overclocking question

[messiahnet]

I have an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo with an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) in it. I have one stick of Kingston (just the basic stuff) RAM, 256mb(i know, i highly need an upgrade). Anyhow, this single stick of memory is PC3200. As far as I know, it should run at a 200Mhz frequency (400Mhz effective clock with DDR). Ok, here go the scenario. In the BIOS, the multiplier is locked(of course) at 11, the FSB I tweaked from 166mhz (giving us 1826mhz cpu clock speed) up to 175mhz (giving us 1925mhz clock speed). Everything works well. But if I adjust the FSB much higher, I get the ole black screen, no boot, sorry you overclocked to high thing. Now, technically since my RAM is set to run at the same speed as my system bus, and my RAM can handle 200mhz speed, my RAM should have no problem with this overclock. My guess is that it's the CPU that is being maxed out here. Does that sound right??? Just trying to make sure that I'm right on this one. When the CPU can't go any higher, does it just not boot up at all??? What is causing my system to fail to boot after overclocks a little above the 175mhz???

 

[apj101]

Thats not much of an overclock, have you increase the cpu voltage (vcore). That should help things straighten out and fly straight

 

[Praetor]

In the BIOS, the multiplier is locked(of course) at 11

It is? Locks should only be in place for 2800+ and newer

the FSB I tweaked from 166mhz (giving us 1826mhz cpu clock speed) up to 175mhz (giving us 1925mhz clock speed). Everything works well. But if I adjust the FSB much higher, I get the ole black screen, no boot, sorry you overclocked to high thing

Jack the Vcore

Now, technically since my RAM is set to run at the same speed as my system bus, and my RAM can handle 200mhz speed, my RAM should have no problem with this overclock

Run the memory on its own clock -- more control that way

 

[messiahnet]

Run the memory on its own clock -- more control that way

I read somewhere that one may experience drops in performance when the RAM clock is not same as the system clock. I suppose though that would defeat the purpose of synchronous RAM.

Jack the Vcore

Two questions:

1) Could someone explain to me what the vcore does and why my PC might boot at higher OCs with it jacked up????

2) Can I ruin the CPU by jacking the Vcore too high???, If so what is the maximum vcore I should crank it up to????

 

[apj101]

Could someone explain to me what the vcore does and why my PC might boot at higher OCs with it jacked up

Vcore is the voltage that your mobo provides the cpu. The stock voltage for Barton 2500+ is 1.65 volts. If you increase the FSB then you'll have to punch up the vcore a few notchs to make it stable. Increase the vcore by about 0.025v steps then try to boot, once it boots ok then push up the fsb a bit more. Then push up the vcore a bit more and so on and so forth until you cant get it to run stably. In the end you should get to about 1.725 volts and then overclock to 200 <- i say should, but this depends on the chip. Barton 2500+ are normally good overclockers.

Can I ruin the CPU by jacking the Vcore too high???, If so what is the maximum vcore I should crank it up to????

If you go to high your cpu will over heat and may burn out, but i suspect your mobo will shut it down defore that happens. As for the max vcore to go too, err. You shouldnt really need to go above 1.750v.

 

[messiahnet]

thanks a butt load guys