DFI Lan Party UT 250Gb overclocking

[Nickthenerd]

I was wondering if there was anyone out there that has played around with the socket 754, DFI Lan Party UT board. Despite its reputation, I haven't gotten much headroom out of it so far.

Can someone give tips or suggestions on how best to overclock with this board?

I have an A64 3200+ @ 2.0 ghz. I'm using two 512 sticks of Corsair XMS Pro PC3200LL memory. Cooling is done with the Thermalright SLK 900u which keeps the chip below 46C under full load. I have the SATA locks on, i've turned off my parallel and serial ports, the onboard audio, 1394 controller, secondary IDE controller etc.

I have tried increasing voltage on the ram as high as 2.8V. I also tried increasing the chipset and the AGP but still can't get a stable overclock past 2.15 ghz.

I'm using Windows XP Pro with SP1 with all up to date drivers.

One thing I noticed is that if I try disabling CPU throtlling, the PC fails to boot and I have to reset the jumper on the motherboard to get it to boot again.
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[BUFF]

One thing I noticed is that if I try disabling CPU throtlling, the PC fails to boot and I have to reset the jumper on the motherboard to get it to boot again.

You need to update your BIOS as it sounds like you are on the original release.

Is the SLK-900U socket 754 compatible?
Is your 3200+ (a Clawhammer if 2.0GHz) a CO or CG stepping? You may have a crappy chip.
RAM at 1T or 2T (btw 2.8V on that RAM is nothing)

Where's StormPC when you need him?

Main place for help http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/

[Chimpie]

Well, I've got a DFI NF3 myself and got 2.5 GHz out of my AMD64 3000+ without much problem! Haven't even raised my vcore!

Remember to change the HTT-multiplier to 3x. When using SATA, use ports 3 and 4. Ports 1 and 2 don't lock well. Also, find out if ur memory can run above specs. Change memory mult if u have to. And, what Buff said, check DFI-street!

Good luck!

[StormPC]

Chimpie is correct.

The DFI is the best overclocking S754 board I've tested but you have to know how to overclock in order to take advantage of it. There are many things you need to know. You need to go to xtremesystems.org and read every thread about overclocking the DFI and A64s in general.

Here's a couple more hints:

Try just one stick of DDR. You'll get much better overclocks. Also, max volts for the DDR is required for the best overclocks. Don't go over 1.55V on the vcore, it's not necessary and with your DDR volts max'd out it's better not to go too high. Turn off all automatic overclocking and thermal throttling features. Disable AGP fastwrites and sideband addressing. Get a PCI SATA RAID card like a HighPoint RocketRAID. You'll be able to hit much higher HTTs if you keep your Raptors off the onboard controller. Don't be afraid to use the 5:3 (333MHz) RAM divider. On A64s there is no penalty, as memory is always running async even at 2:1 (1:1).

[Nickthenerd]

Sorry about the late response. I really appreciate the advice. I think I will just leave one stick in there... I was suprised how little the extra stick of memory helped in benchmarks, the added headroom in overclocking seems to have made up for the performance loss.
Another irratating thing I noticed was that a stick of my Corsair "low latency" stuff with aggressive timings performed within a point of a new stick of Corsair Value select in 3dmark. Ah well.

I'm excited to learn about the tons of options available with this board, and hearing about a 3000+ at 2.5 ghz is inspiring.