[materti]

Hi to everyone, first of all I'm new member here and I'm a total newbie when it comes to OCing... Anyway, I read a lot in past few days about OCing the Pentium D 930, and guys - I need help! (a lot of it!). I have few questions and I'll start with some order:
1. If I use Zalman 7700 Cooper or Big Typhoon, do you think I can reach stable 4GHz? I don't accept any kind of crashes and lock-ups, and I use my gear primarily for Photoshop CS2 (so any sudden crash before presing Save is a huge No-way), but I also play a lot of games...
2. Can someone finaly explain me in english (although I'd prefer Bosnian, hello from Sarajevo

) whatta hell is all that talk about dividers and ratio between RAM and CPU/FSB. Correct me if I'm wrong but: If I reach 1066 FSB (266 that is...) that means that I would have to use 533MHz DDR2 RAM (again: 266...) to get 1:1 ratio? Well, then why is the market full of 667, 800, and even higher frequency RAMs when in reality you don't have the mobo to support FSB higher than 1066 (unless there's something I don't understand about unlocking the multiplier additionaly, but that damn thing is locked in 930 anyway). So the question is: Should I go with 533 DDR2 and have it 1:1, or is there some benefit of higher frequency memory and/with different dividers/ratios? Please help me with this.

I'm expecting first part of my gear to come every day now and it's:
CPU - Pentium D 930 3.0Ghz
MB - Asus P5WD2 Premium
GPU - Asus extreme N6800GT 256MB DDR3
Any other component is irrelevant to this topic I think... And as I said I need opinions (definitions and explanations

on memory and frequency
.

I hope you'll give me good tips and I'll be able to have this gear running at it's stable max!

Thanx in advance!

P.S. Sorry if I made any grammar screw-ups, this is not my native language :/

 

[Chim3ra]

Fill out your system specs. You can find a link to it in my signature.

Getting a 930 to 4Ghz stable shouldn't be much of a problem. There are people here with 920s that have gone that far.

The purpose for getting RAM at higher supported frequencies is to be able to maintain a 1:1 ratio. Your CPUs processor runs at 200Mhz (x4 for system bus of 800Mhz). When you overclock you are pushing the RAM past it's rated limit and therefore stressing it out even more. Higher rated RAM, DDR800 for example, can run DDR400 without breaking a sweat. So, it basically gives you more room to keep a 1:1 ratio with your processor. Don't let the speeds supported by the motherboards fool you. As long as the slot supports a DDR2 stick you can place any type of RAM in there that you want. Again this gives yo what we call headroom. Another bonus with this is, after you've reached the limit of your CPU (with speeds of DDR667 I doubt your RAM will be stressed first) you can tighten up the timings of your RAM to perform even better.

I know it may sound confusing (heck, I wrote this and I'm a little confused myself) but make sure you read over the guides, again you can find a link to them in my signature, and understand everything they have to offer you.

If all else fails everyone is here to help you and see you succeed. Good luck.

 

[Thumper]

Hello, and yes, you should have no trouble hitting 4Ghz on the 930.

You are getting the same board I have with my 920 and I have hit 3.92 stable on air, and am currently running at 4.02, no crashes or troubles, but can't pass Prime95 Large FFT test. I even folded Saturday for 12 hours straight, no errors or crashes.......so I am working on it.

Don't get the 7700. Get the Big Typhoon or the 9500LED (which is what I am using). The 9500 alone dropped my temps 12 degrees (ambeint temp is usually about 20-22c)......which is about what everyone reports the BT does. Both are basically silent, the only major differences are the 9500 looks cool where as the BT is kinda ugly LOL, and the BT allows you to mount higher volume (but louder) fans for more cooling where-as it is impossible to change fans on the 9500......but it does direct the hot air out of the case instead of down on the board like the BT.

 

[materti]

Additionaly - can someone explain me this: If I place 667MHz RAM should I reduce the frequency to 533 (asuming that I'll have FSB OCed at 1066) to get 1:1 ratio, and will I get better/shorter latencies... I think I might be totaly wrong here but I gotta ask. Thanks.

 

[Chim3ra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by materti Additionaly - can someone explain me this: If I place 667MHz RAM should I reduce the frequency to 533 (asuming that I'll have FSB OCed at 1066) to get 1:1 ratio, and will I get better/shorter latencies... I think I might be totaly wrong here but I gotta ask. Thanks.

It's not necessary. The RAM will run whatever the current speed of the FSB is at. For example, if your CPU FSB is 800Mhz (200x4) and you put in your 533 RAM (266x2), it will run at 200Mhz if that's what the current Bus Speed is set at. If, you have your FSB

RAM set to auto it MIGHT set a divider on you. In this case, just set the RAM speed to DDR400 or whatever the native bus speed of your CPU is. Once it's set to DDR400 you'll be at a 1:1 ratio.

 

[pauldovi]

Overclockers Austrilia did an in depth OC of the 920 found here.

Quote:

Overclocking the 920 is therefore done by increasing the FSB frequency and manipulating core, chipset, memory voltages, and the memory divider, for added stability. The Pentium D 820 in our first dual core test gave us air-cooled an additional 700 MHz, roughly 25%. This increase is similar to what is achievable with an air-cooled X2 3800+. The 65m based Pentium D 920 turned out to be of different caliber. Without additional voltage both 920 samples went up to 14 x 260 MHz = 3640 MHz. At that point we had reached the BIOS specified overclocking limit (+30% FSB) with Intel's 975XBX motherboard. Assuming that the CPU frequency could go higher we switched to the Asus P5WD2-E motherboard. By increasing the core voltage slightly to 1.40 volt and the chipset voltage to 1.65 volt it was possible to boot into Windows XP and run a few benchmarks like SuperPi or SiSoft Sandra at 4300 MHz.

Quote:

Both 920 were stable running with air-cooling above 4.0 GHz. One 920 sample was stable at 14 x 290 MHz = 4066 MHz, the other one at 4036 MHz. That is around 45% above the 920 default frequency. The memory was running at 1:1 with timings of 3-3-3-8.

Quote:

It is obvious, not only by our results but many other user reports, that "Presler" has huge overclocking potential. One report shows a phase-change cooled Pentium D 920 booting into Windows XP at well above 5.0 GHz. Benchmarking a phase-change cooled 920 seems to be possible between 4.7 and 4.8 GHz.

Hope I helped. Even though they used a 920, the difference is minimal (a 15x multiplier instead of a 14x)