SPCR

StarfishChris wrote:Another point that I'll raise: any way to hide (not minimise) the main window without closing and running the shortcut? I often did this by accidentally clicking the tray icon. It's the only thing that spoils it slightly

I'm very sorry for not responding sooner. Been really busy lately...

Anyway, you can either just left-click the CrystalCPUID icon in the tray to pop up/down the window, or you can right-click the icon, and select "Hide Main Dialog" (or "Show Main Dialog", depending if the main dialog is shown or not).

Cheers,

Jan

I love this program- it has turned me from being an avid overclocker to an avid underclocker! I'm still using the stock hsf for my winchester 3000- though I have a freezer 64 on the way.

One thing though- my cpu fan never goes below about 3068 rpm- it will go up, but it won't go below that figure. I read some people's cpu fans go off alltogther- am I missing something- why won't my fan ever go down/off?

Most people use SpeedFan or fix the voltage themselves with a fan controller. I haven't actually used the stock fan but it should spin slower as the CPU cools - check your temps and make sure they're actually dropping.

Oh yes, they are dropping. I'm down to about 30 C now on my cpu- down several degrees from where it was. I'm not really complaining- my rig is pretty quiet now, and will probably be much more so when I get the freezer 64 in there.

Edit: I had to enable qfan in the bios- now the fan is ~1000 RPM. All is well.

The article talks about a few stability programs.

I have a question about what exactly is the technical difference of what a program such a prime95 vs. memtest86 are doing? How is it that a system could pass memtest86 yet fail prime95? What is the technical fundamental difference of how they are stressing the memory system?

Oliver wrote:The article talks about a few stability programs.

I have a question about what exactly is the technical difference of what a program such a prime95 vs. memtest86 are doing? How is it that a system could pass memtest86 yet fail prime95? What is the technical fundamental difference of how they are stressing the memory system?

memtest86 exercises the memory controller, CPU cache and DRAM by writing patterns to the memory and reading them back to see if there are inconsistencies. It runs its own operating system (Linux based?) and uses very little I/O. Any problem uncovered by memtest86 is likely to be due to memory / CPU / memory controller, and not due to drivers.

prime95 runs under Windows. The GUI is active, and you have tons of other drivers active while it is running. It is not an exhaustive test of the memory, but it performs lots of calculations and logic operations. So not only is a different area of the CPU being tested, you have interaction with tons of things that Windows does in the background.

I'd first test with memtest86, and only if that ran without errors, go on to prime95, then on to tests for the graphics subsystem (e.g. 3dMark05).

Oliver wrote:The article talks about a few stability programs.

I have a question about what exactly is the technical difference of what a program such a prime95 vs. memtest86 are doing? How is it that a system could pass memtest86 yet fail prime95? What is the technical fundamental difference of how they are stressing the memory system?

Sorry for the late posting.

My current computer (3000+ Newcastle/MSI K8N Neo Platinum) can run 24h of Memtest86 (or is it the plus version? can't remember) with a command rate of 1T set in BIOS, but Prime95 fails miserably after 30 mins or so. Bumping the command rate to 2T solves this issue for me.

Few weeks back when I exchanged one of my 512 MB sticks to a 1 GB stick, I successfully ran 70 hours of Prime95. I tested 1T, and Prime crashed in 30 mins.

Cheers,

Jan

Jan Kivar wrote:My current computer (3000+ Newcastle/MSI K8N Neo Platinum) can run 24h of Memtest86 (or is it the plus version? can't remember) with a command rate of 1T set in BIOS, but Prime95 fails miserably after 30 mins or so. Bumping the command rate to 2T solves this issue for me.

Few weeks back when I exchanged one of my 512 MB sticks to a 1 GB stick, I successfully ran 70 hours of Prime95. I tested 1T, and Prime crashed in 30 mins.

Cheers,

Jan

Try raising the memory voltage or use another BIOS.

Will cpuid work on dual core procs?

May the frequent voltage changes made by crystalcpuid or coolandquiet shorten the life of the cpu and the motherboard?

Mats wrote:Try raising the memory voltage or use another BIOS.

Good idea (raising voltage). I don't know what's the default voltage for memory in my motherboard (MSI K8N Neo Platinum), but when I set 2,6V in BIOS I managed to run Prime95 for about 4,5 hours. Furthermore, setting the voltage to 2,65V resulted in about ten hours. Seems that I'd need to go even higher, but I don't wish to overvolt my memories that much (spec'd for 2,6V).

I've tried with three different BIOS revisions, though I'm currently running with v1.5 (the latest is v1.7, IIRC). I'll try it some day, but I reckon it won't help.

Cheers,

Jan

Well the overclocking guys at xtremesystems.org can probably help you. I'd try up to 2.8 V, I think it could manage it. Can't promise though.

not sure if this'll help anyone, but nForce2 mobos are a big no no for CrystalCPUID (or any other multiplier changing program such as RMClock) as they can't change the multiplier. Just found out the hard way unfortunately

mattthemuppet wrote:not sure if this'll help anyone, but nForce2 mobos are a big no no for CrystalCPUID (or any other multiplier changing program such as RMClock) as they can't change the multiplier. Just found out the hard way unfortunately :(

Too bad you didn't read about it before. Have you tried 8RDAVcore?

Hi Mats, I know - picture me slapping my forehead and kicking myself up the arse at the same time when I found out

Just checked out 8rdavcore and it looks promising, except there's no auto voltage changed linked in with the autoFSB, so I'm not sure if there's all that much point underclocking the FSB alone Still, I've managed to undervolt the CPU by 0.1v and it idles quite happily at 50C with the fans at inaudible levels, so I guess there's no pressing need to fiddle with it more (except perhaps a more efficient HSF than the AC copper silent on there now) - what do you reckon?

I guess you're right, sounds pretty good to me.

I've never used nForce 2 anyway, but if you want to lower your idle temp
you should enable Advanced Chipset Features > CPU Disconnect Function in BIOS if you haven't done it.

my apologies Mats, I was completely wrong - 8rdavcore can dynamically adjust Vcore (and NB and DIMM v as well) at the same as FSB, I just didn't understand how the programme worked. I've now got 2 out of 3 settings tested; idle, 140Mhzx10 at 1.275v and mid-range, 166x10 (default) at 1.4v. Just have to sort out the overclocked settings and it'll be done. Top tip! Might pen a short article for this esteemed publication to save others the time

mattthemuppet wrote:my apologies Mats, I was completely wrong - 8rdavcore can dynamically adjust Vcore (and NB and DIMM v as well) at the same as FSB, I just didn't understand how the programme worked. I've now got 2 out of 3 settings tested; idle, 140Mhzx10 at 1.275v and mid-range, 166x10 (default) at 1.4v. Just have to sort out the overclocked settings and it'll be done. Top tip! Might pen a short article for this esteemed publication to save others the time :)

Good for you! But have you enabled CPU Bus Disconnect?

yep, though I don't think it kicks in as the CPU never gets down to 0% - I think the fact that I'm always running speedfan might be the cause

Will Crystal n Quiet work on VIA K8M800 motherboards?

can this be used with pentium-m or just athlon C&Q ?

my laptop came with a pre-installed toshiba's power profile manager which also sets how CPU clock changes. i dont think RMClock overrides it :/ will with program override it?

I use it this on my Aopen i855 Pentium M motherboard w/ a 1.5ghz 2MB Dothan processor. Works like a champ, stable too... it's my fileserver running Windows server 2003.

perplex wrote:can this be used with pentium-m or just athlon C&Q ?

my laptop came with a pre-installed toshiba's power profile manager which also sets how CPU clock changes. i dont think RMClock overrides it :/ will with program override it?

You're the best person to ask that question. Try it, though if RMClock doesn't work, Crystal probably won't either - at least, not till you work out how to disable it (Power settings in Control Panel?).

Jan Kivar wrote:My current computer (3000+ Newcastle/MSI K8N Neo Platinum) can run 24h of Memtest86 (or is it the plus version? can't remember) with a command rate of 1T set in BIOS, but Prime95 fails miserably after 30 mins or so. Bumping the command rate to 2T solves this issue for me.

Few weeks back when I exchanged one of my 512 MB sticks to a 1 GB stick, I successfully ran 70 hours of Prime95. I tested 1T, and Prime crashed in 30 mins.

Cheers,

Jan

I had the same problem with my system. The memory (Geil Ultra-X 2-2-2-5 200mhz) defaults to 2.7v but my motherboard undervolts slightly and overclocks the ram slightly (200 was resulting in 204). It was 40+ hours memtest stable but would bug out in 10 mins of P95. I fixed it by setting the memory to 2.8v (setting the memory divider to 166mhz also worked, or from 1T to 2T) but the memory is warranted to 2.9v.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but the CrystalCPUID software works fine with Opteron chips (maybe it didnt at the time of review?) I am using it to cut my Opteron to 1.0Ghz and 1.2v at idle.

I just read thru 3 pages of comments and not one word about which OS except "Windows". C 'n Q does not work in W98SE. Does this program?

Easy enough to find out... From http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/be_cpu.html

CrystalCPUID is CPU utility. Operating Environment: * OS : Windows Vista/2003/XP/2000/NT4/Me/98/95 x86/x64

As for CnQ, there are versions for every version of Windows back to the ME and for Linux.

It works perfectly on my a8n32, but there's something I did'nt figure out.

I have a shortcut in the startup folder, but it still requires me to switch on "multiplier management", and to "hide main dialogue". Any way to do that automatically?

kamina wrote:It works perfectly on my a8n32, but there's something I did'nt figure out.

I have a shortcut in the startup folder, but it still requires me to switch on "multiplier management", and to "hide main dialogue". Any way to do that automatically?

Instructions were in the SPCR article... Add /hide /cq to the target field in properties.

So it looks like:
"C:\Program Files\CrystalCPUID\CrystalCPUID.exe" /hide /cq

I guess I skimmed through the article too quickly...

Kiitos!