OC Phenon 9150e on a Foxcom VS A6VMX

[marozsas]

Hi !

I am new to overclocking techniques so I appreciate any information you guys can provide.

I have a new computer. It is a Phenon quad core 9150e rev B3 on a FoxCom motherboard VS A6VMX.
I am running xinXP 64 bits.

This processor is rated to run at 1800MHz. As far I understand, this frequency comes from the base frequency of clock generator (200) multiplied by 9.

Foxcom has a utility to help users to OC this motherboard. It is named FoxOne.
Using this utility it changed the base frequency generator from the default value 200 to about 240, which means the CPU will run at 2160 MHz.

The problem is I didn't notice any improvements !

I have only this program FoxOne to mess with OC. I don't have any other ways to double check if it really running at 2160MHz. I known increase cpu voltage is necessary to get OC working, but this FoxOne didn't change any voltages. Is this correct ?

In fact, this machine has dual boot with Fedora 10 64 bits, which is my main working environment.
In fedora, /proc/cpuinfo returns 900MHz ! Even changing cpu policy from ondemand to performance it returns only 1800MHz.

If I reboot the machine, BIOS shows 240 for the base frequency generator as expected.

Why I didn't notice any improvements in performance ?
Do you have a good benchmark/cpu frequency information program to recommend ?
I appreciate any inputs.

cheers,

[Deton]

Welcome!
check out this link http://www.forums.pureoverclock.com/...ead.php?t=5369
most people use CPU-Z to check CPU/RAM status and for benching you can use Everest Utility or PCMark, 3DMark are more for GPU benching.

[marozsas]

Welcome!
check out this link http://www.forums.pureoverclock.com/...ead.php?t=5369
most people use CPU-Z to check CPU/RAM status and for benching you can use Everest Utility or PCMark, 3DMark are more for GPU benching.

Thanks for the welcome and for the useful link, Deton.

I choose CPUZ to get info about my cpu and Prime 95 to stress the system and looks like it really works ! For start I set BUS freq. at 240MHz and everything looks ok until I run Prime95. It stop at the very beginning with a round error or something like that. Than, I go back to the defaults in BIOS and prime95 concluded without any errors, after hours, the three "torture test". So, my OC attempt was not good after all!

In fact, I got errors after set front BUS at 210MHz. Than I decide to increase CPU voltage, memory voltage and Noth Bridge Voltage all +50mV. And with sthis setting, prime95 concluded the torture test without any errors.

But this procedure looks like quite random, isn´t ? I mean, it was really necessary increase the voltage for the 3 systems (cpu, mem, nb) ? Or/And +25mV would be sufficient instead +50mV ?

An more important, how far I can go with this ? How much can I increase the voltages ? And what system which really needs to work at a higher voltage ?

Are there known values for Front side Bus, cpu voltages, memory voltages and NB voltages I can follow, or at least use as reference to OC my system ?

any hints ?
Thanks in advance !

[grumpydaddy]

Hi and welcome from me too

The first rule is that no one set of settings works for everyone. Your comment about increasing 3 voltages is spot on....increasing these voltages (and maybe others) enough to get the overclock you seek then testing with prime is one way of finding a stable overclock but is a rough oc only. Having got it stable your next job is to begin to reduce these voltages one at a time and re run the test so that you find the threshold of failure. Then upping that voltage 1 or 2 notches will be the level that is right for your rig.

When overclocking your cpu ensure your ram is running at or below stock speed and timings so that it has no influence on your results.

How much can you increase voltages??? This will likely be limited by your temperatures. Good cooling or watercooling results in higher clocks and voltages being achieved without putting your hardware at risk

Deton's advice to get everest so that you can monitor temps and voltages is sound but be warned ...some motherboards have better monitoring than others.

[Skyguy]

Shattered.Likeness is one of our resident AMD freaks , he may be along shortly and may be able to help you out. I'll give him a holler.

[shattered.likeness]

Someone told me that you were needing some help...

Ok, if you are wanting to know safe voltages to use, I would recommend using AMD's OverDrive Utility.

The best part about using AOD is that even if you push things too far, you don't have to worry about having to reset your CMOS. You will just reboot, and start over.

Once you get it running, go to the Preferences menu, and set the 'Performance Control Mode' to 'Advanced Mode'. This will allow you to be able to not only manually set your voltages, but also your HT Reference Clock, HT multiplier, CPU Multiplier (only for Black Edition Processors), and memory timings.

If you could do me a favor and enter your system specs in your 'User CP', and make them public. That will help me find out more of what you should be capable of.

In a few days, I'll see if I can write up an AMD Overclocking Guide, and that should be able to help you and everyone else with your AMD overclocking.

Post your specs and I'll see what I can find out for you.

Edit: Oh, and where are my manners? Welcome to the forums!!!

[marozsas]

Thank you grumpydaddy !

I will follow your advice. Looks like OC it is a trial by error procedure, isn´t ?
It may take some time, but I will do this.
I will post my final results here for anyone interested.

Someone told me OC is like a fever. You start by making small adjustments and ends up buying a super cooler, putting fans all over the machine and spending a lot of money and time on it.

I got the fever I guess....

thanks,

[marozsas]

Hi Shattered.Likeness !

Thanks for answering the call !

I have tryied before with AMD Overdrive utility but it says "AMD OverDrive cannot detect AMD 7-series chipset on this computer" so I not mentioned it in my first post. But it looks great. Do you have an alternative ?

As I told before I am using a FoxConn´s utility named FoxOne. The problem it not change the cpu voltages, only memory voltage. I have to go back to the BIOS to change cpu and chipset (N voltages.

As you can see from my specs and CPU-Z signature I follow grumpdaddy´s advice and successful got the cpu@2.06GHz and FB@229MHz.

It took me some time. You known, adjusting just a little bit a setting until it fails, go back, and starting to change another one.

An automated tool to do this job would be great.

[grumpydaddy]

Just a thought...have you checked to see if you have the latest version of AOD? (don't know this one so just guessing)

[shattered.likeness]

Sorry that it didn't work for you, I forgot that you don't have a 7xx series chipset on your motherboard.

You could try the latest version of FOXONE, from here. I'll see if I can find any more info for you soon.

Or, as another alternative, I have an ECS A780GM-A Ultra with the 780G chipset that was used in our review here. PM me if you are interested.

[marozsas]

Just a thought...have you checked to see if you have the latest version of AOD? (don't know this one so just guessing)

Yes grumpydaddy, it is all up to date: AOD (216_0257 that I download today again, just in case), BIOS (from the FoxConn site, updated with utility named FoxLive), FoxOne (via FoxLive), Windows (via windows update service) and even the DVD firmware via a SamSung utility.

The only thing I didn't update - I don't known even if it possible - it is my Randeon card. But I think this doesn't matter for this purpose and I will do it later.

I have tried to found a older version of AOD, from the time the NB 6-series was released, but I couldn't find it. Looks like AOD was released only for 7-series. (BTW, mine is RS690)

[marozsas]

I'll see if I can find any more info for you soon.

Thank you for your time and interest !
I will continue to read, learn and to try to make small adjustments from time to time.
Right now I am happy with I got so far.
My machine is running at 2GHz without any side effects - it is running just 2 Celsius degrees higher than 1.8GHz.

Another interesting think I notice is under Linux, PowerNow is active (module powernow_k8 is loaded), which means the CPU is (almost) all the time at half speed. Linux rocks !
Under Windows it runs at full speed all the time, even when the computer is idle.

cheers,