Overclocking the "Specials"

ricedg — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:45:42 GMT

Don't know what I mean by the "Specials"?
See here http://forum.micromart.co.uk/Topic173777-19-1.aspx

Usual caveats - everything is at your own risk but all you see here has been tried and tested by many Forumites.
The 775DUAL-VSTA and the 4CoreDual-VSTA are alike enough to cover both the "Dave" and "43" Specials here.
It is probably wise to get the latest BIOS upgrade from the AS-Rock website.
It's dead easy to upgrade the BIOS from within Windows, no booting from floppies required ;)

First step is to download a utility known as CPU-Z from here http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
We need to know the maximum speed settings for your ram, so run CPU-Z, go to the SPD tab and you'll see something like this:

Note down the settings that are ringed in red.

Now we need to go into the BIOS by pressing F2 when the PC powers up.
Go to the Advanced Menu and choose Chipset Configuration.
Change the DRAM Frequency from AUTO to one speed slower than the maximum mhz value you obtained from CPU-Z.
i.e. if you have 400mhz ram, set the frequency to 333mhz
Now change thevalues for the other settings you obtained from CPU-Z.
Leave everything else on AUTO for the time being.

Press Escape to go backto the Advanced Menu and choose CPU Configuration.
Change the Overclock Mode to Asynch(ronous) and you will see it is now possible to alter the CPU Frequency.
Leave all other settings alone.

For anyone with a Conroethe CPU frequencywill show 266, for an Allendale E4300 it will show 200.
E4300 users jump straight to 266 and you have an E6600, that's all you have to do.
But you'll be wanting more of course :D

A reboot is probably in order here -just in case -so press F10 to Save and Exit the BIOS.
The following applies from now on:
Should the PC not reboot - give it some time before panicing - turn the PC off by holding the power switch in for 4 seconds, or at the PSU.
When it powers back up you will be able to enter the BIOS again and change settings back.
Sometimes it needs 2 or 3 power ons to access the BIOS again, so don't worry if it seems "dead" - it isn't, honest!
Extreme panicers can press F9 to reset the BIOS back to default settings :P but that's not usually necessary.

Now we can go back into the BIOS and slowly move the CPU Frequency up.
Start at 270mhz and move up in increments of 5mhz until you hit the "wall" when it won't boot or Windows won't start.
At this time move the CPU Frequency back to the last known stable value.

So we now have a PC that is overclocked and will load Windows.
However, some stress testing is required to make sure it is truely stable.
A good application for this is Orthos http://tinyurl.com/3bttma
Although the C2Ds run cool, you may want to keep an eye on temperatures using Core Temp http://tinyurl.com/2pkq4r

If Orthos falls over, go back into the BIOS and wind the CPU Frequency back down by 5.

The following are more BIOS settings courtesy of Slipstreem should you wish to tinker further.
PersonallyI haven't as I'm quite happy with my £103 E4300 running like a £325 E6700.

Enjoy :D

Slippy's Settings

Overclock Mode - CPU,PCIE Async.
CPUFr. - 280 to 320 in increments of 2MHz until unstable in Orthos(*)
PCIE Fr. - 108
PCI Fr. - 33.33
Spread Spectrum - Disabled
Boot Failure - Disabled

Max CPUID Val. - Disabled
Intel Virtuali. - Disabled
CPU Thermal Thr. - Enabled
No-Execute Memory. - Disabled
Intel Speedstep - Disabled

Chipset:
Dram Freque. - 400 (333 for DDR400, 266 for DDR333, 200 for DDR266)
Flexib.- Disabled
Cas Latency -2.5 (# - Check with CPU-Z)
Interleave - 4-Way
Precharge - 3 (# - Check with CPU-Z)
Tras - 7 (# - Check with CPU-Z)
trcd - 3 (# - Check with CPU-Z)
Bus Select.- Dual Channel
Command Rate - 2T

Advanced Host Conf:
Pipeline DRQCTL - Enabled

DRAM Voltage - High
AGP Voltage - High

Primary Gra.Adapt. - AGP (hardware dependent)
AGP - Auto
AGP Fast Write - Enabled
AGP Aperture Size - 256MB

V-Link - Normal
PCI delay Transaction - Enabled
IDE Drive Strength - Highest
PCIE Downstream Pipeline - Disabled
Onboard LAN - Disabled (unless you need it)
Onboard Sound - Disabled (unless you need it)

Super IO - All disabled (unless you specifically need anything switched on)

All settings not stated are left at default.

Don't worry if any of these settings are missing on your mobo. Options come and go with different BIOS revisions. I happen to be using v2.10.

(#) These settings are memory dependent. Check the SPD tab in CPU-Z to determine appropriate values.

Thanks to Slippy and Gman for some useful edits.
This is still work in progress :P
Any comments PM me or reply to this thread.
Technical questions to the Systems Builders Forum sticky please.

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Overclocking the "Specials"