OC'ing Athlon 3700+ recommendations?

Hendrix89

Okay wait now serious problem here! I've just ran prime again with my settings back to where they were (3-3-3-8/248FSB) and it failed!!? I was passing it before! Have I damaged something!?

Alkers

No, if it's that unstable at 250 it is likely not to be perfectly stable at 248. Leave the RAM alone (at the loose timings and on the 333Mhz divider) and increase your vcore slightly and leave FSB at 250. Then see if it is more stable. What is the stock voltage for your ship? What temp did it reach when it failed with 1.48V? What is your htt?

Hendrix89

No but the thing is it was stable at 248 with 3-3-3-8 before! Then I changed the timings and raised the FSB to 250 and failed prime and now when I've changed back to 248 and the stock timings I fail!! I think I need to get this problem sorted first cause it is really concerning!

Stock voltage for my CPU is 1.48v and that is what i have left it at so far. My HTT with 248FSB and 3-3-3-8 is 992Mhz around... I used to be stable at 248!!!

Alkers

Hendrix89 wrote:

I think I need to get this problem sorted first cause it is really concerning!

!

I don't think there is a problem as such. You're just at the limit of the CPU without upping the Vcore.
How long did you run Prime for @248Mhz when you claimed it to be stable? If 1.48 is your stock then 1.5V should be fine. Set it to that and then try prime at 250 with the same settings. How far you up the Vcore is up to how comfortable you are with it and how hot the chip is running. You're not making it easy for us to help you if you don't answer the questions asked before.

Hendrix89

I ran prime for about 4hrs with 248FSB (and 3-3-3-8) stable before. Now fails after less than 30mins.... Right i'll try 1.5v then, but only cause i am really p****d off with my comp right now! I'll see what happens.

Alkers

24hrs is supposed to be stable. What temperature is your cpu running at when you're testing at? (this is important when adding more voltage)

Hendrix89

It runs at 44C full load (using prime)....

Alkers

That's alright. I'd be weary when it starts nearing 50C so keep an eye on it. Post up how it goes after you run Prime at 1.5V

Hendrix89

Running it at 1.53vcore now with the 250FSB. 2.75GHz. Booted up alright. Temps seem good. Gonna run prime now for about an hour and i'll see what happens. I am preparing for a failure... Anyway I will report the result as soon as im finished the prime run. If all goes well (havn't got my hopes up..) I will shoot for 2.8.

Hendrix89

Okay stable with prime with the 1.5vcore and 250FSB, close to 2hr run (still going). Max temps hit 47C. Im at 2.75GHz now (250x11), with my ram at the stock 3-3-3-8. Am I in the clear for 2.8GHz do you think?

Alkers

Go for it. Try 2.75 then 2.8 or something similar. Do you plan on leaving it at 2.8 or seeing how far you can push it? If you're leaving it at 2.8 let it run prime 95 overnight and see how it gets on.

Hendrix89

I am at 2.75 already. Yes I think I might settle with 2.8GHz if I can get to it. Although I can't say for sure cause OCing is addictive as you know...:D I remember saying I would be content with 2.5!

Will try for 2.8 tomorrow.

Hendrix89

UPDATE!

Had a crash when I tried to open CPU-Z a couple of minutes ago and then my comp froze up forcing me to manually shut down. Upon reboot I got an alarming voice alert saying 'system failure due to cpu overclocking' at a black screen with the option of entering the BIOS to resolve the problem! Thankfully I was able to enter it alright and so I changed my vcore back to normal and underclocked the CPU back down to 2.72GHz (248FSB).... I got into windows successfully and so far everything seems normal. I am now running prime and will let it run through the night to see if I caused any damage to my system!! Dam why werent there any signs of the OC being unstable and dangerous ffs! Passed prime 2hrs. No signs of unstability! Ran through 3dmark06 fine! Then suddenly it jumps into heart stopping crashes and freezes. And then a bloody alert on reboot!! I've probly done it now... really messed up my system... God this always happens to me:rolleyes: :mad:

Hendrix89

Right I failed overnight prime95 after only 2hr.45mins... I decided to try setting the vcore up to 1.5v again and then I ran a 4hr tortur test and it seems stable. So I guess that points to the CPU voltage as the element that is holding me back... I am still at 2.72GHz. Can I get some help here plz?

Alkers

What's the adjustment in your BIOS for Vcore like? Is it Vcore + % or can you choose any voltage? Have a look on the web and see what voltage people have used on that CPU. What cooler are you using? I would up the Vcore again and try for 2.8 but I also wouldn't be using the stock cooler.

Hendrix89

In my BIOS I don't have much options with vcore. 1.55v is the limit. At 1.50 now, options go up in 1s: 1.50, 1.51, 1.52, 1.53, 1.55.

My CPU cooler is a Zalman 7000B AlCu. It's quite good actually.

Should I go for the highest vcore option? 1.55?

awhir

i think 1.55 is a bit to high well its is for my dual core..

Hendrix89

I see. I'll continue to search google but suprisingly its difficult to find anything on the 3700 vcore

Hendrix89

Actually I have just thought of another option that might do instead of the need to increase the vcore.. When I was unstable at 2.75MHz my FSB was at 250. My HT Link (according to cpu-z) was slipping over 1000Mhz. Do think I should try setting the HT multi in BIOS to 3x?

Also CPU-z reads the vcore as 1.53...

Alkers

How much over 1000Mhz? No harm in trying 3x anyway.

Hendrix89

It was about 1Mhz over I'll try going up to 2.75 again with 3x then.

Anti

1mhz over is fine. But it is best to go to 3x htt at the moment.

Also set the pci-e to 101mhz. This helps hugely on some boards. And the 2T ram timing too. 1T is to tight sometimes.

Hendrix89

Okay I went up to 2.78GHz (253x11) with the HT multi at 3x. I am running a prime test now and if it fails then I will try the 101mhz pci-e like you suggested anti.

By the way the memory frequency at the moment is at 199Mhz. Can I safely go over 200? If I go to 2.8 then I will be going over.

Also is there any harm in me leaving the HT multi at 3x (759mhz ht link)? Will I be running slower if the ht link is that low?

Alkers

you can go a bit over 200 for the ram no bother. Leave the HTT at x3, you're still finding the limit for your cpu at the moment, not your final setup.

Hendrix89

Guys I think 2.72GHz is the limit of my CPU... I have tried everything. Someone suggested I try lowering the multi and clocking up the FSB to 280 but I doubt my RAM can take that... Ah well I guess 2.7GHz is nice but I don't even now if it's stable at more than 4hrs..

BadCharlie

Well your CPU beats my 2.56GHz, its the best i can get out of my motherboard. With a better board id get 2.7GHz easy. I think you should be happy with what you have got. If you got another 80mhz to reach the 2.8GHz mark you wont notice the differince. I know the 2.8 or higher has a nice ring to it.

Hendrix89

Yeah I guess I should be happy with what I have got out of it. But if I run an overnight torture test and find it fails i'll be raging! Still won't clock lower though, fail or not...

Alkers

Hendrix89 wrote:

Guys I think 2.72GHz is the limit of my CPU... I have tried everything. Someone suggested I try lowering the multi and clocking up the FSB to 280 but I doubt my RAM can take that... Ah well I guess 2.7GHz is nice but I don't even now if it's stable at more than 4hrs..

You Ram wouldn't have to handle anything if you ran it on a divider...