Hi
I just upgraded my computer, it looks like that:
CPU: Pentium Dual Core E2160
RAM: Patriot 2x2GB 800MHz (4-4-4-12) 2,2V
Motherboard: Asus P5K
Graphic card: Galaxy 8600 GE

I bought it with overclocking in my mind and I get to work on it today, but I'm not sure what BIOS options should I mess with. What I changed so far:
FSB Frequency: 250 (it was 200 by default, multiplier is 9)
CAS# Latency 4 DRAM Clocks (was 5)
RAS# to CAS# Delay 4 DRAM Clocks (was 5)
RAS# Precharge 4 DRAM Clocks (was 5)
RAS# Active Time 12 DRAM Clocks
DRAM Voltage 2,2V

How should I set DRAM Frequency? (I have only 4 options to choose from: DDR2-625MHz, DDR2-750MHz, DDR2-833MHz, DDR2-1000MHz)
What else should I set (I'm going to mess with FSB Frequency, but want to test it properly before going up - I'm testing with Orthos, check the temperature with SpeedFan and check parameters with CPU-Z)
What worries me is why CPU-Z recognize Dual Channel Mode as Assymetric (shouldn't it be Symmetric? O_o)

p.s. here is CPU-Z dump

help >_<

I had a bad experience with overclocking the Mhz/FSB on my RAM a while back and 1GB died, so I dont OC ram anymore. Sure increasing the MHz will give you a boost but if the RAM isnt meant to be OC'd then dont do it!
Its best to just modifiy the timings because you wont kill it that way and its easier to tell if the settings are too much when your comp wont start. All you gotta do is make a note of the last setting that worked and keep dropping the values until the comp starts.
If it fails to start, you will have to remove the battery, start up the computer, and then shut it down to reset the BIOS. Then put the battery back in and put the last setting you changed up a notch.
When you finally find the settings that you think is stable. Play a game, open a bunch of files at once, or benchmark program for a period of time and see if it will freeze your comp (assuming that there isnt any other problem with your computer)

First of all, overclocking is something that you shouldn't be playing with, if you have no idea what you're doing, and this seems to be the case. So be very careful before doing anything.
My advice for you is to do a lot of research, check what kind of hardware do you have, what are its specifications, its limitations, and so on. You really need to know what you're doing if you want to successfully overclock your machine. And go check some overclockers board or something, you'll probably have better advice there.
I know that this is not what you wanted to read but that's my piece of advice. Sorry!
Wish you good luck with your overclock and hope you don't burn anything. ^^

Animepaper Overclocking Group

Anyway, I can help you out here already:
Your DRAM Frequency settings somewhat puzzle me. Normally you only change this value to scale the FSB:RAM. Normally, the most optimal setting is 1:1, which means with a FSB of let's say 266MHz, your RAM frequency should be set to 533MHz. In your case though, the FSB is quite low, so I suggest a different scale, likely to be 3:4 or 1:2.
With 3:4, you'll get the same 533MHz RAM frequency, with 1:2 it's 800MHz. I don't really get why you can't actually set these values.
Important note: you scale the RAM frequency to the default FSB. If you overclock your FSB, the RAM frequency will change too, but you won't notice that. So don't say you can set the RAM frequency to DDR2-1000MHz because you set the FSB to 250MHz, so that'd be 1:2 scaling. Not true! You'll actually set the scale to 2:5.

The best thing to do though, is just test different settings. It can't do much harm really. Test different scalings with default mode (run super pi or other benchmark) and compare. Then go overclock and test/compare again.

Overclocking takes time ;) Good luck.

@`MTL:
I change it cause they're are supposed to work with 4-4-4-12 when voltage is 2.2V (default is 1.8V)


@dixneuf:
I read a lot, but what puzzles me most is that all tutorials advise completely different things XD Like with the RAM - some of them say to change to the values given by the producer, some, to leave as they are, cause they will be more stable that way :p Or with CPU voltage - some says to change it along with FSB, some to leave them as they are, cause messing with it can easily burn the CPU :p
Do you know any good tutorials you could recommend me? (If not, I will keep searching and try to compile the knowledge by myself :p)


@GoldenApe
Shouldn't it be 400MHz? (2x400 = 800)
And I'm saying what I'm seeing XD I have an option DRAM Frequency with 4 values to choose from: DDR2-625MHz, DDR2-750MHz, DDR2-833MHz, DDR2-1000MHz, and the values are really strange, that's why it puzzles me XD especially since in my motherboard's user guide values are normal :p (667,800,1066)
I know you can unlink dram frequency from cpu fsb when you have motherboard with nvidia chipset, but I have Intel's and as far as I know they have Frequency ratio settings, like you say :p

makhan

I read a lot, but what puzzles me most is that all tutorials advise completely different things XD

That's the point. There's no really a recipe for overclocking. Depending on what pieces of hardware you have, the paths you have to walk through in order to successfully overclock your machine can be very different, and sometimes you won't be able to overclock at all (at least, not enough to make a difference in performance). That's why it's really important to know well what kind of hardware do you have and understand the concepts behind overclocking (FSB Frequency, multipliers, DRAM Frequency, etc).
Unfortunately my overclocking knowledge is very limited so I really can't give you any useful advice, probably the things I know, you already have read in overclocking tutorials.
Now, your DRAM frequency options are weird, indeed. Maybe they're weird because you changed the CAS,RAS settings? I advise you not to try to overclock both CPU and RAM at the same time, because you wouldn't know precisely what settings gave you a performance improvement.

If we all stay on the safe side .. don't experiment to figure out what we don't know, life sure would be boring..

So yeah he wants to overclock his toaster and he ask for help on how to do it .. let him.


@makhan
Seat your memory in the correct slots to get symmetric (dual channel mode)

@~dixneuf
that was probably the case, cause when I checked now (after setting default options) they're normal o_O

@Taurec
If they were in incorrect slots, they would be in single channel mode, and they're in dual channel :]

What kind of RAM you got exactly? Maybe they're pre-overclocked modules that automatically adapt a higher frequency. But still those values seem strange.
Can you arrange something to try different RAM modules? (from a friend or something)
Or reset your CMOS & BIOS.

I read about the asymmetric thing and it seems it's BIOS bug (read about it here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=169830). Have to update the BIOS but I will have to borrow FDD from someone first. Decided it's not useful anymore and dismounted it a year ago :p

@GoldenApe
I don't know who could I borrow DDR2 from, will check these out when I get my BIOS updated

Hey makhan!

Glad to see you got your pc together and plan tog et some overclockage done!

I know overclocking can be very intimidating, I would suggest NOT to mess with voltages and let your motherboard deal with it. FSB and memory clock speed tuning should be sufficient to get a good overclocking job done.

Here is an article that is VERY GOOD in my opinion and explains a lot of the details.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/11/core-2-duo-overtakes-core-2-extreme/

I am guessing your RAM is dual channel? If you have it set up ina dual channel configurations, remeber your memory speed of each chip should be 1/2 that of your processor because in dual channel they add together.

A program that mgiht help you tune things is CPU-Z and it can be downloaded here:
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Here are some picstures of my computers info (using CPUZ)





MY CPU FSB is set to 1342MHz and my memory is set toI belive half of that (in my bios). CPU bus speed = RAM frequency. CPU bus speed * 9 (multiplier) = CPU clock speed.

Anyways, good luck on overclocking and if you have more questions, post away. I really recommend you read thata rticle I linked above, it should answer a lot of questions.