Anyone have experience Overclocking AMD chips?

[bubba]

Hey guys...
Lately I have been trying to overclock my system to a stable state. Currently I have an AMD Athlon 3000+ socket 754 chip running at a standard clock speed of 2.0 GHz, 1024 DDR SDRAM (Corsair), MSI 7030 motherboard (built for overclocking) with HT tech, and a crappy NVidia Graphics card. I bought a cooler master cavalier case (which I love!)...analog sound pressure device included...of course!

As far as the benchmarkers/system checkers I've used (WCPUID and SI SANDRA) I havent got my system to the stable point of "almost" 2.5 GHz like I've read that some people have...anyone have any suggestions?

I've done a lil research and downloaded an app. called nTune made by NVidia but everytime I use it to auto tune my system > then benchmark my comparisons ... nothing seems to change least of all not SPEED!

Any advice or help would be much appreciated!!! Thanks all...GO ILLINI!!!!!!!!!!

[FastGame]

I have that MB except I have an XP 3400, your 3000 defaults at a lower multiplier than the 3400 so you CPU OC is more dependent on FSB and ram.

It would be much easier to answer your question if you listed all your settings first.

Thanks all...GO ILLINI!!!!!!!!!!

Your welcome...GO MICHIGAN STATE!!!!!!!!

[bubba]

ok FastGame here goes...
My chip is running at 2009 MHz right now.
FSB = 200 MHz
Memory voltage = 2.7 V
AGP voltage = 1.5 V

my multiplier is 10 right now....me being a novice computer-goer...could you give me a quik explanation on what the multiplier does? Is that something like CAS latency?

Hope that was enought information for you...thanks fot the reply!

GO ILLINI!!

[zipp51]

I'm no expert,but I can tell you that your multiplier(10) times the FSB(200) equals processor speed.And remember that your FSB is actually in double data terms(DDR),so actually the speed is 400MHZ.If you raise the FSB to,say, 210,then your processor speed would be 2.10+.Also as you increase the FSB so your ram speed is increased.That means if you have PC3200 ram it is rated at 400MHZ.When you hypothetically set the FSB to 210 as in my example,then your ram is running at 420MHZ.As FG said, your CPU speed is more dependent on FSB and ram,and by ram I believe he is refering to a better quality type leaning toward overclocking,such as Crucial's Ballistic modules.

[FastGame]

As FG said, your CPU speed is more dependent on FSB and ram,and by ram I believe he is refering to a better quality type leaning toward overclocking,such as Crucial's Ballistic modules.

Yes thats what I mean, you need good ram to get the FSB to 230++ to get the CPU mhz up. Don't worry if your CPU doesn't go high, a high FSB is better than raw MHZ.

You can also lower the Ram to 166 and leave the CPU at 200 then start raising the FSB and the CPU will go higher but it could crap out before the ram gets back up to 200fsb. In other words you could have the CPU 250fsb x 10 = 2500mhz and the ram would be at 216fsb.

The A64 boards aren't performance dependent on running CPU & Ram in sync like the Nforce2 boards are.

Your Corsair should do a good job...best to start with everything in Sync 1/1 and see what it does.

GO MICHIGAN STATE!!!!!!!!

[bubba]

First i would like to apologize for not replying lately...I just got a new job and have been very busy,,,just so I am clear...

THe FSB is the most influential piece in overclocking the system? Also...the amount of RAM that I currently have (1024 MB) Corsair DDR SDRAM...does not have neough juice to handle the overclock over 230 MHz?

I should have done some more homework before I put my box together...Does this mean that I would need to buy another stick or RAM in order to set my FSB higher than 230 MHz?

[lynchknot]

Anyone have experience Overclocking AMD chips?

hehe, bubba - the king of AMD OC lives here! Mr. Hardware pimp himself.

[FastGame]

First i would like to apologize for not replying lately...I just got a new job and have been very busy,,,just so I am clear...

THe FSB is the most influential piece in overclocking the system? Also...the amount of RAM that I currently have (1024 MB) Corsair DDR SDRAM...does not have neough juice to handle the overclock over 230 MHz?

I should have done some more homework before I put my box together...Does this mean that I would need to buy another stick or RAM in order to set my FSB higher than 230 MHz?

FSB is the most "influential" on everything that uses memory.

What do you mean by "does not have neough juice to handle the overclock over 230 MHz?" you talking about the voltage your MB provides to the ram ?

1024mb of ram is plenty, is that 2x512 or 1x1024 ?

The more ram you have the harder it is to OC, more stress on the memory controller and MB to supply steady voltage...

hehe, bubba - the king of AMD OC lives here! Mr. Hardware pimp himself

Thanks but there's a bunch who beat me