Overclocking Questions. | Forums

[ytareh]

Hi!Ive tried my hand at this again after cleaning out the dust from my X800XT PE Arctic Cooler which lowered my graphics temps a lot....So Ive got a rock solid 4% (11x208=2288) Overclock but cant get above that as I keep getting crashes mostly graphics related .My equipment and cooling are all top notch as far as I can tell.My Winchester cored AMD 64 3500 is in an ECS (non NForce 4 chipset)Mobo.
Is my 12V rail dangerously low at 11.39V?I have an Antec Neopower 480W PSU but a LOT of fans (maybe a dozen cheapish ones!)
I have the latest BIOS flashed (another nightmare!!!)but cant find a setting to change Command Rate from 1T to 2T for the life of me (Its a Phoenix BIOS)
Should I reduce LDT from 1000 to 800Hz?What should I "relax" my ultra tight OCZ Platinum Rev2 RAM timings to?(at 2-2-2-5 from stock-auto SPD control)
Any help appreciated as its hard to wade through all the stuff on the net !!!

[x6BL_Brando]

a LOT of fans (maybe a dozen cheapish ones!)

No offence, but why all the fans? Presuming you're running with a tower case - and subtracting the Arctic 4, and the slot fan, and the CPU fan from your dozen (or should that be adding on?) then you seem to have achieved total fan overkill which is almost certainly dragging on your PSU. I'm still trying to figure out where all these fans could go??

I caught your post about cleaning out your gfx card. I agree at the difference it makes - my x850 PE was filthy after about 3 months of use and I saw the GPU temps drop the 10+ degrees that had been incurred. But the most important question is - where is the dreaded dust and fluff coming from? Obviously the environment around the comp is where it's being produced - but how to cut down on it's accessing the case and gumming up the works?

First thing I do is move the comp every week and thoroughly vacuum the area. Every month I open the door (after switching off the rig and unplugging it) and clean up. First I blow the dust down, starting from the top of the case and working down. After a while it settles and I remove it from the floor of the case with a lightly-dampened sponge. I'll remove any of the 3 intake fans (lower front, upper front H/D, door) that is cruddy and give it a brush job. Likewise the two exhaust fans and the CPU fan. Most likely candidates are the cpu fan & the door fan. The latter because it's quite low down, and the cpu fan because its close by. The monthly blow job minimises the need for fan-removal though.

I'm sorry if I'm straying off-topic. A bigger PSU might help you to get a better overclock - but you may want to consider water-cooling to achieve what you're looking for.

B

[ytareh]

Hi Brando...well seeing as you asked:
Ever since my early days (ie about 18 months ago!!!) of IL2/PF PC tinkering I have been a bit of a cooling fetishist!!!One word :"PRESCOTT"
My first high spec bought system had a 3.2 P4 Prescott and a cr&p psu ....well it wasnt pretty with constant overheating and burnt out psu.s....I realised pretty quick what many IL2/PF fans do that to get the hardware needed to run this game right you need to have PC DIY skills way beyond the local retai park/mall PC superstore employee or shady small time trader.....
Anyway even though my AMD 3500 is now a far far superior cpu in every respect including heat I still like to err very much on the side of caution......
So heres my fan set up!:
4X8cm fans in front bottom of case(in predrilled positons)
Custom slimline HDD twin fan cooler
8cm fan attached directly under HDD
Front cd/dvd sized(5.25"?) slot twin 8cm fan blower /cooler
VERY powerful 5(?)cm fan blowing diagonally down onto HSF
8cm fan in case 'roof' positon
Coolermaster Hyper 6 (MASSIVE copper finned heat sink with cooling pipes)with 8cm fan at front and rear
12 cm fan at rear of case
Small PCI slot exhaust blower fan
PSU has 2 fans,
Arctic Cooler 4 has one
Chipset on Mobo has one.

So,wow thats almost 20 fans in there in total!!!I didnt realise there were quite that many.But these would all be low wattages surely and not affect the PSU draw too badly right?
I was tempted by a new Antec Case with 2X12 cms at the back and one at the front....One 12cm is probably better than 3 or 4 8cms although obviously the quality is important too....
So do ya reckon I should bin all these and just get a few 12s!!!???

[ytareh]

...Strange....?The option to change the command rate from 1T to 2T (essential for overclocking?) seems to have disappeared from my BIOS!!!Its definitely there by default-its described in the mobo manual....and Im fairly sure it was there a fortnight or so ago...I have had some crashes that I had to Clear the CMOS jumpers to solve but that wouldnt make the setting disappear would it?!Is there some other setting I need to activate to get it to appear?Help please!

[IAFS_Painter]

I've seen that when re-setting CMOS

In my case, I forgot to switch off mains power to the PSU first.

Try disconnecting PSU from the mains,
Wait at least 30 seconds, or until all signs of residual power have gone (which-ever is longer)

THEN reset CMOS

Then restore power to PSU ...

[ManicGibber]

Originally posted by ytareh:
...Strange....?The option to change the command rate from 1T to 2T (essential for overclocking?) seems to have disappeared from my BIOS!!!Its definitely there by default-its described in the mobo manual....and Im fairly sure it was there a fortnight or so ago...I have had some crashes that I had to Clear the CMOS jumpers to solve but that wouldnt make the setting disappear would it?!Is there some other setting I need to activate to get it to appear?Help please!

If your using SPD then it more than likely wouldn't be there, Painters suggestion is a good one also make sure you flash as per book instructions for your mobo.

[Odranoel1]

ytareh I also have a 3500+.
If your chipset does not support AGP and PCI bus locking, that alone would explain the crashes.
I know that several chipsets for Socket 939 didnt have the lock, so that may well be the cause. In that case I would recommend you just stay on the safe side.

The dozen fans should use a couple of watts each, really not a big deal, but the 11.4 volt is very low. Can you double check with another utility? The best is... a voltmeter as you may have a flawed voltage sensor or BIOS.

-S- Odranoel1

[ytareh]

Hi again.I tried the psu unplug but without success....There is a BIOS setting called AGP Async Clock control with options of 66MHz 75.4 MHz and default.....but someone said before this wasnt the AGP 'dividers' I needed (as it would have to be 67MHz or something?)

[ytareh]

Also MBM5 was used to check voltage instead of Everest and it was 11.49 instead of 11.39....BIOS Healthcheck suggests much closer to 12 but I suppose thats not under much load...

[Odranoel1]

ytareh, it seems your AGP bus can be locked by setting to 66. Now what I recommend is:

1) clarify that 12V issue. Motherboard Monitor has a possibility of reporting high/low values of each sensor over a period of time (open the "settings" window and click on the item "highs/lows" in the left menu). So you can check if it is varying wildly. The fact that your BIOS reading is higher could point to such a problem, but not necessarily. I still think a voltmeter would be nice to rule out an inaccurate sensor.

2) Go to an overclocking site and get into it step by step. overclock one item at a time to explore individual limits. for your reference, my 3500+ gives a stable 10% overclock with improved cooling and 0.05 Volt Vcore increase (Newcastle core).

Good luck

-S- Odranoel1