durch

Ok, so you're running the X2 4600+ at stock 2.4GHz speed. So your CPU multiplier is 12 and your reference clock is set to 200MHz (200 x 12 = 2400MHz). If you look at the memory divider charts you'll see that 300MHz (DDR2 600) is completely normal for a reference clock of 200MHz, a CPU multiplier of 12, and a memory setting of DDR2 667.

If you do not plan to overclock, I would recommend the following change to re-establish speeds close to what your memory and CPU are advertised to run.

CPU Multiplier: 11x
Reference Clock: 218MHz
Memory Setting: DDR2 667

This will run your CPU at 2398MHz, or roughly the stock 2.4GHz. Lowering the CPU multiplier while holding the memory setting constant drops the CPU-->Memory divider from 8 to 7. So 2398/7 = 342.5MHz, or DDR2 685 speeds, just slightly overclocked from the rated 667 speeds. You should be able to run such a mild overclock without anymore voltage or looser timings. However, is your memory rated for 1T at 667 speeds? You might not be able to keep that tight timing at 685, but if it's decent memory you might be able to.

Also, one last thing to point out is that your HT Link will be running at 218 x 5 = 1090MHz, a 90MHz overclock from the default 1000MHz HT Link speed. Most boards can go up to 1400MHz and higher without breaking a sweat, others freak out at even a slight increase. So if you hit instability, try lowering the HT multiplier to 4x.

Quantum Reality

Excellent! Thank you. I'll be doing this shortly and reporting back to see how things improve. If anything my folding will speed up.

Oh, is prime95 a valid test for instability due to increased HT speeds?

durch

Yes, that and Orthos. By the way are you going to overclock your CPU at all? CPU speed is always more important than memory speed, as long as the memory isn't a complete bottleneck.

Quantum Reality

Hmm. Well, I don't know how far I could take the CPU on a stock cooler. What's a good overclock that would pull my memory up to 667 speeds just via the divider? (I'm actually more of an overclocker on the Intel side, heh - see sig rig. )

Edit to add -

Looking at the divider table for a 12x multiplier I see I could prolly get away with a 225 MHz-ish speed and get up to 667-ish. Nice! I'll give it a shot instead of messing with this juggle the ref clock and multiplier business.

Edit * 2 - YOUCH! I just punched in 220 MHz on the "FSB" without calculating what the output speed was before rebooting. 2.64 GHz! On a stock cooler, too. Well, nothing for it. I'm Prime95ing as we speak and if it holds up on a blended test for a couple of hours I'll call 'er good.

durch

Unfortunately the older Windsor cores aren't great overclockers. My X2 4200+ only hit 2.73GHz with a Zalman 9700 and 1.47v and that was very typical. If yours is a Windsor core of the same generation you're probably looking at similar results and might only be able to hit around 2.5-2.6GHz on stock volts and stock cooler. I also owned an X2 4000+ Brisbane that hit 2.6GHz stock volts and 2.8GHz on 1.45v.

There's so many combinations of reference clock, CPU multiplier, and memory setting to give you different memory speeds and HT Link speeds at the same CPU speed. Why don't you see how far you can take your CPU on stock volts and report back. Try these settings and this procedure:

CPU multiplier 12x
memory setting DDR2 533
timings: 4-4-4-12-24-2T (or 5-5-5-15-26-2T to play it safe)
HT multiplier 4x
manually lock PCIe frequency at 100MHz
turn off cool'n'quiet
manually set the CPU voltage to 1.30-1.35v (whatever gives you temps below 60*C at load, if your 4600+ is a Brisbane and not a Windsor the temp reading will be worthless and completely off)
manually set the memory voltage to whatever they need

Now start increasing the reference clock by 2-3MHz at a time. Try to take it from 200MHz up to around 215-220MHz slowly, as I think that's where your CPU will top out. After each 2-3MHz increase, run Orthos or Prime95 for a couple minutes to make sure it's somewhat stable. If you pass, try another 2-3MHz bump. Let us know how high you can take it on stock volts, and keep an eye on temps, increased frequency is linearly related to the change in temperature, so temps will go up a bit, just no where near as much as a voltage increase causes (which is quadratically related).

EDIT: Once I know the CPU speed you'll be running at, I can give you some combinations of settings to get your memory as close to DDR2 667 as we can without stressing the HT Link too much. Also, were you able to run DDR2 685 with 1T?

Quantum Reality

Oh, the 214 MHz + 11x trick? Worked great. I was still at 1T by CPU-Z. Don't have a screenie to show you, though.

As you can see I basically just leaped straight into the big leagues on the (and yeah, it's a Windsor core) 4600+. As noted I'm P95ing with a blended test and leaving CPU-Z and HWMonitor running to check voltages and temps. I cheated and opened the window letting in near-zero-degree C air in which I think is keeping my temps down at around 38/38 on both cores.

Edit - as this is getting a bit off topic, could a moderator split some of the posts into a separate thread just for discussing my 4600+ overclock? Apologies for the drift....

Slink

First and foremost, I agree. Sorry for the off-topic post slew.

I have the same exact core, AFAIK. Is yours 90nm or 65nm mfctr process? I was considering doing this, but I think ended up with faster performance at 12x, with looser RAM timings.

I attest to this, attempting to whine about how I can only get about 2.7GHz out of mine. I'm sure the 65nm process model could squeeze much more performance out than my E-Z Bake Oven 90nm model. (I could have gotten a grill-shaped heatsink and cooked some steaks.) Sitting pretty cool (39*C:46*C) at 2.7GHz @ 1.4vCore with a Gigabyte 3D Rocket cooler.

Hahaha I did that too, recently. I had to leave the house, but I wanted to do a safe stability test, so I set my PC on the floor, opened the bottom and top of my "storm" window, and blocked the airspace under my door with a pillow (and also the cold air return). It was about 25*F outside.

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COBSAD

Nice man, thank you and you rock.

Notorious

I'm back after so long; to embark on the next black edition journey hehe, i've learned a lot here but i didn't actually have that much success with HTT, maybe due to the MOBO, so the end result is a simple 200x16=3200 with Vcore to 1.400. It was fun.

I'll probably be gettin the next Black Edition which is the Phenom II X3 720 BE, and again will surely overclock it, but i wonder if this guide will still be relevant? And with DDR2 1066? All rules the same?,

After reading a few thread, there's mentioned that the multiplier has to be a round number like 18 instead of 18.5, somethin about how the memory controller works, so i don't understand this, i know that dividers has to be a round number also, but multiplier..i'm not really sure, is this the fact?

durch

I have not worked with any Phenoms, nor have I read a lot about how they're overclocked. I do know that they have a faster HT Link and can actually be set to DDR2 1066, which means there's at the very least new divider instructions, if not a completely different system. Hopefully some more guides and information will start to be posted for Phenoms, especially with AM3 out now. I'd be happy to write something up if someone would donate me an AM3 CPU and board haha.

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