I'd like to squeeze some more out of my 3200+ which has been clocked stock since I built it over three years ago. What is a safe vcore value for the chip and how fast have others overclocked this thing?

System specs:[code:1:af3238d890]Antec sever case with plenty of fans and flow
Athlon 3200+ cooled via a Thermaltake Silent Boost with AS5.
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe (nforce 2 Ultra 400 using BIOS Rev 1013)
Crucial Ballistix 2x512 meg PC3200 they are either 2-2-2-8 or 2-2-2-6 I can't remember)
[/code:1:af3238d890]

Current temps as per Asus PCProbe:
(CPU/MB)
Idle:39/22
Load:55/23

Here are the current stock settings:

Wow, what a POS. It boots into windows with a vcore of 1.75 and 205 fsb but it rebooted after about 3 minutes. Temps were fine by the way: CPU under 40C.

..do I need to up the RAM voltage as well? They claim to be rated for 2.8V

This is interesting. I upped the Ram voltage to 2.8 and dropped the timing from 2-2-2-8 and every thing is fine now @ 225 MHz FSB (core voltage 1.70)

Not surprising really, it's to be expected.
When you overclock the cpu you effectively overclock the memory too.
Sometimes it can handle it, sometimes it can't, so invariably you either have to loosen the timings... which you did, or reduce the clock speed to compensate.

The Ballistix take more abuse than the CPU can. I finally settled for conservative numbers: stock voltage (1.65) and 220 FSB which gives 2425 MHz or 10 % O/C and the memory is set to 2-2-2-8.

Running prime 95 now. Been going for about 30 min 53C/21C

Funny part is that a 10 % increase isn't really worth it, but it's an old machine that I'll replace when the 6750 comes out this summer so who cares.

Yeah run it till it's dead If it's still able to do what you need it to do.

Why would you want an e6750 over an e6700 when they have the same core speed and the e6700 has a higher max multiplier? You can just run the e6700 @ 333*8 if you so desire.

1. Aren't they all locked at their upper limit from the factory?
2. My understand is that the lower the multiplier, the better.

E6700 = 10x266 = 2660
E6750 = 8x333 = 2664

Am I mistaken about either of the points?

1. Most good motherboards can unlock the lower multiplier values.
2. Usually, if you are going for a higher overclock, the lower multiplier and higher fsb is better, as it provides a larger RAM bandwidth. On the other hand, the 6700 has a higher stock multiplier, which can be lowered using the motherboard. It just gives you more possibilities when you overclock.

Best of Luck

OK... so is DS right about wanting a chip that has a higher multiplier then? If that's true, why would anyone want a 6x50?

Yep. Darkstar is right. If you're spending enough money to buy a 6700, you're going to buy a motherboard that has the capability to lower the multiplier. This being said, the 6700 is a better value.


There are two reasons to buy the 6x50 series chips. One is if you are NOT planning to overclock. The higher FSB of these chips will increase performance of the memory subsystem. The other reason to buy from the 6x50 series is that the lower-end chips, mainly the 6350 (I think thats the new label...) will have a 4 mb L2 cache, as opposed to the 2 mb currently on the 6300.


By the way, a safe vcore for the Athlon XP's is about 1.8 volts.

Best of Luck

Better FSB if you aren't overclocking.

The overclockability of a chip doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the multiplier but what the tolerance of the chip is itself.

Other limiting factors of course are board and memory, but I've found it's much easier to get around the ram issue.

In general terms the "fastest" chip is closer to it's limit than an underclocked one based on the same fabrication. Generally this means that an underclocked cpu based on the same fabrication of it's faster brother might be able to unlock it's hidden potential.

You DO see 1800 mhz machines reaching 3000 for example, impressive for sure, but this success is usually limited to certain steppings. And you can never guarantee what you're going to get. So, usually starting off a bit higher will give you an edge even if you have a "barely" overclockable chip by comparison.

Some chips traced back to certain fabs barely overclock at all... the CCBWE Opterons come to mind. I had one and barely reached from 2000 to 2400 with increasing the core voltage from 1.35 to 1.45. With the exact same model, but CCBBE stepping I got from 2000 to 2700 without touching the core voltage at all.

On the topic of AthlonXPs, I used to have my Thoroughbred-B 2600+ (166*12.5=2083MHz stock) at 2.5GHz with 1.95v vCore (watercooled). It kept that up for ~3 years.

The CPU is still running fine today in my little brothers PC. The capacitors on the motherboard gave out however, as they often do on boards of that era.

Used to run my Athlon XP Barton 2800+ at that speed (2.5 w/ 1.9v)...unfortunately, it did not survive long enough ((I was planning a new build for the summer....unfortunately my Athlon died before then)
Now I'm running my ancient Athlon 700mhz just so that I can access the files on my hard drives....(Damn its slow!)
(I do have my Dell XPS M1710 laptop, so it's ok)

I have the exact same motherboard as you, and I can tell you a couple things.

Though you cant see it in bios. the bios is set to 1T CPC on. And because of this, it doesnt like going over about 225 FSB. I have a XP2500+(1.8Ghz) Barton core, and I can run it prime stable at 2.62Ghz on basic air. 11x238 @ 1.85V runs about 53C fully loaded. I have really good memory. I can run 2-2-2-5 DDR476. I have OCZ platinum Elite edition DDR600/DDR400 hand picked TCCD



If you want to change to 2T CPC off so you can run your FSB higher or even keep it at 1T cpc on, either way with more voltage control options, go here and get trats modded bios. I have used both and both work no problems. The thread originally only notes the A7N8X-E, but the modded bios works for the delux that you and I have as well. He doesnt mention the delux models till hte later pages of the thread.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=352326