How to slow down CPU, and also get memory up to speed?

[Steven O.]

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure. I just built a new system with the ASUS A8N-SLI
series motherboard.

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3500+, which is supposed to run at 2200 MHz,
but the AMD diagnostics report it is actually running at 2254 MHz.
The family/step model is 15.47.2. The memory bus speed is 200 MHz
(which I find slightly puzzling, since I purchased 400 MHz DDR
memory). HT0 frequency is reported as 1000 MHz, HT1 and HT2 frequency
are both reported as 200 MHz. I am running Win2K, in case that makes
any difference. (Will upgrade eventually…..) The BIOS is
Phoenix-Award BIOS, v6.00 PG.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And
also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the
memory bus running at the right speed?

Thanks in advance for all replies….

Steve O.


"Spying On The College Of Your Choice" -- How to pick the college that is the Best Match for a high school student's needs.
www.SpyingOnTheCollegeOfYourChoice.com

 

[Wes Newell]

The memory bus speed is 200 MHz (which I find slightly puzzling, since I
purchased 400 MHz DDR memory).

No, you purchased PC3200 ram, which has a rated bus speed of 200MHz,
400ddr. the 400MHz they use to advertise is just more marketing BS for the
people that don't know any better. Just like Intel Intel and their BS
FSB speeds. The data rate for PC3200 ram is 400Mbps per line, or as some
put it, 400MTs.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And
also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the memory
bus running at the right speed?

200MHZ is right for the memory bus. If your MB supports multiplier
control, you can lower the multiplier by 1. If not, you can lower the FSB
if your board allows that. If you can do neither, then you are screwed
unless you want to use CnQ to do it, which is probably the best way to do
it anyway. My 3000+ runs at 800MHz most of the time. When cpu load exceeds
5% it jumps to 1800MHZ and when cpu load goes over 80% it goes to full
speed.

 

[The little lost angel]

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And

There should be a sub menu called Jumperfree Configuration or
something like that under something like Advance (sorry don't wanna
reboot my PC for this ). Inside there you should be able to lower
your multiplier or FSB. The CPU speed is determined by the "FSB" x
multiplier so do your own maths

also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the
memory bus running at the right speed?

It is running at the correct speed. DDR means double data rate,
refering to the ratio of data transfer vs the actual clock speed. For
Intel their bus is QDR (quadruple) hence you see advertising that
claims 800Mhz FSB or 1066Mhz FSB when in reality all of them are
running off some base clock between 166 to 266Mhz.

 

[Mabden]

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3500+, which is supposed to run at 2200 MHz,

but the AMD diagnostics report it is actually running at 2254 MHz.
The family/step model is 15.47.2. The memory bus speed is 200 MHz
(which I find slightly puzzling, since I purchased 400 MHz DDR
memory).

The first D means double...

-Mabden

 

[meow2222]

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure.

I'm wondering why. Reducing cpu speed wont reduce odds of hardware
failure to any useful extent, not unless its currently on the edge of
overheating.

are both reported as 200 MHz. I am running Win2K, in case that makes
any difference. (Will upgrade eventually.....)

afaik theres nothing to upgrade to. 2k is as good as it gets. XP and
vista certainly dont qualify as upgrades.

The BIOS is
Phoenix-Award BIOS, v6.00 PG.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up?

just look around the bios menus and see, it should be clear enough. Its
either multiplier or fsb that changes, preferably multiplier. Cant
answer more directly because different bios menus use different terms
and different nav trees.


NT

 

[kony]

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure. I just built a new system with the ASUS A8N-SLI
series motherboard.

Ok but it begs the question, why did you pay for a 3500
then, instead of saving some $ and buying a lower speed?

The big question is how long you need the system to last.
The CPU shouldn't fail any year soon, but the motherboard
can be an issue if you have poor case cooling such that it
runs hot. Some would just improve the cooling then, if
applicable, BUT it's your call, if it's fast enough
downclocked.

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3500+, which is supposed to run at 2200 MHz,
but the AMD diagnostics report it is actually running at 2254 MHz.
The family/step model is 15.47.2. The memory bus speed is 200 MHz
(which I find slightly puzzling, since I purchased 400 MHz DDR
memory).

What you purchased should not have been called 400MHz DDR
memory. It is PC3200. The bus speed clock rate is 200MHz.
It's DDR as-in "double", so 2 * clock-rate = 400. Even so,
it is not called DDR400 memory and you should beware of
those selling it as such as they demonstrate an inability to
use normal terms, you might buy who-knows-what when dealing
with someone who uses unconventional terms.

HT0 frequency is reported as 1000 MHz, HT1 and HT2 frequency
are both reported as 200 MHz. I am running Win2K, in case that makes
any difference. (Will upgrade eventually…..) The BIOS is
Phoenix-Award BIOS, v6.00 PG.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And
also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the
memory bus running at the right speed?

The memory bus is fine (based only on info provided, you
should test it with memtest86+ now, AND after any changes to
the bios or memory population in the system).

To reduce the clock rate 10% it's simple enough, just lower
the FSB speed to the nearest value allowed in the bios.

However, the benefit you seek is not so much from lowering
the speed, it's from lowering the voltage. Speed doesn't
kill the parts in any reasonable timeframe, it's the
power->heat that would. While speed reduction does reduce
power & heat, not nearly as much as voltage reduction does.

So, the best result comes from lowering the voltage a little
and then lowering the speed only so much as necessary to
retain stability. That's a bit oversimplified, but we dont'
know exactly what your bios allows, nor what voltage will
allow running any particular speed stable... too many
variables to delve far into any further detail. You just
have to try it, know where the clear CMOS jumper is, and
stress test it afterwards. Prime95's torture test is good
for this, run it for a day or two but usually errors pop up
in the first complete pass.

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure. I just built a new system with the ASUS A8N-SLI
series motherboard.

Underclocking your system won't make it last one minute longer. Your OS
already runs your A64 at 1GHz about 98% of the time unless you are putting
a continuous heavy load on your system. AMD calls this feature Cool and
Quiet. When the system is lightly loaded the core voltage and clock speed
are automatically reduced by the OS which reduces the power consumption
and heat production of the CPU. When the OS detects that you are running a
compute bound task it raises the core voltage and clock speed to allow
that task to be completed faster. When the CPU load goes down again the
clock speed is automatically reduced. Most of the time your system is
doing almost nothing, it's just sitting there waiting for you to do
something. If all you are doing is web browsing or using an editor you'll
hardly ever run your CPU at full speed. Even if you are doing Photo Shop
or something like that most of the time the system will be idle, when you
execute a filter the CPU will run at full speed but as soon as the filter
is done the OS will drop it back to the low speed. Games might put enough
load on the system to push the CPU to full speed, but if you were the kind
of person who runs games 10 hours a day you wouldn't be asking about
underclocking, you would be more interested in overclocking. However even
if you were running games all day long the system is designed to handle
it, you won't burn out your CPU unless you have a seriously inadequate
cooling system.

 

[Gnu.Raiz]

Steven O. wrote:

I'm wondering why. Reducing cpu speed wont reduce odds of hardware
failure to any useful extent, not unless its currently on the edge of
overheating.

just look around the bios menus and see, it should be clear enough. Its
either multiplier or fsb that changes, preferably multiplier. Cant
answer more directly because different bios menus use different terms
and different nav trees.


NT

I have to totally agree, now some people do under clock but it's mostly
for noise, or battery life. If someone is underclocking for heat, then
I must say they need better system fans, as at that point your
harddrive is probably going to be reduced in its life span.

For me I hate an Idle system, even if I am surfing the net I like my
machine's to run full tilt, ie that means a DC client. Some people
might complain that it uses more enegry, my thought on that is start
recycling, sell your suv, ride a bicycle, those are all better ways to
conserve enegry. Or heaven forbid turn off your AC, if a person is that
worried about extra use of enegry on their PC. I also see it the
reverse, if your using only a part of your cycles to surf the net, read
email then you are really wasting the potential of what your cpu can
do.

Gnu_Raiz

 

[George Macdonald]

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure. I just built a new system with the ASUS A8N-SLI
series motherboard.

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3500+, which is supposed to run at 2200 MHz,
but the AMD diagnostics report it is actually running at 2254 MHz.
The family/step model is 15.47.2. The memory bus speed is 200 MHz
(which I find slightly puzzling, since I purchased 400 MHz DDR
memory). HT0 frequency is reported as 1000 MHz, HT1 and HT2 frequency
are both reported as 200 MHz. I am running Win2K, in case that makes
any difference. (Will upgrade eventually…..) The BIOS is
Phoenix-Award BIOS, v6.00 PG.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And
also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the
memory bus running at the right speed?

I hope it's clear to you now from other posts that your memory bus is
running at the correct speed.

For the CPU what you want is to enable Cool 'n Quiet in BIOS which allows
the CPU speed & voltage to vary according to load; also Asus' BIOS has a
feature they call Q-Fan which allows you to set a corresponding target CPU
temperature below which the CPU heatsink fan will slow down. To get the OS
to cooperate with the CnQ setting in BIOS, you'll also need to download &
install the Cool'n'Quiet CPU driver from
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_9706,00.html
and then in the Win2K Power Options Control Panel, there'll be a tab called
AMD Power Now where you can choose to have the system adaptively set the
CPU speed according to the load. This makes for a nice quiet, power
efficient system which only works hard and produces significant heat as
needed.

 

[Bazzer Smith]

No, you purchased PC3200 ram, which has a rated bus speed of 200MHz,
400ddr. the 400MHz they use to advertise is just more marketing BS for the
people that don't know any better. Just like Intel Intel and their BS
FSB speeds. The data rate for PC3200 ram is 400Mbps per line, or as some
put it, 400MTs.

Yes I always find this confusing.but if it 200 and tranfering twice the
data per cycle it is 400 effectively.
And where did the mysterious 3200 number come from, some sort
of trick to make you think it is running at 3200MTs? which incidently
is twice my FSB speed so it would fit in with the double bit.

200MHZ is right for the memory bus. If your MB supports multiplier
control, you can lower the multiplier by 1. If not, you can lower the FSB
if your board allows that. If you can do neither, then you are screwed
unless you want to use CnQ to do it, which is probably the best way to do
it anyway. My 3000+ runs at 800MHz most of the time. When cpu load exceeds
5% it jumps to 1800MHZ and when cpu load goes over 80% it goes to full
speed.

What machine is that a Sempron 3000? I have one of those, so
will mind do the same and can I 'see' it doing it?
(Display it somehow)

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

Yes I always find this confusing.but if it 200 and tranfering twice the
data per cycle it is 400 effectively.
And where did the mysterious 3200 number come from, some sort
of trick to make you think it is running at 3200MTs? which incidently
is twice my FSB speed so it would fit in with the double bit.

3200 is the number of bytes/second, 8 * 400.

 

[Bazzer Smith]

3200 is the number of bytes/second, 8 * 400.

Ahh.. a mystery solved :O)
A pity it doesn't say that on the box!!
I think I saw some really complicated explaination elsewhere, I much
prefer yours!!!!

 

[paulmd]

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure. I just built a new system with the ASUS A8N-SLI
series motherboard.

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3500+, which is supposed to run at 2200 MHz,
but the AMD diagnostics report it is actually running at 2254 MHz.
The family/step model is 15.47.2. The memory bus speed is 200 MHz
(which I find slightly puzzling, since I purchased 400 MHz DDR
memory). HT0 frequency is reported as 1000 MHz, HT1 and HT2 frequency
are both reported as 200 MHz. I am running Win2K, in case that makes
any difference. (Will upgrade eventually.....) The BIOS is
Phoenix-Award BIOS, v6.00 PG.

I'm inclined to say: if the system is stable as is, leave it be. The
difference between 2254 and 2200 is only about 2.5%. A rounding error.
It translates to a bus speed of 205MHZ. Not enough to really worry
about.

If you want to downclock, There's nothing wrong with that Idea. But I'm
not seeing a compelling reason to do so.

 

[paulmd]

I'm wondering why. Reducing cpu speed wont reduce odds of hardware
failure to any useful extent, not unless its currently on the edge of
overheating.

Well, I had a stick of DDR (pc2700) that wasn't stable at 166MHZ, I
tried and failed to return it. And I was too cheap (broke) to just buy
another. I wound up downclocking (after some expirimentation) and found
it was stable at 160MHZ. So it made my system usable in that case.

I wouldn't see a compelling reason to try the same trick with a stable
machine, though.

 

[Wes Newell]

Yes I always find this confusing.but if it 200 and tranfering twice the
data per cycle it is 400 effectively.

It's only effectively when you compare it to an old 1:1 bus. So that's
just more BS too. If they'd just be honest with people, there wouldn't be
any confusion.

And where did the mysterious 3200 number come from, some sort
of trick to make you think it is running at 3200MTs? which incidently
is twice my FSB speed so it would fit in with the double bit.

Actually that 3200 number in PC3200 is a real number. It represents the
bandwidth of ram module. 3200MBps

What machine is that a Sempron 3000? I have one of those, so will mind
do the same and can I 'see' it doing it? (Display it somehow)

No. It's an Athlon 64. I don't think Semprons support CnQ, but don't take
my word on that. Some might now.

 

[Wes Newell]

Ahh.. a mystery solved :O)
A pity it doesn't say that on the box!!
I think I saw some really complicated explaination elsewhere, I much
prefer yours!!!!

The only problem with this is that it isn't correct.
It represents the total bandwidth of the ram module running at rated speed
of 200MHz. The real formula is (data width (64) * data rate(400bps)) /8.
More simply (64*400)/8=3200MBps or more commonly stated as 3.2GBps

It sure looks good the other way though.

 

[George Macdonald]

No, you purchased PC3200 ram, which has a rated bus speed of 200MHz,
400ddr. the 400MHz they use to advertise is just more marketing BS for the
people that don't know any better. Just like Intel Intel and their BS
FSB speeds. The data rate for PC3200 ram is 400Mbps per line, or as some
put it, 400MTs.

Who is it that says it is 400MHz memory to "advertize"? Personally I
haven't seen that from a memory mfr, though I've seen some weird
self-invented terminology in many of the Web Fora. Possibly some of the
less knowledgeable/scrupulous retailers?

The fact is that to classify modules, the PCxxxx is what should be used and
is officially sanctioned by JEDEC, e.g. PC3200... though there are
obviously things like PC4000, which is not sanctioned but a useful metric
nonetheless for overclockers. The DDR400 is used to classify the actual
chips.

 

[David Maynard]

It's only effectively when you compare it to an old 1:1 bus.

That's what single and double data rate mean.

So that's
just more BS too.

It's factual. Double 200 is 400.

If they'd just be honest with people, there wouldn't be
any confusion.

It's already honest and there isn't any confusion.

Actually that 3200 number in PC3200 is a real number. It represents the
bandwidth of ram module. 3200MBps

And why do you find speed expressed in 8 bit bytes any more 'real' than
when expressed in the 64 bit bus width?

Tip: 64=8x8 or, if you prefer, 8=64/8

A 400Mhz 64bit bus data rate is mathematically the same thing as a 3200
Mbytes per second data rate and neither is any more, or less, 'real' than
the other.

 

[Wes Newell]

Who is it that says it is 400MHz memory to "advertize"? Personally I
haven't seen that from a memory mfr, though I've seen some weird
self-invented terminology in many of the Web Fora. Possibly some of the
less knowledgeable/scrupulous retailers?

Yes, it's the retailers. I really haven't checked any manufacturers sites
to see if they also use these deceptive practices, but I kind of doubt it.

 

[VanShania]

Lets not forget that underclocking your cpu creates the same instability
that overclocking does. Mind you, you can probably do so safely up to 10% as
you can with overclocking

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