Vista - New to OCing, trying to breathe some life into a 4400X2

I messed up my computer trying to OC it, looks like nothing permanent,
but I got the dreaded BOOTMGR not found dealio. I already fixed that and am
running again; however, I was hoping to get some advice on what I can touch and
what I should just leave alone. My specs are in my .sig.

My OC options are:
External clock (MHz)
PCIE clock (MHz)
CPU Voltage (V)
DDR RAM Voltage (V)

My stock system is a 4400+ X2 (2222) MHz, stock settings
200 MHz, 100 MHz, 1.35V, 2.60V (in order, from above)

I got it stable to:
235 MHz, 115 MHz, 1.45V, 2.8V for a CPU speed of 2585MHz instead of 2222MHz.

When I went a little higher: 245/120/1.475/2.8 the system gave me the BOOTMGR is missing error.

My questions: Is it ok to change all 4 at once, or do you usually change one thing at a time upping the ante' gradually until it freezes, then go on to the next? Is there something that's smarter to OC than the others?

TIA

You remember to lower the DRAM clock? If not that would be why it becomes unstable, as without lowering it the ram is running at the same speed as the CPU/FSB (1:1). Unless you have some really good PC3200, I doubt that it will run at 235. It doesn't show in the manual what options are available (frequency or divider), but lower the DRAM clock down to 133 or so. If it is dividers (1:1, 2:3, 5:4, etc), post what is available.

Also is that 2x2Gb or 4x1 GB sticks? If it is 4x1 make sure that the command rate (should happen by default, but still check) is set to 2T and not 1T. It is a design limitation on the memory controller when all ram slots are populated.

Edit: Couple of things I forgot,

1. Lower the HTT to 3. Try to keep it around 1000 or less; lower won't affect anything, but too high will definitely make it unstable.

2. DO NOT up the PCI-E speed, lock/leave it at 100 MHz.

here is a nifty little utility for playing around with the numbers without actually changing anything,

A64Calc.rar - FileFront.com

With it here are your settings at stock speed,



and with the settings you used,



sorry to say but there is no way that it will run stable at all with those settings, not surprised you had trouble.

Try to keep the memory clock close to or under 200; better is to set it as low as it will go until you get the CPU as high as it will stably go, that way it takes the ram out of the picture (and don't forget to lower the HTT multi accordingly as well). Once you have found the max overclock on the CPU, then you can start raising the ram clock.

Thank you for your reply,

I have got 4x1G sticks of OCZ PC 3200
Newegg.com - OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

I do not know if it's possible to lower the frequency or divider on the DRAM clock, so to the best of my knowledge I did not lower it.

There is a VERY good page that shows the BIOS OC options at the link below, I pretty much only used the ABIT OC Guru page (2nd picture), never looked at the DRAM configuration or ABIT EQ pages.

ABIT AN8 32x PCSTATS Review - Inside the AN8-32x's BIOS

From the looks of that set the DRAM Clock to DDR333 (or lower like I said previously), and the DRAM Command Rate to 2T (if it isn't already).

Might be a good idea to give this,

** A64 Overclocking Guide ** - Guru3D.com Forums

a read before going any further.