[Gatsu]

Hi, this is my first post on this website, I recently got a new computer & haven't done any overclocking or bios fiddling since 2005 & even then it was just simple things like raising the FSB by 20 & changing HDD/cd boot order so I'm not clued up on what values to enter & such so would rather ask experts than taking risks.

Anyway, I have the following setup:

(Links added for easy reference)

CPU - AMD Phenom II 940 Black Edition (3 ghz) - (http://www.ciao.co.uk/AMD_Black_Edit...essor__7047194)

Mobo - Biostar TA790GX3 A2+ - (http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/...n.php?S_ID=376)

*Ram - OCZ Reaper DDR2 2x2GB pc 8500 1066mhz - (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141930...specifications)

GFX - Asus EAH4870 1GB - (http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID...ohF&templete=2)

Soundcard - Soundblaster Audigy 4 - (http://www.intellect.uk.com/componen...id=74&vmcchk=1)

Case - EZcool H550 F25 - (http://www.pcgalore.co.uk/h550.htm)

HDD - 1TB SATA2 7200

DVD drive - Some samsung drive

Custom processor cooler - Arctic cooling 64 freezer pro

PSU - Evolabs 720w

Monitor - LG W2253V

No fan on back of case but that shouldn't be a problem?

Windows XP Pro SP3 (don't like Vista)
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First of all my ram is running at 800mhz instead of the 1066 it is capable of, how do I get that running at 1066, something to do w/ FSB I heard?

* - Heard 5-5-5-15 timings is best & something about 2.1v?

The mobo I have comes w/ onboard realtek audio & onboard ATI Radeon HD 3300 gfx but seeing as I'm using a 4870 & audigy 4 I should disable the onboard ones in the bios? What options are they?

I have heard about 1:1 profiles as opposed to 2:1 or something, to do w/ ram speeds?

I'm just gonna be using this system for online games really, Source mods, BF2, Arma II for e.g.

If you need any more information then just request it & I'll stick it up.
Ask if you need voltage settings or want me to take pictures of the bios screens.

As I said overclocking & bios stuff isn't my strong point, I'm better w/ windows tweaks & games configs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you for your time.

P.S - I am in England so not sure if voltages should be different over here? That might sound stupid lol.

 

[StormX2]

certainly back to the Noob level =) I feel your pain, I am clueless with my Sig Rig compared to my last Machines.

Voltage is referring to the little switch on the back of the PSU for England. Votlages should be individually listed for Memory as Vdimm, and for CPU as Vcore.

Now I know nothing about your motherboard, but if I am nto mistaken you quote simply slowly raise the FSBto increase clock speed and memory at the same time. Some mobo's allow Ratios to be set to Downlclock one item, (like lower the speed of memory, so you can crank the FSB up while raising both but without hitting the max settings of the memory)

You have alot to play with, best Suggestion is to find others with yoru motherboard and CPU. and Ask millions of questions aobut the settings and such. Even Googling your Motherboard should be able to find more post's about it and overclocking success's.

Always good to have exhaust fan on the back of the Case just for air flow. But only neccesary if you notice temps going too high with the overclock.

Also I am unsure if AM2 has the same restrictions that socket 939 had with the HT Multiplier needing to be 1000 or less (fsb x HT Multi = 1000 or less)

And I really cannot comment on what sort of Clock speeds you can achieve with that CPU. if you are using Stock Cooler from AMD, then I might nto suggest Raising the Vcore and overclockign too much as you may generate too much heat for that Cooler.

 

[Sepiida]

I am pretty new myself; however I have been playing around with the new AMD overdrive which should work on your system. It makes it pretty simple to adjust all your setting in real time as well as has its own stability test.

I have been using the CCC for my 4870 as ATI tools hasn't been working correctly for me in windows 7 x64, but I am sure its my fault for installing it wrong.

Hope this helps as far as the ram goes you should be able to up the main clock and increase the speed that its running at or change the multiplier used. AMD overdrive has the options to adjust the ram, but I haven't used that feature yet.

 

[jimibgood]

1st of all its not called FSB anymore. It is refered to as HTT. Raising HTT raises not only cpu frequency but Ram, Northbridge and Hypertransport. Your bios should have a divider. Lowering the divider will lower Ram frequency from 1066 to 800 or 667. Raising the HTT will overclock the ram from that point. So a 200 HTT at 1066 will leave Ram at 1066. HTT will raise it to appr 1080. Same as loweing divider to 800. raise the HTT you can bring ram back toward 1066. Lowering the frequency via divider usually gives more headroom to overclock. If Northbridge and Hypertransport are on auto you can play with this but if they aren't, you will raise both frequencies on each respectably. You can lower the multi on the NB to raise it back up with the HTT.. I hope this makes sence. Keep you r hypertransport under NB frequency or you will not boot. You do not need to really raise hypertransport as that does not give much more performance but a higher NB frequency sure will. Do not get so set on running Ram at 1066 as at most you will get 1% performance gain from 800MHz. keep it at 800 to start and fuss with HTT and multiplier to see where it takes you.

 

[Gatsu]

^^^ Christ that went right over my head lol.

What I've gathered so far is try out AMD Overdrive (which I have installed) & raise the multiplier from 15 & the HTT (fsb)?

About voltages, do I need to raise them or is that for ppl that run huge overclocks? I was honestly just looking to get the ram running at 1066 which is the reason I bought it, get the processor running an extra 300mhz & disable on board audio & on board video as surely they're using up some of my processing power?

About cooling, I'll add an 80mm in the front & a 120mm blowing out the back but I think it may cause an airflow conflict w/ the cooler on the processor (need to check properly), the cooler on processor is an arctic cooling 64 freezer pro so not stock cooling.

I'm not looking to overclock the 4870, well maybe later down the line but not yet.

The only topic I found on google related to my board is this - http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=580304

Not sure if that is of help.

 

[Gatsu]

Ok I've looked a little into things, now tell me if I am completely wrong or on the right track here:

Don't mess w/ the pci & pci-e clocks.

My CPU clock is 200mhz, now the multiplier is 15 so that is 3000.

Mem clock is 400

If I raise the cpu clock to 266 (267 better?) then that doubles up to 532 (534) which will change the mem clock to 533, now double that number again to get 1066 which is what the memory should then be running at?

Now as the cpu clock was raised too then at 266 x 15 I get 3,990 which will completely kill my processor running on air cooling.

So if I change it to 266 x 13 multiplier I get 3,458 which should be ok right?

Like I said the above is just stuff I've guessed at, this leads me to the HTT was it? part, that is at 1600 at the moment, ummm ram at 400 x 4 (quad core, 400mhz per core?) I take it? What happens to that?

Would a overclock of 3ghz to 3.5ghz be too much for a system w/ a 25cm (9.8 inches) fan blowing into the side, arctic cooling 64 freezer pro processor heatsink/fan & ram w/ heat rails built on?

I could take the cpu clock to 266 x 12 multiplier which would give 3,192 which would be less stress on the processor & wouldn't underclock it like x 11 would.

The processor is a black edition which someone told me meant it's a version of the 940 chipset that was found to be a good overclocker in the manufacturing process?

Would I need to change voltage settings for the above mentioned stuff, I heard the ram I have (see 1st post for ram) needs a voltage setting of between 2.1-2.2v, how does ram timing work, is it automatic or do I need to change each one myself? 5-5-5-15 is what I heard is good to aim for.

Am I right in any of the above or going the complete wrong way & getting even more lost lol?

Thanks for the current replies anyway, even if I don't understand some of it.

===---===

Just found this - http://www.xtremesystems.org/FORUMS/...d.php?t=222156

This guy had a world record overclock w/ this companies boards, maybe if I can pm him he might tell me some settings for a stable (not record breaking, problem w/ records is they kill the system quickly I'd imagine) system , then again he may be a jerk & just ignore me.

 

[Sepiida]

Unless you run into stability problems with CPU or Ram don't up the voltages this will just cause more heat.If you have ram problems you will probably want to mess with the NB voltage not the ram voltage and I wouldn't go above the 2.1v on the ram as that is what it is rated at. The Black Edition processors just have an unlocked multiplier as far as I know which means it goes above stock making it simple to overclock without adjusting the HTT.

Read the overclocking guides that are in the sticky list at the top of the forums they should clear some stuff up. I know they were good for me. My ram was showing 800mhz during POST, but read 1066 in AMD Overdrive (OCZ as well).

Also after adjusting anything check that your 24/7 stable as this is always number 1.

 

[Gatsu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sepiida Unless you run into stability problems with CPU or Ram don't up the voltages this will just cause more heat.If you have ram problems you will probably want to mess with the NB voltage not the ram voltage and I wouldn't go above the 2.1v on the ram as that is what it is rated at. The Black Edition processors just have an unlocked multiplier as far as I know which means it goes above stock making it simple to overclock without adjusting the HTT. Read the overclocking guides that are in the sticky list at the top of the forums they should clear some stuff up. I know they were good for me. My ram was showing 800mhz during POST, but read 1066 in AMD Overdrive (OCZ as well). Also after adjusting anything check that your 24/7 stable as this is always number 1.

I tried to run the memory at 1066 but the o/s wouldn't boot & another time I got an error.

Overdrive shows 800mhz & bios shows 800mhz.

I couldn't find anywhere in my bios to change the cpu multiplier, running T-Utility Overclock III app' if I go over 400mhz cpu o'c the pc reboots, w/ the pcu & mem voltages overclock it crashed at 800mhz o'c.

If I can lower multiplier from x15 down to x13 I believe I can get ram running at 1066 with a stable cpu value, if I am right the thing is where is the option to change multiplier?