Saturday, March 17, 2007
Raise a Voice...
Raise a Voice...
Read an article relating to foreign prisoners in India facing imprisonment way past their sentences. What for? Coz stupid officials (Government) can't risk them roaming about in our country and nor is there country willing to take them back!
Who these persons are is quite shocking, many of them are just ordinary persons like you and me who wandered across the boundaries (probably with their herds)...!
Isn't it outright cruel and inhuman to meet out such treatment to fellow beings that too for a fault which hasn't been committed by them at all. Just because we fear that they can create havoc in out country is no reason why they shouldn't be granted freedom. Afterall, it is we who spoilt their lives in their prime in the first place, why shouldn't they create havok, would you not?
Instead of giving them a better life we thrust upon them misery and more of it because of our fear. What about their fear, and the fear their families and dear ones still face today? Ever wondered that this could have or may just happen to you or me...
I would like to question what is the difference between these officials and Hitler and his men. We should infact be proud, that we may just have broken records of inhumanity which Hitler and other evil geniuses have set. Right?
In my oppinion it is time to wake up to the cause of the world, if we don't, who will? These people demand attention, care and understanding. It isn't as if we have many choices, act now or face either them or their fate tomorrow. The decision is ours.
Some of you may question me as to what the hell can they do about it. Maybe nothing much. But I wanted to express my oppinion on the issue, so posted!
Akshay
Read an article relating to foreign prisoners in India facing imprisonment way past their sentences. What for? Coz stupid officials (Government) can't risk them roaming about in our country and nor is there country willing to take them back!
Who these persons are is quite shocking, many of them are just ordinary persons like you and me who wandered across the boundaries (probably with their herds)...!
Isn't it outright cruel and inhuman to meet out such treatment to fellow beings that too for a fault which hasn't been committed by them at all. Just because we fear that they can create havoc in out country is no reason why they shouldn't be granted freedom. Afterall, it is we who spoilt their lives in their prime in the first place, why shouldn't they create havok, would you not?
Instead of giving them a better life we thrust upon them misery and more of it because of our fear. What about their fear, and the fear their families and dear ones still face today? Ever wondered that this could have or may just happen to you or me...
I would like to question what is the difference between these officials and Hitler and his men. We should infact be proud, that we may just have broken records of inhumanity which Hitler and other evil geniuses have set. Right?
In my oppinion it is time to wake up to the cause of the world, if we don't, who will? These people demand attention, care and understanding. It isn't as if we have many choices, act now or face either them or their fate tomorrow. The decision is ours.
Some of you may question me as to what the hell can they do about it. Maybe nothing much. But I wanted to express my oppinion on the issue, so posted!
Akshay
Monday, August 28, 2006
Fear Uncertainity & Doubt: Common Misconceptions
People often claim that overclocking can be harmful, it can reduce the lifespan of your hardare etc. Now, I will clarify them.
Is overclocking harmful?
If you overclock a system with care and do just as much as what are decent limits for that hardware such that it is meant to sustain it, then overclocking should not be harmful practically almost 100% of the time.
RAM voltage depends upon the chips. From what I know, Hynix D43 might be fine around 3.2V while there may be some which may not do ok after 2.8V, there may be others which might do 3.5V. You will need to check for your modules. But generally, 2.8, 2.9V should be fine for most modules.
Does overclocking reduce the lifespan of my component?
Yes, it does. However since most the CPUs are anyway meant to last 5+ yrs, the life deterioartion depends upon several/few factors. it is dependant upon the extent of overclock, temperatures of the overclock and the time period for which the overclock is maintained. Anyway, if you get good cooling solution, the temperatures should be fine. Also, those of us who overclock only for short periods of time for benchmarking and restore to default speeds afterwards shouldn't as such face much trouble with life expectancy. I am assuming right now that, after all how much damage can few hours of overclock do.
Is volt modding harmful?
As long as you stick to specific levels, and maintain decent temperatures, there should be no harm. 90nm CPUs like Winchester and Venice should be able to take between 1.5-1.55V or higher while Northwood(130nm) should go higher, maybe around 1.6V or so.
But, will I fry my system?
For complete noobs, if you have a system which supports overclocking just fine and if it is done with care or under controlled conditions, you will be just fine. You will not blow up your system. However there may be exceptions but most chances are that nothing wrong should happen. It is like asking the chance of a landslide occuring on the very road you plan to travel on the hills.
Is overclocking harmful?
If you overclock a system with care and do just as much as what are decent limits for that hardware such that it is meant to sustain it, then overclocking should not be harmful practically almost 100% of the time.
RAM voltage depends upon the chips. From what I know, Hynix D43 might be fine around 3.2V while there may be some which may not do ok after 2.8V, there may be others which might do 3.5V. You will need to check for your modules. But generally, 2.8, 2.9V should be fine for most modules.
Does overclocking reduce the lifespan of my component?
Yes, it does. However since most the CPUs are anyway meant to last 5+ yrs, the life deterioartion depends upon several/few factors. it is dependant upon the extent of overclock, temperatures of the overclock and the time period for which the overclock is maintained. Anyway, if you get good cooling solution, the temperatures should be fine. Also, those of us who overclock only for short periods of time for benchmarking and restore to default speeds afterwards shouldn't as such face much trouble with life expectancy. I am assuming right now that, after all how much damage can few hours of overclock do.
Is volt modding harmful?
As long as you stick to specific levels, and maintain decent temperatures, there should be no harm. 90nm CPUs like Winchester and Venice should be able to take between 1.5-1.55V or higher while Northwood(130nm) should go higher, maybe around 1.6V or so.
But, will I fry my system?
For complete noobs, if you have a system which supports overclocking just fine and if it is done with care or under controlled conditions, you will be just fine. You will not blow up your system. However there may be exceptions but most chances are that nothing wrong should happen. It is like asking the chance of a landslide occuring on the very road you plan to travel on the hills.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Overclocking for nOObs
PRE-REQUISITES
1)Make sure that your PCI/PCI-E/AGP buses are locked. Most 939 socket overclocking motherboards might have done that already. Just set the PCI E frequency to 100MHz and PCI to 33.3MHz. But in case they are not locked, lock them first else you may overclock them alon with your CPU and even spoil them unintentionally. If they aren't locked you anyways won't have a much of a chance in overclocking.
2)Make sure you have adequate cooling and that have the right hardware and soft ware required and any other hardware specific tips for your system.
LET US GET STARTED
*I may be mentioning the terms as they are present in Socket 939 Asus A8N E. For other motherboards, the terming conditions maybe different but the meaning is the same.
1)Set the CPU multiplier to the max supported which is also the default CPU mutliplier for a CPU at stock(unoverclocked). eg: For Amd 64 3200 Winchester, it will be 10x(10 X 200 = 2000), for Amd 64 3000 Winchester it will be 9x, for Amd 64 3500 Winchester, it will be 11x and so on. For AMD 64 mostly the max supported mutliplier is the same as the default used by the manufacturer(AMD). You should find this option in Advanced-Jumperfree Comfiguration.
2)Set the HTT to 4x in case of socket 939. The concept is that your FSB X HTT =<1000. This means that the product of the FSB and HTT must never exceed 1000MHz. At stock, FSB is always 200MHz and HTT is always 5. 200 X 5 = 1000. You may question that the motherboard satates that it supports 2000MHz, but AMD effectively probably provided double the MHz, so a limit of 2000MHz actually means that you must not exceed 1000MHz so that the double the product is not greater than 2000MHz. For socket 754 it is probably a maximum of 800MHz, not fully sure though as to what you should do. But in case of AMD 64, in case you need to increase the FSB greater than 250MHz, then you will need to reduce the HTT to even 3x. But at the moment we are not overclocking that high. Also, keep in mind that you should try to keep the FSBXHTT greater than 800MHz and at all times greater than 600MHz. Try to keep it 1000MHz or below, but upwards of 800MHz. If you exceed 1000MHz the system won't be stable and you will may encounter BSOD(Blue Screen of Death).
3)Set the CPU v core to 1.4V for most CPUs. Actually you need to set the voltage to manufacturer defaults, meaning that if the manufcaturer mentioned 1.35V as default, then manually set it to 1.35V, not that you leave it to auto. For Winchesters, it is 1.4V, for Venice it might be 1.35V or it might be 1.4V.
4)Set memory voltage to 2.6V.
5)Don't change the RAM timings intially, but try to stick to 1T if possible.
6)Increase your FSB in increments of 5-10MHz, default it 200MHz. After each increment, boot into windows. Run Super Pi 1M test and do some web surfing or play a game for 5-10minutes, but it should be an intensive game. See whether the temperatures are in control or not. For Winchesters and even Venices atleast make sure that your Temperature under full load doesn't exceed 55-60C. If you can do the Super Pi test with a max of 50-55C, then you might be fine, but at the neck of problems. Check temperature using Speedfan. You can use nTune if you have a nVidia chipset to see your FSBXHTT, CPU speed, RAM speed etc, this saves you from doing maths. But keep in mind that for several moments it does display your speeds mutliplied by big numbers, you don't need to worry about that.
7)After increase the volts to a limit a stage will come when your computer doesn't boot at all. Enter CPU Configuration-DRAM Config-Set RAM Speed to 333(using a memory divider of 5:6 for Asus A8N E). Try if the system boots or not. If it does, then it means that you had crosses the maximum the RAM can go at 2.6V. If it doesn't then you know that you had crossed your CPU's capacity at 1.4V. Right now we are focusing on the CPU, so set the memory divider to 5:6 if your RAM doesn't allow you 1:1.
8)Now, if you system boots with RAM at 5:6, again keep increasing the FSB in increments of 5-10MHz, after 240, or even 230, you are better of doing only 5MHz at a time. Once you reach a stage that it doesn't boot, you know that you need to supply more volts to your CPU. Increase the CPU voltage by the smallest possible increments and see if it boots. When it doesn't boot again, increase the volts by the smallest possible increment. Keep on repeating this process. For stock cooling try not to go beyond 1.45V for Winchesters and Venices atleast. If you want you can even go to 1.5V or even higher. With after market cooling, going to 1.5V should not be a big problem. But anything after 1.5V is risky, if you have enough cooling and keep your temperatures in control and have the right hardware and are also willing to take the risk, then you can even go to 1.55V or higher, but anything over 1.55Vis serious business and I too don't know enough to guide you if you plan to use over 1.5V and especially if you plan to use over 1.55V. People will claim that they used 1.6 or maybe even clost to 1.7V, while others may state that overvolting your CPU may kill it. I read in a guide that 1.6V is death for your CPU. I have read that somebody mentioned that several venice died past 1.5V. So relatively safe range even with aftermarket cooling is 1.5V or lower, but if you want nobody can stop you from trying and keeping any voltage. In fact, it would be good if you could experiment and tell the results to others.
9)Now you have probably found the max for your CPU using the max multiplier, in case the RAM didn't give you a problem at whatever divider you chose, whether it was not using a memory divider or whether you were using one, if you didn't find any problems, then this means that your RAM is capable of doing that much or more. But if you did find troubles, then you can consider loosening the timings to 3-4-4-8 or even 3-4-4-16 and even loosening other less important timings. This may increase the speed it can reach. You can even chose 2T ram if required. But before doing all this, you might want to increase the RAM voltage. Most RAM modules should manage 2.9V or atleast 2.8V. Some RAM modules might even be able to do 3.0V or more. The thing is that your motherboard might support the voltage, but you must know whether your RAM module is capable of taking it or not, else you will fry it. So doing this you will find the right speed the RAM can go to whether at stock settings or modified settings. Also, keep in mind that you shouldn't compromise much on CPU speed for RAM speed as CPU speed is king for AMD 64 systems.
10)Now you have found out the max you can go with your CPU and RAM but to a limited extent. Now drop the CPU mutliplier by 1(generally 9x can do well), set the HTT to either 3 or 4 depending upon the FSB you choose. Don't change the RAM settings. Set the FSB to the max you could reach with 10x, as if the CPU can't do the same with 9x, you will anyways not get any performance gain so then there is no point of even trying reducing the multiplier. Similarly, increase the FSB in increments of 5MHz. When you can't boot or are not stable, read the previous settings and modify the RAM settings if you think that is the cause of the problem. Once you are sure that you have enough room for overclocking by taking RAM out of the equation to a certain extent, then again increase the FSB until it refeuses to boot, and keep upping the voltage unless you reach very high.
11)Finally you will arrive at the maximum your CPU, RAM, RAM timings can manage and you can separate the first two by doing basic maths, as to which gives more CPU speed. To elminate the last one, you will need to do synthetic benchmarks.
12)Keep doing the synthetic benchmarks told earlier, and do memtest 86 if you overclock the RAM. Use synthetic benchmarks to find whether overclocking reduced your performance or increased it, there is no point having a lower performer or lower responsive system. Finally run the series of tests mentioned previously.
This way you have found a decent overclock, but this maybe lower than what your system is capable of. But for nOObs this is enough to start with.
Also, keep in mind that even if you system boots at x MHz, it doesn't mean that it is stable, that can only be found out by doing tests.
Also, don't get afraid of BSODS, you just need to change the BIOS settings to a degree that your system can take and hopefully the blue screens will vanish.
Happy Overclocking!!!
1)Make sure that your PCI/PCI-E/AGP buses are locked. Most 939 socket overclocking motherboards might have done that already. Just set the PCI E frequency to 100MHz and PCI to 33.3MHz. But in case they are not locked, lock them first else you may overclock them alon with your CPU and even spoil them unintentionally. If they aren't locked you anyways won't have a much of a chance in overclocking.
2)Make sure you have adequate cooling and that have the right hardware and soft ware required and any other hardware specific tips for your system.
LET US GET STARTED
*I may be mentioning the terms as they are present in Socket 939 Asus A8N E. For other motherboards, the terming conditions maybe different but the meaning is the same.
1)Set the CPU multiplier to the max supported which is also the default CPU mutliplier for a CPU at stock(unoverclocked). eg: For Amd 64 3200 Winchester, it will be 10x(10 X 200 = 2000), for Amd 64 3000 Winchester it will be 9x, for Amd 64 3500 Winchester, it will be 11x and so on. For AMD 64 mostly the max supported mutliplier is the same as the default used by the manufacturer(AMD). You should find this option in Advanced-Jumperfree Comfiguration.
2)Set the HTT to 4x in case of socket 939. The concept is that your FSB X HTT =<1000. This means that the product of the FSB and HTT must never exceed 1000MHz. At stock, FSB is always 200MHz and HTT is always 5. 200 X 5 = 1000. You may question that the motherboard satates that it supports 2000MHz, but AMD effectively probably provided double the MHz, so a limit of 2000MHz actually means that you must not exceed 1000MHz so that the double the product is not greater than 2000MHz. For socket 754 it is probably a maximum of 800MHz, not fully sure though as to what you should do. But in case of AMD 64, in case you need to increase the FSB greater than 250MHz, then you will need to reduce the HTT to even 3x. But at the moment we are not overclocking that high. Also, keep in mind that you should try to keep the FSBXHTT greater than 800MHz and at all times greater than 600MHz. Try to keep it 1000MHz or below, but upwards of 800MHz. If you exceed 1000MHz the system won't be stable and you will may encounter BSOD(Blue Screen of Death).
3)Set the CPU v core to 1.4V for most CPUs. Actually you need to set the voltage to manufacturer defaults, meaning that if the manufcaturer mentioned 1.35V as default, then manually set it to 1.35V, not that you leave it to auto. For Winchesters, it is 1.4V, for Venice it might be 1.35V or it might be 1.4V.
4)Set memory voltage to 2.6V.
5)Don't change the RAM timings intially, but try to stick to 1T if possible.
6)Increase your FSB in increments of 5-10MHz, default it 200MHz. After each increment, boot into windows. Run Super Pi 1M test and do some web surfing or play a game for 5-10minutes, but it should be an intensive game. See whether the temperatures are in control or not. For Winchesters and even Venices atleast make sure that your Temperature under full load doesn't exceed 55-60C. If you can do the Super Pi test with a max of 50-55C, then you might be fine, but at the neck of problems. Check temperature using Speedfan. You can use nTune if you have a nVidia chipset to see your FSBXHTT, CPU speed, RAM speed etc, this saves you from doing maths. But keep in mind that for several moments it does display your speeds mutliplied by big numbers, you don't need to worry about that.
7)After increase the volts to a limit a stage will come when your computer doesn't boot at all. Enter CPU Configuration-DRAM Config-Set RAM Speed to 333(using a memory divider of 5:6 for Asus A8N E). Try if the system boots or not. If it does, then it means that you had crosses the maximum the RAM can go at 2.6V. If it doesn't then you know that you had crossed your CPU's capacity at 1.4V. Right now we are focusing on the CPU, so set the memory divider to 5:6 if your RAM doesn't allow you 1:1.
8)Now, if you system boots with RAM at 5:6, again keep increasing the FSB in increments of 5-10MHz, after 240, or even 230, you are better of doing only 5MHz at a time. Once you reach a stage that it doesn't boot, you know that you need to supply more volts to your CPU. Increase the CPU voltage by the smallest possible increments and see if it boots. When it doesn't boot again, increase the volts by the smallest possible increment. Keep on repeating this process. For stock cooling try not to go beyond 1.45V for Winchesters and Venices atleast. If you want you can even go to 1.5V or even higher. With after market cooling, going to 1.5V should not be a big problem. But anything after 1.5V is risky, if you have enough cooling and keep your temperatures in control and have the right hardware and are also willing to take the risk, then you can even go to 1.55V or higher, but anything over 1.55Vis serious business and I too don't know enough to guide you if you plan to use over 1.5V and especially if you plan to use over 1.55V. People will claim that they used 1.6 or maybe even clost to 1.7V, while others may state that overvolting your CPU may kill it. I read in a guide that 1.6V is death for your CPU. I have read that somebody mentioned that several venice died past 1.5V. So relatively safe range even with aftermarket cooling is 1.5V or lower, but if you want nobody can stop you from trying and keeping any voltage. In fact, it would be good if you could experiment and tell the results to others.
9)Now you have probably found the max for your CPU using the max multiplier, in case the RAM didn't give you a problem at whatever divider you chose, whether it was not using a memory divider or whether you were using one, if you didn't find any problems, then this means that your RAM is capable of doing that much or more. But if you did find troubles, then you can consider loosening the timings to 3-4-4-8 or even 3-4-4-16 and even loosening other less important timings. This may increase the speed it can reach. You can even chose 2T ram if required. But before doing all this, you might want to increase the RAM voltage. Most RAM modules should manage 2.9V or atleast 2.8V. Some RAM modules might even be able to do 3.0V or more. The thing is that your motherboard might support the voltage, but you must know whether your RAM module is capable of taking it or not, else you will fry it. So doing this you will find the right speed the RAM can go to whether at stock settings or modified settings. Also, keep in mind that you shouldn't compromise much on CPU speed for RAM speed as CPU speed is king for AMD 64 systems.
10)Now you have found out the max you can go with your CPU and RAM but to a limited extent. Now drop the CPU mutliplier by 1(generally 9x can do well), set the HTT to either 3 or 4 depending upon the FSB you choose. Don't change the RAM settings. Set the FSB to the max you could reach with 10x, as if the CPU can't do the same with 9x, you will anyways not get any performance gain so then there is no point of even trying reducing the multiplier. Similarly, increase the FSB in increments of 5MHz. When you can't boot or are not stable, read the previous settings and modify the RAM settings if you think that is the cause of the problem. Once you are sure that you have enough room for overclocking by taking RAM out of the equation to a certain extent, then again increase the FSB until it refeuses to boot, and keep upping the voltage unless you reach very high.
11)Finally you will arrive at the maximum your CPU, RAM, RAM timings can manage and you can separate the first two by doing basic maths, as to which gives more CPU speed. To elminate the last one, you will need to do synthetic benchmarks.
12)Keep doing the synthetic benchmarks told earlier, and do memtest 86 if you overclock the RAM. Use synthetic benchmarks to find whether overclocking reduced your performance or increased it, there is no point having a lower performer or lower responsive system. Finally run the series of tests mentioned previously.
This way you have found a decent overclock, but this maybe lower than what your system is capable of. But for nOObs this is enough to start with.
Also, keep in mind that even if you system boots at x MHz, it doesn't mean that it is stable, that can only be found out by doing tests.
Also, don't get afraid of BSODS, you just need to change the BIOS settings to a degree that your system can take and hopefully the blue screens will vanish.
Happy Overclocking!!!
What do you need to overclock?
HARDWARE
CPU: The amount you can overclock your CPU depends upon the core and stepping you have. Core is the basic architecutre you can say on which the CPU is built while stepping is the date and month of manufacture. The more voltage you feed the CPU the more there is a chance of getting a higher overclock. However if you feed too much voltage you can even kill it.
Motherboard: To overclock your AMD 64 system, you will need a motherboard which offers options to set(increase and decrease) FSB, HTT bus, use memory dividers and remain stable after overclock as well. If you don't have the right motherboard you should drop the idea of overclocking unless you buy a new motherboard.
RAM: In AMD 64 systems, the RAM and CPU are synchronized to each other. This means that if your CPU is running at 200MHx FSB then your RAM will be running at 200MHx as well. Since it is DDR RAM, effective RAM speed will be 200 X 2MHz = 400MHz, that is a different concept all together. But what this means is that even if your CPU can reach an FSB of 250, but if you RAM can't run at 250MHz, you will need to lower your FSB as well, which effectively means that you have to run your CPU lower than its potential or buy new RAM which can run at htose high frequencies. This means that be default RAM : CPU ratio is always 1 : 1 in AMD 64 systems. However, you can use memory dividers to change the ratio, eg - 5 : 6 or 2 : 3 etc. For example, if you use 5 : 6 ratio, when your CPU runs at 200Mz, the RAM runs at 166MHz. However the RAM and CPU will still be synchronized.
Example- We are using RAM : CPU ratio of 5 : 6. If we clock the CPU to 240MHz FSB, then RAM has to be (5*240)/6MHx = 199MHz, which is effectively around 200MHz. So you are using your CPU overclocked but keeping the RAM at stock. This is how even ordinary RAM can be used for getting decent overclocks. However keep in mind that using memory dividers can cause a certain loss in performance. But we must keep in mind that CPU speed is king for AMD 64 systems using DDR memory(ie. s939 and s754).
Another important consideration that need to be taken is that whether you are running RAM 2T or 1T. 2T lets you get higher overclocks while 1T gives more performance. I recommend you test each way and find out what is best for you. A game FarCry for instance runs on my system using Asus A8N E only when I use the RAM at 2T.
Another thing that affects Overclocks is RAM timings. The tighter they are the better the performance. We will discuss the details later.
Power Supply: Overclocking may involve more power and therefore you need a power supply that is capable of delivering enough power. I don't recommend generic brands, it is better to stick to brands like Fortron, OCZ, Seasonic etc. In case you can't find such brands as in developing countries, then you might need to go for brands as Antec and Coolermaster. Keep in mind that even within a company there may be different models with night and day difference. You need to be well versed with the technical aspects of each model, to choose the right one.
Cooling: For moderate overclocks, stock cooling of AMD 64 CPUs is acceptable but not advised. Keep in mind that for every 10C you increase your CPU temperature, you reduce its life by half. You also need to keep the temperature within a certain range especially if you supply additional voltage, else you will burn the CPU and maybe something esle along with it, maybe even the motherboard. For high overclocks, aftermarket cooling is even more important. Air cooling costing 20-60$ should be sufficient in most cases, but if you want water cooling, it is your wish as long as you know what you are doing.
SOFTWARE
BIOS: (Required) Basic Input Output System. All your overclocks and setting changes are done through your BIOS. Although there are utilities like Clockgen and even nTune. I recommend using the BIOS. Utilities like nTune can only be used for basic amateur overclocks and don't provide as many options. They also need to be reloaded after each windows reboot. Clocken on the other hand doesn't offer as many features and can by no means compared to overclocking from the BIOS which is the safest and best method to oveclock the CPU and/or RAM. My motherboard automatically restarts the system if my overclock doesn't permit windows to load or shows a BSOD(Blue Screen of Death) so that I can change my BIOS settings again. In case your BIOS doesn't all that, then I think you would need to open your cabinet, and reset the jumper, or maybe remove the CMOS battery and keep it outside for sometime as well. This might not happen with nTune or even Clockgen though.
CPU-Z: (Recommended) Required to view RAM timings, stepping, clock speeds, SPD, bios revision etc.
Speedfan: (Required) You must be well aware of your system temperatures, the top one should be that of the CPU. You should also know the voltage and fan speeds of your system. You can also keep an eye on the motherboard, system, HDD etc temps depending on what allthe software shows. Speedfan is a very important tool, go through it carefully if you want.
Super PI: (Required) Do the 1M test after each small CPU speed increment/decrement, should take less than a minute on most/any AMD 64 system. This is a general system stability test with probably more emphasis on CPU. After you have decided on a specific CPU speed, you must run the 32M test which should take around 30minutes or so on most systems.
Prime 95: (Required) It is advised to do a 12-24hrs or more Torture Test.
3D MARK : (Required) My system was able to pass a nearly 8hr Prime and Super Pi 32M test but failed within minutes in both 3D Mark 06 and 05. You must run 3D Mark 06, 05 and 01, as they are CPU sensitive, especially 3D Mark 01, though I would say never skip 3D Mark 06 either. Run all these tests. Also, observe whether there has been an increase in the score or not, especially CPU score. If it has decreased then this may not be a very good sign.
Games: (Required) Once I had increased my voltage, I could pass all those 3 3D Mark tests but failed in Call of Duty 2. So this means that running actual games can infact be more important than anything else. Try to run the latest and most intensive games especially CPU sensitive games. If you can run Oblivion for 30-60minutes without fail then you might not face a problem. You can also consider running FEAR and Doom3.
Memtest 86: (For memory overclocks, required, else preferable) If you have overclocked your RAM, run Memtest 86 Test 5 after each RAM overclock and in the end run the entire test series to know how stable your RAM is.
Windows: (Recommended) Even if you pass all tests, it would be a good idea to observe how stable your system is while running basic activities in Windows and also whether it is more responsive or not. I have read a person saying that overclocking made his system less responsive. So you should keep an eye on that as well.
Also, do keep in mind that put your system back to BIOS defaults before installing windows, else you might face problems. Rather safe than worry.
CPU: The amount you can overclock your CPU depends upon the core and stepping you have. Core is the basic architecutre you can say on which the CPU is built while stepping is the date and month of manufacture. The more voltage you feed the CPU the more there is a chance of getting a higher overclock. However if you feed too much voltage you can even kill it.
Motherboard: To overclock your AMD 64 system, you will need a motherboard which offers options to set(increase and decrease) FSB, HTT bus, use memory dividers and remain stable after overclock as well. If you don't have the right motherboard you should drop the idea of overclocking unless you buy a new motherboard.
RAM: In AMD 64 systems, the RAM and CPU are synchronized to each other. This means that if your CPU is running at 200MHx FSB then your RAM will be running at 200MHx as well. Since it is DDR RAM, effective RAM speed will be 200 X 2MHz = 400MHz, that is a different concept all together. But what this means is that even if your CPU can reach an FSB of 250, but if you RAM can't run at 250MHz, you will need to lower your FSB as well, which effectively means that you have to run your CPU lower than its potential or buy new RAM which can run at htose high frequencies. This means that be default RAM : CPU ratio is always 1 : 1 in AMD 64 systems. However, you can use memory dividers to change the ratio, eg - 5 : 6 or 2 : 3 etc. For example, if you use 5 : 6 ratio, when your CPU runs at 200Mz, the RAM runs at 166MHz. However the RAM and CPU will still be synchronized.
Example- We are using RAM : CPU ratio of 5 : 6. If we clock the CPU to 240MHz FSB, then RAM has to be (5*240)/6MHx = 199MHz, which is effectively around 200MHz. So you are using your CPU overclocked but keeping the RAM at stock. This is how even ordinary RAM can be used for getting decent overclocks. However keep in mind that using memory dividers can cause a certain loss in performance. But we must keep in mind that CPU speed is king for AMD 64 systems using DDR memory(ie. s939 and s754).
Another important consideration that need to be taken is that whether you are running RAM 2T or 1T. 2T lets you get higher overclocks while 1T gives more performance. I recommend you test each way and find out what is best for you. A game FarCry for instance runs on my system using Asus A8N E only when I use the RAM at 2T.
Another thing that affects Overclocks is RAM timings. The tighter they are the better the performance. We will discuss the details later.
Power Supply: Overclocking may involve more power and therefore you need a power supply that is capable of delivering enough power. I don't recommend generic brands, it is better to stick to brands like Fortron, OCZ, Seasonic etc. In case you can't find such brands as in developing countries, then you might need to go for brands as Antec and Coolermaster. Keep in mind that even within a company there may be different models with night and day difference. You need to be well versed with the technical aspects of each model, to choose the right one.
Cooling: For moderate overclocks, stock cooling of AMD 64 CPUs is acceptable but not advised. Keep in mind that for every 10C you increase your CPU temperature, you reduce its life by half. You also need to keep the temperature within a certain range especially if you supply additional voltage, else you will burn the CPU and maybe something esle along with it, maybe even the motherboard. For high overclocks, aftermarket cooling is even more important. Air cooling costing 20-60$ should be sufficient in most cases, but if you want water cooling, it is your wish as long as you know what you are doing.
SOFTWARE
BIOS: (Required) Basic Input Output System. All your overclocks and setting changes are done through your BIOS. Although there are utilities like Clockgen and even nTune. I recommend using the BIOS. Utilities like nTune can only be used for basic amateur overclocks and don't provide as many options. They also need to be reloaded after each windows reboot. Clocken on the other hand doesn't offer as many features and can by no means compared to overclocking from the BIOS which is the safest and best method to oveclock the CPU and/or RAM. My motherboard automatically restarts the system if my overclock doesn't permit windows to load or shows a BSOD(Blue Screen of Death) so that I can change my BIOS settings again. In case your BIOS doesn't all that, then I think you would need to open your cabinet, and reset the jumper, or maybe remove the CMOS battery and keep it outside for sometime as well. This might not happen with nTune or even Clockgen though.
CPU-Z: (Recommended) Required to view RAM timings, stepping, clock speeds, SPD, bios revision etc.
Speedfan: (Required) You must be well aware of your system temperatures, the top one should be that of the CPU. You should also know the voltage and fan speeds of your system. You can also keep an eye on the motherboard, system, HDD etc temps depending on what allthe software shows. Speedfan is a very important tool, go through it carefully if you want.
Super PI: (Required) Do the 1M test after each small CPU speed increment/decrement, should take less than a minute on most/any AMD 64 system. This is a general system stability test with probably more emphasis on CPU. After you have decided on a specific CPU speed, you must run the 32M test which should take around 30minutes or so on most systems.
Prime 95: (Required) It is advised to do a 12-24hrs or more Torture Test.
3D MARK : (Required) My system was able to pass a nearly 8hr Prime and Super Pi 32M test but failed within minutes in both 3D Mark 06 and 05. You must run 3D Mark 06, 05 and 01, as they are CPU sensitive, especially 3D Mark 01, though I would say never skip 3D Mark 06 either. Run all these tests. Also, observe whether there has been an increase in the score or not, especially CPU score. If it has decreased then this may not be a very good sign.
Games: (Required) Once I had increased my voltage, I could pass all those 3 3D Mark tests but failed in Call of Duty 2. So this means that running actual games can infact be more important than anything else. Try to run the latest and most intensive games especially CPU sensitive games. If you can run Oblivion for 30-60minutes without fail then you might not face a problem. You can also consider running FEAR and Doom3.
Memtest 86: (For memory overclocks, required, else preferable) If you have overclocked your RAM, run Memtest 86 Test 5 after each RAM overclock and in the end run the entire test series to know how stable your RAM is.
Windows: (Recommended) Even if you pass all tests, it would be a good idea to observe how stable your system is while running basic activities in Windows and also whether it is more responsive or not. I have read a person saying that overclocking made his system less responsive. So you should keep an eye on that as well.
Also, do keep in mind that put your system back to BIOS defaults before installing windows, else you might face problems. Rather safe than worry.
CPU Conventions
Socket 939
Newcastle: Overclockable as you are almost assured a CG revision/stepping. Oldest of the lot.
Winchester: Generally overclockable. However some manage to run even at 2.6ghz or higher speeds while others may not even be able to reach 2.2ghz. Not a very good chip, but generally does 2.4ghz.
Venice: The most overclockable and popular of 939 series. They should be able to do 2.5ghz-2.6ghz easily and if you are lucky you may get it to 2.7-2.8ghz.
There are other less popular CPU cores as Sledge Hammer, San Deigo and maybe even Manchester. However I don't know as much of these. But I know that Venice and San Deigo are the same core, San Deigo is clocked to 200mhz lower but has an additional 512KB cache, so it might be just as good at overclocking, but I am not sure of that. Sledge Hammers might be the best of the lot, but I am not suer of that either.
Socket 754
Newcastle: Come with 512KB L2 cache
Claw Hammer: Come with 1MB L2 cache
We are not much into 754 socket here.
Keep in mind that most/all AMD 64 CPUs have their multipliers half unlocked. This means that you can reduce the multiplier from 10x to 9x for an example but can't increase it from 10x to 11x unless your CPU doesn't support it. Also, AMD 64 CPUs are always clocked in multiples of 200mhz. This invariably means that if you buy a higher model of the same series, the difference will normally be only in the multiplier which would be increased by 1.
eg: AMD 64 3200 Venice = 200 X 10 = 2000MHz
AMD 64 3500 Venice = 200 X 11 = 2200MHz
However there can be cases where AMD CPUs have increased cache with same mutliplier(meaning same speed), and this too results in a higher model.
Newcastle: Overclockable as you are almost assured a CG revision/stepping. Oldest of the lot.
Winchester: Generally overclockable. However some manage to run even at 2.6ghz or higher speeds while others may not even be able to reach 2.2ghz. Not a very good chip, but generally does 2.4ghz.
Venice: The most overclockable and popular of 939 series. They should be able to do 2.5ghz-2.6ghz easily and if you are lucky you may get it to 2.7-2.8ghz.
There are other less popular CPU cores as Sledge Hammer, San Deigo and maybe even Manchester. However I don't know as much of these. But I know that Venice and San Deigo are the same core, San Deigo is clocked to 200mhz lower but has an additional 512KB cache, so it might be just as good at overclocking, but I am not sure of that. Sledge Hammers might be the best of the lot, but I am not suer of that either.
Socket 754
Newcastle: Come with 512KB L2 cache
Claw Hammer: Come with 1MB L2 cache
We are not much into 754 socket here.
Keep in mind that most/all AMD 64 CPUs have their multipliers half unlocked. This means that you can reduce the multiplier from 10x to 9x for an example but can't increase it from 10x to 11x unless your CPU doesn't support it. Also, AMD 64 CPUs are always clocked in multiples of 200mhz. This invariably means that if you buy a higher model of the same series, the difference will normally be only in the multiplier which would be increased by 1.
eg: AMD 64 3200 Venice = 200 X 10 = 2000MHz
AMD 64 3500 Venice = 200 X 11 = 2200MHz
However there can be cases where AMD CPUs have increased cache with same mutliplier(meaning same speed), and this too results in a higher model.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
What do we overclock here?
This blog is only meant for Overclocking AMD 64 CPUs and their RAM modules. We are not going to discuss overclocking the following here:
Any Intel CPU
Any Dual Core CPU
Any Opeteron CPU
Any 32bit CPU
Any Server CPU
We are going to discuss overclocking the following only:
AMD 64(Primarily socket 939 with very little emphasis on socket 754)
RAM modules in AMD 64 systems
Any Intel CPU
Any Dual Core CPU
Any Opeteron CPU
Any 32bit CPU
Any Server CPU
We are going to discuss overclocking the following only:
AMD 64(Primarily socket 939 with very little emphasis on socket 754)
RAM modules in AMD 64 systems
What is Overclocking?
Psuhing the limits of your hardware past manufacturer specific specifications in order to extract the maximum performance from your system is called overclocking. For the time being noobs, can consider it as simply increasing the clock speed or the amount of MHz.
eg: If you have a 2GHz CPU and you want to run it at 2.2GHz, then you need to overclock it.
This is what might have happended to a limited extent:
Years ago manufacturers made a lower number of pieces of hardware as the sale was not very high. So obviously they would see what was the maximum performance or speed that hardware could be specific to give. When the limit arrived and they found it stable enough, they would sell it. But with increase in sales, you need to decrease the prices which means cost price also decreases or the effort devoted to each piece has to be decreased in order to maintain profits. So the product will be clocked to a certain speed without adequate testing. This means that there is a chance that the potential of the product is much more, hence we conclude with overclocking.
However now things are quite a bit different. Companies purposely make their products overclockable and infact sell with that tag in order to increase their sales. However it is possible that higher models may have more features for overclocking so that people don't stop buying the higher models all together.
If you truthfully ask me it is possible to turn a mainstream CPU to a high end one simply by overclocking it. In my opinion a highly overclocked Amd 64 3000 Venice can beat a FX 53 and even come close to the FX 55.
Just play it safe while overclocking and keep yourself within the safe margin and most often than not, nothing wrong should happen. Obviously overclocking does reduce the life of your CPU, but it is not that you are any way going to use it for more than 1-3yrs.
*Please keep in mind that overclocking does void warranty. I am not responsible for any tips or suggestions or any piece of knowledge that you have learnt from my forum or I have told you. You are overclocking completely at your own risk. However you must keep in mind that if you overclock with care, nothing should go wrong whereas there can be a situation where a person doesn't overclock at all, has top notch hardware yet his system blows up.
eg: If you have a 2GHz CPU and you want to run it at 2.2GHz, then you need to overclock it.
This is what might have happended to a limited extent:
Years ago manufacturers made a lower number of pieces of hardware as the sale was not very high. So obviously they would see what was the maximum performance or speed that hardware could be specific to give. When the limit arrived and they found it stable enough, they would sell it. But with increase in sales, you need to decrease the prices which means cost price also decreases or the effort devoted to each piece has to be decreased in order to maintain profits. So the product will be clocked to a certain speed without adequate testing. This means that there is a chance that the potential of the product is much more, hence we conclude with overclocking.
However now things are quite a bit different. Companies purposely make their products overclockable and infact sell with that tag in order to increase their sales. However it is possible that higher models may have more features for overclocking so that people don't stop buying the higher models all together.
If you truthfully ask me it is possible to turn a mainstream CPU to a high end one simply by overclocking it. In my opinion a highly overclocked Amd 64 3000 Venice can beat a FX 53 and even come close to the FX 55.
Just play it safe while overclocking and keep yourself within the safe margin and most often than not, nothing wrong should happen. Obviously overclocking does reduce the life of your CPU, but it is not that you are any way going to use it for more than 1-3yrs.
*Please keep in mind that overclocking does void warranty. I am not responsible for any tips or suggestions or any piece of knowledge that you have learnt from my forum or I have told you. You are overclocking completely at your own risk. However you must keep in mind that if you overclock with care, nothing should go wrong whereas there can be a situation where a person doesn't overclock at all, has top notch hardware yet his system blows up.
A heartily welcome to all the noobs and masters of Overclocking.
I am here not only to teach the noobs the fundamentals of overclocking their AMD 64 systems. I would be glad to know the experiences of any AMD 64 overclocker and share their views as well.
It is not at all necessary that whatever I mention is the ultimate and the best option. When we get together and discuss our overclocking methods, we might come up with something which is better than both mine and yours. So it is a great way to perfect overclocking hand in hand.
I hope this blog turns out of great use to you and also enhances my understanding of the skill.
img src="http://www.easy-poll.com/counters/free_counter.9823.png">
I am here not only to teach the noobs the fundamentals of overclocking their AMD 64 systems. I would be glad to know the experiences of any AMD 64 overclocker and share their views as well.
It is not at all necessary that whatever I mention is the ultimate and the best option. When we get together and discuss our overclocking methods, we might come up with something which is better than both mine and yours. So it is a great way to perfect overclocking hand in hand.
I hope this blog turns out of great use to you and also enhances my understanding of the skill.
img src="http://www.easy-poll.com/counters/free_counter.9823.png">
