Overclocking help

[Lethality]

Hello,

I'm having some trouble with my system, its unstable and I think the memory timings are bad. I cant say I'm very experienced when it comes to clocking so maybe you guys could help me out with this ?

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Before I continue, this is what I put in the box:

Motherboard: Abit AN7 (nForce2 Ultra 400)

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (AGP)

RAM: 2x Corsair VS512MB400 (DDR SRAM 512MB) PC3200

GPU: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
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And BIOS with settings
BIOS: Phoenix AwardBIOS v6.00PG

CPU: 11x200 2.21GHz
RAM: 2.5-3-3-8 200MHz
GPU: 378MHz GPUMemory: 338MHz
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Temps and Voltage

CPU: ~38C ~102F Core: 1.58V
GPU: - - (I assume the temperature is similar to pwm and cpu)
PWM: ~37C ~99F
Motherb.: ~38C ~100F
HD: ~42C ~108F

RAM: - - DIMM: 2.73V DIMM VTT: 1.43V
AGP VDDQ: 1.60V
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So what I am aiming for is basically a somewhat high performance system that is still stable enough for me to work on.
Right now its a *****, I'm playing both Oblivion and X3 Reunion, both games take their pants of and flash their BSOD at me at a regular basis.
X3 reunion is scary, I can play for about 15 minutes before the computer crashes and reboots.
Everything runs fine in Linux though, no crashes there. I only experience this when playing games =/.

Thanks in advance, and if you need additional info just let me know.

[davidhammock200]

Need to get it stable at stock speed first. 8hrs+ of memtest & 8hrs+ of Prime95.

Good Luck,
Dave

[davidk21770]

Start at stock speeds (as davidhammock200 said).
Run memtest86+ overnight. If you have any errors at all, you have memory problems and need to resolve them. (Try one stick at a time, try differnt slots, RMA...).
If you pass, then run prime95 in torture test, custom, 2/3 of your memory.
EDIT: see http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16445 for how to set this up for dual core. Single core is the same except you only run one copy and all your memory goes to one copy.
If it runs for 8 hours (it'll run until it finds a problem or you stop it), then suspect your video card. Get 3dmark03, 05, and 06. I find that 03 is the toughest on my video card. When I'm OCing it and trying to find the max stable points, it'll often pass 05 and 06, but fail 03. If it fails, then your video card or video drivers have a problem. I'd start by booting to safe mode, uninstalling your video drivers and running a driver cleaner. Then booting back to safe mode and reinstalling your drivers; then one more reboot to safe mode for you drivers to sense your video card.
I'm guessing that if Linux is having no problems, it's video or driver related
If you've been BSODing, you may have corrupted your windows install...

[Mr.Scott]

CPU: ~38C ~102F Core: 1.58V

Stock vcore is 1.65v. Start with that.

[Lethality]

Thanks for the replies. I'll try this tonight. The BSOD's might be windows, but I recently reinstalled it (3 days ago) with the slipstreamed sp2. Is there a way to check for corrupt windows files?

[devilsgamer]

Hi, this has been a great help, but I have one final question. Once cpu ocing is complete and you have overclocked your memory do you restore cpu oc frequences. I ask because once Cpu ocing is complete you are always told to futher return to the HTT bus and lower it as you did when you first began ocing the cpu, so you can find the max for your memory. Inturn since i lowered it a gain to finf my mak mem frequency do I rais it back up to the new oc value I gained before i began ocing the memory. If so wont it then raise the memory frequency from what I have already found to be its hightest, and if not what happens to my cpu... I would have oced it just to lower it.

Thanks to all those who can answer this question, so to send me on my overclocking way.

System

Asus a8n32 sli deluxe mobo
Amd X2 4800
ULtra 550 Watt psu
Evga7600 gt in sli
currently air cooled (stock) LCS in the mail
Corsair TWINX1024-3500LLPRO 1GB Kit DDR433

[davidk21770]

Generally, a memory divider does not slow an A64 by that much (a few percent). But what you want to do is to find the best OC for your CPU and your best OC for you memory separately. Then, choose the best combination -- usually one that puts your CPU at it's max, and your memory at 1:1 or a minimal divider. Then test the combination. You may need to back off a little (a couple MHz HTT).