Overclocking X2 on A8N-E

Hello all,

Was wondering if anyone could give me some insight into certain bios settings on
the A8N-E (bios v1011-004).

I have a 4200+ X2 that I am overclocking to 2.4Ghz. I set the base clock to 218
with the max 11x multiplier (2.398Ghz cpu clock), and am using an HT multiplier of
5x (1.090Ghz HT clock).

Here's where my question comes in. The bios has no specific setting for the
memory clock divider. Instead it simply lists memory clock speeds
(200,266,333,400,433,466,500,533,550,600). I am running PC3200 memory in the
system, so if I set this parameter to 400 is it actually doing a 6x division like
it would need to (2400 / 6 = 400) to avoid overclocking the memory?

What are the range of dividers that this board uses for the memory? Does it
figure the correct divider based on what you have the cpu clock set to and the
speed of memory you select? If I do the math, the mem clock dividers would
roughly be:

2400 / 200 = 12
2400 / 266 = 9
2400 / 333 = 7.2
2400 / 400 = 6
2400 / 433 = 5.5
2400 / 466 = 5.15
2400 / 500 = 4.8
2400 / 533 = 4.5
2400 / 550 = 4.36
2400 / 600 = 4

Can anybody tell me if this is what actually happens? Sorry for the length of the
post. TIA for any insight into how this board operates.


(*

"Bill" wrote:

Hawk wrote:
Was wondering if anyone could give me some insight into certain bios settings on
the A8N-E (bios v1011-004).

I have a 4200+ X2 that I am overclocking to 2.4Ghz. I set the base clock to 218
with the max 11x multiplier (2.398Ghz cpu clock), and am using an HT multiplier
of
5x (1.090Ghz HT clock).

Your HT multiplier is too high. Try lowering it to 4x or even 3x as the
HT performance is very high and doesn't need to be run at maximum.
Benchmark tests show that I can run at 3x and it's just as fast as 5x
with default settings. This will also let you run the CPU faster and
clock the memory at higher rates too.

I have an x2 3800+ that I'm running at 2500MHz. The CPU is set at 10x
default, clock speed is 250, HT at 3x, and memory set at 333.

This allows me to run my OCZ memory at a speed of 208MHz (DDR 416) at
2-2-2-5 1T timings, and still keep the HT running fast and let the CPU
hum along faster than most other dual-core processors at default speeds.

Thanks for the reply Bill. I guess my problem is...I don't know for sure what my
board is using for the memory clock divider. Ideally I would like to run a base
clock of 250 like you are, with a 10x multiplier and 4x HT multiplier but I don't
know how the motherboard settles on the memory divider value. If I choose
[DDR400] in the bios, will the board automatically pick a divider that's closest
given the effective cpu clock?

I don't know what the valid mem clock divider values are so I can't tell what
speed it is really running at.

Thanks,

(*

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Hawk wrote:

Was wondering if anyone could give me some insight into certain bios settings on
the A8N-E (bios v1011-004).

I have a 4200+ X2 that I am overclocking to 2.4Ghz. I set the base clock to 218
with the max 11x multiplier (2.398Ghz cpu clock), and am using an HT multiplier
of
5x (1.090Ghz HT clock).

Your HT multiplier is too high. Try lowering it to 4x or even 3x as the
HT performance is very high and doesn't need to be run at maximum.
Benchmark tests show that I can run at 3x and it's just as fast as 5x
with default settings. This will also let you run the CPU faster and
clock the memory at higher rates too.

I have an x2 3800+ that I'm running at 2500MHz. The CPU is set at 10x
default, clock speed is 250, HT at 3x, and memory set at 333.

This allows me to run my OCZ memory at a speed of 208MHz (DDR 416) at
2-2-2-5 1T timings, and still keep the HT running fast and let the CPU
hum along faster than most other dual-core processors at default speeds.

I got it...just realized that the board uses 200 in all of its calculations with
regards to memory dividers...I whipped up an Excel spreadsheet that made it clear
to me.

Thanks again,

(*

In article , "Hawk"
wrote:

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Hawk wrote:

Was wondering if anyone could give me some insight into certain bios
settings on
the A8N-E (bios v1011-004).

I have a 4200+ X2 that I am overclocking to 2.4Ghz. I set the base
clock to 218
with the max 11x multiplier (2.398Ghz cpu clock), and am using an HT
multiplier
of
5x (1.090Ghz HT clock).

Your HT multiplier is too high. Try lowering it to 4x or even 3x as the
HT performance is very high and doesn't need to be run at maximum.
Benchmark tests show that I can run at 3x and it's just as fast as 5x
with default settings. This will also let you run the CPU faster and
clock the memory at higher rates too.

I have an x2 3800+ that I'm running at 2500MHz. The CPU is set at 10x
default, clock speed is 250, HT at 3x, and memory set at 333.

This allows me to run my OCZ memory at a speed of 208MHz (DDR 416) at
2-2-2-5 1T timings, and still keep the HT running fast and let the CPU
hum along faster than most other dual-core processors at default speeds.

I got it...just realized that the board uses 200 in all of its
calculations with regards to memory dividers...I whipped up an Excel
spreadsheet that made it clear to me.

Thanks again,

(*

Athlon64 is reduced to a spreadsheet here as well:

http://math.gogar.com/athlon64.cgi?showtable=1

Paul

Athlon64 is reduced to a spreadsheet here as well:

http://math.gogar.com/athlon64.cgi?showtable=1

Thanks for the reply...I ended up setting it at 240 base / 10x CPU / 4x HT /
DDR333 which gives me a nice clean 2.4Ghz without overclocking the HT or memory.
I'm still running the core @ 1.30v and it's cool as can be. I'm going to torture
test it tonite but I think most 4200+'s can do 2.4 with ease.

=D


(*

"Bill" wrote in message


[...]

I have an x2 3800+ that I'm running at 2500MHz. The CPU is set at 10x
default, clock speed is 250, HT at 3x, and memory set at 333.

This allows me to run my OCZ memory at a speed of 208MHz (DDR 416) at
2-2-2-5 1T timings, and still keep the HT running fast and let the CPU
hum along faster than most other dual-core processors at default
speeds.

As a general principle are you better off running your RAM at a nominal 400
with looser settings or a nominal 333 with tighter ones?

"Bill" wrote in message


[...]

In my case, I'm overclocking by 25%, so I have to drop to DDR333 to
run with tight settings and still clock the memory close to DDR400
speeds. If I left it at 400, my memory would be running way too fast
(250MHz or DDR500) and even the loosest timings won't work.

That was the point of my question. I can comfortably run my 4200+ at 2.4Ghz
and my TWINX therefore at DDR440. I haven't tested every possible
combination yet, but once I kicked the 4200+ up to 2.5Ghz but reset the RAM
base to 333 and ended up with something like DDR398. That seemed fine,
although I didn't torture test it. I've had the 4200+ up to 2.6Ghz but it
hung during PCMark05, probably because I didn't up the core voltage.
Anyway, I was just wondering if in that sort of situation it was viable to
keep the DDR base at 400 and relax the timings to cope with the higher
frequency, but if frequency matters more than timings then I guess not.

Wow, I had this exact same question for the exact same board and CPU
and now my question has been answered! God Bless the Internet!

Thanks guys.. the memory divider issue had me stumped all day

-velo