[conqst99]

Hi Guys -
I've been reading on this forum for a few weeks after a few people from other forums suggested that this forum is the BEST for quick and accurate responses.
I recently completed my new build after getting upgrading parts over the past half year. Please see my signature for the stuff (hopefully it shows up in this thread!). After fiddling around for the past 1 1/2 weeks trying to get my new Opty 148 to a stable 2.8 overclock, I'm not having too much luck. Everything seems to fail in Prime 95 after about 5 hours or less.
Without repeating too much from the signature, I'm using a MSI K8N Neo4-F motherboard with an Opteron 148 CACJE chip and G. Skill 2gb dual kit DDR500 running 3-4-4-8-1T at DDR510 speed.
Here are my settings:
-FSB 255 at 4X HTT mult
-Memory running 1:1 with FSB speed (200 setting in BIOS) with 3-4-4-8 1T timings and 2.6v (2.6v to 2.8v recommended but people say 2.5v is nice if you have that option in the bios which I do)
-CPU mult 11x with 1.497vcore (1.45 plus 3.3% special vid)
-NF4 chipset set to 1.6v (1.5v stock)
-All spreads disabled

Something here is holding me back. I am running 1.6 Platinum bios which I heard is good for OCing on the board. I've heard people getting up to 3ghz speeds stable with their OPty 148's ...maybe my stepping is not that good? I kinda think either my memory has something setup not quite right or the chipset volts is picky (it redlines at 1.75v in the bios...the most I can go is 1.7v).
Anyone have any ideas? At 1.5vcore, I'm running around ~43C under load and ~32C idle. I can probably go up to 1.55vcore and see if I'm stable there but I really don't like the added voltage cuz my temps will most likely jump up to mid to high 40's.

Thanx all.

 

[Ty Auchter]

I'm not sure about AMD but I know Intel CPUs can handle up to 75C temps... Of course you don't want to get that high, but 50-60 is acceptable. You should look into other cooling options though if you're really worried about it.

 

[Ste]

First thing to do is to slow down your ram to ensure that is not limiting you. Do this by selecting a slower divider than the one you're on now.
If you still fail Prime then you'll need to add more vcore until it's stable.
If you pass Prime, then keep the Ram speed a bit lower, run 2T timings or increase the vdimm slightly. Also, have a play around with some of the other memory timings in the bios as these can have a big effect on memory stability as well. Leave nothing on "Auto".

If you want a quick estimate of system stability then you can run OCCT. It takes 30 mins and is excellent, particularly for CPU stability.

If you're getting around 5hrs Prime though, you're very nearly there. Prob just a little more vcore is necessary.

Edit: Also, if you're running above 250HTT, then you should drop your HT multiplier to 3x and see if that helps at all.

 

[shortfuse]

Show a screen capture of ur cpu-z showing cpu and memory. have u checked ur current voltage on vcore? cuz if ur going by with what the bios says its sumtimes incorrect, u mite be going 1.497v but in reality ur going lower.

 

[shortfuse]

Sorry for the double post but heres sumting that u need to calculate ur ram speeds its pretty easy to use just input the numbers fsb and dividers and multi. and it will calculate the ram speeds and cpu frequency for u.

 

[Ste]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shortfuse Show a screen capture of ur cpu-z showing cpu and memory. have u checked ur current voltage on vcore? cuz if ur going by with what the bios says its sumtimes incorrect, u mite be going 1.497v but in reality ur going lower.

The bios shows the correct value. Software often shows a lower voltage, but is slightly inaccurate.

 

[shortfuse]

Its not true. i tested my psu with my multimeter its not giving me the correct voltage im at 1.45v with 9.9% it should be 1.59v but its only giving me 1.55v same as cpu-z. i guess what im saying is it depends on ur psu.

By the way with this settings im getting 34c idle and 43c full load.

 

[Ste]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shortfuse Its not true. i tested my psu with my multimeter its not giving me the correct voltage im at 1.45v with 9.9% it should be 1.59v but its only giving me 1.55v same as cpu-z. i guess what im saying is it depends on ur psu.

Yeah, if you've tested it with a multimeter then there's no doubt

 

[conqst99]

Thanx for the response guys -
Never heard of OCCT but I'll look for it on the net to download. I didn't try a 180 divider as I'd like to keep the memory at 1:1 if possible at 2.8 since I'm so close and really don't wanna knock it down to 2T over 1T cuz I heard that really lowers the performance. After all, I'm only ocing the memory a mere 10mhz total.
I really have no idea other than the standard 4 # timings and voltage as to what to mess with in the dram page but changing it from "auto". I did try upping the vdimm but I've heard it becomes unstable with too much voltage depending on the motherboard.
As for the vcore, I've noticed with the Core Center software that the vcore fluctuates + or - .05v probably due to using the special vid which makes it go up and down. My fixed vcore is maxed at 1.45v. ALthough it is set to 1.497 in bios, I notice that it drops to 1.44 sometimes in Prime and then goes back up.

 

[Ste]

Quote:

Originally Posted by conqst99 Thanx for the response guys - Never heard of OCCT but I'll look for it on the net to download. I didn't try a 180 divider as I'd like to keep the memory at 1:1 if possible at 2.8 since I'm so close and really don't wanna knock it down to 2T over 1T cuz I heard that really lowers the performance. After all, I'm only ocing the memory a mere 10mhz total. I really have no idea other than the standard 4 # timings and voltage as to what to mess with in the dram page but changing it from "auto". I did try upping the vdimm but I've heard it becomes unstable with too much voltage depending on the motherboard. As for the vcore, I've noticed with the Core Center software that the vcore fluctuates + or - .05v probably due to using the special vid which makes it go up and down. My fixed vcore is maxed at 1.45v. ALthough it is set to 1.497 in bios, I notice that it drops to 1.44 sometimes in Prime and then goes back up.

You only need to drop the memory speed temporarily to test whether it's the ram or the cpu that's unstable. After that you can raise it again. 2T and 1T Command Rates don't really have much effect on real world apps (maybe upto 5%), but have quite a large bearing on benchmarks. You should be able to keep 1T though. If it is your ram that's unstable then see what gives you the best performance/stability by changing the memory speed and command rate around. CPU speed should always be the main aim. Get this as high as possible and then work your memory around this and not the other way around.

There's some good info on the other memory timings at DFI Street. It's aimed at DFI boards, but just as applicable to an nF4 board. I'll edit with the URL for you in a minute.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11397
Although these are often overlooked. Leaving at auto can cause instability. My games kept crashing and these settings were the culprit, so worth spending an hour getting these right really.

 

[shortfuse]

Attached pic is ur current set up, ur ram is running fine if u have it on dram/divider 1:1 200 and its on 255mhz with 11x multi and fsb of 255 with 3.80ghz. what i really think the problem is voltage on ur vcore. i suggest raising the vcore to the max and wait for the weekend so u can monitor the computer temp while running prime (since ur worried about high voltage)

 

[The Duke]

Once you find the sweet spot for the vcore/VS% you should do better... Many OPtys don't like high vcore, mid to high 1.5 range but some do like a low 1.6 push and watch the full load temps, 50c max!
And like said... push the divider further to OC the CPU... you can always tweek the RAM back up!

 

[shortfuse]

OFF TOPIC!!! ste how reliable is occt? is it the same as prime? i have never tried it and kindda tired of the long wait running prime.

 

[conqst99]

I will try out the suggestions you guys wrote over the weekend when I have more time to monitor / test. I guess I'll lower to 2T but my ram timings can't go much lower than 3-4-4-8 can they? That's pretty low already. I should also mention that my memory uses the UCCC chips so maybe higher volts is no good although the suggested range is 2.6 to 2.8?
I know my motherboard will do all the way up to 325fsb on 3x so no trouble there.
Maybe I'll try upping the vcore to 1.55 and see how high I can get with the memory lowered while monitoring temps.
Do you guys think high 40's under load is ok for the opty?

I'm also interested in this OCCT program...where can I find it? Prime takes WAY TOO LONG for testing.

 

[Ste]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shortfuse OFF TOPIC!!! ste how reliable is occt? is it the same as prime? i have never tried it and kindda tired of the long wait running prime.

Personally, the way I stability test is 30mins OCCT and then run games. I've never seen OCCT pass an unstable CPU, but it tends to miss small instabilities in the ram occasionally. I just run Quake 4 or CoD2 straight afterwards. Normally the games will pick up memory errors very quickly and then I'll just tweak the timings.
Prime is good, but you really need to run 8+ hours Large FFTs and then the same for Small FFTs to guarantee stability. Blend often misses small instabilities as well, like OCCT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by conqst99 I will try out the suggestions you guys wrote over the weekend when I have more time to monitor / test. I guess I'll lower to 2T but my ram timings can't go much lower than 3-4-4-8 can they? That's pretty low already. I should also mention that my memory uses the UCCC chips so maybe higher volts is no good although the suggested range is 2.6 to 2.8? I know my motherboard will do all the way up to 325fsb on 3x so no trouble there. Maybe I'll try upping the vcore to 1.55 and see how high I can get with the memory lowered while monitoring temps. Do you guys think high 40's under load is ok for the opty? I'm also interested in this OCCT program...where can I find it? Prime takes WAY TOO LONG for testing.

Those timings are really as loose as you'll need to go. You could maybe try vdimm upto around 2.9v, but upto 2.8v will prob give the best results.
High 40s isn't a problem at all for your CPU, just try and keep below 50°C if possible and certainly no higher than 60°C.

Here's OCCT: http://www.ocbase.com/downocct.html

 

[shortfuse]

from amds website ( i think cant remember where i saw it) opteron is rated to go 60c but i wouldnt suggest it, aslong ur temps are under 55c it should be ok

I just downloaded occt and im impress how its intergrated with speed fan. im running a cpu test right now 41% complete with 94.2 cpu usage and temps is 42c.. hmm not bad?

heres a link for occt http://www.infos-du-net.com/en/telecharger/OCCT.html

 

[conqst99]

2.9v is over the suggested voltage for my memory. I tried 2.5v but this is only stable for up to 2.75, not 2.8 oddly enough at the 3-4-4-8 1T timings. You would think that the higher the volts for the mem up the the max suggested is the best but not so for mine, too much fails prime much quicker.

I downloaded the program...thanx! I'm excited to try it out this weekend!

BTW, CoD2 is my favorite game and the main reason that I'm trying to OC.

I'm sure I'll be able to get stable at 2.8 with a 1.55vcore and the chipset volts set at 1.6 and vdimm at 2.6 but was hoping to lower some of those a bit to keep temps down but oh well.

OFF TOPIC! I just wish (WISHFUL THINKING!) that there was a good program out that would take your motherboard, memory, chipset, and cpu into account and test variable settings to find the best result. There's alot out I'm sure but most people say to stay away from them. But if it were only to give suggested ones that could be tweaked in the BIOS.

 

[conqst99]

Shortfuse -
Please let us know how you make out after its done. I'm gonna try it out this weekend.

 

[shortfuse]

i just got done running the cpu test so far max load was 42c, its kindda cool how its intergrated with speed fan and once the test is done it actually gives u a graph chart on how ur voltage reacts during the test.. i highly recommend this program. and oh yeah im running the torture test figured run test after test for stability hehehehe.

STE!!! that graph. chart that i mentioned where does it go? under what file was it saved?

 

[Ste]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shortfuse i just got done running the cpu test so far max load was 42c, its kindda cool how its intergrated with speed fan and once the test is done it actually gives u a graph chart on how ur voltage reacts during the test.. i highly recommend this program. and oh yeah im running the torture test figured run test after test for stability hehehehe. STE!!! that graph. chart that i mentioned where does it go? under what file was it saved?

Not 100% because I'm not at home. Check in the OCCT folder through My Computer and I think there's a folder called Graphs. Definitely gets saved to this folder somewhere.