My New RiG!

[aXeR]

Due to several factors I decided that I needed to buy a new computer to replace my file server, I didn’t see the point in buying brand new hardware for a file server though so I decided to put my P4 hardware in the fileserver giving me an excuse to buy a new gaming rig!

I was a little worried about selling my X800XTPE as it had become my best friend when playing source but for the first time ever it was time to buy an Nvidia card!

This month i purchased the following goodies:

Hand picked A64 3000 (CBBHD 0448 SPAW)

DFI Ultra SLI-D

Gigabyte 6800U PCI-E

Now this is the first time I’ve ever tried to overclock an A64 and boy it was more confusing than my Pentium 4, so many different settings (settings that I dont understand about which makes it more difficult)

Anyway, after 3-4 hours of tinkering i managed 2.8Ghz prime stable for over 2hours which gave me a super pi score of 31 seconds, i left it running over night but it appears my system rebooted itself. This may be to do with the RAM though, as the FSB is so high (310) I’ve had to stick my RAM onto a 166 divider as its only rated to 250 and gets a bit unstable after 270.

Im hoping that when i order a new PSU (I’m currently using an ATX 1.3 PSU on the board) and a CPU water block I should be able to get 2.8Ghz stable, but considering the chip seems pretty stable at 2.8ghz with the stock heatsink fan I’m very impressed!

Anyway, now I need some advice, currently CPU voltage is set to 1.55v which smart guardian and CPU-Z detects as 1.53v (both at idle and at load) when I get my water block, what is the most voltage I want to be putting through the chip? Im not really after more than 2.8Ghz, I’m just trying to get it 100% stable (because 2.8 is a sexy 1ghz over clock )

 

[Vrykyl]

nice OC mate

my 3200+ winchester cant even manage 2.6ghz!! il agree overclocking an a64 is complicated as hell compared to intel - when I swapped to my 939 rig from my old p4 478 setup I was sooo confused for ages on what everything did, i couldnt just up the volts and fsb like usual

 

[aXeR]

So true

I’ve been scouring various forums since last night (was up till around 4am working on the beast )

I've come to the conclusion that I might need to give the chip a little more volts and put the HTT multi down to around 2 as well and change some RAM settings, I need to look at getting some new RAM too ideally

 

[maverik-sg1]

OK, keep the volts the same 1.55 or go up one more if necessary.

Up the volts on LDT to 1.4 or 1.5v and up the chipset voltage to 1.7 or 1.8v and try that.

Also try whacking a few more volts through the ram or surf the forums to find the best timings for your ram also.

On these systems a power supply can make or break a good overclock, you did not post what your was but for the system you have one of Phil's P&PC510 delux models should suffice or if on a budget go for the Tagan 480w.

Look around on the classifieds here for some decent ram if you feel you need to better stuff.

Finally if you are still using the original BIOS upgrade to 201, 218 or 326 these are the best ones available at present and will help you in your goal of stability.

Hope this helps.

Good luck.

Mav

Cheers

Mav

 

[aXeR]

Cheers mav, that was a very informative post - ill defiantly give these settings a try.

Im currently using an Enermax 550w PSU although I’m thinking of purchasing the 600w SLI noisetaker as at present I’m having to use a shed load of connectors to power my gfx cards and HDD's etc (PCI Express and SATA )

Im currently using the 3.10 bios, I was advised this was the best *stable* bios at present?

Once again, many thanks for your help!

 

[maverik-sg1]

326 is best so far - 310 was ok for me but I lost about 15mhz on the HTT versus 201.

Stay away from the 331's - Living Large and Scorchio tired em and they were not so good (as in crap).

Good luck

Thermaltake PSU still up for grabs (680w 10 molex connectors, 2x PCI-E, 4x SATA) - make me an offer I can't refuse.

Cheers

Mav

 

[maverik-sg1]

One last thing to try, instead of setting volts at 1.55 try setting them at 1.4 and use the special VID and up that by 110%.

For some reason this is more stable for many users, I think it has something to do with how the power is routed to the CPU (uses dedicated capacitors for increase??).

Good luck once again.

Mav