I'm all new to overclocking and I wanted to post my specs and see if I did a good job...

Socket 939 4200 x2
2 x 1gig OCZ Platinum 3200 Ram
A8N-Sli Premiom
Freezer 64 Pro Heatsink


Here's what CPU-Z tells me...

Core Speed: 2640.9 Mhz
Multiplier: x11
Bus Speed: 240 Mhz
HT Link: 960.1 Mhz
Voltage: 1.45


Memory:

Freq: 188.6 Mhz
FSB: DRAM: CPU/14
CAS Lat: 2.5
RAS to CAS: 3
RAS Precharge: 3
Cycle Time: 5
Bank Cycle Time: 11
Command Rate: 2
DRAM Idle Timer: 16


I'm not sure If I was supposed to, but I lowerd the DDR speed to 333 as opposed to 400, and the HTT mutiplier to 4x.

Idle Temp: 35
Under load: 42 (heatsink hasn't been 'broken in' yet mind)


Any guidence would be great!

Thats looking pretty good bud. My only suggestion to you would be to leave everything
set as it is, but try running 260x10 instead. This will bring your ram speed back up to 200
on a 333 divider, then you can work back up to 2640 using 264x10 if your ram will go higher.

Nice, good suggestion!

Whats a good safe temp to stay under (I hear 50 from some and 70 from others!)?

Thanks for your help.

On an AMD dual core setup I would do my best to keep it under 50C full load. 55 tops.

Thats a nice jump in performance. Well done!


Two things:
1. Watch your HT as you move up. At 260FSB your HT, if it is still on the 5x multi, will be running at 1300MHz. That is to high so set the multi to 4x if you haven't already.
2. Not a problem now but it looks like your RAM is at 2T. You'll be happier if you can get it to run at 1T. It should be able to do that easily at the speeds you'll be running. Follow Wanna's advice fist and then work on tweaking that RAM after you get the CPU settled at a nice, cozy overclock.

OK, please excuse the silly questions but I'm a bit of a dolt with overclocking!

I'm now running at 260x10 and 4x on the multiplier. When you say sat the RAM to 1T you mean the Command Rate right? I've now done this and it seems very stable so far.

What does this change do?

Thanks again for the fantastic help, as always!

1T means that instead of your RAM running every two cycles it will run every cycle. That is a very simplistic explanation but you can research on your own. Suffice it to say that it will give you a boost in performance especially in benchmarks. Well done, especially for a first overclock. You have obviously done a lot of homework. Ask any question you want, we all had to ask the same thing at one time or another.

With my new settings it's 35 idle and 51 Full load, that okay?

That's fine. I wouldn't push it much higher, though, unless you get some other cooling. Like Wanna said, 55c should be your limit and with the summer coming those temps will rise even higher.

Do you think I need the voltage at 1.45? Could I maybe bring that down a bit to help with the temp?

The only way to find out is to lower it and run orthos.

Alrighty, this I found interesting...

With AsusProbe my idle is 35 and my full load is 51.

With Core Temp my idle is between 28 and 31 and my full load is 47 on core 1 and 59 on core 2.

What do I believe?

They both are correct......just reading from different sensors.
Around 50c asusprobe or 60c with core temp should be fine.

If I get errors in prime doing the stress -*test*-('"), is it typically due to the RAM timings? As the temps are now nice and stable below 50 with Asus Probe, but I seem to get an error with one of the cores.

Is it a good idea to increase the RAm voltage?

First thing is you can download Orthos Stress Prime 2004 here and run that instead of two instances of P95. It is much easier to run and is the standard stability -*test*-('") for dual cores. http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/385/O...Prime_2004.html

If P95 is failing on one of the cores then the system isn't stable. This could be due to any number of factors but the most likely are not enough Vcore or the RAM isn't stable.

What I would do is put the RAM on a lower divider so it is running underclocked (running below 200MHz) and then run Orthos Small FFTs. Small FFTs doesn't stress the RAM at all, it uses CPU cache to run. If it runs for a couple of hours then you can assume your RAM needs to be tweaked. If it fails then your CPU is at fault.

If the CPU is at fault then you will have to raise Vcore. Unfortunately, this will raise your temps which you don't want to push much at this point. That means either decrease your FSB and slow the CPU down till it runs stably on your present Vcore or get better cooling for the CPU.

I tis up to you at this point. You can push the temps but everything with overclocking s a tradeoff and you really want to watch those temps. 50c is fine but you don't want to get above 55c.