Overclocking a AMD Athlon 64 3500+

[XA04]

Hey,
I was wondering if anyone could help me or give me advice on overclocking my processor?, the only overclocking I've done before is on my graphics card, and would like to get as much as I can out of my processor too.


Cheers

[BUFF]

Your RAM is probably going to be your main problem.
Also what PSU have you got?

If your HDDs are SATA make sure that they are on ports 3 &4 (1&2 don't have locks).

The mother of all K8N Neo2 overclocking threads ...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=43033

[XA04]

OK. But it will be possible to overclock (just not to the max) with what I have now right?

PSU is a 480W Tagan Easycon



HDD's are PATA.

[BUFF]

yes & your PSU is fine.
It's been a while since I had a K8N Neo2 so it will be very general & the terminology may be slightly different.

Right, what you want to do is increase your external clock/HTT (can't remember exactly what MSI call it).

However, as you do that you also have to keep your HyperTransport frequency within it's spec of 1000 (HT freq= external clock x HT/LDT multi) so I would drop your HT multi to 4x (or 800 depending again what terminology MSI use).

& then again you also need to keep your RAM within it's spec.
I assume that you are already on the DDR333 divider, does MSI have any others between 333 & 266?

[XA04]

Little confused, do these pictures help?





(I'm using modified BIOS, which came with the mobo when I purchased it - I can flash them back if required.. I'm guessing they will be better for O/Cing though).

[BUFF]

OK, HT freq 4X- check.

Your spec says that you have PC2700 but your BIOS says that it's running @ PC3200
Can you show a screenie for the DRAM config ?

[XA04]

I do actually have PC2700, and I am 100% certain, why the heck does it say I have PC3200?

DRAM config... is that in the BIOS or in Windows?



Edit: Look, PC2700..

[sawyen]

probably rated at 2700 but runs fine at 3200.. I have some old kingston sticks that does so as well.. but at a much relaxed timings.. 3-3-3-11

[BUFF]

DRAM config... is that in the BIOS or in Windows?

In the BIOS, it's the entry highlighted in your 2nd screenie.
You are looking for the field where it lets you set the RAM clock (it's a divider on A64 rather than an absolute frequency).
If you can put that on 333 it will let you increase the CPU fsb frequency whilst keeping your RAM under the DDR400 that it can obviously do.

[XA04]

Doh! lol.

Will go get a screenie now.


Edit:

[XA04]

bumpty bump

[Dark Horse]

The ram shouldn't hold you back at all whether its at 330 or 400.

Good read here:

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

[XA04]

Thanks for the link Dark Horse, looks very interesting! Will have a good read through in the morning.

[BUFF]

right, see the field "mem clock index value"?
set it to 166.

Now start increasing the CPU fsb frequency testing for stability (Prime95, SuperPi, gaming - whatever you prefer as a test) as you go. You can probably start with steps of 5 initially.
At some point you will probably have to increase vcore & maybe chipset voltage too.

[XA04]

OK, so when I start to increase the CPU fsb I will go from 200 > 205 > 210 > 215, etc?


Cheers

Edit: Also when will I know if I need to increase the vcore and chipset voltage?

[BUFF]

Edit: Also when will I know if I need to increase the vcore and chipset voltage?

because it will crash out of Prime etc. etc.