GA-7N400 Pro2 Overclocking?

Is there a guide for overclocking this mb with the AMD 2800+

I'm seeing native 2079mhz, and I was expecting about 2100mhz.

Is there a reliable settings guide to a slight tweak in speed.

I have two sticks of 512mb RAM in Dual mode and I'm using a SATA HDD.

This system is going to be a development server running a MS Server 2000 OS,
which may be upgraded to 2003 Advanced if our MSDN pkg comes through.

I'm too cheap to get a dual processor mb and I'd like as much performance as I
can get out'a this system.

TIA

JeffP....

Jeff,

If you are going to run 'Server' then I would suggest that your primary
objective should be Stability, not Grunt. What impact will a server outage
have? What impact will disc drive corruptions have on the Server? Are you
intending on installing a RAID 1 config? Where will your source safe
database be (on the server I hope and I hope that will be rock solid stable
too).

Before you start bashing your head against a brick wall with overclocking I
suggest you consider the following - all meant with best intentions of
course:

1. What % improvement would an increase from 2079 MHz to 2100 be? Or 2100 to
2300? Would you even notice?
If the wind changes direction and you have gigabit ethernet, would
performance fluctuate more?
2. If you achieved 20% overclock, then what beneficial impact would that
have on your occupation?
3. The time you spent trying to get better performance out of this server
(which is very grunty for a server for a small number of users) could be
better invested in getting your product out the door and selling it so you
can get that dual opteron you would really like, or was that a Posh?

4. If you are running a server then what systems running on it will benefit
from increase in CPU performance? If you are getting MSDN (I have Universal)
then you might run Exchange, ISA, SQL Server, HIS, IIS, etc. etc. etc. -
memory and disc IO will be more use than a few percentage points of CPU -
except during startup, but startup won't happen very often will it? May be
once every 2 - 3 months... You say you will be running SATA, will that be
Raptor drives?

Grunt is useful on the desktop where you do the development work. EG a
compile / test cycle is a lot more joy on a 3GHz machine than an 800 (last
system), but my dual CPU PII 400 is still adequate for my server (it runs
all the above except HIS under Windows 2003 server) - it is getting
retrenched soon tho...

The way I justify (very easily usually) h.w upgrades here is to simply do
some timings, multiply things out and work out the saved time Per Annum then
multiply that by the charge out rate = budget for upgrade != dual opteron
yet.

Regards,
Tim








"JeffP" wrote in message
om...
Is there a guide for overclocking this mb with the AMD 2800+

I'm seeing native 2079mhz, and I was expecting about 2100mhz.

Is there a reliable settings guide to a slight tweak in speed.

I have two sticks of 512mb RAM in Dual mode and I'm using a SATA HDD.

This system is going to be a development server running a MS Server 2000
OS,
which may be upgraded to 2003 Advanced if our MSDN pkg comes through.

I'm too cheap to get a dual processor mb and I'd like as much performance
as I
can get out'a this system.

TIA

JeffP....

Tim, thanks, please see.... my inline comments follow....

"Tim" wrote in message ...
Jeff,

If you are going to run 'Server' then I would suggest that your primary
objective should be Stability, not Grunt. What impact will a server outage
have? What impact will disc drive corruptions have on the Server? Are you
intending on installing a RAID 1 config? Where will your source safe
database be (on the server I hope and I hope that will be rock solid stable
too).

It's a dev sever, rock solid it would be. My current system (Win2KPro OS) is
oc'd to 1400, yes it's a few years old and although I could push it max'd to
1800 I have not, it's stable, I'm now looking for a substantial bang-for-buck
next step up.


Before you start bashing your head against a brick wall with overclocking I
suggest you consider the following - all meant with best intentions of
course:

1. What % improvement would an increase from 2079 MHz to 2100 be? Or 2100 to
2300? Would you even notice?

Yes, as my database processes are 50/50 memory intensive scan wise and processor
intensive process wise, (Ok, I'm not too witty.)

MSSQL will use as much mem as you give it, and I notice that a dual 750 or 800
performs much faster operations than a similar single processor 1800 it just
likes more CPU, yes I've already read your dual oper comment below.

If the wind changes direction and you have gigabit ethernet, would
performance fluctuate more?

I wouldn't expect it, I have no users on my dev box and don't expect to, so IO
is minimal, but processing is. I run complex queries merging/importing data
between databases, creating a droping real (temp) tables. The actual import of
data to my staging db is minimal, most of the time is in transformations and
cleanup. You might be surprised how bad data is keyed in by clients when they
fill in web forms and your web developer doesn't appear to understand the word
"data validation at user input"!

2. If you achieved 20% overclock, then what beneficial impact would that
have on your occupation?

None. It's just that when I have to wait 20 min's to see if a process gets an
error, I'd like to speed that up. Two syntax bugs can take an hour to correct,
finding 50 bugs in 3K lines of code can take days. I'd like to get any
performance that I can, PLUS I'd like to feel that I'm still in the loop a bit
about hdware and OCing.

3. The time you spent trying to get better performance out of this server
(which is very grunty for a server for a small number of users) could be
better invested in getting your product out the door and selling it so you
can get that dual opteron you would really like, or was that a Posh?

Yes, even though I have the money, I live as though I'm on a buget. That's why
I have some money I refuse to spend it.


4. If you are running a server then what systems running on it will benefit
from increase in CPU performance? If you are getting MSDN (I have Universal)
then you might run Exchange, ISA, SQL Server, HIS, IIS, etc. etc. etc. -
memory and disc IO will be more use than a few percentage points of CPU -
except during startup, but startup won't happen very often will it? May be
once every 2 - 3 months... You say you will be running SATA, will that be
Raptor drives?

Yes to most apps suggested, and as this is a dev box it willl be doing proceses,
not serving users. The server OS is only to be able to install the necessary
apps. At my client sites they all have dual processor systems that I have
little input into their config.

My current HDD is a single 120mb Seagate SATA, I'm not sure of the model. I
don't have any plans to upgreade to a RAID config, I don't have the time to
learn that. Most of my clients have IT staff and I can't usurp their hdware
tasks and their ineptness at recovering a RAID, recently I learned that they
don't know what they are doing.


Grunt is useful on the desktop where you do the development work. EG a
compile / test cycle is a lot more joy on a 3GHz machine than an 800 (last
system), but my dual CPU PII 400 is still adequate for my server (it runs
all the above except HIS under Windows 2003 server) - it is getting
retrenched soon tho...

I think that we're saying the same thing here, dual is the way to go, but I just
really need to have an improvement in performance, stability is a priority and
if I can get it for under $600, I'm statisfied.


The way I justify (very easily usually) h.w upgrades here is to simply do
some timings, multiply things out and work out the saved time Per Annum then
multiply that by the charge out rate = budget for upgrade != dual opteron
yet.

I have a different system, it's called the gut feeling. My clients are like
little money trees, that I can prune but not cut. I haven't been able to do
much better than 65% billing hrs to actual worked. I think that's the nature of
development, you have to put in the unbillable time figure out how to do
something; I find it difficult to bill for my self education process. If I feel
that I've achieved my bang for buck that's what's most important. My better
feeling allows me the peace of mind to get my billable work done.


Regards,
Tim


Cheers, JeffP....







"JeffP" wrote in message
om...
Is there a guide for overclocking this mb with the AMD 2800+

I'm seeing native 2079mhz, and I was expecting about 2100mhz.

Is there a reliable settings guide to a slight tweak in speed.

I have two sticks of 512mb RAM in Dual mode and I'm using a SATA HDD.

This system is going to be a development server running a MS Server 2000
OS,
which may be upgraded to 2003 Advanced if our MSDN pkg comes through.

I'm too cheap to get a dual processor mb and I'd like as much performance
as I
can get out'a this system.

TIA

JeffP....

Just go back and buy the 3200 and be done. Thats hoe you solve the
overclocking problem.

"JeffP" wrote in message
om...
Is there a guide for overclocking this mb with the AMD 2800+

I'm seeing native 2079mhz, and I was expecting about 2100mhz.

Is there a reliable settings guide to a slight tweak in speed.

I have two sticks of 512mb RAM in Dual mode and I'm using a SATA HDD.

This system is going to be a development server running a MS Server 2000
OS,
which may be upgraded to 2003 Advanced if our MSDN pkg comes through.

I'm too cheap to get a dual processor mb and I'd like as much performance
as I
can get out'a this system.

TIA

JeffP....

"JeffP" wrote in message
om...
Is there a guide for overclocking this mb with the AMD 2800+

I bought a Mobile Barton 2400+ and have it oc'd to the equivalent of a
3200+. Even so, I discovered that this m/board is not an ideal overclocking
board primarily due to the limited core voltage selection.

There's nothing special about this board that would require a specific
overclocking guide. You can ramp up your FSB and/or multiplier, then
compensate by increasing your memory and/or cpu voltage. Cooling is another
consideration as an oc'd chip system will produce more heat. If it works it
works, if it doesn't then try different combinations of settings.

This said, if this is for a server then I'm with the guy who advised
stability over "grunt". An increase of 15% cpu power will translate to maybe
3 overall system power... which will hardly be noticeble.