My Baby Steps to OCing my 3500+

[CasheKicker]

Ok, well I am getting ready to upgrade to a new system and was always interested in overclocking. Why not do it on my old system and learn the ropes on something that is getting out dated instead of messing up a new system.

So first the specs of my system would be most prudent, I am sure I will leave out some important details but I will do my best. I am open to advise and suggestions from anyone who cares to share.


CPU: AMD64 3500+ (Stock 2.2G)
Heatsink: Stock AMD Cooler
RAM: 2x512 Kingston Value (2.5, 3, 3, 7) 2.5v
2x512 Nanya Technology (2.5,3,3,7) 2.5v
GPU: Saphire Radeon x1950xt (stock speeds and cooling)
Case:Antec 900 using 4x120mm Fans and 1x200mm
PSU: OCZ 850W GameXstream


So I have been toying around and had some advise here in the forms and SSWilson has sent me a few PMs to help me along.

After some changes I seem to have successfully made my 1st milestone.

CPU-Z Reports
Currently running @ 2.5g with a 10x multiplier
250MHz bus and
Ht link of 1000Mhz
Ram settings are 208.3Mhs
FSB:Dram CPU/12 (not sure what this means but it changes as I make changes)
CL 3.0, tRCD 3, tRP 3, tRAS 8, tRC 10, CR 2T and DRAM timer 16 clocks

I have not touched power settings yet as I don't think I should on stock cooling.
I will be getting a loan of some better cooling supplies and will continue from there.

I have run Prime95 stable in the torture test in Blended, Small FFT and Large FFTs.
for an hour each My Mobo temps did not go above 30deg and my CPU temp was stable @ 40deg.

I am guessing I still have room to play so thats what I will do next. Guess I should run some benchmarks and stuff to. Which ones should I start with?

[sswilson]

You've made a pretty good start CasheKicker.

What's the stock on the 3500+ chips? (I'm guessing either 2K or 2.2K).

As far as benchmarks go... most folks are mainly concerned with gaming so they gravitate towards the 3dmark benchmarks.

For memory timing testing memtest seems to be the fav for stability, and I use 1M super-pi runs to test for performance benefits of tighter timings.

The holy grail for S939 chips is pretty well 3G, so with any luck you (we if you need help... :) ) should be able to get that puppy up to at least 2.8.

I'm off to work, but you can give me a shout there if you want.

[CasheKicker]

I have now experienced some problems. Hopefully not MAJOR problems.

I bumped the FSB to 255 dropped my HT-link to 3 times and dropped my DRAM speed to see if I could get 2.5Ghz overall.

Then when I went to reboot I posted but could not load windows. I figured this was no big deal so I went back in to BIOS and changed back to previous settings. Same problem.

Set to factory defalts. OH OH now I am getting worried. Further investigation showed my Raptor was missing, Full shut down, unplug and replug in the drives, hit Bios and they are there, go for boot up, Windows is still hanging on the load screen.

I had to boot into safe mode with networking to get here.

What have I done? Corrupted my system files? Am I going to need to format and reinstall windows?

[CasheKicker]

OK OK , Panic over... I think. I don't know what happened but I just did a reboot and this time it worked.

Whew... Any ideas?

In any case I am back to default settings and starting over. Guess I will start with some Default benchmarks for control to make sure my OCing is actually being effective.

So I hve Prime95, memtest and superPI. Now to get some 3dMarks. Does it make a difference on scores with registered or unregistered versions.
Does it matter which versions of all these programs, there are so many variations to them. Which 3dMark is the standard today. I guess if I go with the latest versions of all of them I shold be on the right track.

Yes steve the 3500+ is standard 2.2ghs with 11x locked multiplier. Can only go down but thats better than nothing I guess.

[CasheKicker]

Hmmm still something wrong.

I tried to repeat my settings where I was running stable at 2.5g. Once again windows would not load and hung. A reboot and once again after checking BIOS my HDD was missing. Enter safe mode, reboot, reassign bootup drive and I was able to get started again at default settings.

Any idea what may be going on?

[sswilson]

First thing I'd try is to do your OCing with only 2X ram sticks for the moment.

The Venice core chips were notoriously finicky when it came to running 4 sticks.

[CasheKicker]

I will give that a try, odd though since I did have things going well with all 4 sticks yesterday. Grrrrrr, I can see how this is definitely a game for the extreamly patient. Still fun though, and better to learn on my old Sys than my new one I figure.

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by CasheKicker

I will give that a try, odd though since I did have things going well with all 4 sticks yesterday. Grrrrrr, I can see how this is definitely a game for the extreamly patient. Still fun though, and better to learn on my old Sys than my new one I figure.

Heh.... it does get easier with practice though.

Once you've got the first one or two OC's under your belt, you'll start to get a feel for when you're reaching the upper limits of a certain hardware combination, and begin to recognize what failures at certain points in the stress testing programs point to what components on your system.

[sswilson]

Then when I went to reboot I posted but could not load windows. I figured this was no big deal so I went back in to BIOS and changed back to previous settings. Same problem.

Set to factory defalts. OH OH now I am getting worried. Further investigation showed my Raptor was missing, Full shut down, unplug and replug in the drives, hit Bios and they are there, go for boot up, Windows is still hanging on the load screen.

I just noticed this.... I've found that "default settings" in bios often doesn't do the trick. What you may need to do is an actual cmos reset using the jumpers on your motherboard.

I'm not positive, but I suspect that "default settings" in bios doesn't cover all of the "hidden" settings in bios which can change behind the scenes. It's a PITA to input all of the required info in bios (date/time/boot preferences/etc....) but over time you'll get pretty good at it. (You have to input the correct date/time or XP takes a fit when it's checking your system for updates etc.... :) ).

[CasheKicker]

I may give that a try, however, the manual stated that this is not required for this board as it is supposed to reset itself to last working config.

Can't hurt though.

Guess what I need is to replace my 4X512 DDR400 sticks with 2x1G DDR400...

Any one got any good traders?