Winnie 3500 / 4400 mem overclock A8N SLI

[Grapper]

Well, this is my first post here at the forum, and even though I am really new to "extreme" overclocking that you are talking about in here, I have read tons of overclocking -related material but am still at a loss when it comes to the results I have gotten with my modest overclocks.

First off, as some people know there is a problem with the A8N high FSB and running memory @1t.

This is the heart of my setup:
90nm Winchester 3500+ (primed stable at 2650 Mhz, havent dared to go higher than that)
A8N SLI Deluxe on 1003-006 Beta bios
Corsair TwinX 4400 XMS http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair...24-4400C25.pdf (not the platinum version, but the black one)
2*6800GT@365*1.07 (cant get them higher on stock cooling. Suspecting PSU too)

1. I have not fiddled around with my settings that much. Only thing I have set i CL @ 2.5 and Cmd rate @1T whenever possible.

2. These are the results I got with different settings

TEST 1:
235Mhz FSB
11* Multi
4xHT
2.5CL
1T
Mem locked@400Mhz
2585Mhz

Sisoft Sandra:
Inte. Buffered: 6654
Float Buffered: 6585
Cpu Arithm. : Dhry 10724
Whet 4068/5313
CPU Multim. : 19224/25381

Everest
Read: 6482
Write: 2178
Lat: 45.6


TEST 2:
275Mhz FSB
9*Multi
3xHT
2.5CL
2T
Mem locked@400Mhz
2475Mhz

Sisoft Sandra:
Inte. Buffered: 6362
Float Buffered: 6365
Cpu Arithm. : Dhry 10264
Whet 3890/5072
CPU Multim. : 18400/24312

Everest
Read: 7244
Write: 2146
Lat: 42.7

TEST 3:
265Mhz FSB
10*Multi
3xHT
2.5CL
2T
Mem locked@400Mhz
2650Mhz

Sisoft Sandra:
Inte. Buffered: 6207
Float Buffered: 6225
Cpu Arithm. : Dhry 11013
Whet 4160/5437
CPU Multim. : 19693/26009

Everest
Read: 7160
Write: 2109
Lat: 43.6


These results dont really make sense to me since the memory tests are all over the place in between the different tests. I just dont know what part to look for more than other settings. I guess that test no. 2 is the least preferable one, but which setting looks better for me between Test 1 or 3? As I said, I havent fiddled around with timings that much because I really dont know what this mem can handle, especially on this board. When I was playing around at the start I managed to corrupt my win installation so it was just to start all over again. Really intelligent!

Are there any other settings an expereienced a8n SLI deluxe clocker can share with me that have somewhat similar memory? I guess I have TCCD on my chips as far as I understand it?


Anyhows, you gotta start somewhere, and I am such a novice compared to most people here, but I hope you arent too hard on me. I just want to squeeze as much out of my system as possible and getting advice from pros whenever possible.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[DazzXP]

Pretty much the same as my system and i can't get much higher then 237Mhz myself. What PSU are you using? I have a Thermaltake 480w ATX 1.2 so am short of a 12v lead :o Ordered an Antec NEO 480w PSU ATX 2.0. One thing i have noticed is when using 1.65v it really runs at 1.52v huge undervolt wouldn't you say? At 1.63v runs at 1.62v @ 2575Mhz yet at when running with a higher FSB and clock of 2615Mhz it undervolts further which could very well be the PSU.

[Grapper]

Pretty much the same as my system and i can't get much higher then 237Mhz myself. What PSU are you using? I have a Thermaltake 480w ATX 1.2 so am short of a 12v lead :o Ordered an Antec NEO 480w PSU ATX 2.0. One thing i have noticed is when using 1.65v it really runs at 1.52v huge undervolt wouldn't you say? At 1.63v runs at 1.62v @ 2575Mhz yet at when running with a higher FSB and clock of 2615Mhz it undervolts further which could very well be the PSU.

Hey!

Yeah, this board seems to undervolt like a bastard ;-) I have read several posts of people having problems with undervolting, no matter what PSU they use. But you mean over 237 with a 1T CMd rate right?

I have tried three different PSU's. At first I was using a Hiper 480W 20-pin PSU, but I got lousy +12V rails (around 11.5 under load), so I bought myself a 24-pin Fortron Source 550W with 36A total split on two rails (18A*2). Believe it or not, the +12V rail was still low.
Today, I tried a 480W Type-R Hiper rated at 18+16A on the 12V rails, and it is by far the best one yet. It really surprised me because I thought the FS 550W with more Amperage on the +12V rails would blow the other two out of the water.

Today I am getting pretty stable rails, but adjusting the Vcore in Bios doesnt really do any good. I am having severe problems getting over 1.475 vcore no matter what I do, and I am thinking it must be BIOS related. I might be able to hit higher speeds if i go for the max vcore, but I dont want to do that before I see what the bios update does.

[DazzXP]

Yeah my 12v rails are something like 11.58 which seems quite low but it is a 20pin PSU which may have an effect on overclocking. More so considering my 6800 PCI-Ex are using the motherboard to power them.
Yeah 2575Mhz = 1.62v 2615Mhz = 1.58v quite a diffrence considering they are using the same 1.63v selection the only diffrence being the increase in FSB and overall clock speed.

Yeah i am also using CMD T1 i WILL NEVER use T2!!!

[Grapper]

So what other setting you running that mem with?

[hitek420]

zebby

I hope you get some of your problems sorted out, also you should send me that ram so I can let my 3000+ go for a run.

[DazzXP]

I run my Corsair PC4400 @ 2.5/3/10/3 237MHz (I know it is good upto 260Mhz at that setting), I have also tried my Geil PC4000 and i can't even get it stable at 250+MHz FSB either which points to the board NOT locking the PCI bus even through it is forced in the BIOS. Since i dropped my memory voltage down to 2.7 rather then 3.0, my CPU voltage has gone up a bit.
2615Mhz now runs with 1.62v rather then 1.58v much better now

It does look like either board issues, BISO issues or PSU issues. I guess with my 12v rails being so low this could limit my boards FSB overclock possibly that and the board is minus a 12v rail that what it's ment to have.

[Super strokey]

THose are some pretty darn good results for a first timer! I can help you much but i can say that its nice to see peole coming to the forum after they have put in a good solid effort on their own! Kudos to you!

[hitek420]

bump

[orig3n]

I dont get it? im running corsair 4400c2 aswell and its good for 300 atleast with 2T. It craps out at 260 with 1T though, dam board