Opteron 144 Overclock

[bright_]

lo, a nooby here, Just happened to find it in google, which was useful!

Havign read quite a few of the posts in here, A lot of peopel reccomend the oppy 144 for overclocking. I bought one from scan mid december as they just so happened to have the CABNE stepping batch in, which I thought was mint.
I've since bought an Abit AN8-Ultra mobo, 2nd hand (trusted source) to stick this oppy in to overclock. I won't have all my parts till the backend of this month, but I have never done an overclock myself.
I've read up and talked to loads of friends who've overclocked, and I want to try and get 2.8ghz out of this sucker, with a Gigabye G-Pro cooler.
What i need to know is
a) whether the gigabyte cooler is a good option, it read up well in a couple of magazines, and seems to have good airflow.
b) will my motherboard be able to take this thing to 2.8GHz, whats the max voltage I can have on the board?

Basic specs of the machine.
XFX 6800GS XXX edition
36.6GB Raptor
Abit AN8-Ultra
Opteron 144 CABNE
580W Hiper Modular PSU
Corsair Twin-X XMS 3200, timings 2-3-3-6 (will do 2-2-2-5 as my mate has it running at that)

Thanks for any help, I'm in need of it

[StormPC]

Go to Google or Yahoo and type "Athlon 64 overclock guide".

Then read your arse off!

[BUFF]

b) will my motherboard be able to take this thing to 2.8GHz, whats the max voltage I can have on the board?

If the CPU can do it, yes.
More than enough.

[s29feb]

If its a CABNE 0545 it will be the same as I had, my HTT maxxed out at 311 but it was not too stable, would run at 300 no problem but I ran it at 270 1:1 with my RAM as I don't like dividers (real world vs PI times arguement blah blah AMD memory timmings blah blah) so I sold it and bought a 3700 san diego for the higher multi.

It is therefore the multi/ram/divider that will be the key to getting the most out of this chip as the Abit (same as me) has loads of combinations/tweaks. Your probably going to have to run a divider to get the most mhz (unless your RAM is usper fast) and bump up the volts to the cpu. Most people will say its fine to run it a 1.55v with good cooling to get them most probably dereasing the lifespan by a bit (4 instead of 5 years for talking sake), however I found it got no more stable after 1.5v and it was not worth it for an extra 5MHz.

I really think the opty 144 is for overclockers.. well who like to overclock and thats about it to get things like the largest percentage gains with crazy cooling, and it is a cracking budget builders chip as in bang for buck, however I found the 9X multi a little to restrictive hence getting the 3700 (2.8MHZ stable at 1.45v 1:1 @ 3,3,3,7 for only £145). I would have got a 146 if there was any but they are like rocking horse poo so I'm probably going to wait till the opty 170/5 become more widely availbe and cheaper before my next purchase.

All in all a cracking little proc that'll keep you playing (not games) for days with tweaks and nudges to get it working great

Oh and a little tip google the serial/batch of your Corsair to see what chip are in it to find out just how good they are and hope you did not get the Promos ones

[NightshadowUK]

a) whether the gigabyte cooler is a good option, it read up well in a couple of magazines, and seems to have good airflow.

According to numerous sources that Gigabyte is very good, just make sure you get the model with the fan controller.

Corsair Twin-X XMS 3200, timings 2-3-3-6 (will do 2-2-2-5 as my mate has it running at that)

Can I ask what model of Corsair your mate has, can't say I'd mind running mine at 2-2-2-5 if it's the same.

2.8MHZ stable at 1.45v 1:1 @ 3,3,3,7

What model of RAM do you have? I could only get mine to 230MHz at 1:1 before it started failing PCMark04's memory test. I'm guessing it's PC4200 or something similar but I'm interested none-the-less.

[bright_]

He has 3200C2PT same as what I'm getting

[NightshadowUK]

Excellent! I'll have a bit of a mess and then post back.

[theuncharmed]

I've got a opty 144 and at 2.8 @ 1.44v with a Gigabyte Pro Cooler, I'm reading exactly 30 degrees with light email and web surfing use. Does rise to 40 - 44 when gaming though.

[NightshadowUK]

Excellent! I'll have a bit of a mess and then post back.

Well that was odd... it booted fine and PCMark04 ran through 5 memory tests without a hitch but then Windows itself started acting up so I think I'm gonna stick to 2-3-2-5.

[s29feb]

Hi,

I have the 2GB Ballistix kit (the one that keep failing - though touch wood mines have been fine so far - better than fine)

I also have some Corsair XMS, I had 2 1GB kits one of them with promos chips that were kack so Ebayed them, the others I kept are in my HTPC are version 1.5 the BH5 chips and these are flyers

Check your chips

You can ckeck what type you have on the Corsair website with the number on the label like - XMS3202v5.1 0531060 - 1 (promos poo chips)

[divinemadness]

http://wiki.extremeoverclocking.com/wiki/Impaqt1

Might be of some help.

http://wiki.extremeoverclocking.com/...eron_Steppings

That is just a bit of random information.

[NightshadowUK]

You can ckeck what type you have on the Corsair website with the number on the label like - XMS3202v5.1 0531060 - 1 (promos poo chips)

Could you pretty please link me 'cause I can't seem to find it on the site?

[UKMuFFiN]

Get your hands on the Feb issue of Custom PC, they go through all the CPUs and they get a opty 144, they manage to get a CABGE upto 2.61GHz they also have a big article on how CPUs work at the back.

[bright_]

I have that magazine, which is where I heard about the Opty first. Someone I know over forums bought an FX-57, and now wishes he'd bought an opty 146 off ebay, would have saved him £400 lol

RAM will be in on the 21st Jan. I go with CCL, as their local, and have good customer service. I'll ask them to check before picking it out. If push comes to shove, Is there any 1gb RAM you can reccomend for about £80? lol

[NightshadowUK]

If you're into steppings then this is rather good but if you're just after standard stuff you could do much worse than Corsair Value Select.

[ultim8um]

I would consider the Scythe Ninja with a fan of course (one of the best coolers available) or a Thermalright SI-120/XP-120... then nowt but the board or the CPU itself is gonna hold u back...