VOGONS


First post, by deleted_Rc

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Seems I am hitting a wall here at roughly 2600 MHz with my Athlon.

Athlon XP 3200+
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
2x 1 GB kingston DDR 400 pc3200
Asus 9800XT

Vcore: 1,825V
FSB: 208 MHz
Multiplier: x12,5
Memory: cas 3 timings 3-3-3 2,6V
Speedfan CPU temp1: 27°C and other CPU Temp: 18°C
Waterloop Temp: 20,5°C
FSB spread: disabled

Increasing the fsb any further results in a instant reboot, the multiplier will always boot at x12,5 but will randomly not boot in x13 and result in a x5 multiplier.
Tried tinkering with the memory power setting but results in memory failure and required CMOS reset and reseating the ram.
Increasing voltage doesn't help.
I am thinking the problem is the memory, but I never oced to the point this could become necessary so I have no experience with it.

Reply 1 of 5, by agent_x007

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You may need a lot more than +0,1V to get 2,6GHz+ from Barton (2V).
Athlom XPs do not like 3GHz speed (just like 130nm Athlon64s).
I think what holds you back it's either MB (chipset), VRM (no air flow over MOSFETs with water cooling) or PSU with underpowered 5V rail.

Reply 2 of 5, by The Serpent Rider

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Asus A7N8X Deluxe

This motherboard don't have separate 12v rail for CPU. I don't think it's really stable even on 2600mhz.

But that's pretty much all you can achieve even with water cooling. Everything beyond that most likely will require temperatures below zero.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 5, by deleted_Rc

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agent_x007 wrote:

You may need a lot more than +0,1V to get 2,6GHz+ from Barton (2V).
Athlom XPs do not like 3GHz speed (just like 130nm Athlon64s).
I think what holds you back it's either MB (chipset), VRM (no air flow over MOSFETs with water cooling) or PSU with underpowered 5V rail.

3 Ghz would be abit to much yeah, however I would like to achieve a stable 20-25% OC so 2,7 Ghz maybe towards 2,8 Ghz. The PSU has 35A on the 5V rail, haven't found one with higher Amps on the the 5V.
The mosfets are passive cooled (using the old chipset heatsink which fits perfectly) atm and are at most warm to the touch so shouldn't be higher then 40-50°C under load (1,825V Vcore) after a full system stress test (including GPU), so I imagine if the GPU is idle the CPU should be able to OC abit further then the 2,6 Ghz under load along with the GPU.

This motherboard don't have separate 12v rail for CPU. I don't think it's really stable even on 2600mhz.

But that's pretty much all you can achieve even with water cooling. Everything beyond that most likely will require temperatures below zero.

its stable under full FTT prime 95 and furmark burn test on the GPU.
Yeah I reckonened I need lower ambient temperatures to be able to push it further, this was the case when I only used the multiplier to push the CPU over 2,6 Ghz, but with the increase in the FSB I was able to push it to 2,6 Ghz without the need of low ambient temperatures thus lowering my loop temperatures to below 10°C.
Just annoyed by the instant reboots when I increase the FSB higher then 208 while it should go higher 😢 , not even a BSOD just instant reboot.

Reply 5 of 5, by kanecvr

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The Serpent Rider wrote:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe

This motherboard don't have separate 12v rail for CPU. I don't think it's really stable even on 2600mhz.

But that's pretty much all you can achieve even with water cooling. Everything beyond that most likely will require temperatures below zero.

The A7N8X is not a great overclocking motherboard. For more then 2600MHz you'll want an Abit AN7 or a DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra B and a 2005-2006ish PSU with single rail design. 2800MHz is as fast as a Barton core will go providing you're very very lucky and the CPU doesn't go over 35C even under load. Late revision Sempron chips using the barton core seem to overclock the best, as well as late revision OEM 3200+ chips, especially the 2333MHz 3200+ (AXDA3200DUV3C or AXDA3200DKV4D). Personally I've never been able to go over 2600MHz stable.