So, I put together a new toy and finally got it running the way I wanted, so now I'm
trying my hand at overclocking. 😉 My experience level is basically zero—total noob here. The only thing I've
actually done is spend some time digging through the literature on the forums, and here is what I've got...
I picked up the CPU on sale at Best Buy for about $35, and it seems decent. Even though it's running
Windows Vista Business 32-bit on integrated Radeon 1250 graphics (I allocated
256MB out of the 2GB RAM, and Vista treats it like an Experience Index of 3.7 (!!!!)), I decided to give it
a little extra juice. I bumped it from 2200 up to nearly 2900, which is over a 30%
increase, so that shouldn't be nothing. Anyway, what did I actually accomplish here? How much of this
is actually correct, logical, and acceptable? I'm asking the experts to weigh in, please...
Specs:
Athlon 64 single core LE-1600 64/64/1024 cache stepping F3
@2200 MHz, multiplier 11, 45W, stock cooler
Gigabyte MA69G-S3H, Award F4 BIOS
2x 1GB Kingmax PC2-5300 667 MHz
Frontier Opera case with a 400W proprietary power supply, dual rails 14/15A
NEC DVD IDE
2 x Seagate 250GB SATA2
Zaptv analog TV card + HW MPEG2 (3DClub)
Integrated Radeon 1250 with Catalyst 7.12
Zalman 80mm fan running at 7V next to the CPU
Windows Vista Business 32-bit
In the BIOS:
Cool&Quiet is disabled
HTT = 260
HTLink = 200
That's it. I didn't touch anything else.
Idle BIOS temperatures:
System: 43
CPU: 43
CPU Fan Speed: 2327 RPM
System Fan Speed: 1646 RPM
---------------------------------------------
CPU-Z:
It recognizes the processor, motherboard, and memory correctly, stating:
Core Speed: 2866.9
Multiplier: 11x
Bus Speed: 260.6
HTLink: 260.6
Memory: 2x 1GB Kingmax PC2-5300 (333 MHz)
Timings: 5.0-5-5-15-20-2T @ 1.8V
FSB/DRAM = CPU/7
It says the memory is running at 409.5 MHz with 5-5-5-15-21-2T timings
-----------------------------------------------------
CORE TEMP:
260.59 x 11 = 2866.53 MHz
The temperature reading is stuck at -49, so it clearly has no clue...
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PCWIZARD 2008:
Everything is recognized properly, and after an hour of running Orthus, it reports:
Original: 2200, Overclocked: 2866.89
Chassis Fan: 1646
Proc Fan: 2586
Proc Temp: 43
Proc Temp (Diode): 13
MB Temp: 48
Power/Aux Temp: 51
The CPU fan changes speed once it hits 1700 RPM. The CPU temp and that diode value (whatever that is)
stay constant, while only the MB temp (from 40 at idle to 48 under load) and
the Power/Aux temp (from 36 at idle to 51 under load) actually move.
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My questions are:
- What have I actually done here? Is this okay, or should I change something? (The system boots fine,
doesn't throw any errors, and survived an hour of Orthus before I got bored waiting for it to crash)
- Why does HTLink show 260 when I set it to 200? There isn't even a 260 option in the BIOS,
just 200, 400, 600 -> 1000. If I set it to 400, the whole thing crashes.😉
- How am I supposed to know the actual CPU temperature now? By feel? If these readings are mixed up
and the MB temp or Power temp is actually the CPU temp, then it's insane that a 45W chip
runs this warm on such a pathetic, cheap stock cooler!
- It's really easy to get confused because PCWizard is clearly swapping values; it shows 3.3V for water
and 1.8V for memory right next to each other, and they seem to switch places.
- Is that Kingmax 667 really running at 409.5 x 2, and is that safe for it?
- Should I mess with the memory timings or just leave them alone?
Anyway, if anyone has a spare moment and the patience to comment on this, I'd really appreciate it...