The new ones

[skool h8r]

Hi all.
Well, Wan and Too arrived this morning. Yeah, my X2 arrived. Now, i have to say Wow just to start with. First thing i did after installation: Cellfactor. Now, after i'd disabled cloth effects, i can ramp everything up to almost max and really mess around with the physics. It is awesome. That was at stock. Then i decided it was time to start ramping up the OC. so, i tried out 250x12 to try and get the big 3.0. All i got was memory error (beeping at POST). It turns out it doesn't like dual-channel too much when i have maxed out multi and clock speed. And then it seemed to not like dual-channel, even at stock. So, i decided it wasn't worth the hassle and went single channel. Not too bad i suppose. Then i started to ramp up the clock. I've managed 233/12 which is roughly 2.8Ghz. That's on stock voltage! I haven't gone any higher yet. I'm gonna make a break for 3Ghz in a bit and see if i can manage it. If i can get 250 memory divider, then i've got then almost at the same sort of performance level as i would have with dual-channel. But i can't believe the speed! Admittedly, it's not as fast as i expected but it's so much faster. I can almost hear all the Windows startup tune (driver based auto config audio) whereas before, there was no chance. I can start almost any program as soon as it's icon is visible on the desktop. I can defrag while browsing the net. It's just insane.

I've currently got PowerNow! running as well and apparently, there's only 1.1v going to the CPU for most of the time (apart from when i start to do something CPU intensive). And here's the best part, the temperature is only 30C (Speedfan)! Sometimes it hits 34 during basic web browsing and such but wow, how cool can it go! It's a LCBIE stepping. I'm not sure how good it is compared to the others but these sort of clocks at stock volts and still this cool (only gets to about 38C idle (as in basic web browsing) without PowerNow!)) is absolutely amazing! I was hoping for dual-channel but it's not too much of a problem. I'd rather have such an awesome, stable overclock and single-channel as opposed to dual-channel and an unstable, crappy overclock. I'll get back to finishing off my OC and then off to finish my comparison!

[cadaveca]

Nice to see you got a decent cpu! #ghz is aftermarket cooling and a bit more voltage away, if you ever really need it!

Also feel good in your purchase. Core2 only beats out X2 by about 1/2% @ same clockspeeds, by my own testing. Core2 jsut goes higher, is all.

[skool h8r]

Well, i can not get that big 3.0Ghz. It is impossible without busting my CPU with too much voltage. ATM, i've got 2.95Ghz with a 0.15V increase. It's a little high for my liking though (1.55V roughly) although when i enable the portable/laptop setting in Power Settings, it ramps it down to about 1.30V. I've got 2 CPU-Z's, one of the stable 2.8 and one of the "to be tested" 2.95:

To be tested: http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=155123
Stable: http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=155074

I am very happy with 2.8 stable without an increase in voltage. 3.0 would be better, kinda like the final frontier for X2's i guess. I think i'll get back to my safe zone, maybe just give that 2.8 another 0.05V to keep it stable.

Also, i've finished my comparison between my 3200+ and this X2 4600+. There's only about 4% difference in my testing (3 x HL2 custom timedemos, 3DMark05 CPU Score, Super PI 1M and Aquamark 3 CPU Score (although my total score in Aquamark did increase by about 10k!)).

Plus, 2.8 is twice as fast as my dad's Duron and with double the cores + god knows how much more cache, it's like 100x faster . And The 3200+ is now in retirement.

[skool h8r]

Whoa yeah! I managed it! 3.0Ghz on air! This chip is clocking amazingly! I have had to give it +0.15V to get there but i'm slowly gonna try and reduce that. But yeah, CPU-Z validated 4600+ X2 939 @ 3Ghz:

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=155365

This is going straight to AMDGeeks. It's a 25% OC! And at 38°C idle (40°C max idle) it's not doing too bad! Even better, i can get it down to 29°C with PowerNow! enabled! It's just the voltage that needs lowering a bit 'cos 1.57V can't be too healthy (Which is why PowerNow! is enabled duing idle sessions).

[cadaveca]

jsut try to keep temps under 50c, and all's well.

[Favu]

Seems like you have an awesome chip there, Skool! Just out of curiosity, what is the maximum Vcore a 939 X2 can handle under air?

[skool h8r]

Originally Posted by Favu

Seems like you have an awesome chip there, Skool! Just out of curiosity, what is the maximum Vcore a 939 X2 can handle under air?

Well generally, 1.6V is the max. But i prefer to be under 1.55V. Generally, i can get about 1.52V or 1.53V. I am gonna be going for that and if it's possible...well, i think i've said enough. I'm gonna submit to AMDGeeks now since i have a SuperPI Mod screenshot and a CPU-Z validation.

[MONKEYMAN]

You wanna try getting your RAM timings down, as you are running the RAM at 200MHz try 2-3-3-11 at 1T.

[skool h8r]

The best i can do with timings is 2.5-3-2-8-2T. 1T isn't usabale at all. I can get 2.5-3-2-7-2T but it doesn't seem stable and Windows is a bit slow at startup. I haven't even tried getting that 7 down to a 6 or 5 but i may try it if i think it's worth it. I'm gonna try 2.5-3-2-9-2T and see if i can speed things up a little bit. I need to update my sig since that 3Ghz isn't stable but 2.9 is.

[MONKEYMAN]

so what speed is your memory running at then? you RAM is meant to be able to run at CL2 at 200MHz(DDR400).

[skool h8r]

Originally Posted by MONKEYMAN

so what speed is your memory running at then? you RAM is meant to be able to run at CL2 at 200MHz(DDR400).

Actually, it's not. It's meant to run at CL2 @ 133Mhz, CL2.5 @ 166Mhz and CL3 at 200Mhz. ATM, it's running at 194Mhz . I'm planning on trying to increase it but it means setting the divider from DDR233 to DDR400 which might not even POST.

[MONKEYMAN]

The 3200c2pt is meant to run CL2, I'm sure of it.

http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/xms.html

[skool h8r]

Ok, now i've got 3-3-3-7-2T 242Mhz. It seems very stable. In everest, it's showing up as the third best in latency, and about 10th in both read and write. The HT link is at 5x which makes 1211Mhz! The CPU is at 2.9Ghz (242*12) and the most voltage the CPU gets is 1.53 while the temperature rests idle at about 39°C although when i enable PowerNow! that drops to roughly 34°C (sometimes lower) and voltage goes to about 1.27. Looks like these Toledo LCBIE's are great overclockers. I think i'm happy with the OC i have now. Considering it's running so fast, there's no need to go any faster.

[Samuknow]

Now leave it alone and let it fold for crying out loud...


great OC there...

[skool h8r]

Originally Posted by Samuknow

Now leave it alone and let it fold for crying out loud...


great OC there...

Oh fear not, tis folding on one core (i've set affinity to one core so that the CPU doesn't get too hot). I think i'm gonna end up investing in a new cooler soon anyway since it's sometimes getting to 54C under full load (F@H at full with affintiy on both cores). Either that or i can lower the HTT multi to 3.

[MONKEYMAN]

lowering the HTT multi to 4 might be a good idea anyhow, lowering it to 3 won't achieve anything unless you want are going for a monstrously huge overclock.

Also if you must use CL3 then try 3-3-3-10, sometimes find it works well , the last number lower isnt always faster.

[skool h8r]

Well whatta ya know, it worked. Setting it to 10 has made things about 50% faster! I've now decided to go down to 234x12 due to the current heat issues. Perhaps the AS5 is still baking. I'm considering reapplying it though. Would i be better placing AS5 just where the cores are placed, or covering the whole IHS? Also, is AS5 supposed to be quite tough to spread or has it just "gone off"?

[skool h8r]

Well, i have got my temps way down now. I've set a CPU voltage of -0.05. At almost idle (just MSIE and WMP usage) with PowerNow!, i get temps of about 28°C, sometimes down to 26°C! At F@H 100% Usage and affinity on both cores, temps are staying at about 42°C, sometimes 45°C, but i've not seen it go higher. And it's still at 2.8Ghz. It shows how much voltage the CPU doesn't need. I don't think there's much more tweaking i can do. TBH, it seems to be the perfect balance of speed and heat management. OMG! F@H has just got rid of my 1500 frame WU and replaced it with a 20000 WU! I hadn't even completed that WU though! If that isn't gonna count then i'm not gonna fold. WTF is that all about?!

[Favu]

I do believe that if you are generating errors while folding F@H will dump the WU and go forth to get another one