Overclocking Opty 165 & Mushkin eXtreme RAM - Overclock.net

leimrod · 02-03-07

Ok well this has been a LONG time in the making, probably the LONGEST amount of time i've ever had to wait to get overclocking my rig.

First off, some people might of followed my build log which started at the beginning of November, after numerous set backs, rethinks, rejigs, including a lapping frenzy on every heatsink I owned, including the IHS on my Opty 165.

I bought this Opty off ebay about 6 months back off a guy who said he had managed to get it to 2.7Ghz on air, i'm aiming for 3Ghz (I like a challenge

), after having numerous problems overclocking it on a ASUS A8N-SLI and then an ABIT Fatal1ty I dug deep and went DFI Expert, and its been running perfect since. While i've had it i've spent my time buying choice pieces for the system, including the Tuniq, the HR05 and the VF900 for my 7900GTX. I've also set up a RAID 0 with 2x36GB ADFD WD Raptors. I can finally say now this system is complete and ready to be burnt alive (just in time for a C2D upgrade

)

So lets begin

leimrod · 02-03-07

First off, here a 3Dmark06 screenshot with everthing at STOCK

Also, whenever i've overclocked before, getting my RAM to allow me to overclock my CPU has always been my headache, which is why I bought this Mushkin xp4000 RAM to give me some headroom. I could not get it stable past 240 (DDR480) on my previous ASUS A8N-SLI, so I thought for a while they might of been dud sticks, turns out the boards fsb limit was holding me back. Since having them on my DFI Expert (OCZ Tonys BIOS) they have been running like a dream. I got some help over at the Mushkin forums as to what I should have my timings at, they are:

Code:

Command Per Clock- Enable 
TCL- 3.0 
TRCD- 4 
TRAS- 8 
TRP- 3 
TRC- 7 
tRFC- 16 
TRRD- 2 
tWR- 3 
tWTR- 2 
TRWT- 4 
tREF- 0780 
tWCL- 01 
DRAM Bank Interleave- Enabled 

DQS Skew Control - auto 
DQS Skew Value- auto 
DRAM Drive Strength - Level 7 
DRAM Data Drive Strength - Level 3 
Max Async Latency- 8ns 
DRAM Response Time - Fast 
Read preamble Time- 5ns 
Idle Cycle Limit- 16-32clks 
Dyanamic Counter - Enable 
r/w Queue bypass: 16X 
Bypass Max - 07X 
32 Byte Granularity - Disable (4 bursts)

Here are some screenshots of benchies in memtest86, I ran them while I was at work:

At 250 (DDR500) @ 2.61v

At 260 (DDR520) @ 2.61v

At 270 (DDR540) @ 2.61v

*bummer* At 280 (DDR560) @ 2.61v

Still i've got some headroom with my voltages. Next i'm going to try the RAM at 280 @ 2.71v and see if I can pass 8hrs of memtest86.

Just for ****s and giggles I threw my cpu multi up to x9 and booted into windows to run 3dmark06. w00t an extra 700 points having the RAM at DDR540 and the CPU at 2.4Ghz

leimrod · 02-05-07

bummer, couldn't get it stable at 280Mhz @ 2.71v. I'm going to leave it running today 280Mhz @ 2.77v and see it that makes a difference.

**The Duke** · 02-05-07

Have you worked the below method yet?
http://www.overclock.net/faqs/31782-...pu-memory.html

leimrod · 02-05-07

well I haven't read that thread before but I know that information. Why do you recommend it anyway, can you see something that i'm doing wrong?

BTW, when i'm testing the RAM, I have my HTT multi at 3x and my CPU multi at 6x, which hopefully removes them from having any effect on my RAM overclocks.

**The Duke** · 02-05-07

Ok, you know whats to do then

I recommended it because a lot of peeps don't know it

Have you tried to dig up known good Genie settings for your RAM? That can save a lot of time and hastle!

leimrod · 02-05-07

from reviews over at dfi-street I decided on the OCZ Tony BIOS for my expert, which seems to give pretty good RAM overclocks. I've also got advice over at the Mushkin forums on the best timings for this RAM (see 1st post) which seem to be working thus far (although I would like to have them tighter)

Its irritatiing not being able to see how the testing is going at home while i'm in work. I'm thinking I might VNC into my home machine and run the stress testing that way, although I won't be able to change BIOS settings. If I can pass 280Mhz then i'll be happy with that. It will give me a good base for when i've reached my CPUs limit.

I tested the CPU at 2.4Ghz in Orthos last night and the load temps maxed out at 40'c. So i've still got 15'c of headroom to play with before I have to stop overclocking.

leimrod · 02-06-07

Well here are some more pics, getting difficult to get them stable at 280Mhz, although the number of errors over a 9 hour period are going down with the more voltage I give it.

Also a note, the Dominator Airflow fan IS making a big difference. I tried running it at 270 @ 2.61v and it spewed out over 3000 errors after a few hours, when I turned the fan on I got no errors

Anyway, getting back to this RAM, here it is at 280Mhz @ 2.77v, 11 errors *dammit*

Here it is at 280Mhz @ 2.8v, 4 errors, better, but not good enough

I'll be trying some higher volts tomorrow, if I can't get it stable at 280Mhz before 2.9v then i'll throw in the hat and begin overclocking the CPU.

I did notice one thing about 3Dmark06, having my CPU overclocked by 600Mhz only gave me around 600 extra points, whereas I ran a test with my graphics card overclocked by only 20Mhz and it gave me an extra 200 points. 3Dmark06 seems to be heavily weighted towards the graphics card. I'm going to be running some superpi benchs when i'm overclocking the CPU.

leimrod · 02-07-07

*dammit* ok thats it, i'm not wasting anymore time trying to get this ram stable at 280Mhz, i'll work on maybe seeing if I can get the timings tighter at 270Mhz.

I tried 280Mhz @ 2.84v today and it failed after 9 hours with 29 errors, I also forgot to take a picture

I'll try setting Trwt to 3, Trfc to 15 and maybe set CAS to 2.5 if i'm lucky.

leimrod · 02-09-07

Man, nobodies interested in this I guess, too many Opteron 165 overclockers out there atm

Well, ok this morning I had a few free hours before I had to go to work so I decided to do some quick and dirty overclocking, and it DID NOT go well. I'm not hitting any overclocking walls, but my temps are horrible... seriously horrible.

I threw my Opty straight up to 2.7Ghz @ 1.35v (300x9) and it passed 30mins of OCCT. Went up to 2.8Ghz, which caused a BSOD at boot, so I threw my CPU VID up to 1.4v, I got into windows now, I ran OCCT but after only 4 minutes both of my cores where at 60'c

I quickly exited out of OCCT and thought of my options... of which I have none

i'm not going watercooling, and i've got the best possible aircooling heatsink atm, both the IHS and HS are lapped, and i'm using the proper amount of AS5 (my idle temps at stock clocks are around 22'c)

So I really just have to accept that the best possible overclock i'm willing to risk is going to be 2.7Ghz, which, in fairness, is a bit of a bummer. Although I don't know what I expected, the guy I bought it off was using water and could only get it to 2.7Ghz as well.

I suppose it works out good for my RAM at least, as i'll be able to run it at 270Mhz at this clock.

The settings i'm going to try and run Orthos stable at are as follows:

FSB: 300
CPU Multi: 9
HTT Multi: 3
RAM Divider: 9/10 (giving me DDR540)
RAM Timings: (same as above) 3-4-4-8 1T
RAM VID: 2.61v
CPU VID: 1.35v

I have one question though, do you think it would be possible to get my CPU stable at 2.8Ghz @ 1.35v by increasing the volts to something else? Like my LDT or chipset? Even changing some of my RAM timings?

My main problem is heat atm, i'm sure I could get more out of this chip if I could get it stable at less volts. Any ideas?

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Overclocking Opty 165 & Mushkin eXtreme RAM

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