Hey guys, as you can tell i'm new to the overclocking hobby.. thing.. After reading a gazillion posts on how easy it is to overclock athlon xp 2500, i decided i'd give it a try, but the first problem i faced was that my ram was running@333 mhz (native, haven't modified anything), and this is apparently not recommended if overclocking, and i should instead buy 400 mhz memory. Now that would defeat the point of getting better performance without paying money So a friend suggested i try and raise my ram frequency to accommodate for 400 mhz fsb (See, i learned the big words). Now my RAM is pretty much the basic stuff, when i got the pc back in july last year, i didn't pay much attention to the brand, so its usual oem 512 mb 2700 2.5 cas ddr ram. i wish i could tell you more, but i don't think the stick reveals anything about the brand. So my question is... Is it worth trying and overclocking my ram? are there any percussions i should take? And, of course, how would i go about doing that? And if you got this far... Thanks for your time and help Vlad
Most RAM will have an overhead, so you will most likly be able to run it faster than 333/166. There is a good chance you will achieve around 180Mhz, but to get further (read 200) you will have to increase the voltage (vdimm), this is usually done in the BIOS (press [delete] on start up) that will help you push the RAM further. You may also be limited by the Northbridge (the motherboard chip that controles the memory amonst other things), again to combat this you may have to increase the voltage (vdd) to the northbridge (via the BIOS).
What yoda said, but also: Can you post some system specs, motherboard, CPU, cooling, powersupply? These all affect an OC Also, whip one of the ram sticks out and post the code written in the individual ram chips this can help identify the ram.
Just dont be upset if your overclock doesnt go too well- my RAM wont even do 180 mhz at 3,3,3,8 and its the same CAS latency . You really wont erk out that much more performance from your CPU unless you have really good RAM Im afraid.
Hey, First of all, thanks for your help, its much appriciated. As for system spec, i didn't realize i forgot to mention it - mobo: Asus A7N8X-X cpu: Athlon XP 2500+ (Speed 1.84 Ghz) ram: (SiSoftware Sandra was more than helpful) - Wintec 512MB 16x(32Mx8) DDR-SDRAM PC2700U-2533-700 (CL2.5 up to 167MHz) (CL2 up to 133MHz) Radeon 9500@9700 What else is relevant? using 1 fan for case, 1 on cpu, got a 400w power supply, most likely 350w real, 2 fans it. As for temp.. Asus Utility says 43C CPU and 26 Mobo. I believe it Oh, and slightly of topic - i read that it is possible to go up to 2800 by solely raising the multiplier. So i wanted to save you some time, and just went and changed it to x12.5 in bios. Windows wouldn't run though. 'ny idea why's that? Thanks, Vlad
You will only be able to change the multiplier if the processor is a little old (must have been made before week 39 year 2003) if not it will be super locked.
lets see. I got it mid july 2003. 7*4 = 28. so unless they got me a processor from the future (which is cool), this must be prior to that 39 week date. unless of course week 39 means something else
It might be that you need a little more voltage to get it to windows, try say 1.7 and see if that helps. FSB wise, keep upping it in 5mhz jumps, run memtest86 (google it) for ~ 10 loops then increase again until you get errors. Then increase the voltage or drop a timing, or simply stay where you are The 5 loops *should* get you to windows ok, but once you've decided on an fsb/timing combo run memtest for a good hour or so, then give the whole system a good 6 hour prime
Highland3r, i changed CPU Vcore to 1.700, and i booted in fine. Hope it was what you meant. now, memtest86 is a ram utility, isnt it? is CPU burn-in a good app to check cpu stability? And as for raising the fsb.. you were refering to the ram, right? but if i can't get it to 400, will it allow me to up cpu fsb to 200 safely? should i even try? oh, and what temp would you say is too high for comfort? Thanks, Vlad
tbh honest mobo temp sensors are very unaccurate. But athlons can handle around 90 c If you can keep it below 60 c then you should be fine. Try to keep the cpu and RAM at the same speed, you will get better results, keep below 60c and try small steps at a time.
Yes Yes No, leave the ratio at 1:1 (or 3:3/4:4 whatever u run) its faster. Find the max FSB and then up the multi to increase CPU speed. for a temp guide see patented touch test
amazing guide. Probly the most detailed and accurate guide i've seen to date. No wonder this community is blooming btw, first time i ran a benchmark it crushed, but now it seems to be ok. i'll update over the weekend on the status of my overclocking adventure.
Here's the thing guys... both 3dmark03 and 05 crash before the tests are done. 03 crashes on the third graphics test, while 05 crashes on the first cpu test. An interesting fact is that if i run the cpu test in 05 by itself, that is, not preceded by the graphics test, it works fine. CPU burn-in ran an hour and couldnt find any errors. Suggestions? edit: ran prime95, ran for some 4 minutes and then got 100 errors in a matter of a few seconds and failed. I've noticed that 3dmark03 also crashes while loading - would you say the issue is ram related?
What FSB/multi/voltages you using Failing after such a short period could be anything, if it passes memtest for ~ 5-10 loops then its slightly more likely to be the cpu however.
If your MObo bios has the option of locking AGP/PCI bus, then that may reduce crashes too, basically prevent upping FSB from adversely affecting AGP and PCI devices.
oki, memtest results show no errors after 16 test. So i guess it cpu related? i'd think of upping the voltage, but from what i read 2500 runs @ 2800 fine on 1.65, and right now im already on 1.70. update: other games freeze, too.
dropped to 12 and voltage back to 1.65 benchmarks ran fine, prime95 ran fine for half an hour, then i stopped it. could it be that i had supplied excess voltage to the chip when the multi was 12.5?
