2.2Ghz to 2.3Ghz

[rcrevolution]

Hi again, I just recently over clocked my AMD 64 3400+ from 2210Mhz to 2309Mhz, the speed boost its very noticable everything runs alot quicker and loads quicker, now besides shortening the cpu life, am I at a high risk of frying something? I did not touch the voltage just overclocked the FSB frequency from 200 to 210 and the agp frequency from 66 to 68.

So am I ok? it doesnt seem like that great of an increase.

and are there any programs that let me test if 2309Mhz is stable for my cpu

[1o0oBhP]

im confused. I have had a look at an Athlon 64 3400 and it showed a base setting of 2.4 GHz? a LOT of retailers have been notorious for supplying the wrong AMD processor as they get mixed up with model codes, it might be worth checking out. you might have an Athlon 64 3200+ which has approximatly a 2.2 GHz base setting...

As far as clocking is concerned you need to specify what cooling and also other hardware such as the motherboard ect.. so that anyone can get a genereal idea of how far and how stable the system can be taken. Most AMDs are remarkably stable at higher clock speeds. You can buy an Athlon 64 2800+ and clock it to 2.4 GHz; with sufficient cooling you have an instant Athlon 64 3200 for Athlon 64 2800 money :) i couldnt say if the setting you said is stable or not, at a guess yes as its not much of an increase but at the end of the day it is your system and i dont want to give any false sense of security towards you frying anything!

[rcrevolution]

ok, first umm amd has two 3400+ models
one (mine) has a 1MB L2 Cache and 2.2Ghz
the other has a 512KB L2 Cache and 2.4Ghz

I brought my cpu back down to 2.2Ghz , unless someone can tell me if they are 100% sure I can run it safely then I won't overclock it, my temps did not go up they were at 42C

[Coconut Monkey]

Clawhammer: 2.2Ghz, 1Mb of L2 cache.
Newcastle: 2.4Ghz, 512Kb of L2 cache.

[1o0oBhP]

ah ha! i only found one architecture. If the temp didnt change much then it could be a safe bet. reducing it a few degrees would give you a safety margin though. What method did you use to cause the increase in the first place? im curious >> i havent seen the Claw Hammer 3400+ before! i know of the following close to 2.2 GHz:

Socket 754 Athlon 64 3400+ Newcastle (2.4 GHz, L1=128, L2=512)
Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester (2.2 GHz, L1=128, L2=512)
Socket 939 Athlon 64 FX 55 ClawHammer (2.4 GHz, L1=128, L2=1024)

[rcrevolution]

i have a LANPARTY motherbaord it has built in overclocking in its BIOS

[1o0oBhP]

ah yes ive seen those boards. It should be stable, if im correct i believe the LANPARTY has multiple bios profiles? if it does then at least you have stable settings to revert to should things start to get lairy. 2.2 -> 2.3 with a overclocking friendly motherboard seems ok to me, but in the end it is up to you. I havent much experience with Athlon 64 CPUs so im not positively sure about the higher end CPUs potential as most examples i have seen have been lower spec 64s tuned to higher spec, and only one example of a 64 3400+ (Newcastle) going up 3-4%...

[rcrevolution]

have the cpu running at 2288 which isnt much jump from the 2210 and I like the results im getting Ill just keep it at this speed.

[szukalski]

3400+'s come in two flavours, Clawhammer(2.2GHz, 1Mb L2) and Newcastle(2.4GHZ, 512Kb L2). I think there may be another Clawhammer variant but I'm not sure, they do come in two steppings though.
I have been overclocking my Newcastle 3400+ at ~2.6GHz (217x12) for weeks and it has tested in prime95 stable for hours. (and hours).
My main BIOS settings are as follows:
vCore = 1.65v
HTT/FSB = 217
multiplier = 12
vDimm = 2.8v
RAM divider = 1:1
Prime95 seems to be the "community" standard for stability testing, it has a torture test you can run (options >> torture test). If your cpu is unstable it will usually fail within 15 minutes or so, but 4hrs plus seems to be a good indication that your cpu is stable.
If the program fails, it will stop. You can get it here.
The Athlon 64 have a max temp rating of 70 degrees, if you reach it, the pc shuts down automatically, but I wouldn't recommend running anywhere that speed. Mine runs ~40 degrees idle and ~48 degrees under load at the above mentioned settings with a 3rd party heatsink and fan. (Even though I think it's a POS, the HSF, not the cpu).
I can get a 10% increase (2640MHz) running a vCore of 1.72 but the temp increase is not acceptable, so I'll have to wait until I get my watercooling setup to find out just how fast the cpu will run.
I'm assuming you have the stock heatsink/fan from AMD? As long as you've not raised the voltages, you should be fine as long as it tests prime stable.
If you are overclocking, turn off Thermal Throttling in the BIOS, it interferes with the overclock, BUT, if you are running the factory bios shipped with your Lanparty, there may be a problem when you turn it off. There are some more factory bios's that Oskar Wu (board designer) has released that fix this issue.

[rcrevolution]

well when I upgrade the fan and heat sink to a very good one, I will OC the cpu to like 2.4 or 2.5 and test it, for now its staying at 2288Mhz

[alc6379]

Come on, 100mhz?

We're not talking the difference between a Pentium Pro and a Pentium 2 here-- we're talking a 4.5% increase in speed. I really doubt that's going to yield even a difference that you could notice on a chip like that.

Heat's always a factor, but I've never really had to crank up my Tornado on my AthlonXP 2500 (usually run it on lowest, cools just fine) unless I'm upping voltages, really. And, even then with the cooling setup I've got, I don't even really need to, because I run at around 39degC under load, and I might bump up to 42-43 if I start fooling with voltages. Looking at that, I'm still WAY under any threshold for thermal issues, but that's because I've beefed-up my heatsink a good bit. Given sufficient cooling, (I like Swiftech's coolers, many people like Thermaltake's for air cooling) "burning out" your processor shouldn't be a concern, especially not with such a small overclock.

By the way, what type of heatsink, fan, and thermal compound are you using?

[szukalski]

I can notice the difference when I oc my 3400+ from 2.4 to 2.5 (although my normal oc is 2.6). With Athlon 64's it's all about clock speed that yields performance increases, more so than other processors. RAM still has it effects when oc'ed but the main noticeable effect from oc'ing a 64 is raw clock speed.

[rcrevolution]

i have the stock fan and heat sink thats why im not overclocking anymore then 100mhz for now

[jwenting]

The speed increase you're seeing is mostly psychological. The real performance increase in the machine is small enough you'd hardly ever notice it (unless maybe in extremely CPU starved applications where it may make a difference between behaviour that is just fluid and behaviour that is just stuttering).

[rcrevolution]

no, trust me if you saw the performance before I overclocked it slightly, and the performance after, anyone who has eyes can see an increase in the speed programs open up, and music starts playing after you click it.

[szukalski]

I wouldn't say it's psychological. Athlon 64's scale very nicely.
After spending hours rebooting and loading windows after changing bios setting after bios setting I wish I could say the effects I saw were psychological, then I could rack up prime95 errors to being psychological as well. :D
AMD K8's show their speed more than any other processor.

[JonnyBlazexx]

well when I upgrade the fan and heat sink to a very good one, I will OC the cpu to like 2.4 or 2.5 and test it, for now its staying at 2288Mhz

:D If you get a 3rd party heatsink/fan that is pretty good (I highly suggest thermalright's xp-90 because of my awesome results) you can most likely easily surpass 2.5ghz. I have had my AMD 3500+ (clocked at 2.2ghz) to 2.69ghz. 2.7 wouldnt budge. Granted 2.69 was not terribly stable (i am still unsure as to why, heat is DEFINATELY not an issue, at least for the processor, because temperatures with new heatsink do not approach 120 farenheit EVER. The highest I have seen them with my new heatsink/fan is 119 and that was in a warm room stress testing forever. I would say at fullload in normal room conditions, i dont exceed 112 farenheit, while idle sits around 93-98 [depending on room temp]) Especially with the board that you have (I am jealous, because my board does not have agp/pci lock, from the sounds of it yours does. This limits my overclocking because eventually my pci/agp bus cant take it), you will probably very easily overclock quite well. And I am with you, I DO notice a new found quickness, not that it wasnt quick before. I am sure that some of it is psychological. But when I overclock the fsb enough to get roughly a 200 mhz increase, the system does load apps faster, does open up windows faster, just plain out responds more quickly. But who knows!

[Shadowgrip]

I waited till I got my XP-120, it's not compatible with all mobo's, but with that i got my fsb setting up to 224 running 2.69 stable. I was at 2.73 but it scrashed during UT2K3, so I backed it back down. It runs prime for a few hours before I stopped it, so it's not completely Prime95 tested, but it's stable enough for me. The XP-90 is great, but if your mobo can fit the XP-120 I'd say gor for it, if you don't mind having a 120mm fan sitting above your vid card. lol. I must say that this thread helped alot in my overclocking. this was my first OC, and i would prob not have gone as high if it weren't for the post from szukalski. I'm runing my vDimm at 2.8 with my vCore at 1.70 those are the only settings i changed other than my fsb. I think alot of the stability is due to the XP-120, or maybe I just got lucky with a good chip.

[szukalski]

Haha, you answered my questions from another post shadowgrip.
You may have gotten lucky with your chip, but it won't be stable unless you keep the heat down. The XP-120 is a great heatsink. I wish I had gotten one when I had the chance.