Hey guys, I built a computer a couple-few years ago and we had gotten a great heatsink for it and everything because we saw people were using that same heatsink to overclock this Athlon XP 2800+ to something above 3ghz.

Now what im wondering is whats actually involved. Ive read up on some things and I saw in my bios that i could set timings as "aggressive" but im not seeing anything where I can see my actual CPU speed (like 2.8ghz) and set it higher.

Also what should I look out for, I havea case that has a piece that goes under the cpu to monitor the temperature, how do I know whats a good temperature range to stay in when overclocking.

Also if overclocking is locked how do I unlock it? All my computer specs are in my signature, if you have anymore information id really appreciate it, thanks =)

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

First off AMD Performance rate their CPU's, therefore it is not 2800mhz, actually around 2000mhz, depending on the type of CPU.

You have providied no information at all about the manufacturer/type:

Motherboard
CPU
Memory

Therefore it may be of benefit to GOOGLE for a good read on Overclocking.........

"You have providied no information at all about the manufacturer/type:

Motherboard
CPU
Memory"

"ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?"

I do not know what 2800+ you have, i.e t-bred 2.25Ghz 256k L2 cache(166x13.5) or barton 512k L2 cache(166x12.5). First of all I would download cpu-z to see which CPU you have.

For example

CPU External Frequency = 200Mhz
CPU multiplier = 11/11.5/12/12.5x
CPU:RAM = 1:1
CPU vcore voltage = 1.7v or 1.75v

Finally I would try to keep your CPU full load temperature below 65C.

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE PAT
P4 506 @ 4009Mhz 1.3625v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 1700RPM 92MM + AS5
2GB OCZ 2-3-2-5 DDR400
120GB/300GB 7200RPM HD
Leadtek 7600 AGP 590/1600 VF700 ALCU AS5

Question..

Im seeing all these things about some Barton's having 400fsb (I have a barton) but when you go into your bios its always at 166 or 200, but when I use the program you told me about it displays the 200mhz i set it at but under it it says "Rated FSB" at 400mhz, is that the 'official' FSB? Whats the difference between that and the 200 i chose as the external speed in my bios?

So far 200mhz x 11.0
Download Mother Board Monitor 5 to make sure i dont exceed 60C

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

hehe.. you are not the first one to get confused over this. Thats the whole funda with the 'core speed' and 'FSB'

For the Athlons, the FSB = 2 x core speed.
In your case, 2 x 200MHz = 400 FSB

CPU speed = core speed x multiplier ;

hence, you have 200MHz x 11 = 2200MHz or 2.2GHz as your CPU speed.

Strictly speaking you must say '200 Mega Hertz' and '400 FSB'; but no one does that. 400MHz is only for the RAM, for rest of the circuits, the 'speed' that is used to multiply or divide is 200MHz.

Hope its clear now :)

Kailas Shastry

3000+ Venice, A8N-E, 768MB DDR266, 160GB Barracuda, 380W Cooler Master

It's similar to DDR400 where the actual frequency is 200Mhz, but given it is double date rate so it is 400Mhz effective (200x2). If you have a barton, then I would try to use 11.5x or 12x multiplier to see if you can push it further.

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE PAT
P4 506 @ 4009Mhz 1.3625v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 1700RPM 92MM + AS5
2GB OCZ 2-3-2-5 DDR400
120GB/300GB 7200RPM HD
Leadtek 7600 AGP 590/1600 VF700 ALCU AS5

http://www.compunamics.com/overcloc...

Lots of great information guys, so far its 200 x 11.5 so CPU-z is reading 2305.5 MHz. Gonna monitor temperature and push it a little more if i can =)

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

3.0GHz for any Athlon XP is impossible without extreme cooling. And by that, I don't mean a "great heatsink".

If your CPU multiplier is 11.5x, you don't have a 2800+, you have a 2600+. Probably the best you can hope for with DDR400 RAM will be roughly 2.5GHz (@ approx 220MHz). Keep the RAM setting at 100% so that it overclocks along with the FSB. Make sure to lock the AGP at 66MHz & disable all Spread Spectrum settings. Add another 0.10v to the RAM & experiment with the RAM timings. Timings of 2.5-3-3-11 are optimal for the nForce2 chipset, but you may need to relax them to 3-4-4-11 to allow for a slighly higher overclock. Increase the CPU voltage as necessary to keep the system stable & keep a close eye on your CPU temp.

This chip is 2800+, I have it at 200mhz x 11.5 (it was default at 166 x 13.5) and when i mean 3Ghz overclock capability im talking about like a AMD Athlon XP 3000 (because I think AMD is a little different, so from what I hear 2800 is like 2.8ghz in an intel pentium processor, is that right?)

Anyway right now the timings look something like 7 3 3 11 if i remember correctly i didnt know what to do with that.

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

"This chip is 2800+, I have it at 200mhz x 11.5 (it was default at 166 x 13.5)"

Then you don't have a Barton...you have a Tbred. The 2800+ Barton runs at 2083MHz (12.5 x 166MHz)...the 2800+ Tbred runs at 2250MHz (13.5 x 166MHz). The Barton gets the same 2800+ rating even though it's clocked at 167MHz less because it has double the L2 cache. CPUZ should tell you exactly what core you have & how much L2 cache.

I'm very surprised that you have a 2800+ with an unlocked multiplier.

As for the comment about the "aggressive" setting, don't use it...set it to "user defined"

166 x 13.5 was my error.

Its a 166 x 12.5. I was mixed up sorry, Im sure of it at this point. (I remember checking through CPU-z and through bios but since overclocking ive seen so many different numbers ive forgotten)

I went to 200 x a # because the highest I could find for 166 x a multipler was something like 14x and all the other numbers were weird like 7x/17x, what does that mean?

So I jumped up to 200 to kinda take a shortcut and just used smaller multipliers.

I think certain things are locked, i cant really mess with memory only setting it to auto or SPD.

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

"166 x 13.5 was my error"

OK, then you probably do have a Barton. I'm still surprised that the multiplier is unlocked though. It must be a very early model because all Bartons manufacturered after roughly the the 40th week of production were "super locked". In other words, the multiplier was locked & there was no way to unlock it.

"I think certain things are locked, i cant really mess with memory only setting it to auto or SPD"

You have to change the System Performance setting to USER DEFINED...that will unlock the rest of the overclock options. And the CPU setting should be set to Optimal, NOT Aggressive.

Yup youre right hehe, I had just looked and set both CPU and Memory to User Defined.

Im at 200 x 11.5

and under memory its default settings something like

8
3
3
3T

Not sure what to do with that yet..

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

One problem im facing is if i move it up to 200 x 12 then the computer starts booting up but stops and restarts before Windows logo, I tried moving up the CPU Vcore voltage to 7.75, no luck. Is this my limit?

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

Ok it seems like User Defined unlocked more core speeds.

So now i have it set at 203 x 11.5. Anything higher than that the computer restarts, should I try raising vcore from 7.5 to 7.75?

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

You should strive for the highest stable FSB & the RAM should run at the same speed. For example, 10 x 220MHz is faster than 11 x 200MHz, even though both will run the CPU at 2.2GHz.

The RAM Frequency should be set at 100%...NOT auto or SPD. And I already provided the optimal memory timings. Yours are currently 3-3-3-8. The important thing is to change the 8 to 11.

Three RAM timings from best to worst:

2.5-3-3-11
3-3-3-11
3-4-4-11

Ram timings have been corrected and im going to try higher FSB at lower multiples. thanks =)

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

k so im at 2315 MHz
220 x 10.5

Ran Prime95.. got..

FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.4999961853, expected less than 0.4

Should I worry?

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?

FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.4999961853, expected less than 0.4

Should I worry?

Yes.

p95 is a stress test and this does not necessarily mean your Windows or programs wont run, but it shows that the system is not stable when stressed. When overcloking, you have ensure that it is stable in all usage scenarios, including full load.

Lower your FSB a bit and try again.

Kailas Shastry

3000+ Venice, A8N-E, 768MB DDR266, 160GB Barracuda, 380W Cooler Master

Im running Prime95 right now after lowering the FSB speed and it seems like i was able to pass the test without getting an error like i did before, of course its still running but it didnt stop so i guess that was it =) thanks everyone

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1gb DDR400 Ram.
Geforce 6800 LE overclocked.
400-450W Power Supply?