Athlon II X4 620 OC to 3.2 GHz w/ stock cooling! - Page 3 - Overclock.net

Quantum Reality · 3 Weeks Ago

It basically follows these steps:

1. Back off your memory speed one notch. Keep the timings set as they were for the faster speed, it won't hurt. So run your DDR2-800 at DDR2-667. This keeps memory from being an issue during an overclock.

2. Begin raising the reference clock ("FSB") by 5 or 10 MHz at a time. Each time, pay close attention to the Hypertransport and North Bridge speeds. If these go too far out of spec you may have instability. So adjust these to try and keep them at around 2 GHz or whatever the default is for an AM2+ board. (For AM3 I am pretty sure it's 2 GHz)

3. After a successful boot into Windows (or your preferred operating system) run a stress test (i.e. Prime95 or equivalent) for 10 or so minutes. This is just a quick check to ensure the system won't crash right away.

4. If not, then repeat steps 2 and 3 until you reach your target.

5. If you DO see crashing very early this is where you want to begin paying close attention to your voltages. Increment these by the SMALLEST value possible until you reach stability. Don't just jack your RAM to 2.2V straight off if 2.0 or even 1.9 will do it, for example. Ditto your CPU voltage. Don't just blast 1.5V at the CPU from the get-go. Your motherboard's "Auto" settings are usually good as a baseline from which changes should be made.

6. On that note make sure you read out the defaults somehow, either via the BIOS's readouts or from CPU-Z. That way you know what they are before you go changing them.

7. Any change you make should be the ONLY change you make for that BIOS session. Go back to step 3 and redo the stability check. Then continue on.

Example:

In my case I saw a lockup just after a 3dmark Vantage test. So having been already told by people that I could have a slight voltage issue with my RAM, I incremented only the RAM voltage from 1.6V to 1.65 V. In my case the smallest allowable increment was 0.05V. I rebooted, and redid my tests. So far things seem to be OK and my USB stick issue even seems to be resolved.

Also, in terms of RAM speeds after the overclock is finished, I suspect you may be slightly over the nominal DDR2-800 at the divider which produced 667 at stock, so your OC should automatically take care of that for you.

(I'm too lazy right now to bust out the calculator)

Memtest86+ DOES NOT ACCURATELY REPORT MEMORY SPEEDS on AMD systems. Use CPU-Z to verify final RAM speeds. At 667 it will tell you 333, at 800 it will tell you 400.

scaz · 3 Weeks Ago

^ Nice right up!! Rep + 1.
The only thing I can add to that is to turn of quite and cool option if you have one. I do and it under volts my cpu got 1.o volts some times. When I am doing my overclocking that always throws me through a loop, but I love that feature for saving money!

Quantum Reality · 3 Weeks Ago

Hmm. Crap. Everest System Stability Test seems to lock the machine up after a few hours. Temps aren't outrageous; CPU cores only hit about 40-45 C and the BIOS readout says 50-55.

Running at stock to isolate if it's just a Windows Vista problem or not.

EDIT: Just found out it's due to the screen saver. Everest doesn't seem to like it.

Quantum Reality · 3 Weeks Ago

Ooh fun. Now prime95 64-bit is locking up.

Looks like my overclock may not be stable.

TheGameMen · 3 Weeks Ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quantum Reality

It basically follows these steps:

1. Back off your memory speed one notch. Keep the timings set as they were for the faster speed, it won't hurt. So run your DDR2-800 at DDR2-667. This keeps memory from being an issue during an overclock.

2. Begin raising the reference clock ("FSB") by 5 or 10 MHz at a time. Each time, pay close attention to the Hypertransport and North Bridge speeds. If these go too far out of spec you may have instability. So adjust these to try and keep them at around 2 GHz or whatever the default is for an AM2+ board. (For AM3 I am pretty sure it's 2 GHz)

3. After a successful boot into Windows (or your preferred operating system) run a stress test (i.e. Prime95 or equivalent) for 10 or so minutes. This is just a quick check to ensure the system won't crash right away.

4. If not, then repeat steps 2 and 3 until you reach your target.

5. If you DO see crashing very early this is where you want to begin paying close attention to your voltages. Increment these by the SMALLEST value possible until you reach stability. Don't just jack your RAM to 2.2V straight off if 2.0 or even 1.9 will do it, for example. Ditto your CPU voltage. Don't just blast 1.5V at the CPU from the get-go. Your motherboard's "Auto" settings are usually good as a baseline from which changes should be made.

6. On that note make sure you read out the defaults somehow, either via the BIOS's readouts or from CPU-Z. That way you know what they are before you go changing them.

7. Any change you make should be the ONLY change you make for that BIOS session. Go back to step 3 and redo the stability check. Then continue on.

Example:

In my case I saw a lockup just after a 3dmark Vantage test. So having been already told by people that I could have a slight voltage issue with my RAM, I incremented only the RAM voltage from 1.6V to 1.65 V. In my case the smallest allowable increment was 0.05V. I rebooted, and redid my tests. So far things seem to be OK and my USB stick issue even seems to be resolved.

Also, in terms of RAM speeds after the overclock is finished, I suspect you may be slightly over the nominal DDR2-800 at the divider which produced 667 at stock, so your OC should automatically take care of that for you.

(I'm too lazy right now to bust out the calculator)

Memtest86+ DOES NOT ACCURATELY REPORT MEMORY SPEEDS on AMD systems. Use CPU-Z to verify final RAM speeds. At 667 it will tell you 333, at 800 it will tell you 400.

Woa great post, thanks bro ! Rep added !
Will post back for help this weekend after I assembled my rig (got no time at the moment

)

Keep you updated !

PS: Memtest86+ does accurately report memory speeds. Because it's DDR2 it's 333*2 = 667 and 400*2= 800 Mhz

Quote:

Originally Posted by scaz

^ Nice right up!! Rep + 1.
The only thing I can add to that is to turn of quite and cool option if you have one. I do and it under volts my cpu got 1.o volts some times. When I am doing my overclocking that always throws me through a loop, but I love that feature for saving money!

Alright, thanks for the tip !

Quantum Reality · 3 Weeks Ago

Trust me, it doesn't. I had two AMD boxes report weird memory speeds - like one time, memtest86+ reported my DDR2-667 at 667 when it was at 600.

It also thinks my DDR3 RAM is at 1333 when it's actually at 1633.

Quantum Reality · 3 Weeks Ago

*sigh*

Looks like DDR3-1633 was enough to pass memtest86+ but not to meet Prime95's blend mode. Backed off to DDR3-1305 (the actual speed reported by CPU-Z and the BIOS) and it's been hunky-dory. Rather annoying though. I might take my overclock up a notch or two and nail the RAM right on 1333 and then call it a day. Finalized benchmarks to come soon.

TheJack · 3 Weeks Ago

Get a Dark Knight! You won't see 40C ever again.

Quantum Reality · 3 Weeks Ago

Okay, final results at 3.25 GHz. Interestingly enough I lost some '06 3Dmarks running the thing under 64-bit Vista rather than 32-bit XP. Other than that it looks like my OC is finalized and stable yay.

hermitmaster · 3 Weeks Ago

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=797191
3.25 on stock cooling and voltage. 55C under load, ~35C idle.

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Athlon II X4 620 OC to 3.2 GHz w/ stock cooling!

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