ASRock 775Dual-VSTA OC Help

[Dread]

Just got an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA paired with a C2D E4300 @ 1.8 GHz (Allendale).
Right now it's using DDR-266 RAM until my DDR II - 667 gets in later this next week, and an nVidia 6600GT AGP GPU.

I'd like to OC it to at least 2.1 GHz or a bit higher on stock HSF and a Zalman ZM-NBF47 north bridge chipset heatsink, but have no clue where to start.

Anyone know of an existing step-by-step guide, or be willing to walk me through it once the RAM gets installed?

Thanks :)

[Quakindude]

Damn dude. I haven't used a VIA chipset since the MVP3 days. Back then, each release of the VIA 4in1 driver packages were so anticipated that entire BBS's were dedicated to them. Each release of those 4in1's meant more performance from your AMD CPU.

You may want to consider posting some screen shots of the Bios pages. I'm sure that among the minds here, we'll get you hooked up good.

[Dread]

I'll get some screen shots later today of it
provided I can figure out how...never have taken
a screen of the BIOS before. Need a special app
for that?

Last night I messed with it just a bit after
flashing the BIOS to v2.50 (up from 1.80).

Got it OC'd from 1.8 GHz to 1.89 GHz
with the 266 RAM installed - w00t!!!!
Going to try and get it to at least 1.95 GHz
with the crap RAM.

[Quakindude]

The only thing you can use for Bios screenies would be a digital camera.

Congrats on your over clock!

[Dread]

Got two shots with my digital camera before the charge ran out, damn kids taking movies of crap...

I upped it to 2.026 GHz and it seems to be folding just fine. Won't mess
with it anymore until I get the DDR II RAM installed, then maybe work my way up to 2.5 GHz.

Where I'll need help is the RAM timings, and possibly voltages.

Thanks!!

As an aside. The first oc from 1.8 to 1.89 shaved 3 minutes per frame off a p3027 WU.
I let that WU finish before upping it again to it's current 2.026, first frame of another 3027 is 45 seconds faster than the previous. I'm waiting to see if it cuts more time off as the wu progresses.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

You may want to consider posting some screen shots of the Bios pages. I'm sure that among the minds here, we'll get you hooked up good.

Or we could just look at some previous BIOS Shots here and here or download the manual (BIOS menu options start on page 30)

We'll be glad to walk you through an overclocking adventure with your new hardware! What exact memory did you get? Got a product link?

[Dread]

Picked up a single stick of G.Skill 1GB Link

My RAM is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow while I am at work.
Hopefully it'll be waiting for me when I get home, and tomorrow night
be able to get a couple hundred more MHz out of it.

Think a 2.5 GHz ceiling is reasonable on stock air with these components?
The whole system is in a very cool room in the basement with an ambient temp of around 60*F with good air movement.

[gvblake22]

Sweet. Install it and run Memtest and some benchmarks on it at stock speeds/settings to make sure everything is stable and playing nice together and to give yourself a starting point. Then report back and we'll go from there!

[Dread]

My memory did NOT arrive as scheduled today.
First time Newegg and FedEx have let me down...

I'm betting that it will be sitting on our front porch
by the time I get home tomorrow afternoon.

Besides memtest, what benchmarking utilities would you like to see the results of?
Mind, this is a linux machine, not Windows :)

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Dread

Besides memtest, what benchmarking utilities would you like to see the results of?
Mind, this is a linux machine, not Windows :)

Well, just anything really that will be able to test stability within the operating system as well as to give you a starting point so you can figure out quantitatively if new overclocked settings are actually faster than stock and worth your while. I think you can at least get SuperPI to run in Linux...

EDIT:
Just found this list of Linux benchmarks