basic queries about overclocking

[Jon D]

I am running a Duron Applebred 1800 in a Via 266 mobo by Syntax
with 768 KB of 133 SD-RAM. CPU temp under load = 44 degrees C.
Phoenix BIOS.

My crappy mobo doesn't permit very many setting. (EG can't set cpu
multiplier.)

---------

Can I check with you guys about some basic stuff:

If I slightly increase the cpu voltage from the 1.52 V at present
(nominal voltage for my Duron 1800 is 1.50 V) then will that help
increase cpu stabilty? I can increase by only 25 mV, 50 mV or 75
mV. I figured that 75 mV feels safe - QUESTION ONE: is this
right?

In the past with a slower processor, I increased the "CPU Host
Clock" (which sounds to me like the FSB) from a starting value of
100 to 104 (an extra 4 %) or a slightly unstable 106. I think
memory was the limiting factor for stability this time.

I have currently got all the memory settings at what I believe is
their most aggressive:
SDRAM cycle length = 2,
Trp = 2T,
Tras = 5T,
Trcd = 3T.

QUESTION TWO: Should I be able to increase the FSB to about the
same value as before because, presumably, the faster new processor
(Duron 1800 versus old Duro 700) should have no effect on the FSB
setting?

QUESTION THREE: Would I be able to increase the FSB bus more if I
made the above memory settings less aggressive? This would seem
to be the only way to increase the CPU speed.

Finally, is "Vcore 2" (reported by Motherboard Monitor 5)
essentially only used by the CPU for I/O operations?

 

[chris]

Forget about overclocking with what you have... also, reset the memory to
default settings!

 

[Wes Newell]

I am running a Duron Applebred 1800 in a Via 266 mobo by Syntax
with 768 KB of 133 SD-RAM. CPU temp under load = 44 degrees C.
Phoenix BIOS.

My crappy mobo doesn't permit very many setting. (EG can't set cpu
multiplier.)

Doesn't matter. You can always use the pinmod to change multipliers on any
board. problem is that the 1800 you have is probably multiplier locked
anyway.

If I slightly increase the cpu voltage from the 1.52 V at present
(nominal voltage for my Duron 1800 is 1.50 V) then will that help
increase cpu stabilty? I can increase by only 25 mV, 50 mV or 75 mV. I
figured that 75 mV feels safe - QUESTION ONE: is this right?

You can raise it to 1.65v and not pass the default voltage of the 3200+.
And if needed, you can go up to 1.85v, but I'd stay under 1.8.

In the past with a slower processor, I increased the "CPU Host Clock"
(which sounds to me like the FSB) from a starting value of 100 to 104
(an extra 4 %) or a slightly unstable 106. I think memory was the
limiting factor for stability this time.

Could have been, but hard for me to say.

I have currently got all the memory settings at what I believe is their
most aggressive:
SDRAM cycle length = 2,
Trp = 2T,
Tras = 5T,
Trcd = 3T.

QUESTION TWO: Should I be able to increase the FSB to about the same
value as before because, presumably, the faster new processor (Duron
1800 versus old Duro 700) should have no effect on the FSB setting?

When you raise the FSB, it affects all other buses on this board, so the
ram bus will increase as will the AGP and PCI bus speeds.

QUESTION THREE: Would I be able to increase the FSB bus more if I made
the above memory settings less aggressive? This would seem to be the
only way to increase the CPU speed.

That's correct. With luck and decent ram, you should be able to get the
FSB up to 145-150MHz before the PCI/AGP bus overclock fails. And raise
vcore to 1.65v first. Tweak it down when done if you want to, If you can
reach 150, that's a little over 2000MHz. That isn't going to be a problem
for the cpu. I've run my Duron 1600 (Tbred B core) at 12x200.

Finally, is "Vcore 2" (reported by Motherboard Monitor 5) essentially
only used by the CPU for I/O operations?

Depends on what sensor vcore2 is reading as to what it's reporting. It
could be pointing at a thermistor on the MB, a chipset sensor, or
whatever, maybe nothing, or the same as vcore1. You'll have to check the
setup to see.

 

[kony]

I am running a Duron Applebred 1800 in a Via 266 mobo by Syntax
with 768 KB of 133 SD-RAM. CPU temp under load = 44 degrees C.
Phoenix BIOS.

My crappy mobo doesn't permit very many setting. (EG can't set cpu
multiplier.)

---------

Can I check with you guys about some basic stuff:

If I slightly increase the cpu voltage from the 1.52 V at present
(nominal voltage for my Duron 1800 is 1.50 V) then will that help
increase cpu stabilty?

If it is stable at 1.5V and you don't overclock, it should
not need changed. If you do overclock by any significant
margin, yes you're likely to need raise the voltage some BUT
because you can't change the multiplier, you will soon reach
a stability limit of the northbridge and memory- typically
that limit on Via KT266 is around 150-odd MHz FSB, at which
point your IDE (hard drives and data) are at risk, as well
as USB and network adapters starting to act flaky. Other
parts might too, I mention only the most common. Of
particular concern is the hard drive data, since it may
become corrupt entirely and you have to format and start
over from scratch. For that reason it's a VERY good idea to
make a complete backup of all HDD data if you seek to push
the FSB past (roughly) 145MHz.

I can increase by only 25 mV, 50 mV or 75
mV. I figured that 75 mV feels safe - QUESTION ONE: is this
right?

Frankly, those are too little increase to get you very much
benefit. To fully exploit your chip you'd probably need to
up the voltage to around 1.8V, a 300mV increase. That
increases heat a lot though, and your board limits you too
much to get benefit from doing so.

Generally, you might go ahead and raise it the 75mA, then
proceed to do whatever things you were to overclock, then
once you have it confirmed 100% stable, try lowering the
voltage again and retest stability- there is no need to
raise the voltage if CPU stays stable at stock voltage.

In the past with a slower processor, I increased the "CPU Host
Clock" (which sounds to me like the FSB) from a starting value of
100 to 104 (an extra 4 %) or a slightly unstable 106. I think
memory was the limiting factor for stability this time.

It it was KT133 (not KT133A) then it was the northbridge
that limited you. Generally though, such a minor increase
is hardly worth fooling with. Generally it's good to just
shoot for the moon, ie- use a board that supports the next
higher FSB range and see if it'll post at the max you hope
to use. For example, with a Duron 1.8GHz you would have
13.5X multiplier (IIRC), so you'd raise the voltage to 1.8V
or so and raise the FSB to 166MHz/DDR333.

Since your motherboard won't do that, the options you have
left that are of enough gain to bother with will revolve
around finding another way to increase the CPU multiplier.
Sometimes a bios mod will give you that feature. Sometimes
there's a hidden (undocumented) jumper on boards, or plated
holes (soldered) where there "could" be pins for a jumper
but the manufacturer didn't add the jumpers. On your
particular board I have no idea. Other times you might need
use a low voltage and needles to burn a CPU multipler bridge
on the CPU (risky unless you had another board you could use
to confirm whether the CPU was stable at the new multiplier
before permanently modifying it). last there is the
wire-wrap or wire-socket method where you insert a piece of
wire in the socket or wrap it around two pins to change the
multiplier. Google should turn up some info on this, I
don't recall the specifics for that CPU.

I have currently got all the memory settings at what I believe is
their most aggressive:
SDRAM cycle length = 2,
Trp = 2T,
Tras = 5T,
Trcd = 3T.

Have you confirmed they're stable at those settings? If you
haven't yet, run Memtest86 for several hours. Keep in mind
that IF you decide to increase the FSB any (which will
probably be useful at least up to 140MHz or a little higher)
you may easily loose stability with those memory timings, so
you might want to set them more conservatively and then
later, after you've removed that variable and have checked
stability with memtest86, THEN reduce the timings again and
retest with memtest86. That is the general procedure, but
frankly, these days it's not much return in performance for
all the time spent. A newer motherboard, CPU, memory would
run circles around it.... if you spend hours just to get
another 10% performance gain that's not much benefit
relative to the 80% gain you'd get from newer parts.

QUESTION TWO: Should I be able to increase the FSB to about the
same value as before because, presumably, the faster new processor
(Duron 1800 versus old Duro 700) should have no effect on the FSB
setting?

Your prior CPU used 100MHz FSB (DDR200). The Duron 1800
uses 133MHz. As mentioned previously, you can probably
raise that to at least 140MHz, IF your memory stays stable,
but if you go much beyond 145MHz be sure your data is backed
up. After overclocking it and testing with memtest86, it
would be good to check CPU stability with Prime95's Torture
Test. That should run for at least several hours, or until
the very first error- at which point you can stop the test
and need to take appropriate meaures to regain stability and
begin testing again. Again, a lot of work for minimal gain
these days. Some people might prefer to just leave the CPU
at stock speed, 1.5V, and see how quiet they can get it, as
a Duron 1800 can be the foundation for a silent system, as
it produces less than 1/2 the heat of a modern P4.

QUESTION THREE: Would I be able to increase the FSB bus more if I
made the above memory settings less aggressive? This would seem
to be the only way to increase the CPU speed.

yes, it seems I answered your questions before I'd ever read
them.

Finally, is "Vcore 2" (reported by Motherboard Monitor 5)
essentially only used by the CPU for I/O operations?

You cannot assume what MBM5 is reporting unless you have
compared it to a bios reading. MBM5, being generic in it's
ability to run with different boards, may report different
things for different people/systems. I wouldn't worry
about that voltage at all, you really only need be concerned
about the CPU vcore, memory voltage (if applicable, it may
not be on your board), and the power supply voltages such as
3.3V, 5V, 5VSB, 12V. I doubt yours even has chipset voltage
levels or reporting but if it does you can usually ignore
those on your board too, as the chipset itself is the
biggest limitation and it just won't go very far using
reasonable measures.

 

[Jon D]

On Sun 24 Jul 2005 21:10:41, Wes Newell wrote:

Doesn't matter. You can always use the pinmod to change
multipliers on any board. problem is that the 1800 you have is
probably multiplier locked anyway.

You can raise it to 1.65v and not pass the default voltage of
the 3200+. And if needed, you can go up to 1.85v, but I'd stay
under 1.8.

Could have been, but hard for me to say.

When you raise the FSB, it affects all other buses on this
board, so the ram bus will increase as will the AGP and PCI bus
speeds.

That's correct. With luck and decent ram, you should be able to
get the FSB up to 145-150MHz before the PCI/AGP bus overclock
fails. And raise vcore to 1.65v first. Tweak it down when done
if you want to, If you can reach 150, that's a little over
2000MHz. That isn't going to be a problem for the cpu. I've run
my Duron 1600 (Tbred B core) at 12x200.


Depends on what sensor vcore2 is reading as to what it's
reporting. It could be pointing at a thermistor on the MB, a
chipset sensor, or whatever, maybe nothing, or the same as
vcore1. You'll have to check the setup to see.

Thanks for the info Wes, you make some points I find useful. Like
Kony (who has posted soon after you) you refer to specific values
which is something I find particularly useful is your posting.

The one thing I am unclear about is where you say this:

You can raise it to 1.65v and not pass the default voltage of
the 3200+.

What is the connection between my Duron (= slugged Thoroughbred) and
a 3200+ Athlon? Does the basic T'bred design now go up as far as
3200+? Last time I looked it was something like 2400+.

 

[Jon D]

Hi Kony, thank you very much for your extensive reply. Like Wes,
I am particularly grateful for the hard numbers you guys mention
as that gives me some useful info.

I have put my other comments inline below.

If it is stable at 1.5V and you don't overclock, it should not
need changed. If you do overclock by any significant margin,
yes you're likely to need raise the voltage some BUT because you
can't change the multiplier, you will soon reach a stability
limit of the northbridge and memory- typically that limit on Via
KT266 is around 150-odd MHz FSB, at which point your IDE (hard
drives and data) are at risk, as well as USB and network
adapters starting to act flaky. Other parts might too, I
mention only the most common. Of particular concern is the hard
drive data, since it may become corrupt entirely and you have to
format and start over from scratch. For that reason it's a VERY
good idea to make a complete backup of all HDD data if you seek
to push the FSB past (roughly) 145MHz.

Hey man, I never gave any thought to my hard drives and the data
passing thru the IDE adapters. That is really important. Hmm, I
got to give that more thought.

Frankly, those are too little increase to get you very much
benefit. To fully exploit your chip you'd probably need to up
the voltage to around 1.8V, a 300mV increase. That increases
heat a lot though, and your board limits you too much to get
benefit from doing so.

Generally, you might go ahead and raise it the 75mA, then
proceed to do whatever things you were to overclock, then once
you have it confirmed 100% stable, try lowering the voltage
again and retest stability- there is no need to raise the
voltage if CPU stays stable at stock voltage.


It was KT133 (not KT133A) then it was the northbridge that
limited you.

I may have confused with detail. In fact I have the Via 266 (I
think that is my VT8367 northbridge with 8235 southbridge). But
don't worry because your point makes me realize that it is too
simplistic for me to see only cpu or memory as the items which
might get pushed past their limit.

Generally though, such a minor increase is hardly
worth fooling with. Generally it's good to just shoot for the
moon, ie- use a board that supports the next higher FSB range
and see if it'll post at the max you hope to use. For example,
with a Duron 1.8GHz you would have 13.5X multiplier (IIRC), so
you'd raise the voltage to 1.8V or so and raise the FSB to
166MHz/DDR333.

I guess I know what you are saying. However I was just fooling
around with these settings (sorry, I mean I was making impromptu
empirical investigations, heh!) and I noticed that by pushing the
FSB speed from 100 MHz on the old Duron 700 to about 105 or 106
MHz I was able to make my system noticeably SNAPPIER in response.
This SNAPPINESS was very welcome!

Since your motherboard won't do that, the options you have left
that are of enough gain to bother with will revolve around
finding another way to increase the CPU multiplier. Sometimes a
bios mod will give you that feature. Sometimes there's a hidden
(undocumented) jumper on boards, or plated holes (soldered)
where there "could" be pins for a jumper but the manufacturer
didn't add the jumpers. On your particular board I have no
idea. Other times you might need use a low voltage and needles
to burn a CPU multiplier bridge on the CPU (risky unless you had
another board you could use to confirm whether the CPU was
stable at the new multiplier before permanently modifying it).
last there is the wire-wrap or wire-socket method where you
insert a piece of wire in the socket or wrap it around two pins
to change the multiplier. Google should turn up some info on
this, I don't recall the specifics for that CPU.

This is getting me into deep stuff and to be honest it nearly
killed me (and the mobo) to get the big heatsink and fan on
without smearing the thermal compound all over the place. So I
don't really want to go down there and fiddle with the cpu
hardware again unless I have to.

Have you confirmed they're stable at those settings? If you
haven't yet, run Memtest86 for several hours.

Kony, you touch on something I tend to struggle with. In the past
I have tried to use Memtest but couldn't make head or tail of it.
It was confusing enough to work out the difference between:
Memtest86 ver 3.2 http://www.memtest86.com/
Memtest86+ ver 1.60 http://www.memtest.org/

In the end I decided it made little difference at my level which
one I ran. But I found that actually running Memtest was a
mystery. It ran and then seemed to loop and it never seemed to
come up with any conclusions. I wasn't sure what to press next or
whether any given test was completed.

I also tried a different "Memtest" from HCI Design but it seemed a
bit unsatisfactory. http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

I then figured that maybe I should try Microsoft's Windows Memory
Diagnostic at http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp. However I
never got as far as trying that out.

So, can you or anyone else suggest which I should use and if you
think one of the two Memtest86's is best then is there anywhere
which explains in *simpler* language and with simpler steps (than
the README.TXT) what options to take while it is running.

Keep in mind that IF you decide to increase the FSB any (which
will probably be useful at least up to 140MHz or a little
higher) you may easily loose stability with those memory
timings, so you might want to set them more conservatively and
then later, after you've removed that variable and have checked
stability with memtest86, THEN reduce the timings again and
retest with memtest86. That is the general procedure, but
frankly, these days it's not much return in performance for all
the time spent. A newer motherboard, CPU, memory would run
circles around it.... if you spend hours just to get another 10%
performance gain that's not much benefit relative to the 80%
gain you'd get from newer parts.

Yeah, I know what you mean. If I can get this box running sweetly
then I'll start building a more serious box. The cost of memory
is off-putting.


-------------

Your prior CPU used 100MHz FSB (DDR200). The Duron 1800 uses
133MHz. As mentioned previously, you can probably raise that to
at least 140MHz, IF your memory stays stable, but if you go much
beyond 145MHz be sure your data is backed up. After
overclocking it and testing with memtest86, it would be good to
check CPU stability with Prime95's Torture Test. That should
run for at least several hours, or until the very first error-
at which point you can stop the test and need to take
appropriate measures to regain stability and begin testing
again.
Again, a lot of work for minimal gain these days. Some people
might prefer to just leave the CPU at stock speed, 1.5V, and see
how quiet they can get it, as a Duron 1800 can be the foundation
for a silent system, as it produces less than 1/2 the heat of a
modern P4.

You are dead right. Mobo Monitor reports my Duron 1800 running at
46 degrees C with no real noise from the cpu fan. The core temp
is probably actually higher because the mobo sensor is no doubt
poorly placed but even so it run pretty much as you describe.


--- remainder snipped out ---

 

[Sleepy]

I am running a Duron Applebred 1800 in a Via 266 mobo by Syntax
with 768 KB of 133 SD-RAM. CPU temp under load = 44 degrees C.
Phoenix BIOS.

My crappy mobo doesn't permit very many setting. (EG can't set cpu
multiplier.)

---------

Can I check with you guys about some basic stuff:

If I slightly increase the cpu voltage from the 1.52 V at present
(nominal voltage for my Duron 1800 is 1.50 V) then will that help
increase cpu stabilty? I can increase by only 25 mV, 50 mV or 75
mV. I figured that 75 mV feels safe - QUESTION ONE: is this
right?

In the past with a slower processor, I increased the "CPU Host
Clock" (which sounds to me like the FSB) from a starting value of
100 to 104 (an extra 4 %) or a slightly unstable 106. I think
memory was the limiting factor for stability this time.

I have currently got all the memory settings at what I believe is
their most aggressive:
SDRAM cycle length = 2,
Trp = 2T,
Tras = 5T,
Trcd = 3T.

QUESTION TWO: Should I be able to increase the FSB to about the
same value as before because, presumably, the faster new processor
(Duron 1800 versus old Duro 700) should have no effect on the FSB
setting?

QUESTION THREE: Would I be able to increase the FSB bus more if I
made the above memory settings less aggressive? This would seem
to be the only way to increase the CPU speed.

Finally, is "Vcore 2" (reported by Motherboard Monitor 5)
essentially only used by the CPU for I/O operations?

This little program http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php will give you a good idea
of what settings your
RAM can handle and you would probably have to ditch that RAM and go for
PC2700 to overclock
the FSB which is your only option on that board. And it would have to be
decent PC2700 as there isnt
much scope in the RAM settings. I have the same board and 2 differant sticks
of PC2700 - one stick will
overclock up to 150mhz which means Im o/c the FSB and everything - the other
stick wont o/c without
a TRAS setting of 7 which this board wont do. So choose your RAM carefully -
up the voltage on the CPU core
and make sure you have good cooling. Is it worth it ?

 

[Wes Newell]

What is the connection between my Duron (= slugged Thoroughbred) and
a 3200+ Athlon? Does the basic T'bred design now go up as far as
3200+? Last time I looked it was something like 2400+.

Basically all newer cores were derived from the Tbred B core. The Barton
just adds a larger L2 cache, and IIRC, the Applebread is just a barton
with all but 64K L2 cache disabled. It's easy enough to tell what the base
core is by looking at the CPUID code. Anyway, 1.65v was the original
default voltage for this core. AMD never went higher, but they did go
lower with cpu's that weren't clocked as fast. Anything up to 1.75v
shouldn't effect CPU life much at all. Higher than that would start
shortening the cpu life. At 1.85v I'd only give the cpu 2-4years used
constantly befire it would start to fail and you have to lower the voltage
and speed for stabilty again. Been there, done that.

 

[kony]

Hey man, I never gave any thought to my hard drives and the data
passing thru the IDE adapters. That is really important. Hmm, I
got to give that more thought.

Didn't mean to alarm you, but it is common. Just be aware
that raising FSB introduces the potential for instability in
more than just CPU and memory.

I may have confused with detail. In fact I have the Via 266 (I
think that is my VT8367 northbridge with 8235 southbridge). But
don't worry because your point makes me realize that it is too
simplistic for me to see only cpu or memory as the items which
might get pushed past their limit.

The main issue is your specific motherboard. It's maximum
"in spec" FSB is that you're already using, 133MHz/DDR266.
That is assuming I'm remembering correctly that it's the
default FSB speed for a Duron 1.8. Either way, 133MHz is
still the max FSB clock rate for KT266, anything more is
technically overclocking the board itself, and more.

I guess I know what you are saying. However I was just fooling
around with these settings (sorry, I mean I was making impromptu
empirical investigations, heh!) and I noticed that by pushing the
FSB speed from 100 MHz on the old Duron 700 to about 105 or 106
MHz I was able to make my system noticeably SNAPPIER in response.
This SNAPPINESS was very welcome!

Well a 100MHz FSB and memory bus is pretty slow for a modern
system. Indeed you could simply raise your FSB by 6MHz,
from 133 to 139MHz. _IF_ it stays stable then you get a
4-5% performance increase, though it's really not much, many
people might find their overall performance increased more
from a faster HDD. Generally to perceive a speed difference
a person needs about 10%, or so I've heard- no proof of it.

This is getting me into deep stuff and to be honest it nearly
killed me (and the mobo) to get the big heatsink and fan on
without smearing the thermal compound all over the place. So I
don't really want to go down there and fiddle with the cpu
hardware again unless I have to.

.... then don't. Just enjoy the system till you find it's
time to upgrade or replace it again. In the interim you
could start accumulating knowledge about how to overclock
your next system-technology-of-choice, for example an Athlon
64 or whatever.

Kony, you touch on something I tend to struggle with. In the past
I have tried to use Memtest but couldn't make head or tail of it.
It was confusing enough to work out the difference between:
Memtest86 ver 3.2 http://www.memtest86.com/
Memtest86+ ver 1.60 http://www.memtest.org/

I used mostly memtest86, not memtest86+, but the + version
has more support for new boards. Either should work with
your system. They're meant to be easy to use, easiest way
being to simply make a floppy and boot to it. Just let it
run for several hours or until you see if listing any
errors. If it doesn't show any errors after several hours,
just turn the system off and boot windows. If it does show
errors, you need to readjust some setting to get the system
stable again BEFORE booting windows. By not booting windows
until you have some minimal assurance of memory stability,
you greatly decrease the chances of file/data corruption-
not due to the aforementioned hard drive/IDE issue but a
more general type of random corruption from CPU errors or
memory errors.

In the end I decided it made little difference at my level which
one I ran. But I found that actually running Memtest was a
mystery. It ran and then seemed to loop and it never seemed to
come up with any conclusions. I wasn't sure what to press next or
whether any given test was completed.

That's exactly what it's supposed to do. The goal is to
just let it loop over and over. If it shows no errors
that's a "Pass". If it shows ANY errors, readjust the
system and rerun memtest86 till it doesn't show any errors.
This part of overclocking, the testing, can take a long time
and is among the reasons I suggest it may not be worth the
time to try to aggressively overclock the system, since
there may not be so much of a performance gain. Even if you
managed to change the CPU multiplier, the higher you
overclock the CPU the more the PC133 memory will be a
bottleneck.

I also tried a different "Memtest" from HCI Design but it seemed a
bit unsatisfactory. http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

I then figured that maybe I should try Microsoft's Windows Memory
Diagnostic at http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp. However I
never got as far as trying that out.

Memtest86+ seems the best alternative. Anything that
requires you to boot to windows to run it is flawed by that
very fact alone. Booting a single time with lots of memory
errors can trash your registry then you have a lot of work
to salvage your windows installation or have to reinstall
it.

So, can you or anyone else suggest which I should use and if you
think one of the two Memtest86's is best then is there anywhere
which explains in *simpler* language and with simpler steps (than
the README.TXT) what options to take while it is running.

Just let it run, it will do fine "hands off". All you have
to do is check it to see if any errors are reported. If
there's any errors you can go ahead and stop testing because
it's not stable. You might note how long it had ran before
any errors as a rough gauge of how instable it is. For
example, if you had 12,000 errors within 5 minutes, you'd
likely have to make more significant changes, slow the bus
speeds or raise the memory timings more than if you only had
5 errors showing up in 4 hours.

Yeah, I know what you mean. If I can get this box running sweetly
then I'll start building a more serious box. The cost of memory
is off-putting.

I'd just make it as quiet as reasonably possible. Then
it'll have longer fan lifespan, slower dust buildup, in
addition to being less distracting.

You are dead right. Mobo Monitor reports my Duron 1800 running at
46 degrees C with no real noise from the cpu fan. The core temp
is probably actually higher because the mobo sensor is no doubt
poorly placed but even so it run pretty much as you describe.

Poor sensor placement could be too high OR too low, though
it likely is too low because your board is designed for
earlier CPUs that produced less heat. Even so, it "could"
be fairly accurate but only slower to respond to temp
changes. 46C sounds roughly right though, depending on the
other factors like the 'sink, fan speed, chassis cooling,
etc.

 

[Jon D]

On Sun 24 Jul 2005 22:41:19, Sleepy wrote:

This little program http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php will give you
a good idea of what settings your
RAM can handle and

Nice program. Thank you for the reference.

you would probably have to ditch that RAM and
go for PC2700 to overclock
the FSB which is your only option on that board. And it would
have to be decent PC2700 as there isnt
much scope in the RAM settings. I have the same board

Sleepy, as you have the same mobo then you know that the Syntax
mobo will take SD-RAM or DDR.

If I just replaced my 768 MB of 133MHz SD-RAM with the same amount
of 333 MHz PC2700 memory, then do you think I would see a 10% (or
better) improvement?

As you say, there is not much scope for overclocking so maybe I
would just use DDR memory and use reasonable aggressive settings.

What do you reckon?

You seem to be in the UK. The price of generic DDR memory (as I
am not overlcoking) with CL=2.5 that might be ok at CL=2 is approx
£40 + p&p. Do I get at least a 10% improvement for putting that
memory in?

 

[Sleepy]

On Sun 24 Jul 2005 22:41:19, Sleepy wrote:


Nice program. Thank you for the reference.



Sleepy, as you have the same mobo then you know that the Syntax
mobo will take SD-RAM or DDR.

If I just replaced my 768 MB of 133MHz SD-RAM with the same amount
of 333 MHz PC2700 memory, then do you think I would see a 10% (or
better) improvement?

yes - you dont get a huge increase but that 10% is worth it.

As you say, there is not much scope for overclocking so maybe I
would just use DDR memory and use reasonable aggressive settings.

What do you reckon?

If you overclock the FSB and you can do it easily in the Bios then
you get everything to run a little faster. Try 140mhz and your 1800 CPU
becomes
a 2000 and your memorys faster and the Hard Drive interface too. Bump the
CPU voltage
up a bit to keep it stable say 1.65v but as you increase voltage you will
increase heat too
so use Motherboard Monitor to keep an eye on temps. The 40-50 c range is
good and up
to 58 c on a hot summer day is what I get.

You seem to be in the UK. The price of generic DDR memory (as I
am not overlcoking) with CL=2.5 that might be ok at CL=2 is approx
£40 + p&p. Do I get at least a 10% improvement for putting that
memory in?

personally I went to 1gb from 512mb - running XP Pro and HL2 requires
that much RAM to run smoothly. Ive never worried too much about CAS
settings etc .. its the quantity of RAM that counts.

 

[kony]

yes - you dont get a huge increase but that 10% is worth it.

Buying 768MB of memory is worth 10%?
Hardly.
Same $ would better be spent on a board that raises
multiplier or a different CPU, if not the whole set of
parts.