[THaNaToS_J2]

I recently got a freebie AMD 3400+ @ 2.4Ghz. The heatsink that came with it is massive. I don't know the Zalman model number, but it feels like it weighs more then the entire case I'm putting it in; huuuge fan.

The motherboard (which model I don't remember off-hand since I'm at work) is definitely made for OC'ing. Given the fact I can lock the AGP bus @ 67 and the memory I'm using is not your 'budget ram', what's a realistic overclock I can attain?

I have an aluminum case with great airflow. A 180mm fan directly over the CPU on the side door and the top, front, and rear fans are 120mm.

I've overclocked P4's before and my video cards obviously, however this is my first AMD chip and I'm uncertain as to what I can milk out of it, what settings to use, and what temps I should avoid.

I'll be happy with 2.6Ghz, but hoping 2.7 or 2.8Ghz and stable is achievable with this chip and decent (non-stock) cooling.

Any comments or thoughts would be welcomed.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mr. Jules]

2.6 should be doable but your power supply is going to be a major player as well, only time will tell. Get us some more details and fill out the info for your system in user cp. Check out the ocing guide on the forums for great info on where to start with your first AMD OC.

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

Once I get home I'll update as much info as possible.
The PSU I do know, although I got it a while ago, I think it's decent enough:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182016

This is the memory I'm using in it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227084

Other components chewing up some power:
Dual Raptors.
SB Audigy
Dual DVD-R/W's
ATI x850xt @560/580. (If I need to cut it back to 540/560 PE speeds to up the OC on the CPU, I'm willing to do it. I only got about a 5fps avg increase with that OC anyways...)

I'll get the mobo details when I get home. I'd fill out the info you mentioned, but this isn't the pc I use all the time. It will eventually turn into an extra server that could be used as a low-mid level gaming rig.

Thanks for the quick response by the way! If I can get this baby to 2.6Ghz and running stable, I'll be more then satisfied.

 

[Mr. Jules]

I wouldn't personally bank on the PSU a whole lot, it will likely run your system without problems but overclocking is going to stress it a lot and I just don't know Rosewill's name well enough to say I stand behind it. The memory on the other hand is really nice stuff.

You can try ocing it but I would just caution you with that PSU. You have some nice hardware in that rig and I'd hate to see a faulty PSU take part or all of it down.

Get that mobo info and let's move you on to 2.6+!

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

http://www.uabit.com/index.php?optio...ge=1&model=176

It's an Abit KV8 Pro.

Let me know what else you need from me and I'll be happy to provide it!

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

Mr. Jules,
I figured, what the hell, let me just take another crack at it. Here's what I did and I've had windows up and running for about 15 minutes now which is 15 minutes longer then I made it last time!!!

225 x 12 @ 2700Mhz
Up'd the voltage from 1.5 to 1.525
LDT set to 3
Dropped my memory speed to 333.
AGP locked @ 66 (I thought I had 67 for some reason, but I can also go to 74 should I chose to.)

Anything you can recommend or anything that looks out of place?

***Edit***
Ok, quick update.
Every minute or so I was getting memory errors while playing CS:S.
Bumped down to 217 x 12 @ 2604Mhz and just played 20 minutes of CS with zero errors. I'll see how it holds up all night! Very happy right now though.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for now! Thanks!

***Edit2***
90 minutes later, zero errors/crashes. 2.8 would still be nice, but I'll take this!

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

Ok, granted this isn't an 'official' benchmark to use for stability, but I have been able to keep the chip OC'd to just over 2.6Ghz with 100% stability while gaming for 5 or 6 hours straight. I figured with my video card OC'd to the speeds I have it at, if it survived that heat (room temp of 70 degrees), I should be good to go.
Does anyone have the same chip and if so, can you tell me the speeds you were able to get with decent aftermarket fan cooling? I think my memory timings may have been the cause of the errors and I want to work on fixing that.
Thanks.

 

[Mr. Jules]

Well sounds game stable, and if that's enough stability for you then great. What kind of temps are you running into at full load with your CPU though? Aftermarket cooling might be a consideration if you are running close or over 50c while under load. As well what is the default vcore on the CPU, 1.4v or 1.5v?

Glad to hear all is coming along well, that's a good OC but if you are looking to push it even harder more vcore may help. Get back to me and we'll keep workin' on it.

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

I don't remember temps off-hand. I'll look into that tonight.
Last night I up'd the LDT to 4 and it ran fine and things did actually feel 'smoother' oddly enough. Didn't think I'd notice a difference from a gaming standpoint.

I'd still like to hit 2.7, but I'll have to look into the temperature and playing around with my memory timings.

CPU voltage was 1.5 and I knocked it up to 1.525 for the OC. Seems stable. We'll see though.

 

[Mr. Jules]

Yeah, check those temps cuz a .25 overvolt is nothing in terms of overclocking. You can "safely" work within +10% vcore so you have a lot of room to play with regaurding the vcore so long as your temps are cooperating. Upping the LDT can cause instability but if you aren't running into any with it at 4 then that's just fine too. Get back to me when you get home about those temps.

 

[Grim]

Droppped ram down to 333MHZ? :\\

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

Was running @ 400 and would consistently get memory errors every minute or two while playing CS:S. I thought dropping the speed down would balance out everything in the long run.
Memory errors went away, stable gaming for 5 or 6 hours with zero crashes. As I said before, that's not a legit benchmark to use, but I primarily use my pc for gaming and not running prime or any of the other bm utils.

If I did something wrong there, I'm open for suggestions!

 

[The Duke]

Good work so far

Orthos for testing is a good idea, as is keeping the full load temp while testing with Orthos # or below 50c... even though some push to mis 50c range it's good to keep below it, especially with the current out door temps!

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

Sorry taking so long to get back to you here.
I decided to try out winXP 64bit to see if I notice any improvement. After the trouble it took to find the correct 64bit raid drivers for my board I was just about to give up, but I got it installed. Then CS:S was behaving rather odd under 64bit so I'm reinstalling XP 32bit.
I'll post those temps in a day or two once I get my box rebuilt. For the meantime though, that OC has been holding steady! I was a bit concerned about the temperature until I thought... wait a sec, I didn't pay anything for this hardware and it's my first AMD OC; if it goes boom, it goes boom!

 

[Mr. Jules]

Yeah, let us know!

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

Ok. Backup up and running under WinXP Pro 32 bit. 64 bit was um... entertaining to say the least.

At any rate, I've been running the torture test on the CPU for about an hour or so and my temp has hit 46 degrees max. Seems to be staying around 45 for the most part.
Room temperature is 78 degrees right now. I probably should kick the AC on when I get a chance, but I figured I'm never in here without the room at a comfy 68.

I'll check back in a bit and see how things are going. Hopefully I can hit that magical 2.7Ghz! If not, I'll count my loses, be happy with 2.6Ghz and work on getting that memory timing tweaked @ this speed.

Thoughts?

 

[The Duke]

Mid 40s gives you some room to increase th OC.

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

Alright, it's been just under 2 hours.

Max temp hit 48 degrees while the room temp sat at 78degrees.

I kicked it up to 220 x 12 @ 2640Mhz. Ram timings still need work. I can't get the system to even post @ 400. 333 is fine @ 2-3-2-5 - 1T

I'm a bit tired so I'll work on this again tomorrow. I'm going to re-run the tests before I go to sleep and check them in the morning. ~8 hours of stress testing time should show whether or not this OC will remain stable!

Any suggestions on the memory?

 

[terraprime]

what brand and model are your ram dimms anyways? you would prob also get a better oc if you back the timming to prob 2-3-3-6 but thats a maybe not to mention your Async Latency and Read Preamble.

 

[THaNaToS_J2]

System specs are in the 3rd post of this thread. I have a link there for the memory.
Just out of curiousity, anyone know the maximum safe operating temperature for this particular chip? i.e. what is the realistic maximum this chip can run @ without fear of doing any damage to it or the mobo?

*** Update ***
Ok, exactly what I was afraid of... While gaming the temp hit 71. I figured that would happen with th extra heat of the video card in the case. I really need to know what's the 'max' temp I should be avoiding. I checked some sites on-line and some said 70 was fine, while others said that was getting dangerously high. Curious to other 3400+ OC'ers and their temps when you have both the GPU and CPU humming away.