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Thread: Budget Overlocking - Opteron 165

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    Budget Overlocking - Opteron 165

    I have been reading around on the internet and was taking a look at the price cuts AMD is delivering to the Opteron line. I still have a 939 mobo and want to stick with it for a bit and want to upgrade to dual core. However I don't want to break the bank on a dead line. So the Opteron 165 is great for under 160 dollars and price is still dropping. People have gotten 50% overclocks easily. I however don't have a top of the line system to overclock with.
    I have an ECS Mobo (NFORCE4-A939 (V1.0)) and PC 3200 PQI Turbo ram which I think has a cas latency of 2. If I overclock on air can I get a good overclock and how would I go about obtaining this? I know I'm being a little cheap not upgrading to Core2Duo which could get a huge overclock but I do not want to spend 180 Processor + 100 mobo + at least 150 Ram which totals up to over 400 dollars. It seems more worth it to upgrade my 939 and stick with it as I already have good ram( in my opinion) and it seems like a lot of money just to get a better CPU.

    Any Help would be greatful. Thanks

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    I'm thinking of doing exactly what you are mate.
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    Resident abit mourner BUFF's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tential View Post
    I have an ECS Mobo (NFORCE4-A939 (V1.0)) and PC 3200 PQI Turbo ram which I think has a cas latency of 2. If I overclock on air can I get a good overclock and how would I go about obtaining this?
    ECS mobos tend to have basic BIOS not really designed for overclocking.
    If it allows then start with dropping the HT multi to 4x & put your RAM on the 333 divider. Then increase your external clock.
    That should be good for upto about 250 external clock for 2.25GHz.
    Over that try dropping the HT freq multi to 3x & the RAM onto the 266 divider & keep on increasing. the external clock.

    At some point along the way you will probably have to start increasing the Vcore.

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    Could I hit an overclock of 2.7 ghz like everyone else or how much do you think I would be able to obtain. i really don't want to buy one unless I can overclock to at least 2.4 ghz. I am going to practice on the one I have atm and see if I can get a modest overclock so i can familiarize myself with overclocking before I buy a dualcore.

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    Senior Member manwithnoname's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tential View Post
    ... i really don't want to buy one unless I can overclock to at least 2.4 ghz...
    Just remember there are on guarantees, I have a 165 it will do 2.25ghz at stock volts and about 2.5Ghz at 1.6v.

    If you drop the multiplier of the cpu down and raise the bus speed (keep an eye on the ram speed) you should get an idea if the M/B will overclock. For my M/B I can set the CPU multiplier to 6 and the bus to 300 and it runs fine. The 165 multiplier is 9, so you'll need a bus speed of 300 to get it to 2.7Ghz (300 x 9).

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    Sukiyaki Western! notsobig's Avatar
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    According to your mobo manual, your cpu frequency can only go up to 209.5, and if that is true then your maximum overclock achievable is only 1885.5(209.5x9). I'm sorry but I think you'll need new mobo to overclock 165 upto 2.7G, something that can go over 300fsb at least.

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    Sukiyaki Western! notsobig's Avatar
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    Strange thing is this board seems to have decent voltage control over cpu and memory which is not particularly useful when you can only select cpu clock upto 209.5. I mean who needs +375mv just to overclock your cpu by 100mhz? Or maybe there's hidden setting somewhere which can only be accessed by combination of keystroke?

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    Big Member BlindMelon7's Avatar
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    Which ECS is it? I have an RS482-M and it wont overclock my 3200+ more than about 2.4. This might be because of my power supply (I have a new one now so I'll see how it goes with that).
    With love and many thanks,

    Melons

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    Sukiyaki Western! notsobig's Avatar
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    Got one of these from Komplett today and it's running at 2.7G at stock voltage. Pheew I'm very impressed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by notsobig View Post
    According to your mobo manual, your cpu frequency can only go up to 209.5, and if that is true then your maximum overclock achievable is only 1885.5(209.5x9). I'm sorry but I think you'll need new mobo to overclock 165 upto 2.7G, something that can go over 300fsb at least.
    Is there an unlocked bios that would let me go farther on cpu frequency? If not what way can I test to make sure that this actually the limit? Do I just drop the cpu multiplier to the lost and try to put 210 to see if it is true?

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    Sukiyaki Western! notsobig's Avatar
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    Yes, drop your cpu multiplier and raise your cpu frequency to see if it really max out at 209.5. As for modded bios, I'm sorry but I have no idea mate.

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    Quote Originally Posted by notsobig View Post
    Yes, drop your cpu multiplier and raise your cpu frequency to see if it really max out at 209.5. As for modded bios, I'm sorry but I have no idea mate.
    Alright I'll try this when I get back home from school and see if it works. If it only maxes out at 209.5(Which is not big). What do I have to do with my ram? Doesn't that have to scale with my cpu frequency?

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    Sukiyaki Western! notsobig's Avatar
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    Yes, it will scale with your cpu frequency and you have to keep it near 200Mhz(effective 400) if you have PC3200(DDR400)ram. Usually you do this by changing memory divider but I can't find this setting in your bios. "Memclock index value" setting in "DRAM Configuration" under "Advance Chipset Features" looks like it, but I'm not sure. Also set "HT Frequency" to something like 3X and try increasing the cpu frequency and see when it tops out.

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