How to slow down CPU, and also get memory up to speed?

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure. I just built a new system with the ASUS A8N-SLI
series motherboard.

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3500+, which is supposed to run at 2200 MHz,
but the AMD diagnostics report it is actually running at 2254 MHz.
The family/step model is 15.47.2. The memory bus speed is 200 MHz
(which I find slightly puzzling, since I purchased 400 MHz DDR
memory). HT0 frequency is reported as 1000 MHz, HT1 and HT2 frequency
are both reported as 200 MHz. I am running Win2K, in case that makes
any difference. (Will upgrade eventually…..) The BIOS is
Phoenix-Award BIOS, v6.00 PG.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And
also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the
memory bus running at the right speed?

Thanks in advance for all replies….

Steve O.


"Spying On The College Of Your Choice" -- How to pick the college that is the Best Match for a high school student's needs.
www.SpyingOnTheCollegeOfYourChoice.com

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:59:46 +0000, Steven O. wrote:

The memory bus speed is 200 MHz (which I find slightly puzzling, since I
purchased 400 MHz DDR memory).

No, you purchased PC3200 ram, which has a rated bus speed of 200MHz,
400ddr. the 400MHz they use to advertise is just more marketing BS for the
people that don't know any better.:-) Just like Intel Intel and their BS
FSB speeds. The data rate for PC3200 ram is 400Mbps per line, or as some
put it, 400MTs.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And
also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the memory
bus running at the right speed?

200MHZ is right for the memory bus. If your MB supports multiplier
control, you can lower the multiplier by 1. If not, you can lower the FSB
if your board allows that. If you can do neither, then you are screwed
unless you want to use CnQ to do it, which is probably the best way to do
it anyway. My 3000+ runs at 800MHz most of the time. When cpu load exceeds
5% it jumps to 1800MHZ and when cpu load goes over 80% it goes to full
speed.

--
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On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:59:46 GMT, Steven O. wrote:

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And

There should be a sub menu called Jumperfree Configuration or
something like that under something like Advance (sorry don't wanna
reboot my PC for this :P). Inside there you should be able to lower
your multiplier or FSB. The CPU speed is determined by the "FSB" x
multiplier so do your own maths :P

also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the
memory bus running at the right speed?

It is running at the correct speed. DDR means double data rate,
refering to the ratio of data transfer vs the actual clock speed. For
Intel their bus is QDR (quadruple) hence you see advertising that
claims 800Mhz FSB or 1066Mhz FSB when in reality all of them are
running off some base clock between 166 to 266Mhz.


--
A Lost Angel, fallen from heaven
Lost in dreams, Lost in aspirations,
Lost to the world, Lost to myself

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3500+, which is supposed to run at 2200 MHz,
but the AMD diagnostics report it is actually running at 2254 MHz.
The family/step model is 15.47.2. The memory bus speed is 200 MHz
(which I find slightly puzzling, since I purchased 400 MHz DDR
memory).

The first D means double...

-Mabden

Steven O. wrote:

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure.

I'm wondering why. Reducing cpu speed wont reduce odds of hardware
failure to any useful extent, not unless its currently on the edge of
overheating.


are both reported as 200 MHz. I am running Win2K, in case that makes
any difference. (Will upgrade eventually.....)

afaik theres nothing to upgrade to. 2k is as good as it gets. XP and
vista certainly dont qualify as upgrades.


The BIOS is
Phoenix-Award BIOS, v6.00 PG.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up?

just look around the bios menus and see, it should be clear enough. Its
either multiplier or fsb that changes, preferably multiplier. Cant
answer more directly because different bios menus use different terms
and different nav trees.


NT

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:59:46 GMT, Steven O.
wrote:

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure. I just built a new system with the ASUS A8N-SLI
series motherboard.


Ok but it begs the question, why did you pay for a 3500
then, instead of saving some $ and buying a lower speed?

The big question is how long you need the system to last.
The CPU shouldn't fail any year soon, but the motherboard
can be an issue if you have poor case cooling such that it
runs hot. Some would just improve the cooling then, if
applicable, BUT it's your call, if it's fast enough
downclocked.


The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3500+, which is supposed to run at 2200 MHz,
but the AMD diagnostics report it is actually running at 2254 MHz.
The family/step model is 15.47.2. The memory bus speed is 200 MHz
(which I find slightly puzzling, since I purchased 400 MHz DDR
memory).

What you purchased should not have been called 400MHz DDR
memory. It is PC3200. The bus speed clock rate is 200MHz.
It's DDR as-in "double", so 2 * clock-rate = 400. Even so,
it is not called DDR400 memory and you should beware of
those selling it as such as they demonstrate an inability to
use normal terms, you might buy who-knows-what when dealing
with someone who uses unconventional terms.

HT0 frequency is reported as 1000 MHz, HT1 and HT2 frequency
are both reported as 200 MHz. I am running Win2K, in case that makes
any difference. (Will upgrade eventually…..) The BIOS is
Phoenix-Award BIOS, v6.00 PG.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And
also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the
memory bus running at the right speed?

The memory bus is fine (based only on info provided, you
should test it with memtest86+ now, AND after any changes to
the bios or memory population in the system).

To reduce the clock rate 10% it's simple enough, just lower
the FSB speed to the nearest value allowed in the bios.

However, the benefit you seek is not so much from lowering
the speed, it's from lowering the voltage. Speed doesn't
kill the parts in any reasonable timeframe, it's the
power-heat that would. While speed reduction does reduce
power & heat, not nearly as much as voltage reduction does.

So, the best result comes from lowering the voltage a little
and then lowering the speed only so much as necessary to
retain stability. That's a bit oversimplified, but we dont'
know exactly what your bios allows, nor what voltage will
allow running any particular speed stable... too many
variables to delve far into any further detail. You just
have to try it, know where the clear CMOS jumper is, and
stress test it afterwards. Prime95's torture test is good
for this, run it for a day or two but usually errors pop up
in the first complete pass.

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:59:46 +0000, Steven O. wrote:

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure. I just built a new system with the ASUS A8N-SLI
series motherboard.

Underclocking your system won't make it last one minute longer. Your OS
already runs your A64 at 1GHz about 98% of the time unless you are putting
a continuous heavy load on your system. AMD calls this feature Cool and
Quiet. When the system is lightly loaded the core voltage and clock speed
are automatically reduced by the OS which reduces the power consumption
and heat production of the CPU. When the OS detects that you are running a
compute bound task it raises the core voltage and clock speed to allow
that task to be completed faster. When the CPU load goes down again the
clock speed is automatically reduced. Most of the time your system is
doing almost nothing, it's just sitting there waiting for you to do
something. If all you are doing is web browsing or using an editor you'll
hardly ever run your CPU at full speed. Even if you are doing Photo Shop
or something like that most of the time the system will be idle, when you
execute a filter the CPU will run at full speed but as soon as the filter
is done the OS will drop it back to the low speed. Games might put enough
load on the system to push the CPU to full speed, but if you were the kind
of person who runs games 10 hours a day you wouldn't be asking about
underclocking, you would be more interested in overclocking. However even
if you were running games all day long the system is designed to handle
it, you won't burn out your CPU unless you have a seriously inadequate
cooling system.

wrote:
Steven O. wrote:

snip
I'm wondering why. Reducing cpu speed wont reduce odds of hardware
failure to any useful extent, not unless its currently on the edge of
overheating.
snip
just look around the bios menus and see, it should be clear enough. Its
either multiplier or fsb that changes, preferably multiplier. Cant
answer more directly because different bios menus use different terms
and different nav trees.


NT

I have to totally agree, now some people do under clock but it's mostly
for noise, or battery life. If someone is underclocking for heat, then
I must say they need better system fans, as at that point your
harddrive is probably going to be reduced in its life span.

For me I hate an Idle system, even if I am surfing the net I like my
machine's to run full tilt, ie that means a DC client. Some people
might complain that it uses more enegry, my thought on that is start
recycling, sell your suv, ride a bicycle, those are all better ways to
conserve enegry. Or heaven forbid turn off your AC, if a person is that
worried about extra use of enegry on their PC. I also see it the
reverse, if your using only a part of your cycles to surf the net, read
email then you are really wasting the potential of what your cpu can
do.

Gnu_Raiz

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:59:46 GMT, Steven O. wrote:

I know almost everyone out there wants to make their CPU faster, but
I'd rather slow mine down just a tad - less stress on the system, less
worry about failure. I just built a new system with the ASUS A8N-SLI
series motherboard.

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3500+, which is supposed to run at 2200 MHz,
but the AMD diagnostics report it is actually running at 2254 MHz.
The family/step model is 15.47.2. The memory bus speed is 200 MHz
(which I find slightly puzzling, since I purchased 400 MHz DDR
memory). HT0 frequency is reported as 1000 MHz, HT1 and HT2 frequency
are both reported as 200 MHz. I am running Win2K, in case that makes
any difference. (Will upgrade eventually…..) The BIOS is
Phoenix-Award BIOS, v6.00 PG.

Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And
also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the
memory bus running at the right speed?

I hope it's clear to you now from other posts that your memory bus is
running at the correct speed.

For the CPU what you want is to enable Cool 'n Quiet in BIOS which allows
the CPU speed & voltage to vary according to load; also Asus' BIOS has a
feature they call Q-Fan which allows you to set a corresponding target CPU
temperature below which the CPU heatsink fan will slow down. To get the OS
to cooperate with the CnQ setting in BIOS, you'll also need to download &
install the Cool'n'Quiet CPU driver from
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...1_9706,00.html
and then in the Win2K Power Options Control Panel, there'll be a tab called
AMD Power Now where you can choose to have the system adaptively set the
CPU speed according to the load. This makes for a nice quiet, power
efficient system which only works hard and produces significant heat as
needed.

--
Rgds, George Macdonald

"Wes Newell" wrote in message
news:KZZug.5606$Ss2.2692@trnddc01...
On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:59:46 +0000, Steven O. wrote:

The memory bus speed is 200 MHz (which I find slightly puzzling, since I
purchased 400 MHz DDR memory).

No, you purchased PC3200 ram, which has a rated bus speed of 200MHz,
400ddr. the 400MHz they use to advertise is just more marketing BS for the
people that don't know any better.:-) Just like Intel Intel and their BS
FSB speeds. The data rate for PC3200 ram is 400Mbps per line, or as some
put it, 400MTs.

Yes I always find this confusing.but if it 200 and tranfering twice the
data per cycle it is 400 effectively.
And where did the mysterious 3200 number come from, some sort
of trick to make you think it is running at 3200MTs? which incidently
is twice my FSB speed so it would fit in with the double bit.



Can anyone tell me what settings to change in the BIOS to get the CPU
running just about 10% slower, without mucking anything else up? And
also, should my memory bus speed be 400 MHz, instead of 200 MHz -- and
if so, can anyone tell me what BIOS settings to change to get the memory
bus running at the right speed?

200MHZ is right for the memory bus. If your MB supports multiplier
control, you can lower the multiplier by 1. If not, you can lower the FSB
if your board allows that. If you can do neither, then you are screwed
unless you want to use CnQ to do it, which is probably the best way to do
it anyway. My 3000+ runs at 800MHz most of the time. When cpu load exceeds
5% it jumps to 1800MHZ and when cpu load goes over 80% it goes to full
speed.


What machine is that a Sempron 3000? I have one of those, so
will mind do the same and can I 'see' it doing it?
(Display it somehow)


--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm