stuff they will probably do 2133+ CL10

[Daveburt714]

Nice dave, could you tell what kind of ICs are on those?

Thanks Beep... It's the low profile stuff, pretty sure they're 30nm, heres a pic:



Since it's an APU and video is sharing the sys mem do you really think looser timings/higher clocks would be helpful?
Before I even messed with the base clock I set the mem @ 1866 9-9-9 and the machine wouldn't post...

I'm really trying to tune this for power efficiency so I'd like to leave the mem @ 1.35v.
That being said, if I can squeeze a little more out of it and stay in the same power envelope I'm game...

[The Stilt]

On APUs: Forget the timings and raise the MEMCLK as high as you can.
The tighter timings certainly would not hurt, but Samsung is generally HLHC (high-latency, high-clock) stuff.

[Daveburt714]

On APUs: Forget the timings and raise the MEMCLK as high as you can.
The tighter timings certainly would not hurt, but Samsung is generally HLHC (high-latency, high-clock) stuff.

Thanks Stilt...

I really did'nt intend to OC this rig, but I just can't help myself.

I'm sure theres more on these Samsungs, and I trust your opinions!
I'll work on memclocks a little more, 2k @ 9-9-9 is looking good for now though...

I'm trying to find a nice balance, the fact that clocks help more than timnings on an APU is good info!
Thanks Bro...

[Lightman]

As Stilt said go for mem clock even if it will mean CL10 or CL11 as long as it gives you reasonably higher effective clock.
I like your idle power with all them toys in HTPC

My currently idles around 95W but that is because it temporarily serves as my main rig so it's overclocked with C'n'Q disabled and HD6970 in it! Still miles better than my old overclocked 1090T which idled at around 170W!
When I get back my main rig I will retest idle consumption on it. I expect around 55W with my PSU (380W Seasonic S12-II) and APU.


EDIT: It turns out my HTPC takes 40W at idle I'm pleasantly surprised, as it is A6-3650 100W chip.

[S1nn3r]

May have noticed a lack of posting in this thread after I received all the parts for the Llano build and my creation of the Socket 939 thread, these are related.

I have not done any building/OC for 5 years, and I feel kinda out of practice and also the last build I attempted in that timeframe ended up being a nightmare(bit of an long story this one, maybe another time/thread heh) that I had to abandon for all sorts of reasons and this kicked my ass confidence wise so im using the "Revenge of S939" build as a low risk practice/warm up as it were to get me back in the groove.

[Daveburt714]

As Stilt said go for mem clock even if it will mean CL10 or CL11 as long as it gives you reasonably higher effective clock.
I like your idle power with all them toys in HTPC

EDIT: It turns out my HTPC takes 40W at idle I'm pleasantly surprised, as it is A6-3650 100W chip.

Nice efficiency Lightman...
I tweaked my power profile to shut down the drives after 15mins and got down around the 40w range too (without ill effects).

As for my Samsungs, I must not have a strong kit (week 1220), after alot of tweaking the best I could get out of them on that rig was ~2090 10-10-10.
Even that required a voltaage bump to 1.4v to eliminate some random screen sparkle after sitting for a few hours...
To be fair though, the locked Llano limits my OC headroom because of the HTRef Clock and max 1866 divider.
I'm still pretty impressed with the power/performance level of Llano compared to FX though!

After playing with this chip and seeing your results with the 3650, I really wish I would have spent a little more and gone for an unlocked version.
From my light testing (and your results) I'm pretty sure I could have had low power with more ballz...

I'm still switching gear around, the sammys aren't all that impressive in the main rig either though!
Even @ 11-11-11/1.60v they crapped out ~2250...

C'mon AMD... I'm jonesing for some new gear.
Be it, FX-8350 or 5800K, I need some new toys!

I've never considered it before, so don't make me go to the Dark Side...

[FlanK3r]

both CPU for me. 5800K and FX-8350 .

[richierich]

the 3670k is on sale at tigerdirect for $75

[Yeroon]

Any of you guys manage to get high overclocks in ahci/raid mode? Picked up an ssd/ installed a raid 0 hdd setup, but i'm stuck at 104 in raid mode. I lose the raid drive at startup at 105, and the ssd gets lost at 108 in either raid/ahci.
After getting my mem up to 2550, its quite disappointing to have it limited to 1940 because i can't up my baseclock higher. I tried it at 133-136, doesn't fix it. Asrock m-itx board. If theres a fix, awesome. Also,if theres a m-itx board that the dividers kick in properly that works too, I'm planning on upgrading to trinity, can "fix" it that way in the future. It seems like a waste to have 2400+ capable ram with a igpu stuck <2000.

Yeroon

[BeepBeep2]

104 is rather awful, but there is no way to get high bclk with AHCI or RAID.

[noobzed]

Is it good ?

[Yeroon]

Have you tried lower cpu volts? I got to 3.7 off of 1.425 bios/1.45 peak loaded to do 3dmark06. Otherwise, looks good. You got a build listed i missed?

Yeroon

[S1nn3r]

May have noticed a lack of posting in this thread after I received all the parts for the Llano build and my creation of the Socket 939 thread, these are related.

I have not done any building/OC for 5 years, and I feel kinda out of practice and also the last build I attempted in that timeframe ended up being a nightmare(bit of an long story this one, maybe another time/thread heh) that I had to abandon for all sorts of reasons and this kicked my ass confidence wise so im using the "Revenge of S939" build as a low risk practice/warm up as it were to get me back in the groove.

Managed to use the 939 build enough to get in the groove, tomorrow is Go Time for assembly of the Llano build all being well.

Noob like question though. Ive been out of things build/OC wise for a good long while so what would be a good set of utility's for CPU and Memory performance/stress/stability testing these days ?

[S1nn3r]

Managed to use the 939 build enough to get in the groove, tomorrow is Go Time for assembly of the Llano build all being well.

Noob like question though. Ive been out of things build/OC wise for a good long while so what would be a good set of utility's for CPU and Memory performance/stress/stability testing these days ?

Case turned out to be faulty, awaiting replacement then I can finally finish this thing

Not seeing much happening in this thread lately, everyone abandoned Llano or something ? am i really that late to the party ..