Asus A8V Deluxe AMD 64 4000+ (1st time OC'ing)

Marcus_X

Marcus_X

Expert N00b
I need some advice with overclocking, I used the "How To Overclock - An Ongoing Tutorial" topic from this site as a guide. This is my first time overclocking my CPU manually. I had it at 10% before using the Auto OC feature of this mobo. But that only got me around 2640 Mhz before, I would like to get some more out of my CPU

Here's what I've done so far;

I managed to get my CPU running at 2760 Mhz, that's with a 12 x CPU multiplier, and a FSB of 230. When using Prime95's torture test it reads 42 degrees under load. Vcore is at 1.575 volt now.

My memory timings set are as indicated by the above guide at 3-4-4-8 2T, but I read a lot of users having better timings, that's because of better RAM right? Memory divider is set at 2:1

I have installed 4 sticks of PC3200 memory total; 2 Kinston ValeuRAM sticks with timings 3-3-3-8 for 200Mhz according to CPU-Z, and 2 TwinMOS sticks with timings 2.5-3-3-8 for 200Mhz according to CPU-Z.

Now for the questions, I have a two;

Prime95's torture test reported 1 error after running for 44 minutes and stopping, before I increased the Vcore voltage Prime95 would crash after 1~10 minutes. Am I at a halt here? Should I decrease the CPU FSB to maintain stability or increase the Vcore voltage to 1.6? I believe someone on these boards commenting another user that 1.6 would be too high for Vcore so I didn't go that far yet.

Furthermore, the guide I read said something about adjusting the RAM speed. I can't seem to find the option to increase the memory FSB on this board. Am I blind, is it hidden somewhere where I can't see, or isn't it possible to adjust memory speed on this board.

I haven't read anybody using 2 brands of memory before when oc'ing, does that mean I shouldn't be doing so? Identical brands and types only?

I hope someone can give me some answers. For now, I'll lower my speeds and settings to last known stable speeds until someone here tells me there's another way to go further. Without having to buy extra hardware.

Many thanks.
 
uping the Vcore to 1.6 will increase stablity, generally all should be ok but just make sure the temp stayes below 60 and leave it working for at least 24 hours (36 of 48 is better) and unless youve got some serious cooling going on only try OC to a maimum of 15%
 
I've got a Zalman VF700-CU, which cools significantly better than the stock cooler so I should be ok.

As said before, I only see the temperatures go up to 43 degrees when on load, the guide I mentioned before said I should run disk defrag in the background while playing 3d games at the same time for 10~15 minutes to check stabiltly.

My system stays stable when doing so, except when running Prime95's torture test it produces an error after 45 minutes.
 
Marcus_X said:
I've got a Zalman VF700-CU, which cools significantly better than the stock cooler so I should be ok.

As said before, I only see the temperatures go up to 43 degrees when on load, the guide I mentioned before said I should run disk defrag in the background while playing 3d games at the same time for 10~15 minutes to check stabiltly.

My system stays stable when doing so, except when running Prime95's torture test it produces an error after 45 minutes.
Click to expand...


what exactly are you asking
 
uping the Vcore to 1.6 will increase stablity, generally all should be ok but just make sure the temp stayes below 60 and leave it working for at least 24 hours (36 of 48 is better) and unless youve got some serious cooling going on only try OC to a maimum of 15%
Click to expand...

Do you consider my Zalman VF700-CU good enough / serious cooling?

Leave Prime95 working for at least 24 hours? I changed my Vcore to 1.6 as you advised, I'll see what it does then......... So I should ignore the results from gaming and running disk defrag as mentioned in that "How To Overclock - An Ongoing Tutorial" topic? They were so hopefull.....:(

what exactly are you asking
Click to expand...

Does it matter a lot if I use 2 types of brands for RAM?

Can I adjust my memory timings more for better performance, if so advise me on this please?

Can I adjust memory FSB with an ASUS A8V Deluxe, I can't seem to find it in the BIOS though the "How To Overclock - An Ongoing Tutorial" topic from this site, clearly mentiones it should be possible?

Many thanks, I have lots of questions as I'm doing this for the first time. I just hope some of you could help me along.......
 
i would concider the Zalman VF700-CU a good cooler, but not the best way to go, but for a buget OC it'll be fine

you do realise that your cooler is designed for a grafix card (not that its a problem)

i just dont know about OC with 2 different brands of RAM though if their both top notch brands i think it will probably be ok

as for adjusting the memory timings, the last time i altered memory timings all i had to do was move a few jumpers on the motherboard, which i gave up on cos stability was a :swear:, i just stick to FSB, multiplyer and small increaces of the core voltage (Vcore)

everybodys opinon differs, but i'd say dont try OC above 15% or so
 
Oh, than I must be wrong, I have the CNPS 7700-ALCU for my CPU, the VF700-CU for my GPU. Doh, can't believe I mixxed those two up.

15% would be the maximum for me then, as 2400MHz x 115% comes to 2760MHz exactly. Upping the FSB more results in restart during windows loading screen.

I could leave the memory timing to auto then according to you?

Well, thanks for the help. I'll post back tomorrow.
 
if yo want to do some SERIOUS OC then check out water coolers like this

EDIT: i think i had an old ISA card to alter the OC settings, but then again i could be wrong, after all it was a few years ago, and i've slept a few times since then

thing could be different nowadays, try getting help from someone else about adjustin memory timings
 
I thought I was doing ok with my oc, but it seems my computer won't handle it very well.

After a while of playing some games give me severe distortion, like Battlefield 2 for instance.

I've lowered frequencies to what I thought were good before with auto oc on 10% (@ 2.6GHz) and even then it crashed on me. I have no idea what could be the cause of my system being unstable at speeds which were stable before.

Back to stock speeds then, Half Life 2 episode 1 crashes on me too, but that's caused by bad coding since over a 100 users have reported crashes and needed to hard reset their comps. So I thought; Battlefield 2 has received patch 1.3 recently and I installed that. Maybe the problem could be retraced to the patch? Just one day ago I was playing this game longer than I did today without any problems.

Am I scr*w*d?! Did the oc mess my system up? Any suggestions on what I should do?
 
i would of though you could get better o/c than that or be stable at 2.8ghz, i am running an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2ghz @ 2.8ghz and its 100% stable, i ran prime 95 for 12 hours and got 0 errors, my fsb is at 254mhz, HT multiplyer at 3x as any higher and the HT goes over 2ghz and crashes on startup, my voltage is at 1.45V, and i am using the stock AMD heatsink/fan and my temperatures are reported as 29degrees idle and 42degrees load.

My ram is @ 420mhz tho as if i dident alter the cpu/memoy ratio(i think its that) i would have my ram clocked at about over 500mhz and i would fry it, my ratio is at somthing like 1:1.66, cant remember exatly tho

Maybe you have reached your mac o'c then if half life 2 is crashing all the time, Half Life 2 is CPU limited aswell i think.

Whats your memory frequency at? and also i noticed in your sig you cpu is at 2.8Ghz now, so have you got it sorted?|
Whats you Load and Idle Temperature?
 
Maybe I got a little overexicted in my "My computer" specs saying my cpu is running 2.8GHz, that's what I was aiming for.

There are so many options in my bios, I'm sure I can get it stable if I knew what I was doing. I only altered some settings in the options that appear when "AI Overclocking" is set to "manual" I haven't changed any other options, so that meanse I've left all options in "cpu configuration" and "memory configuration" at either their default values or "Auto"

I have installed 4 sticks of PC3200 512MB RAM total;

-2 Kinston ValeuRAM sticks with timings 3-3-3-8 for 200Mhz.
-2 TwinMOS sticks with timings 2.5-3-3-8 for 200Mhz.

I guess I'll have to go and look for better RAM then? I thought PC3200 was the maximum supported by this mobo. But after searching on the internet I've seen other A8V Deluxe users use PC3500 and higher types of 184-pin DIMM's

Prime95 ran for 1 hour and 45 minutes last time I tried it with fsb 228Mhz, 12x mp and VCore voltage at 1.575, and all other settings at their defaults.

Many thanks.
 
i'm probably not the best person to answer questions about OC cos the last OC i did was in DOS / Win 3.1, back then it either worked or it didn't and you had to make your own cooling devices (or put it i a chest frezzer) i was advising from memory (which isn't too good these days) but i think i remember to OC RAM your best using all the same brand & type
 
It's starting to look like my memory isn't good enough for overclocking purposes. I'll see what happens when I take out the twinMOS modules and go witht the lower latency RAM from kingston.

Otherwise, I'm looking into buying 2 x512 Corsair XMS Pro PC3200 modules with 2-3-3-6 timings, will those help me reach better results then? I found OCZ Gold Gamer modules with 2-2-2-5 timings, but those are pc3500 modules and I'm not sure if I can run those at those speeds and timing with this mobo.

Can anyone confirm an A8V Deluxe can also run pc3500 modules?
 
the simple answer is NO! that mobo only supports RAM up to DDR PC3200

EDIT: i dont know about nowadays but yeah latency had to be as low as possible (e.g. 2-2-2-2)

go with the 2 corsair 512Mb (obviously if you can afford them)
 
This thread indicates certain types of PC4000 memory work with the A8V Deluxe motherboard, as it says KingMax PC4000 in the "Compatible Memory" list.

But provided they might work, I won't be able to take advantage of it's full potential since the A8V Deluxe provides support for max DDR400 / PC3200 right? But even so, if those DIMM's have a latency of 2-2-2-6 will they work better when overclocking?

Otherwise it would indeed be useless to buy them.

Thanks

Edit: Here's a thread from those same forums indicating a single user even having PC4400 installed, sadly the thread doesn't seem to be updated in a long time and will probably be dead, making it impossible to find out what this user's findings were eventually.
 
for you to take full advantage of newer technology you need to compare your motherboard revision number and youy BIOS revision, but your board was only made to take up to DDR PC3200 but your particular board may be a newer version than the original release, it may be that a BIOS flash may allow you to run DDR PC4000, but be careful, as an unsuccessful BIOS flash will turn your nice pretty motherboard into a lover-ly thing to look at ONLY (yes i do mean making your motherboard completly DEAD, unless you backup the original BIOS)
 
I've already busted another A8V Deluxe board before this one, I guess I'll stick with PC3200 which I'm sure will work. Thanks for that advice.

Can you tell me if I can expect performance increase when running the Corsair RAM with 2-3-3-6 timings over the Kingston I have now with 3-3-3-8? I've got my eye on a TWINX1024-3200C2PRO kit, which I'll buy if it'll offer me an improvement and stabler oc's.

Current RAM runs @ 182.4MHz, but shouldn't I be able to run at 200MHz. That's where the memory divider comes in right, which I don't understand? It's set to 2:1 DDR 400 now, should I change this?

Here are the settings I'm using now;

FSB 228 (232 unstable, lowered it by 4 as directed in the guide I mentioned )
Multiplier 12x ( I can try a lower MP but windows won't boot if FSB is set high)

Memclock to cpu 2:1 DDR400 (should a 1:1 divider make the RAM run at the same speeds as the FSB?)

CAS 3
TRCD 3
TRP 3
CMD 8

RAM Voltage 2.8
AGP Voltage 1.5
VCore 1.5.75 (PC PRobe reads 1.501 though)

Please don't get mad if I seem to misunderstand stuff, I'm just hoping I learn about this overclocking thing with your help
 
by OC some corsair you won't be able to see any performance difference the only way to tell if its performing better is with some benchmark software this is not bad (about £15 for single pc use) or this but 3dMark is usually for grfx card testing but i think it can help an OCer

don't worry that what were here to help at HWF
 
I've taken the Kingston sticks out, changed the timings to 2.5-3-3-8 and disabled the 2T command, I've yet to experience any crashes.

Since I was doing all sorts of tweaks I also used PCI Latency Tool 3 to change the default latency of my graphics adapter to a much lower value (from 248 to 64) it made a big improvement! I stronly recommend everyone to try this if you experience unsatisfying lag from time to time with a high end graphicscard.
 
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