My new rig.. thoughts and suggestions?

[risc]

I just finished building my rig last night and am in the process of testing and overclocking.. so far, I'm going slowly so that I dont screw up anything. Here is where I am so far:

215 x 8 @ 1.65 vcore and stock vdimm
ram timings are 2.5-3-3-11
temps are 36-38 idle and I dunno load yet.

this setup passes memtest86 numerous times without error. i also put the multiplier low so that I could test memory first...

well, I plan on slowly upping the fsb, then the vdimm till my memory cant do anything more. I dont think it's a good idea for me to try CL2 or tighter timings because im afraid lol.

once memory is maxed, i'll up the multiplier to find the max my cpu can do...

ok, so is there anything I should do? or do different? such as ram timings, safe vcores and vdimms? and how do i find out what my load temp is? i heard cpu-z can output temps to a txt file or something...

any help is appreciated. thanks

[lonewolfroger]

Well, I would find out how high I could go with the multiplier first and then find the best settings for the memory.

[lightbulb8817]

Originally posted by lonewolfroger
Well, I would find out how high I could go with the multiplier first and then find the best settings for the memory.

Don't you mean FSB?

[lonewolfroger]

Originally posted by lightbulb8817
Don't you mean FSB?

It sounded to me like he had already got as high as he could with his fsb(215).

[speedyaxon]

i've always found it better to keep lower timings(2-2-2-5) than raise then to 2.5-3-3-x and have a higher fsb....the raised timings just raise the inefficiencies and waste any gained bandwidth. Try 2-3-3-11 or lower, even, and go from there. Otherwise, your plan sounds good.

[risc]

here's my revised plan: i'll raise the max fsb with 2.5-3-3-11 and then find the highest clock my cpu can go. I'll test with 3dmark01, 03, etc. Then I'll lower the timings as much as I can with the highest fsb and highest cpu clock. Then i'll retest with benchmarks to see which is better... unless you already did this and know that lower timings is always better?

By the way, which benchmarks should I use besides the 3dmarks?

[speedyaxon]

superpi, pcmark, aquamark, sisoft sandra for sure...

[WildWeasel]

is there a reason your last latency is so high? even in my Dell, it's 8 clocks, and i think 6-8 is the norm. am i on crack (about this, at least)?

[speedyaxon]

on nforce2 motherboards, it's been shown that 11 gives the best performance...

[KaoTiK]

Definately do SuperPI 1M tests, I love those. Report back with results ASAP! My record is 42s.

[OS-Wiz]

Originally posted by speedyaxon
on nforce2 motherboards, it's been shown that 11 gives the best performance...

Please don't take offense, but huh??? Please explain. I musta missed this piece of info somewhere. Got a link or ref?

[lonewolfroger]

Originally posted by KaoTiK
Definately do SuperPI 1M tests, I love those. Report back with results ASAP! My record is 42s.

Got me by one second. but yes super pi is a quick way to find out if you have over clocked it too for, then if it makes it through super pi, then loop 3D Mark.

[speedyaxon]

Originally posted by OS-Wiz
Please don't take offense, but huh??? Please explain. I musta missed this piece of info somewhere. Got a link or ref?

kill me if you must, but i don't have links....talldude was the one that informed me, and i've heard it from a few others...

[risc]

Ok, so far I can get memory timings to 2-3-3-5 at stock vdimm... seems I cant do 2-2-2-5 no matter the vdimm. Should I leave it at 2-3-3-5 or go for 2-3-3-11?

Now I'm going for highest fsb it can go.

[speedyaxon]

you could try 2-2-3-5....try and see if there's a difference between 2-x-x-5 and 2-x-x-11 in benchmarks and stuff. Great job so far!