Un-overclockable?

jc94062

I only seem able to overclock my system by about 40mhz which seems a little odd.

I'm running a DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D with a Venice3200+.
I can't up the multiplier more than 10x (gives me options from Auto -> 4 -> 10 and auto seems to be 10) and if I stick the FSB up more than 205 (200 being the lowest) it can't even boot up windows.

It seems odd to note have the options, and with a CPU temp of 25-26C idle (33C under load of virus scan, windowz updates, media player mp3 playing, and 7 firefox tabs over 3 windows) I'm not sure what could be stopping it.

The chipset seems to live at 42-43C whatever I'm doing (hoping to squeeze a zalman northbridge on there) and I have a Tagan silent PSU (which is half dead within 2 days of installing it sounding like a jet turbine), not sure if that could cause this, just seems odd that I haven't even got an option to increase the mutliplier to even 11x.

feylya

There is or was a problem with nForce 4 chipsets not being overclockable with certain chips. I have a 3000+ Winchester on a Gigabyte nF4 Ultra board and I can't get it above 2100MHz. Have a google for the problem and also for my thread about overclocking Gigabyte boards.

airetam_storm

What RAM?

jc94062

Just standard DDR3200

WizZard

airetam_storm wrote:

What RAM?

This is the most important question!

Are you running your RAM on a divider when you try to OC the CPU - you should be!
Try to aim to keep the RAM @ 200Mhz whilst OCing the CPU.

WizZard

jc94062 wrote:

Just standard DDR3200

Make, model, timings???? You need to know these before you can properly overclock on DFI board.

jc94062

Not really sure, I know the ram isn't the fastest around but didn't think it'd have much of an affect on trying to oc by .2-.3ghz

Kinda a newbie to overclocking, seeing as I used to underclock a board using jumpers to cool it down.

Its Corsair RAM, I think its frequency is 200mhz from CPU-Z

WizZard

There should be a sticker on it somewhere. What does that say?

airetam_storm

WizZard wrote:

Make, model, timings???? You need to know these before you can properly overclock on DFI board.

Even the cheapest of RAM should do 300-400mhz shouldnt it?

jc94062

It says Corsair Value Select, but thats about it, the rest if long serial numbered stuff

[Edit]
Checked the BIOS again and on the seeing I think can alter the RAM speed its only got opens 100-200 and Auto :-(


I looked around on google some more (did try there first as well without luck) and there were some issue things mentioned, but that was all todo with stopping\slowing overclocks from 3.0ghz down to 2.7ghz and things, far beyond what I'm even considering.

Its like someones flicked a "do not allow overclocking" switch

WizZard

airetam_storm wrote:

Even the cheapest of RAM should do 300-400mhz shouldnt it?

Umm, no. I have OCZ PC5000 and it can only get to DDR625 (312Mhz FSB) max flat out.
Which reminds me - I must update my sig.

airetam_storm

jc94062 wrote:

[Edit]
Checked the BIOS again and on the seeing I think can alter the RAM speed its only got opens 100-200 and Auto :-(

Should bring up 133/166/200
What bios have you got?

\edit\I wouldnt expect much from corsair VS but OCZ stuff is munt to be some a the best stuff on the market :eek:

jc94062

Its NVIDIA RAID IDE ROM BIOS 4.78

I get options 100, 120, 133, 140, 150, 166, 190, 200 and Auto.

I guess I should be grateful it works, although the real test will be putting on a new northbridge and PSU come Thursday lol

airetam_storm

Well if your getting that little now i'd doubt a new northbridge cooler will do anything for you

Any othr specs?

jc94062

Just fairly sure it shouldn't be running that warm, but not really related I guess.

Can't really think of anything else thats relevant, couple of maxtor 80gb's on RAID0, NEC DVDRW, Zalman CPU cooler (CNPS7000 I believe), Radeon X600 (128mb), s'bout it

airetam_storm

WizZard wrote:

Umm, no. I have OCZ PC5000 and it can only get to DDR625 (312Mhz FSB) max flat out.
Which reminds me - I must update my sig.

Jeez just saw that now :rolleyes:
Is it defective or something?

unkel

airetam_storm wrote:

Even the cheapest of RAM should do 300-400mhz shouldnt it?

If you mean 300-400mhz overclock, not a chance. Even when you up the vdimm it probably won't work and you'll more than likely damage your cheapsh!te ram

WizZard

airetam_storm wrote:

Jeez just saw that now :rolleyes:
Is it defective or something?

Dude, that's the highest that any RAM can do. Maybe you meant 30-40Mhz overclock???

DDR625 is widely regarded as being the limit for current DDR RAM. OCZ have even stoppped making my RAM since they can't find enough RAM chips of good enough quality to do those speeds!

gline

put mem speed down to 166 and try and overclock it and see what you get. Though it sounds like something else is stopping it from Oc'ing here

astrofool

He needs the latest bios anyway, latest raid rom is 4.81

He will probably have to underclock his ram to be able to overclock with that corsair vs.

Also, are the pci speeds locked? Athlon 64's cannot have their multiplier increased, only decreased.

po0k

astro - where might one download the bleeding-fuzzy-teddy-edge of DFI firmware releases?
Is there an FTP server somewhere with nice tidy little .zip files chock full of .bin and readme.txt goodness?

astrofool

www.dfi.com.tw ?

www.dfi-street.com has a few beta bios' as well

WizZard

Techpowerup

jc94062

Managed to get it up to 2.1ghz now (210fsb) in the bios (4.81) without any errors.
It hit 2.15 at one stage but then went back to its freezing and rebooting on startup to put it down again.

airetam_storm

WizZard wrote:

DDR625 is widely regarded as being the limit for current DDR RAM. OCZ have even stoppped making my RAM since they can't find enough RAM chips of good enough quality to do those speeds!

Does DDR2 start at PC5300 or somesuch?

dubdvd

airetam_storm wrote:

Does DDR2 start at PC5300 or somesuch?

but thats ddr2 which has much higher timings ..the likes of ddr2 running at the same clock speed as the OCZ has timings of 4-4-4-12 and runs @1.9volts and is 240 pins and not 184 pins ..plus it wont fit into any normal ddr slots and at the monet till the 3rd Q of this year isnt compatible with nvidia based motherboard chipsets ..but as i said ddr2 is going to be in some nivida ATI based chipsets such as the new crossfire chipsets ...its all ram but you might aswell be taking about RD rambus memory and EDO memory totally different ...the stuff wiz has is the stuff that overclockers pawn their grannys for

airetam_storm

dubdvd wrote:

but thats ddr2 which has much higher timings

Aye i'm not that bad!

dubdvd wrote:

the stuff wiz has is the stuff that overclockers pawn their grannys for

Two diff thoughts, one is mind-scaring!!

DemonOfTheFall

All you need to do is set that ram speed down to 166 or 133. Then overclock away.

All this talk of having to have expensive ram and good northbridge cooling is a load of cack. Just set the ram divider and you should be fine.

DemonOfTheFall

DDR2 starts at PC-3200