AMD introduces 3.2GHz Athlon 64 X2 6400+

  • Thread starter Thread starter lyon_wonder
  • Start date Start date
This sounds like great chip. I wonder how fast can overclock this but
maybe 90nm manufacture process will be to limiting to get very high
speed?
Click to expand...

It's AMDs last speed bump on 90nm so I doubt they OC much at all, if
any, I'd sooner get a 6000+ and OC it to 3.2 and just be happy ;)
 
How do I overclock an AMD CPU?

Ed said:
It's AMDs last speed bump on 90nm so I doubt they OC much at all, if
any, I'd sooner get a 6000+ and OC it to 3.2 and just be happy ;)
Click to expand...
 
Ritter 197 said:
How do I overclock an AMD CPU?
Click to expand...
Which AMD CPU on what motherboard using what other hardware?
Without details of your setup, any advice would be a WAG.
 
Which AMD CPU on what motherboard using what other hardware?
Without details of your setup, any advice would be a WAG.
Click to expand...

Huh? This is *Usenet*, ya rookie! You're supposed to *tell* him what hardware
- with specificity, including bios revisions, wattages, and especially colors
- and then defend your selection to your binary death, with great vigor and a
broad use of "language" both domestic and foreign.

Sheesh...

/daytripper ;-)
 
daytripper said:
On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:23:59 -0600, "Peter van der Goes"
<[email protected]>
wrote:


Huh? This is *Usenet*, ya rookie! You're supposed to *tell* him what
hardware
- with specificity, including bios revisions, wattages, and especially
colors
- and then defend your selection to your binary death, with great vigor
and a
broad use of "language" both domestic and foreign.

Sheesh...

/daytripper ;-)
Click to expand...


Uh, sorry. I forgot that rule.
Won't happen again... :-)
 
My computer is an AMD 2.20 gigahertz Athlon 64X2 Dual core.
The MB is an ASUSTek NODUSM3 1.05, bus Clock 199 megahertz, BIOS is Phoenix
Tech LTD 3.06 07/14/2006

I am using WindowsXP.

Does this help?
 
Ritter said:
My computer is an AMD 2.20 gigahertz Athlon 64X2 Dual core.
The MB is an ASUSTek NODUSM3 1.05, bus Clock 199 megahertz, BIOS is
Phoenix Tech LTD 3.06 07/14/2006

I am using WindowsXP.

Does this help?
Click to expand...

General rules -

1) If the BIOS has something set at "Auto", set it to "Manual".
This will expose more settings, and make some things adjustable.
I've used that approach on my last two Asus motherboards, without
staring at the manual too much.

2) Find the CPU input clock. Say it was 200MHz. Set it to 205MHz.
Now you're overclocking. Proceed in small steps. You don't
change the input clock from 200MHz to 300MHz, and expect a
miracle. Go in 5MHz steps, and boot something that won't get
corrupted (memtest86+ floppy, Knoppix or Ubuntu CD). The idea
is to detect instability, without crashing the thing, or
causing it to lock up.

3) Turning up the CPU clock, will usually also increase the speed
of the RAM, without it being obvious in the BIOS screen that it
is happening. To compensate for this, turn down the visible
memory clock setting. For example, say I have DDR2-800 memory.
I turn it down in the BIOS, to DDR2-533. That leaves room for
overclocking by a factor of 800/533=1.5x . You could increase
the CPU input clock, from 200 to 300MHz, and at that point, the
actual operating speed of the RAM would be exactly DDR2-800.
Even though the BIOS setting shows DDR2-533. The program "CPUZ"
can be used in Windows, to verify exactly what is going on.
But you only boot into Windows, when the system is known to be
stable. So use CPUZ with your first attempts to overclock
(the 205MHz thing), and use CPUZ to verify the arithmetic
behind what is happening to the clocks. CPUZ can be downloaded
from cpuid.com .

4) Voltages matter. The CPU has Vcore voltage adjustment. The
memory has Vdimm voltage adjustment. Only use extra voltage when
necessary. Increase the CPU frequency, until memtest86+ won't
boot, or your Knoppix or Ubuntu CD won't boot or crashes.
Turn up Vcore in the BIOS, on the next POST. Adjust by one
or two steps, keeping in mind that the processor has a stated
absolute max that you should not go past. Since you're bumping
the clock in 5MHz steps, now you can take a piece of graph
paper, and plot frequency on one axis, and voltage on the
other. The slope of the line will give you an estimate of
how much voltage buys how many more MHz. This will make it
easier to estimate how to hit the next overclocking targets.

The plot also has a characteristic to it. For example, my
processor has a "brick wall". It uses very little extra
voltage, and at a certain, magic point, it won't go any
faster. I can apply lots more voltage, and it won't get me
anywhere. Since I can see this on my graph paper, it tells
me that I've hit a limit. Other processors have a more
gradual slope, and eventually you start to worry that
you're cooking the thing. So you stop because the room is
getting too warm :-)

Adjusting RAM timing is another topic, but for not, start with
some modest overclocking attempts, and master the basics. You
should be able to turn the knob by 10%, without having to adjust
too much stuff.

HTH,
Paul
 
My computer is an AMD 2.20 gigahertz Athlon 64X2 Dual core. The MB is an
ASUSTek NODUSM3 1.05, bus Clock 199 megahertz, BIOS is Phoenix Tech LTD
3.06 07/14/2006

I am using WindowsXP.

Does this help?
Click to expand...

Put in a memtest boot floppy or cdromm before making any changes. This
will keep from screwing up your HDD if when you screw up.
In the bios.
1. Lower base ram bus speed 1 level (33MHz real speed).
2. Lower HT bus speed 1 level (from 5x to 4x).
3. Raise vcore .1v from default.
4. Raise system bus speed from 200MHz to 233MHz.

Should boot at 11x233.33MHz, about 2567MHz.

Now that's a very very simple overclock. And it doesn't touch on the
benefits and hazards of doing it. This small OC shouldn't cause any
problems, but you never know til you start overclocking a system. If it
doesn't boot, you'll probably have to clear cmos, boot and try changing
some settings. It would be wise to undersatnd what these settings are and
what they do before you get in over your head. There's tons of good (and
bad) info on overclocking on the web.

1. Sets the base ram bus lower because raisng the system clock will also
raises other clocks.
2. Same as above for the HT bus.
3. Generally more vcore for higher cpu speeds. Will vary. May not even
need to raise it. .1v won't hurt it.
4. Pretty self explanatory.
 
Thanks a lot for detailed feedback. I will print it out and try to follow
your recommendations.

Thanks again
 
Do I download "memtest" somewhere? Same question for "cdromm".
I shall await your answer before proceeding.
Thanks in advance
 
Ritter said:
Thanks a lot for detailed feedback. I will print it out and try to
follow your recommendations.

Thanks again
Click to expand...

On thing I forgot, that Wes caught, was setting the Hypertransport
bus speed. Normally, it might be something like 5x200, and
not to surpass 1000. If you are bumping the CPU input clock on
an Athlon board, then you'd want to drop the multiplier. For
example 4x220 would be less than 1000, so a setting of 4
for the multiplier, gives room up to 250MHz for your CPU
clock setting.

The HT bus setting affects I/O rates, such as PCI Express
transfers to memory, but only really becomes noticeable,
if you drop it a lot. For example, at 1x200, you'd notice
your 3DMark was off quite a bit. The difference between
5x200 and 4x220 would probably not be a big deal.

Paul
 
Thanks again, but I am running into a wall, in that I cannot access the
BIOS.
I have been "googling" for HP Pavilion a1610n BIOS and all responses say to
hold down the F1 key during startup. That gets me to hard drives, various
other tabs (that I was always familiar with before) but never to BIOS. So I
do not know how at this time to set it to "manual" as suggested nor can I
see whether it is at this automatic.

I found the MEMTEST and downloaded it and burned it to a DVD. When I start
up with it it seems to run for a very long time tests and the progress is
very slow. What I am actually to do with it?
 
Oh, I forgot to mention that I have an ASUSTek NODUSM3 1.05 Motherboard.
The CPU is AMD 2.20 gigahertz Athlon 64 X2 Dual core, 256 kilobyte L1, 1024
kilobyte L2.
 
Ritter said:
Thanks again, but I am running into a wall, in that I cannot access the
BIOS.
I have been "googling" for HP Pavilion a1610n BIOS and all responses say
to hold down the F1 key during startup. That gets me to hard drives,
various other tabs (that I was always familiar with before) but never to
BIOS. So I do not know how at this time to set it to "manual" as
suggested nor can I see whether it is at this automatic.

I found the MEMTEST and downloaded it and burned it to a DVD. When I
start up with it it seems to run for a very long time tests and the
progress is very slow. What I am actually to do with it?
Click to expand...

Hmmm. I guess I should have asked more questions :-)

OK, so you've got an OEM Asus board, not a retail one. HP provides
the support.

According to this page, pressing F1 is supposed to be putting you
in the BIOS setup. You could try <Del> instead, because that is
what my Asus board uses.

Motherboard
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...531&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN#

A1610N computer
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...c=us&objectID=c00749158&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

It is a Media Center, and at least for one other of those (Intel
processor), it seemed to be a pretty "closed" box. I hope that is
not the case.

You can try your hand at overclocking in Windows. The problem there
is, your chipset is 6150LE, which is a generation after Clockgen
added support for a couple Nvidia chips. The Nvidia chips appear
to do clock synthesis inside the chipset, and for the author of
Clockgen, it meant only having to support at the chipset level,
and not have to custom program every motherboard. So a whole bunch
of people gained the ability to overclock some of those closed
OEM motherboards. The author has withdrawn Clockgen from his
download page, and I'm not sure if there is a problem with the
program or not. I've used Clockgen with my current motherboard
(using the custom support for the clock generator chip on my
motherboard, not Nvidia generic support), and it was a fine program
and did exactly what it was supposed to. (Note - archive.org is
a huge and slow web site, with a lot of simultaneous requests
going to it. You can prepare a meal for yourself, while it loads.)

http://web.archive.org/web/20070502114125/http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

This is the Nvidia chipset support listed on that archived copy.

* nForce2, nForce3, nForce4, nForce4 SLI Intel Edition clock generators.
* Geforce 6100/6150 clock generator.
* nForce 590 clock generator.

6150LE comes after 6150, and I would hope they are quite similar.
But no guarantees.

When Wes recommended "memtest", the purpose is to give you something
to boot with, to prove the overclock is stable. If you overclock
too far, and boot a Windows boot disk, the registry or other
files can get corrupted. You might never get to boot your boot
drive again, if that happens. If you check the overclocker
sites, there are all sorts of tales of woe like that. (I.e. Stupid
guys that boot Windows drives, filled with files they haven't
backed up, and then they lose the disk.)

What I use for stability testing, is Knoppix or Ubuntu Linux LiveCDs.
You get to boot from a CD, and you can even leave all your hard
drives disconnected. If the OS crashes, there is nothing to
corrupt :-) And you can get a copy of Prime95 from mersenne.org,
to do stress testing while in Linux. Prime95 is available in
both Linux and Windows versions.

But if you're not going to get into the BIOS, or it turns out
your BIOS is "feature free", then you'll be in Windows anyway.
Just don't push the clock too fast.

Assuming you can get Clockgen to work, download this. This is
a stress test. If you run this, while using Clockgen, you'll be
able to detect when you're getting "close" to the limit. Prime95
stops on the first error it detects. On an unstable machine, it
errors in 10 seconds or less. On a stable machine, you should be
able to run this for hours. This is a Windows version, and is
multicore aware.

http://www.mersenne.org/gimps/p95v255a.zip

Start the program. When it asks to "Join GIMPS", say No. The
custom dialog will pop up. Adjust the quantity of memory down
a bit, if you want a bit of spare memory for some other programs
to run. On my 1GB machine, the program will test around 760MB of
memory or so. You could turn it down to 500MB in a case like
that, and leave 260MB for your newsreader etc.

Then, you can increase Clockgen a bit at a time, and watch
Prime95. Stop before you go too far.

That should give you something to work with. I don't know
if your BIOS is going to be any fun or not.

By not having the BIOS at your disposal, your overclock will
be more modest. Some of the settings you're supposed to turn
down, won't be accessible. Still, give it a shot, and see
how it works out.

Paul
 
That is quite a great response and again I will print it out to digest it
all and make no mistakes.
I bought the computer from COMP USA before they went under and it was a true
HP computer in its HP carton. So I cannot imagine that HP would use an OEM
MB.

Like I said in another reply, BELARC says it is a ASUSTek NODUSM3 1.05 , bus
clock 199 megahertz, BIOS is Phoenix Tech Ltd 3.06 7/14/2006.
 
Paul I have downloaded the ClockGen and the other piece 95 etc.
On the ClockGen I see:
CPU 2216.1, FSB 201.7, RAM 246.2, PCIE 100.0, PCI 33.3

It apparently lets me get into the BIOS this way (correct ?) since I can
change the various speeds. But do you have a conservative suggestion to a
newbie at this time (but not computer illiterate) what settings I should
give a try?

Thanks for watching and your response!
 
Ritter said:
Paul I have downloaded the ClockGen and the other piece 95 etc.
On the ClockGen I see:
CPU 2216.1, FSB 201.7, RAM 246.2, PCIE 100.0, PCI 33.3

It apparently lets me get into the BIOS this way (correct ?) since I can
change the various speeds. But do you have a conservative suggestion to
a newbie at this time (but not computer illiterate) what settings I
should give a try?

Thanks for watching and your response!
Click to expand...

"FSB" is your CPU input clock. 200MHz would be the nominal speed.
You'd follow the same recipe I gave before.

1) Start up Clockgen, but don't adjust anything yet.
2) Fire up Prime95. Start it running. With no overclock, it should
not be reporting errors. Prime95 will throw an error, when
you've overclocked too far.
3) Now, use Clockgen. Go in 5MHz steps. Nominal is 200MHz, and
then you'd try 205MHz, 210MHz and so on. Wait 10 minutes
between steps. That is to give time for Prime95 to find an
error. If you get an error, dial down one step. Then,
start Prime95 again, and run it for at least 4 hours
error free. If it is clean, then that speed may be pretty close
to your new overclock speed. Running a game like Crysis, is
another test, and you may find the clock has to be dropped
another 5MHz, to keep Crysis running. (Insert the name of
your favorite 3D game there...)

The reason for taking small steps, is to overclock your system
without crashing it.

The PCIE and PCI should be locked, and as you dial up "FSB", they
shouldn't move. And as long as they don't move, then they won't upset
their respective subsystems.

I don't know how the SATA ports are clocked on your motherboard.
On some motherboards, when you overclock, the SATA clock goes up
as well. And that can lead to problems with the disks. On
one motherboard, of the four SATA ports, two were affected and
two were OK. But you cannot find that kind of information just
anywhere.

If you have no choice, but to go the Windows route to try
this, then make a complete backup copy of your Windows disk.
Then, if something happens to your hard drive, you have
a fallback plan, and a way to restore your disk.

Paul
 
Do I download "memtest" somewhere? Same question for "cdromm". I shall
await your answer before proceeding. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

You can download memtest86, cdromm was a typo just maening a boot cdrom
disc with memtest on it. There's also a boot floppy version of memtest if
you prefer. Some Linux distros also have memtest as an option when you
boot them.
 
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