Athlon II X4 620 Overclock memory questions

Ok, so during newegg's black friday sale I picked up some new ram and a cpu cooler. After installing the cooler, I decided to see how far I could OC my Athlon x4 620 (with 3.5 being my goal).

Anyways, I managed to reach 3.5 stable, but I'm stuck on trying to figure out how to get my ram above 1080mhz. I have to have the ram multiplier at the lowest value in bios (4) in order for it to even post. If I increase it to 5.33, it won't even start and reverts to stock settings. I tried manually editing the timings to stock (9-9-9-24) and even tried to loosen them up, but nothing seemed to really make a difference. I also tried boosting ram voltage by .025 to see if it made a difference, which it didn't.

Here is the link for the ram:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

And in case it's needed, here's the motherboard I'm running

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128398

So, I'm not sure what to do here. I've done some reading that may indicate that I need to boost the voltage to the NB or HT, but neither of those are really being pushed at all. Here are cpu-z screenshots:




I'm confused by the two different listings of timings for the memory... the memory page says 6-6-6-15, while the spd page says 9-9-9-25. As of those screenshots, the memory settings are set to auto... other than the memory multiplier. Either way, I'm just trying to see how to get my memory up to 1600mhz... if that even matters at all. If there's not really a performance loss from where it's at to where it should be, then I won't even bother, but I'm not expert on these sort of things, so I thought I'd hit up the forum to see what people say (I recognize there's a million threads on oc'ing this/similar cpu(s), but nothing that really addressed what I'm trying to figure out, not to mention that each instance is different).

Just to put it out there, heat isn't an issue, it tops out at 45c under load for extended periods of time.


Thanks in advance,

Edit: I also just realized my ram isn't running in dual channel mode... even though it's in the proper slot configuration (i.e. slot 1/3)... any thoughts?
Edited by iGman - 12/5/11 at 10:45pm

Ok, good to know what SPD is referring to. How much would you recommend increasing the cpu and NB voltage? I tried boosting the NB by .1 (the max it offers is + .2), the cpu by .25, and manually set the ram timings to stock, but every time I do that, the computer won't even post... it just beeps three times and resets. It could be that I just need to add more voltage, but I don't wanna just start throwing voltage at things, unless that's what actually needs to happen.

Ok, regarding setting the cpu/NB, there are two NB settings in the bios; there's the northbridge voltage, and the NB VID voltage. From what I've read, the NB VID is the cpu's NB. However, I'm a bit unsure of how to know if I'm giving it 1.35v. The gigabyte bios only gives the option of how much you want to increment it, not the actual voltage where it's at. When I open AMD overdrive, it says the nb vid is 1.175v... which would require a substantial voltage increase to get it to 1.35 (similarly, the northbridge voltage is listed at 1.2v). As for the nb frequency, I went and did as you suggested and upped that to ~2400, but that makes no difference for the time being, at least till voltages are upped.

Anyways, thanks for the replies and I look forward to figuring this out;

I haven't played around with ram slots yet, may get around to that tomorrow. I figured out that the voltages weren't showing because of the old bios version I was running. I updated it today and set the nb to 1.35, but that still didn't make it boot. I'm fairly convinced it has to do with the timings... every time I edit the timings, even if it's just copying the exact same settings that it was running on auto, it trips out on me. If I set it to the lowest multiplier, it automatically runs up some low timings (see: cpuz screen above), but at 1000ish. If I up the multiplier to 5.33 (~1400 - I would be perfectly happy with getting 1400 at this point), it decides the timings should be around 7-7-7-??. If I try put the timings that should be there... the 9-9-9-24, it just beeps and won't post... even though it's a looser timing. It makes no sense to me. I even copied the auto settings from bone stock settings (which it decides is 11-11-11-28) and it still won't take it. I've copied the exact same thing auto says, and it still freaks out (that is, not post).

Anyways, I've tried all this shenanigans with varying NB voltage (up to and a little above 1.35) and didn't get it anywhere (I even tried putting the NB at over 2600 with the voltage, but the ram wanted nothing to do with it... again, at the higher multiplier, the auto setting was for a lower latency than what the ram was able to do at that speed [and if I even touch anything in the DRAM config, it trips balls].... I don't think it all really has to do with the NB at this point, but it could... I don't really know). So, for now it sits at the low timings and low frequency - and given what said about being better off with tighter timing and lower speed... I'm curious if sitting at the equivalent of 1066 with CAS6 is a worthwhile tradeoff for the overclock? I'm kind of tired of fighting with it - given that it won't let me change any timings or seem to respond to anything other than what it decides should be set on auto.

Anyways, I'm curious to see what suggestions you guys might have.

Thanks for your feedback so far, and I appreciate your help;


Update: put the ram into the appropriate 1/2 for dual channel. I have no idea why I had it the other way... Anyways, tested all the aforementioned tweaks with dual channel... but it makes no difference to the oc.
Edited by iGman - 12/7/11 at 3:14pm