Sempron64 2500+ : any idea how high it can be pushed up?

[prathapml]

The AMD Sempron64 2500+ (socket 754, Rev. E6) runs at a native frequency of 1.4 GHz.

People claim to have pushed it up to 2.2 GHz!!!!!

With just the normal heatsink/fan, and an nForce4 MoBo, any idea how far it can go?

It flips out on me, for the most part.... (previously, AthlonXP's used to over-clock very well, with FSB going up all the way to 231 MHz!)

[Ðrзω™]

I know this ain't exactly relevant but my sempron 2200+ socket a has went from 1.5GHz to 2.03 @ 450MHz FSB along with RAM, although im in a memory management plagued nforce2 board

although i have only been able 2 achieve this since buying new RAM (GeIL Value PC3200 @ 6-3-3-2.5). could your RAM maybe be holding you back?

im on air cooling myself, (not a great heatsink just basic copper base) and i can push my socket a very far, so im assuming on the more powerful nforce4 with ur stock cooling and as long as the ram is ok id say maybe 1.8GHz, 400MHz on stock cooling would be pretty **** good IMO

good luck with whatever overclocking you try though

[prathapml]

Thanks!

Its indeed true - I had an nForce2+AthlonXP 2400+ previously, and it over-clocked very well!

But the current Sempron64 just seems to flip out even with a slight over-clock! Like you said, I suspect that the RAM could be the culprit. But still just checking, whats the max that anyone here over-clocked their sempron64?

[gdogg]

those overclock very well

what type of mobo you got?

a dfi nf3 250GB is a great board for 754 processors.

paired, with ddr 600, or memory that goes that far, you can hit ddr 600+ on that board.

you need to remember those semprons, are single channel, so, for highest memory overclocks, (no matter what board) only 1 memory chip is best.

oh, and good luck.. If you need any help with it, I have lots of experience in 754 overclocking, athlon xp, etc.. asus, dfi, and other cheap brands, I care not to remember.

oh, and about your overclock problems.

what motherboard are you using?

do you got the most recent bios update?

do you lower HTT/LTD bus, when using higher memory frequency?

have you slow raised memory volts? by small amounts?

have you done memtest? before entering windows?

have you got enough volts on it?

have you tried your memory on a multiplyer, incase they just wont overclock?

ok that should fix your problem.

Edited December 28, 2005 by gdogg

[puntoMX]

The 2500+ I can get 1400@2200MHz or a bit more, just 5% more voltage. I use MSI K8N-NEO3 NF4 mobos and I can get the bus over 300MHz.

The 2600+ I can get 1600@2500MHz or a bit more, same for the 2800+.

I think the cores can get up to a 2800 or 2900 with the stock cooler, it´s just the mobo that can´t get much higher then a 300MHz bus. I hope this helps for you .

Edited January 15, 2006 by puntoMX

[ripken204]

i would say 2400mhz max as ive seen some ppl up there but 2000mhz should be easy.

[prathapml]

Thank you puntoMX & ripken!

It didnt go that far for me, maybe I have a processor off the wrong batch... Just hoping nVidia updates their nTune (auto over-clocking utility) soon, to support nForce410 mobos too.

[puntoMX]

Ah, okay, I don´t know about those "new" mobos with the 6100 Gf intergrated . What brand did you buy any way and what type? The BioStar? And how far could you go? I´m sure it isn´t your CPU, I had the first 2500+ that cam eout and they could get up to that 2200MHz...

Edited January 15, 2006 by puntoMX

[prathapml]

Thats right, i got one with the 6100 integrated. Price kicks a**, for pretty much any mid-end gaming (big-time gamers would still need a high end card, but I did not need).

I got an S-754 ASrock K8NF4G-SATA2.

And an AMD Sempron 64 2500+ (its one of the newer steppings - cpuZ tells me "Palermo", revision E6, native speed 1.4 GHz, with support for SSE3).

I'm suspecting my memory modules to be at fault. Or maybe the mobo?

But then, a friend DID overclock his proc to 1.7 GHz with no prob, on the SAME mobo model, with no extra cooling. So I dunno what to say....

[puntoMX]

Hypertransport bus from 4x to 3x, that could help too .

[prathapml]

Tried it today.

Same story again, windows files get corrupt when I push up speeds. Even after reducing the HT bus!

My old AthlonXP used to over-clock much better

So either processor (Sempron64) sucks, or my RAM modules suck.

[puntoMX]

Your RAM yes, tweak it and test it with MEMtest ore something. It can´t be your CPU...

[wtm0325]

Tried it today.

Same story again, windows files get corrupt when I push up speeds. Even after reducing the HT bus!

My old AthlonXP used to over-clock much better

So either processor (Sempron64) sucks, or my RAM modules suck.

it's the mobo limit u, not ur proc

well i'm on abit NV8, doin 340htt x7 now with 1.4v only, some other people on the xtremeforum is doin 400htt, i'm totally crazy when i read tht

so far the best 6100 chipset mobo is biostar, it can be OC to 347htt primestable as far as i've seen, maybe he's on a 3rd party graphic card but i hv no idea for tht

prathapml, try to lower down ur htt multiplier and use ram divider, all sempron E6 can do 300htt minimum

[spazmire11]

are you runing a sata drive?

if so the port could be unlocked, thus causing problems there.

if its not that i would have to go with try putting a mem divider on it and see if it still happens

[prathapml]

prathapml, try to lower down ur htt multiplier and use ram divider, all sempron E6 can do 300htt minimum

Thats great, thanks!

It really gave me the confidence to fiddle with the frequencies without worrying the proc wud die!

Here's my results:

It turns out that the proc rocks, the culprit WAS the memory, after all!

After a few hours of experimenting, what I have settled on is a stable (hopefully) speed of 1925 MHz.

I'm still testing it, but basically what succeeded was, I had to push down the HyperTransport bus to 600 MHz (3x) & Memory to 133 MHz (PC2100, because its normal operation of DDR400 would make it soar beyond its specifications). And then I kept increasing the FSB from the BIOS by one MHz each time (for newcomers: this is important, else you miss the exact stable point). For example, for me 280 MHz FSB was VERY stable but 281 was not.

My multiplier is locked at 7x & DRAM/FSB ratio locked too, at 11. And the overall clock-speed increase is a whopping 38%, from 1.4 GHz to 1.925 GHz (i.e., 525 MHz). Due to pushing up FSB, here's what diagnostic tools say:

FSB - from 200 to 275 MHz

=> CPU clock - 1925 MHz (its detected as a Sempron 3200+ now! )

Memory Bus - from 133 to 175 MHz (resulting in 2800 MBps mem bandwidth, lesser than DDR400, but its okay)

HyperTransport - from 600 to 825 MHz

I even tried setting the HT bus at 2x (400 MHz), & pushing FSB higher. But it did not work, my RAM modules are to blame (or my mobo?). The max I could go was 279 MHz - after that, windows would refuse to even display the login screen (or if it did, wud crash during testing, with a blue-screen). I could not touch the 2.0 GHz mark.

Temperatures of mobo & proc seem okay, but only one worry in the end of all this.

My hard-disk is showing VERY high temps since I finished OC'ing. Can an OC affect the HD too? What can I do to cool the disk down? Help please?

Thanks to puntoMX too!