First off:
amd sempron 3400+ palermo core
asrock k8nf4g motherboard s754
1GB ddr400 ram stick
(yes i know everyone says asrock are crap) but thats got i've got and cant get any other mobo,
so please don't waste your typing skills and your energy by typing "just get a dfi mobo or the whatever lol)...

Right, hi all, i have tried overclocking with this setup the most stable i can get it is about 2400MHz, does anybody else have this setup or similar running at a higher speed, also i've heard that no 2 cpu's o'c the same which makes sense but i'd be interested to here if you have a 3400 sempron running faster.

core speed: 2400.0MHz
multiplier: x10
HTT: 240.0MHz

Voltage: fluctuating between 2.880 v - 2.994 v

cpu temp: 33 degrees centigrade

Even if i find that all im gunna get from this, an extra 400MHz is still good.

thats a pretty good overlclock and probably the highest that u will reach. u can try 2500 if u want but that will just require too much voltage.

oops sorry i forgot to mention that i have a 650w psu but have tried to oc to 2500,although windows xp will run no games or apps like fruityloops will run they just lock up.

ok since your using a ddr 400 stick, make sure its not that causing your issues, by using memtest.

you can also try going up 1 knotch on the ltd/chipset volts, and changing the ltd multiplyer to 3.

i've seen a sempron 2600+ 754 hit 3.0ghz with something like 1.8V, on water lol.

Are you sure about that? I haven't seen core voltages of nearly 3 volts since the Pentium 233... according to http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_ty...pec_Rev_ENG.pdf the standard core voltage is only 1.40v !

your absolutely right, but when i checked it yesterday evening thats what it said.




Edit: it seems to be that voltage on reboot is this good or bad?.

That kind of voltage is totally insane, your processor might die early.
I've got the same mobo as you, with a Sempron 2500+, & it overclocks from its native 1.4 GHz to my current 2.1 GHz, with no sweat at all (*touchwood*). This, with just a slight increase in voltage, from 1.40v to 1.440v.

Also my default operating temperature was 25C, now with the over-clock, the processor ran up to 31C.

yah I too thought that voltage was insane.

I dont even belive asrock boards will allow that type of voltage.

do you have other tools to confirm that its not just improperly read by the version of the program your using about?

What voltage does it say in the BIOS?

i think i've got it set at 1.30v or something like that it seems to settle down though i've just checked it and its now at 1.440v cpu temp 35 c case temp is 35 degrees centigrade.

@Gdogg: imu using cpuz v1.33.1, i've just checked cpuz website and its the latest version.cpuz validation

CPU-Z just shows double the voltage, that’s all .

Your RAM is the problem you can’t OC it more. There are BIOS-mods for this motherboard that gives you 2 fields of MEM settings more (timings) based on the 1.6 version of the BIOS. I never tried that motherboard with a 3400+ but if it supports C´n´Q then you should be able to set voltage setting to 1.6v then you could hit the 2700-2800MHz or even higher.

C 'n' Q whats that?

Bios Version:p1.70 award bios
the memory parameters that i have available to me in the bios are as follows:

MEM Clock --currently set to 133MHz - DDR266
Flexibility option
Bank interleaving
Burst length
CAS latency
TRCD
TRAS
TRP
MA Timing

what should these be set to or would it be best to leave them set at auto.

Cpu currently running at 2.440.0MHz

C'n'Q information.

Auto settings are just fine, let me download 1.70 and see what it does better then 1.60. I will tell you tomorrow .

ok thanks, C & Q is enabled btw

If C'n'Q is working you will be able to set the CPU voltage settings; can you do that? If you can´t set the voltage then your CPU is not C'n'Q compatible.

Let me download and update the BIOS now, give me a hour ...

Edit: looks like a better BIOS then 1.6, before I got it to 250MHz FSB, now to 266MHz. I use 2800+ CPUs @ 2127MHz and RAM on 425MHz (DDR, cas. 2.5, "brand" A-DATA).

Question: What kind of DIMM do you use? What do you run on that computer? Any games?

I don't know why M1CK calls Asrock "crap", the are a breakaway from ASUS and use the same
design staff.

If PRATHAPML uses one, they must be OK, he does a lot of research first.

I have used several 939's in the field and have never had a problem.

Yup, ASRock is ASUS in many ways . D*mn good products, only the first P4 motherboards they had were a bit picky on RAM and Harddrives...

EDIT: PRATHAPML uses it b/c it cheap and runs a few games too .

There is also a rev 2.0 of this mobo... "Windows Vista™ Hardware Ready" added

i was actually making a joke i dont think asrock boards are crap but it there are net a lot of ppl on the net who seem to think they are cheap and cheerful *crap*, i personally am on my 2nd asrock board and i love em because from my experience the are very reliable and also very cheap to buy. Just wanted to make that clear

edit :also just in case its important, mine is a socket 754

i have 1gb ddr400 ram but i dont know what make it is (cas 2.5 (-=Bios the black arts=-)), i run battlefield 2(which runs gr8 albeit on low settings) half life 2( on board gfx cant handle it), gta sa
call of duty 2 however does run pretty good also

also fl studio 6 demo seems to be good seeing just how stable my system is after overclock change or speed update.


oops sorry about that....should of made this all 1 post

if you could get RAM that supports 488MHz DDR then your video performance would be better. HL2 runs great indeed on this onboard video .

Just used neweg.com again : http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....SubCategory=147

wow!, i always thought onboard gfx was a bit limiting but i learn something new everyday, i have decided to get a Sapphire Radeon X850 XT 256M GDDR3 PCI-E VGA which will hopefully do a good job fingers x'ed as its getting harder and harder to justify the cost of all this to my wife.

pci-e vga card

Nice card indeed for the price. Always better then the onboard VGA. Why did you buy the motherboard you have now? For over clocking a NV8 from ABIT would be a nice choice. On all CPU´s I got 300MHz HTT with 1.5/1.6volts for the CPU and that with a “room” temperature of 25-28oC .

well it was a bundle off ebay which worked out cheaper, overclocking hadn't even entered my mind until i got this board who knows next time i might look into it more.

For more information you could look here. I´m sure you will like it .

great link thanks for that.
i have just been reading i think on about page 3 approx.
Where they're discussing the onboard gfx and it got me thinking to try hl2 again when i loaded it up everything was set to high, so i set all gfx settings to low and to cut a long story short worked my way through the settings.
i am now playing hl2 again but on all high settings albeit with an 800x600 resolution but wow! this motherboard never fails to amaze me. theres also no stuttering anymore and i get an average fps of about 40 which makes this game very playable indeed, now.....wheres my far cry dvd

thanks again matey its very much appreciated

Far Cry runs great, also DOOM 4 en Quake 3 at 800*600 / 1024*768. HL2 runs here at 1024*768 at high settings.

The link I gave you get´s more interesting when it comes to voltmod that motherboard to get 1.55v, you only have to make one bridge with a "conductive-inkt"-pen. . With 1.55v I bet you will get a 200/300MHz more out of your CPU.

i will read further also half life 2 substance runs great too but that conductive pen job sounds very very interesting.

"Soundblaster Live 5.1 for game/midi port only"

What the...

Why would you do that? The onboard sound isn´t half as good as your old SB Live! 5.1 .

because i use the audigy 2 (also has no midi port) for sound which has a much lower latency than a soundblaster 5.1 because it can use asio drivers. and this motherboard has no midi/game port which i need.

Phew, I thought some thing else .

lol, i was looking at that pen technique for the extra voltage, but 20 quid! for a pen i have to come up with another way maybe.

also do you think it would work if i flash my bios from p1.70 to a modded bios, im really curious but this i downloaded it from overclockers.com but havn't plucked up the courage to try it.

modded bios...

never herd of this can you expand on it

i wouldnt use it unless uve read alot of reviews from other people about it.

ok thanks

@POW go here to find out more

overclockers

very interesting personally im not very comfortable with this process so im not going to try it...

i've got to be honest im not either it just sounds a bit too risky

I used moded BIOSes before, for VGA and mobos. I will ensure you that many tests were done, it just to show hidden setting so they only edit the screen you see in your BIOS.

I know the pens are expensive, but as far as I know you can remove the lines so you will still have warranty, the cheap way is so solder a bridge on those 2 contacts.

I tried the modded bios but i get error 3 file not found or some such thing, maybe i need to try a different rewriteable cd or something as i have no floppy drive.

@ m1ck,

Any luck? If you need some help just ask me, PM me or what ever.

I have one more link:
http://www.ocinside.de/html/workshop/s754p...754_pinmod.html

Most people without the voltage MOD are getting the CPU up to 300MHz FSB, also clockGEN now has a new version and works with your mobo, try it out .

EDIT: If the link doesn´t work go here and look for the 754 pin MOD.