I overclocked, now what? :)

[ozzy983]

Whoa, is this even possible.

I managed to get my case side stuck, lol. As if it's a sign. So, i had a lamp sitting on the side of the pc, as it's lying flat on my desk atm. While the lamp was on the PC it seemed to not be running stable, but when i moved the lamp back to the night stand, the system seems fine.

Is it possible this lamp is giving off a high EMF which is causing the pc to act funny? could it really be that simple? the entire overclocking endevor of mine, i've had that lamp sitting on the side of the pc right on top (well on the side) of the pc.

any thoughts on this?

[TheGlasMan]

Possible, it does throw out a 60Hz signal if you had to side off. could be the heat as well if it was shining in.

[ozzy983]

Ok, so I deleted a few posts of mine to help condense this thread, just in case there is someone else out there reading this and trying to make some sense out of it.

It seems that the BIOS is the main factor. So far, running stable @ 14.5x X 213mhz HTT (5,5,5,18,23 -- 1.8v), NB - 1926mhz; HT-Link - 1498 (reduced this to rule out it as a limiting factor, but not 100% sure it really does anything, lol), Vcore 1.450 (will tweak later after I test 3.2 out), NB-CPU .075 (again will tweak later), NB 1.2v, and SB default (1.2v).

Basically, fixed the 3dmark issue by increasing the CPUNB voltage from stock to .075 more, was a bit surprised since the nb wasn't oced much and the ht link was less than stock that it needed it, but whatever.

I know i've tried these settings before, but never had near this stability, so I'm inclined to believe that the bios makes a big difference.

[uddarts]

your a man obsessed. been there done that a few times.

someone had problems flashing the latest bios on their ecs 780-ultra, so i pulled mine off the shelf and plugged it in. just happened to have the 7750 in it.

gained a prime stable extra 40mhz over what i did with the msi 790fx from page #1 of this thread.

http://forums.pcper.com/showpost.php...02&postcount=5

13x245

16x200 rebooted a hour into prime95. go figure!


ud

[ozzy983]

Curious, UD, your NB is 2200mhz, any reason it's so high? Most people I see try to overclock with a default of 1800mhz for the 7750. Does this give you more stability? I have mine at 2000mhz, actually 1926, but hadn't thought of increasing it further.

Also, figured I'd add that my friend just recently bought a new motherboard with new 720 x3 processor, so he let me "test" his old gigabyte 790x ud5, and shocker, this processor overclocks much better with it in it.

My best guess is the 770 chipset is the limiting factor. Able to hit 3.2ghz with a minor voltage increase (1.0v for 1.425), whereas need about 1.475 on my 770 to be anywhere near stable at 3.1. With acc enabled +2% i can eek it to 3350 ghz, but it's somewhat unstable. Does everything i need it too but the system will eventually lock up (thinking this might be chipset wall or needs better active cooling on NB). But might be related to a lower NB freq, only running 2000mhz.

Running DDR800, but tried lowering the divider to 3.33, but system won't even post, but I'm thinking ram is out of spec and I need to enable DQS, that fixed the issue on the 770 motherboard.

Overclocking seemed more simpler back on my barton because I could only increase the FSB or multi; no nb freq, htl or other things.

[jedihobbit]

The NB "scales" with FSB.....at least for me as I had set that at 1800 in bios.

[ozzy983]

Yeah, this motherboard or something is weird. Works much better with a higher HTT than with just a straight up multiplier increase. 15.5x200 is nearly unstable, crashes 3dmark06 on the first test half the time, or reboots during prime.

I set it for 230 fsb, 13.5 and it works better; go figure. I'm not 100% sure the HTT matter much or the end result is more important, or both.

AMD has gotten more complicated, imo. Was easier when you had just the FSB and multi.

[jedihobbit]

Something I've noticed and it may not be your board......... my PI X2 7750 and PI X3 8750 work better with a combo of low multi and FSB where as my two PII X3 720s work better with just multis and maybe a wee bit of FSB.

[uddarts]

this is the 4th board that the cpu has been in.

biostar tf560 never got a proper update to handle oc'n phenoms. in order to get the htt up was using the x2 ht multi.

can't find enough screenies so i can't remember exactly what options i had with the ecs 770. will have to throw it in it later. there have been a couple of bios updates since way back when. usually never any oc improvements.

the msi 790fx cpu and nb were tied together with no nb adustment. that too was with a older bios.

ecs 780 ultra

Curious, UD, your NB is 2200mhz, any reason it's so high?

actually i wasn't paying any attention. it worked though.

in the bios i have cpu ht 1x thru 5x and x9! the nb multi adjustments don't seem to work!

ud

[ozzy983]

Yeah, I can pretty much adjust everything, and maybe that's the problem. Too many settings, lol. Even dropped the memory down a bit, running at the 3.3x divider, even though it's slower and ram timings higher, seems overall faster with the higher HTT.

I think it's all a work in progress, but perhaps taking it a bit too far and just need to be happy with 3.0ghz. It just bothers me that anything that would require a voltage increase isn't working. I know it's not the PSU beacuse to stabilize a higher NB or HTT frequency, I need voltage, and I can get it stable up to 2400 mhz.

Updated my graphics drivers too, who knows might be an issue. I've really starting to believe the Northbridge is the issue here. The AMD 770 wasn't their best, according to online resources. SB700 was decent but still not great. 710 or 750 are preferred for overclocking. 790 NB is the sweet one.

3.1 (13.5x230) seems stable, runs occt for over 2 hours (small segment size) with no issues, runs prime for 2 hours small fft. I'm pretty certain that the processor isn't causing issues, and unless heat is the problem, a system freeze, doesn't seem related to the CPU, at least not on a voltage front.

Seems more the chipset than anything else. If I were to increase the NB or HTT, the system gives the same symptoms (freeze, no restart). Processor issues seem to give the effect of hitting the reset button. Memory errors BSod with some file and create a dump file.

Well, i'll continue to plug away until every last option has been tested.

[jedihobbit]

.........Well, i'll continue to plug away until every last option has been tested.

You have way more patience than I, best!!

[uddarts]

have you switched board yet?

Yeah, I can pretty much adjust everything, and maybe that's the problem. Too many settings, lol. Even dropped the memory down a bit, running at the 3.3x divider, even though it's slower and ram timings higher, seems overall faster with the higher HTT.

using superpi as a speed benchmark utility, a higher htt usually shaves .5sec off a 1m run.

I think it's all a work in progress, but perhaps taking it a bit too far and just need to be happy with 3.0ghz. It just bothers me that anything that would require a voltage increase isn't working. I know it's not the PSU beacuse to stabilize a higher NB or HTT frequency, I need voltage, and I can get it stable up to 2400 mhz.

you'll get 98% of your oc with 1.475 or less. any more is just profit for the utility company.

Updated my graphics drivers too, who knows might be an issue. I've really starting to believe the Northbridge is the issue here. The AMD 770 wasn't their best, according to online resources. SB700 was decent but still not great. 710 or 750 are preferred for overclocking. 790 NB is the sweet one.

remember your running(for lack of a better name)phenom I.

3.1 (13.5x230) seems stable, runs occt for over 2 hours (small segment size) with no issues, runs prime for 2 hours small fft. I'm pretty certain that the processor isn't causing issues, and unless heat is the problem, a system freeze, doesn't seem related to the CPU, at least not on a voltage front.

you shouldn't be having freezes at mhz.

Seems more the chipset than anything else. If I were to increase the NB or HTT, the system gives the same symptoms (freeze, no restart).Processor issues seem to give the effect of hitting the reset button. Memory errors BSod with some file and create a dump file.

next time it does that, unplug the psu and walk away for 10-15 minutes. i'm willing to bet it will post.

You have way more patience than I, best!!

what you lack in patience, you make up for it with tenacity. i feel the light saber a 1000 miles away.


ud

[ozzy983]

Well, this thread has gotten big lol; nice journal of my overclocking adventures.

I managed to get rid of the freezing issues by increasing the memory voltage from 2.0 to 2.1v. Muskin certifies the blackline for 2.1v and will even warrenty it up to 2.2v. Place a fan by the ram to prevent it from overheating. Everyone is out of the case for testing purposes. Figure easier to manipulate additional cooling this way.

I'm not concerned about the memory really; if it burned I'd have an excuse to buy some new stuff. Would love some more anyway. But, I'm only running it at 750ish mhz, so not really sure why it is requiring so much voltage, perhaps the HTT at 230 has something to do with that. I also don't know if increasing the CPU-NB might have the same effect. Would rather have the memory hotter than the CPU.

Running a custom Prime95, large fft, using 1gb of memory, figure any memory issues will become apparent through there. One thing that has been nice; past few tests that have failed, have just failed, and not rebooted the system.

I do have to say though, unrelated to this, windows 7 is stable. Out of the 200+ restarts and freezes, the os is still plugging along. I know, xp probably would have given me that corrupted os message on boot by now.

[uddarts]

[QUOTE=ozzy983;4421054]

I managed to get rid of the freezing issues by increasing the memory voltage from 2.0 to 2.1v. Muskin certifies the blackline for 2.1v and will even warrenty it up to 2.2v. Place a fan by the ram to prevent it from overheating. Everyone is out of the case for testing purposes. Figure easier to manipulate additional cooling this way.

the first thing i do is set the vdimm to factory specs. in fact i just got a set of mushkin 2x2 pc800 and a gigabyte 790x.

I know, xp probably would have given me that corrupted os message on boot by now.

the first thing you do when you see that is drop the oc. in most cases all is well.

edit: your not trying to run command rate at 1t are you?


ud

[jedihobbit]

ud has a point on the memory at 1T command rate......don't think I done that since my 939 mobos! Also he's right about "always" setting vdimm at factory (for me max) values. When oc'ing MHzs are worth more that what you can pick up with tight timings on memory. Took several 2 x 4s from ud and a few others to make me realize that.

Another leason I've learned is different components will yield different results......I've had to back down from my expectations several times as I could not match some of the "wonderous" results other people obtain.