Overclocking Opty 144 on Asus A8V Deluxe

[GingerNinja.net]

Hello

I've read both of these articles (this and this) and am currently running a 12-hour PRIME95 test of the maximum CPU value that I think I have found on my board.

I have the following kit:

• Asus A8V Deluxe Rev 2.00 board with 1017 BIOS.
• AMD Opteron 144 CABNE BPMW with Venus core (according to CPU-Z)
• 4 x 512MB (2 matched pairs) Corsair 3200XLPRO memory

I originally purchased the Asus A8V Deluxe with a 3800+ as they were both blisteringly fast at stock speeds and I was too scared (even at the age of 31!!!!) to push things by overclocking as I don't trust myself on anything other than air.

When I read all the stuff about the new Opty's being air-friendly overclockers, I got myself a 144 CABNE and thought I would give it a crack, but so far it doesn't look like my board will push it past 2400Mhz, which is stock for my old 3800+.

So far, I believe that my values are as follows:

• Max HTT/FSB = 300Mhz (safe value = 285)
• Max Chip = 284Mhz (safe value = 270)
• Memory = tbc

Now, I think that either:
(a) I am testing something wrong and my data is screwed
or
(b) the board isn't able to overclock the chip as far as it is capable as the maximum the multiplier will reach is 9x and 300Mhz i.e. these are the maximum settings
or
(c) the chip is downward multiplier unlocked, hence why I can only see 9, and it is the fact that the chipset doesn't go above 300Mhz which is holding me back.

Any thoughts from anyone? Anyone know of any better values that I should be using i.e. you have this board and know it runs better?

HELP!!!!!???

[project187]

i have been told to drop the ram to 133 then the other multi to3x and the cpu multi to 6 and then go up and up i have been told to just follow that 2nd guide

[GingerNinja.net]

i have been told to drop the ram to 133 then the other multi to3x and the cpu multi to 6 and then go up and up i have been told to just follow that 2nd guide

Looks like I need to go back to the drawing board then.

I don't mind admitting that I am very confused by some of the terms. When I look at my bios, I have a HyperTransport Frequency setting which is currently set to 1000 and that is it. The only other section under "CPU Configuration" that has anything approaching configuration options I recognise are under the Memory configuration in the same section. CPU mutiplier and frequency are under frequencies and voltages.

Anyone else know their way around the AMIBIOS on the Asus A8V Deluxe?

[Max Tractor]

What volts are you giving the cpu, and 4 sticks of ram will also hold the clock back or default the ram to 2T timing

[Jonny]

The HTT which is set to 1000; what other options do you get?

[GingerNinja.net]

What volts are you giving the cpu, and 4 sticks of ram will also hold the clock back or default the ram to 2T timing

At present, I was following the first guide and only putting 1.55v through the CPU.

Regarding RAM, I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't go for 2x1GB of OC friendly RAM and sell my two pairs of 3200XLPRO memory.....
That said though, I had read somewhere that the Opty's were fine with 4 sticks of RAM as the memory controllers had been improved?

[GingerNinja.net]

The HTT which is set to 1000; what other options do you get?

I get the options to set the "HyperTransport Frequency" to any of the following:
200
400
600
800
1000

That is all the options that I have within the BIOS. I feel certain that there is something "missing" as when I get my boards values from ClockGen, it allows me to push the HTT into the 400's, but this option is not available in the BIOS. What is locking it down?

hunts on google for "400Mhz HTT on Asus A8V Deluxe"

Just found this forum thread with the following snippet of information which helped things get clearer in my head:

the 200,400,600,800,1000 is the speed of your HyperTransport and potentially what is holding you back.

normally this is referred to as LDT and is in the form of a mulitplier but your BIOS has it as values instead. think of it as this. 1000 = 200HTTx5 so it's the same as a multiplier of 5. 800 = 200HTTx4 so it's a multiplier of 4, and so on...all of this if your HTT is at the stock 200. with your HTT at 275, with this set to 1000, your asking the HyperTransport to run at 1375 (275x5)...this is not possible. even with it set to 800 (or a multiplier of 4) your aksing the HyperTransport to run at 1100MHZ (275x4) once again, not possible with the K8T800 chipset for the most part. so this means you will want to set this to 600 which is effectively a multiplier of 3 giving you 275x3=825 and well below the stock 1000MHz. this might make your system stable at this overclock and allow you to keep raising the HTT.

What I find so confusing is that in all the guides people make reference to dropping my HTT level, but nobody starts off telling me to drop the HT Frequency (which I didn't know was also called LDT) except for a single sentence telling me to keep it under 1000Mhz. I guess this means that I need to drop the frequency each time I want to go up another notch on my HTT i.e.
200Mhz with a 9x is fine to run at 1000Mhz as 200x5 = 1000

if I need to change HTT then I need to drop my HT frequency? Say I wanted to run it at 300Mhz (the max I can see on my board at present!) then I should drop HT Frequency (LDT) to 600Mhz (3x):

300Mhz with a 9x is fine to run at 600Mhz as 300x3 = 900 (under 1000).

Have I got this right?
Anything else I need to know and work out?
Anyone want to come and do it all for me?

[teggs11]

if I need to change HTT then I need to drop my HT frequency? Say I wanted to run it at 300Mhz (the max I can see on my board at present!) then I should drop HT Frequency (LDT) to 600Mhz (3x):

300Mhz with a 9x is fine to run at 600Mhz as 300x3 = 900 (under 1000).

Have I got this right?
Anything else I need to know and work out?
Anyone want to come and do it all for me?

yes you've got it. you must always keep the total value under 1000. see
the following guide which is for overclocking DFI boards but the principle is the same

Guide: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823

Same guide in PDF format: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28049

One thing i would suggest, as stated in the above guide, is to test one thing at a time i.e. test your cpu, then ram but not together otherwise you'll never know which is causing your crashes. good luck!!

[GingerNinja.net]

yes you've got it. you must always keep the total value under 1000......One thing i would suggest, as stated in the above guide, is to test one thing at a time i.e. test your cpu, then ram but not together otherwise you'll never know which is causing your crashes. good luck!!

Thanks for that. Skim read through the whopping 42 page PDF and lots of good stuff in there.

REALLY wish that I had looked into this a lot, lot sooner as I would probably have gone for a 146 Opty rather than the 144 I went for if I had realised that (a) my board wouldn't allow me to go further than 300Mhz in the BIOS and (b) the 144 only gives me a multiplier of 9 whereas the 146 has a multiplier of 10. I may have been able to reach 3Ghz with a 10x OC as it is possible to do on air.

That said when I spoke to Scan about the Opty's they had in the 144's were all CABNE but the 146's were all CACJE or something which weren't as OC friendly, so I probably just as well off. Despite this anyway, I reckon I should be able to reach 2.6Ghz which is the same as an FX-55 so why am I moaning?
As long as I surpass 2.4Ghz (which is the same as my old 3800) I will be happy.
OK - not happy. A begrudging live with it type of feeling, but still.


One last set of questions for anyone out there:
- Would I do better with OC friendly RAM in 2 x 1GB sticks?
- Why does ClockGen give me a setting of upto 400Mhz HTT but the BIOS doesn't?

Thanks to all for your help on this.

[BUFF]

Tbh with a VIA K8T800 Pro board you might be lucky to even reach 300HTT stable

[Max Tractor]

One last set of questions for anyone out there:
- Would I do better with OC friendly RAM in 2 x 1GB sticks?


Thanks to all for your help on this.

Your current ram has probably reached it's limit, I take it you are running 1:1, running 1:1 with a64 is not important as on an xp barton system, you will lose very little with running the ram on a divider.

I would suggest stick the htt to 3x, set the ram at 166 divider, turn the cpu volts down, and start from there, when you find the cpu limit or in this case the board, tighten the timings on the ram, this will also improve performance

[GingerNinja.net]

Tbh with a VIA K8T800 Pro board you might be lucky to even reach 300HTT stable

Thanks, Buff. Guess I should have waited that extra month or so, way back in '04 and waited for the nForce 4 boards to come out so I could go with PCI-E instead of sticking with AGP.

What board would you suggest moving to or isn't it worth it?

Your current ram has probably reached it's limit, I take it you are running 1:1, running 1:1 with a64 is not important as on an xp barton system, you will lose very little with running the ram on a divider.

I would suggest stick the htt to 3x, set the ram at 166 divider, turn the cpu volts down, and start from there, when you find the cpu limit or in this case the board, tighten the timings on the ram, this will also improve performance

TBH, Max, I haven't even thought that far - but you are right. Initial indications are that I am starting from 1:1 as changing it to 2:1 (which is listed as DDR400 in my BIOS) makes it flakey at anything above 200Mhz on the HTT. With regards to that, what divider would 166 or 133 be? DDR333 and DDR266?

I am reading through the very in-depth Mad Shrimps guide which says that same as you and working from there. I'll let you know how I get on!

[Max Tractor]

DDR333 is 166

DDR266 is 133


As for a new board, if you wish to keep the agp card you have(what is it anyway) you should have a look at the asrock dual sata, around 40quid has both pci-express and true agp8x and clocks very well. I would battle on with your board at the moment and see what you can squeeze out of it.

cheers

[GingerNinja.net]

DDR333 is 166

DDR266 is 133

Thought so, thanks.

As for a new board, if you wish to keep the agp card you have(what is it anyway) you should have a look at the asrock dual sata, around 40quid has both pci-express and true agp8x and clocks very well. I would battle on with your board at the moment and see what you can squeeze out of it.

cheers

AGP card is the XFX GeForce 6800 GT. Still a perfectly good card at able to play BF2 on my screens native res with everything up near full. Considering my budget for kit is DOA for a while, I have no plans to upgrade my graphics card (and with it my MoBo) for a while yet. I would only consider getting a new MoBo if my one is truely dire.

[BUFF]

~260HTT is probably realistic with a K8T800 Pro (although I'm not familiar with the ASUS A8V typical results & some Abit users have done quite a bit better) which with your 9x multi gives 2.34GHz.
Asrock 939 Dual SATA will only go to 274 with the stock BIOS (there are modded BIOS that will go past that).
The other AGP option would be an nF3 mobo like MSI or EPoX which should do 300HTT - someone had an EPoX in for sale section for~£30 iirc

[Xaar]

You'd be better off switching to a 146, as the 10x multiplier would help you out alot..

I've had 144's reaching 2.9ghz (CABNE's), but have yet to encounter a 146 that fails to do 2.8ghz (even the CACJE do that easily).

One of the main factors is the boards ability to handle a high FSB, and IMHO, unless your using a DFI, it's not worth using a 144 as your boards more likely to reach it's limit way before the cpu does.