New to overclocking...need help!

haha, I dont think that anyone really intends to ignore new people... especially since the thread is barely an hr old.

Anyway, I dont know if I really qualify for this, as I'm still learning about my 720 BE, but I do have a pretty good idea how all of this works in general.

a) since FSB has been replaced, things have changed, but its actually pretty simple.

The HT replaced the FSB in how it communicates with all of the other components on the mobo. The reference clock and a multi still determines the CPU speed, and now the only real difference is that the HT speed is based off of the reference clock and its own HT multi.

The NB is what communicates with the memory through the IMC, so a higher NB clock will make for faster memory access times and the like.

b)Since the introduction of DDR2 and 3, the ram will now run at speeds higher than twice the reference clock (which is the 1:1 ratio that you're talking about). If your ram is rated at DDR1066, and your reference clock is 200, then there is no way that you would want to run a 1:1 divider, because you would only be running DDR400. So I would leave it where it is for right now, or lower it to DDR800 speeds if you're messing with the reference clock.

c) I'll be honest here, this part lost me. You say you cannot change it, but that you can change it...? the HT link can run up to 2.6GHz if i'm not mistaken, so you should be fine right now. So If you could clarify this part a little, we might be able to help out more.

d) what kinds of options do you have that you cant figure out?

Good luck, and welcome to the forum

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I'm no AMD expert, but I'll fill in what I know.

-Many of these abbreviations and such can be googled and voila. It's a good idea to have a second computer/laptop up so you can google things.
-clock skewing is for when you think you've reached your max overclock. you then adjust the clock skew to re-align data transfers through your memory controller...

lemme pull up a few guides/other resources.

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exactly, we all had to learn this stuff as well, and sometimes a search will help out alot.

I have no experience with that mobo, but vddnb looks like the NB voltage. And without more context clues (or pics of the BIOS pages) I really dont know ehat those other things might be. I would look up the manual for your board, and it should be able to clear things up a bit for you.

Also, with the FSB gone, there really isn't an advantage with having a higher reference clock. The HT has more than enough speed and bandwidth, that its the clock speeds that are important, and not the ref clock.

Good luck

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I don't quite understand what you're saying at some points. Specifically this:

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You said that you've never gone above 200MHz, but then you use 250x8 for your CPU? And that would have it at 2GHz, not 1.6GHz. Where does that 1.6GHz come from? edit--I see, you're saying the HT is 1.6GHz, right?

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The 500MHz that shows in CPU-Z is not the effective data rate of your ram--the effective data rate would be twice that, so you're actually at 1000MHz (since RAM is DDR--double data rate). This is probably why you had to loosen the timings to 6-6-6-18 as opposed to what they would be for 800MHz. If you want your RAM at 800MHz, you'd have to use the right divider in the BIOS for that (not familiar with your bios). And for that, you need to know your bus frequency (reference clock)--which brings me back to my first confusion. Is it at 200MHz, or 250MHz? I guess CPU-z says you're at 250MHz bus freq.--but then I don't understand when you say you haven't gone above 200MHz for your cpu...?

EDIT--open up the SPD tab in CPU-z. What does it say your RAM timings should be at 1000MHz (if it lists them)? vs. 800MHz?

im sorry, i meant that i had never gotten above 200mhz fsb/ht ref clock. but i WAS currently at 250.. and yes i set my ht to 1.6 to achieve it..1.6ht aka 8x ht multi. and when i set my ram to ddr800 it was down from its factory ddr2 1066... so being at 500mhz effective 1000.. it was down 66mhz... from factory.. and to get that i had to relax the timings but i dont know why i would have to if my ram was actually running slower then stock. i finally achieve the faster cpu ref clock just to learn in a post that it doesnt matter what the ref clock is since the HT is so fast... and 250x8 = 2ghz anyway i realised that cpu ref clocks are basically for those without a Black edition cpu? cause i made it to 3ghz but i lost alot of performance in the process.. im back to 200x15 for 3ghz with 2ghz HT and 2.4ghz NB Freq. was a waste of time but its good to know cause i will prolly o.c my girls pc this way.. she doesnt have a BE =( i really only wanna o/c cause i feel cheesed with my gtx295/9950 be cause games like GTA4 and cryostasis wont let me max the gfx with smooth FPS..i guess it doesnt matter what the GFX card is no matter what new games are made to run maxxed on pc's from 5 years down the road it seems. i'm not impressed with my gtx295 at all =(.. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING EVERY1! AND i know i'm confusing, i confuse myself

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I'm trying to be constructive, please don't get offended. Personally, I don't like to try and read these walls of text. Just look at how other people split up their posts - hit enter twice before starting a new idea.

Or even if it's the same idea, but you're starting a new segment of that idea. Makes it a lot easier to read.

Nobody's trying to ignore you, it's just tough to read. I do see the "THANKS FOR EVERYTHING EVERY1!" there, so I'm guessing you got helped - good!

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Anyone who ignored his first post didn't do so because he's a new member--they ignored it because it was confusing. I understand someone writing a confusing post--I'm sure I've done it as well--but while people here want to help others, at the same time, if they can't quite figure out what's going on, they're not going to take the time to figure it out--nor should they. But it has nothing to do with how "old" the member is.

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No performance gain from overclocking your HT. The HT at stock has more than enough bandwidth for anything needing to communicate through it. So OC'ing it beyond that won't bring any more performance. I believe--at least on S939 and the first AM2 motherboards, there was a study done that showed that even running the HT at half of the stock speed still didn't diminish performance.

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Agreed, people usually wont respond to a thread that they know next to nothing about, and since this IS slightly more obscure than other things, I can see why that might slow some people down.

I would also like to point out that the first post was like 2 hrs after the thread was started... thats not being ignored, at least not now I see it.

And yes, being clear does make a big difference. The OP took some wading through before I could figure out exactly what was needed.

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Correct, the HT has such high bandwidth, that OCin it does next to nothing. The only thing that I have ever heard it effects even marginally noticeably, is boot time. That test was done by good old joe and a few others around here.

Good luck

i only ignore new guy threads when they are going

Hi i have this [insert really high end specs here] and i am trying to over clock to
[insert insane overlock here]

then i just think some noob trying to look cool, and move on

that may not be the case, how ever most of the time it is

other then them threads i do answer questions when ever i have the time

oh and the other kinds of threads of
hey i am building a new system does this setup look good "insert really high end and expensive hardware here]

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The DDR2-800 ram setting is referring to the ram speed when your HTT speed is 200, since you raised the HTT to 250, so does the ram speed. The 500mhz speed shown in CPU-Z is right, you're running your ram at DDR2-1000 right now (you need to double the CPU-Z number because rams run at double data rate). Since your ram are capable of 5-5-5-18, go into bios and manually set the timing to those value. Also remember to raise the voltage to the specified voltage (usually 2.0-2.2v for DDR2-1066 rams).

Please don't be offended, but since you're very new to overclocking, it's a lot easier to overclock by multiplier instead of HTT. As the posts before said, overclocking the HTT bus gives negligible gains anyways. If you want to overclock further, simply fine the multiplier setting (sometimes called CPU Ratio or CPU Multiplier) in the bios, and increase it by 0.5, then test for stability and repeat until you're unstable. Increasing the multiplier will not change your ram's speed, so you don't have to worry about the ram causing instability.

Eidt: In your first post you mentioned it's not stable at 3.2ghz, you can either try backing down the HTT to stock then oc through multiplier alone (your 9950BE has unlocked multi), or try upping the NB voltage a little.