SPCR

Just registered to say thanks to Jan Kivar for an excellent article. I decided to have a go with CrystalCPUID and it payed great dividends in terms of reduced heat and fan noise.

I am using a laptop, Aspire 1362WLMi, AMD Sempron 2800+ (SMN2800BIX3AY). The default Cool 'n' Quiet steps were 800MHz @ 0.95V and 1600MHz @ 1.4V. It is now running 800MHz @ 0.8V and 1600MHz @ 1.075V. Seems stable at both speeds, though they've only been checked under Prime95 for a couple of hours. Under normal use, the temperature is so much lower that the fan is now off for most of the time; nearly as good as a new machine .

My only concern is that if the CPU falls over through undervolting, I won't be able to reboot without resetting the CMOS (there's a warning on this at the start of the article). As it's a laptop, I really don't want to have to dismantle it to reset. Can anyone reassure me how likely this is? I'm hoping that a straightforward reboot would be enough to unlock a frozen system (I haven't set CrystalCPUID to begin on startup).

I think this Sempron has two speed steps by default; would it be possible to run with three steps, having the multipliers set at, say, 4, 6, and 8? It appeared to work with three steps at different voltages, but with the same 8 multiplier on the higher pair of voltages. Just don't want to fry it if it's not supported.

Lastly, great forum! Wish I'd found it earlier.

My only concern is that if the CPU falls over through undervolting, I won't be able to reboot without resetting the CMOS (there's a warning on this at the start of the article). As it's a laptop, I really don't want to have to dismantle it to reset. Can anyone reassure me how likely this is? I'm hoping that a straightforward reboot would be enough to unlock a frozen system (I haven't set CrystalCPUID to begin on startup).

You should be OK. If Vcore is set too low in BIOS, then you will have to reset CMOS, but CCPUID is software-based (as is CnQ, apparently) and if you set it not to run at startup it should have no effect and you can just increase Vcore until it stops locking up.

Thanks for reply. Perfectly stable after few days now, anyway. Can't believe how much quieter the fans are. Worth doing just for that, and if I get a bit more battery life then that'll be a bonus, but haven't done any comparisons yet. Hope more people can benefit from this workaround, it deserves to be better known.

Ok so this thread is over a year old now, is CrystalCPUID still the one to use?

2) Does anyone know if its ok with X2 cpus on an A8N32-SLI motherboard?

3) Am I right in thinking that I can have overclocked settings in the bios then run CrystalCPUID to lower it when I idle, but when I want to run a game 100% then CrystalCPUID will just revert back to my bios settings rather than having to program in the same overclocked settings to CrystalCPUID? (does that make sense?)

Thanks a lot

As I hope you have found out by now, you will have to program crystal to overclock as well as underclock, if that is what you are after. It won't do it on its own.

I've been using for years CrystalCPUID. It's a good utility, but it has its drawbacks. It don't work with every motherboard or processor. Now I prefer RMClock, it's more powerful and with AMD Athlon64 makes a maravellous couple.

Currently my A64 X2 3800+ (s939) stepping E6 is working at 1,25V (real) with 2,5GHz clock with absolute stability, and its peak heat dissipation is negligible. I use at the same time CnQ and I don't have any problem. My MB is Asus A8N SLI DLX.

My idle temp is 27C and load temp with SnM (100%) is 49C. Amazing!

I also prefer RMClock. The GUI is more organized and cleaner than CrystalCPUID's, it displays speed and battery condition in the system tray, you can set it to automatically minimize to the system tray during startup (couldn't figure out how to do this w/CrystalCPUID), and it's very lightweight as well, the installer is only ~350k. IMHO it runs circles around CrystalCPUID.

hi all

i'm currently trying to find out the lowest voltage for my a64 3200 venice and have so far gotten to 0,900 (for 5 x 110 - the cpu is slightly oc-ed with all voltage settings in bios on auto, no messing with these - just the fsb), which is fine with prime95, no crashes, no errors

one thing bothers me, tho - crystal and cpu-z and everest all show the voltage at 1,25, the default for 1000 mhz

i thought that any of these utilities should be showing changes in voltage by now, and it's been some time i've been testing each step (starting down from default voltage)

am i doing sth wrong, or there is a thing i missed, or my mobo (asus a8n-e) is not cooperative, or my cpu is weird?

i haven't gotten to the final step of setting the three thresholds yet, but i believe the voltage setting should be shown by now to have changed

thanks in advance !

Ok so I've configured CrystalnQuiet however I dont understand the Interval Times, Up/Down Threshold nor the Option settings.

Can someone help me understand or give me some settings for a more aggressive approach?

amd 4600 x2
an8sli 32 deluxe

Welcome to SPCR!

Unfortunately, I'll have to leave it to others to answer your questions...

Thanks!

porschedrifter wrote:Ok so I've configured CrystalnQuiet however I dont understand the Interval Times, Up/Down Threshold nor the Option settings.

Can someone help me understand or give me some settings for a more aggressive approach?

amd 4600 x2
an8sli 32 deluxe

Like others have said in this thread, give RMClock a look. IMHO Crystal's no match for it.

And here's a good reading for RMClock starters.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. CrystalCPUID works great for me. I'm just looking for a little better of an understanding with the timing controls.

What I really need to know is what does the Interval time, Up Threshold, Down, Wait time and Dual Wait do?

Also the up and down options Min/MID -> MAX etc....

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this...

I noticed something with my X2-3600+ and the AMD K8 driver. Without the driver installed and CnQ set to disabled, the CPU idled at 53C. With the driver installed, the processor idled at 43C. Scythe Ninja passive.

I've checked the clockspeed and voltage, and they stayed at 2.0GHz and 1.05v throughout. Anyone has any idea what's happening?

BTW, I have not tried CrystalCPUID/RMClock's auto adjustment function yet.

Just want to say it's an execellent article - thanks.


Thomas

Have you guys heard about Phenommsrtweaker? Just like CrystalCPUID, this tool can be used to customize CnQ for K10 series AMD CPUs. It can also be used to set an automatic overclock for Phenom CPUs.