New overclocker looking for advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter johan.vermaak
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johan.vermaak

I'm going to be building a new PC from scratch this weekend or so. I
am planning on buying an AMD Opteron 165 with an Asus A8N-SLI
motherboard. I have never overclocked a cpu, memory, or gpu. I would
like advice on anything and everything anyone would happen to know
about. Is the A8N-SLI a good motherboard for overclocking? I chose it
because its only $110, and I built a system a month or so ago with an
A8N-SLI Deluxe and it went flawlessly, but no over clocking. Also, is
the 165 going to work and act just like a Athlon 64? I have read an
article or two on it and its overclocking abilities. Also, do I
overclock using a piece of software, or through the bios? If software,
what is the best, free software available? Any Info would be much
appreciated.

JSV
 
about. Is the A8N-SLI a good motherboard for overclocking? I chose it
because its only $110, and I built a system a month or so ago with an
A8N-SLI Deluxe and it went flawlessly, but no over clocking.
Click to expand...

That probably won't be the best board for overclocking. I don't know
if they fixed it but the A8N has problems going above a certain "fsb"
clockspeed so that limits your overclocking potential.
Also, is
the 165 going to work and act just like a Athlon 64? I have read an
article or two on it and its overclocking abilities. Also, do I
overclock using a piece of software, or through the bios? If software,
what is the best, free software available? Any Info would be much
appreciated.
Click to expand...

It will perform better than the A64 but otherwise shouldn't make any
difference.

There are some overclocking software available to make it easy to test
settings, try looking for clockgen. But generally the final overclock
should be done in BIOS if you want to make the settings stick. Plus
there are some tweaks that don't have equivalent in software control.

Make sure you run the overclocked system through various testers to
ensure the system's "stable". Although by definition any overclocked
system can no longer be considered stable. If you do any important
work on it, I suggest that you don't. I've had "perfectly" stable
overclocked system in the past that ended up quietly corrupting data.
Never really went back into overclocking eversince except for a
moment's fun on a new board just to see how far new stuff can go :P
 
Thanks for all the info. I was just considering bumping the 165 from
1.8 ghz to like 2.1 or so. As it is, its pretty much a 3500+ X2, but
it has a better Level 2 cache, it's the same core as the FX-60, but
that runs at 2.6 and the 165 is @ 1.8. Is overclocking it that much
that big of a deal? What is the difference in overclocking and just
buying the next step up in speed of the same processor? I realize the
heat issues and stuff, but why are the next step up in processor able
to use the same stock cooler then? Should this tiny increase of 300mhz
be that big of a deal, will stress tests be enough to test it, long
term stress tests and such, Prime95?
 
Thanks for all the info. I was just considering bumping the 165 from
1.8 ghz to like 2.1 or so. As it is, its pretty much a 3500+ X2, but
it has a better Level 2 cache, it's the same core as the FX-60, but
that runs at 2.6 and the 165 is @ 1.8. Is overclocking it that much
that big of a deal? What is the difference in overclocking and just
buying the next step up in speed of the same processor? I realize the
heat issues and stuff, but why are the next step up in processor able
to use the same stock cooler then?
 
Thanks for all the info. I was just considering bumping the 165 from
1.8 ghz to like 2.1 or so. As it is, its pretty much a 3500+ X2, but
it has a better Level 2 cache, it's the same core as the FX-60, but
that runs at 2.6 and the 165 is @ 1.8. Is overclocking it that much
that big of a deal?
Click to expand...

It depends on your perspective honestly. If you're using it for purely
recreational purposes, a couple of miscoloured pixels every few frames
likely won't matter to you so it won't be a big deal.

But bear in mind, while many people have successfully overclocked the
165, it is NOT guaranteed.
What is the difference in overclocking and just
buying the next step up in speed of the same processor? I realize the
heat issues and stuff, but why are the next step up in processor able
to use the same stock cooler then? Should this tiny increase of 300mhz
be that big of a deal, will stress tests be enough to test it, long
term stress tests and such, Prime95?
Click to expand...

The official next step higher are tested to work for sure at that
speed as reliably as the manufacturer can determine. Their level of
tolerance is much tighter and conditions harsher than what we can
replicate, since I understand it involves putting said chips into
"ovens" and such.

The lower speed grades may have failed the higher speed test by the
manufacturer's standards, or it could simply be a good part that's
binned down to match demands. You don't know which one you got. So
while your 165 might clock to 2.x successfully as far as the stress
apps can determine, it might not be 100% reliable/stable.

As I mentioned, I had an overclocked system that looked 100% stable
and passed all tests, until i discovered it was screwing up my data.
So with an overclocked system, you can never tell for sure 100%. The
choice is yours, just be aware of the potential problems.

As for the heatsinks, the AMD chips are relatively low power enough
that one good design to meet the max specified TDP for the series is
probably more cost effective than trying to design/make one just
adequate for each model. Hence you find the same heatsink across
several bands. Furthermore, manufacturers will tend to throw in safety
margins so it's not surprising the default heatsink is usually good
enough for some overclocking albeit at higher temperatures.

Some people are comfortable with seeing high 50s temp, some will not
accept anything above 40s, so again it's your call.
 
Thanks for the info, but for the majority of people, they are doing
pretty high clocking. The increase I am looking for (250-300 mhz)
along with testing and such, assuming the chip isn't one of the
'failed' cpu's, wouldn't be too bad, maybe with aftermarket cooler.
 
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