Overclocking AMD 64 X2 3800+

Question

Hello all
Well, I'm curious on how high up you can clock the AMD x2 3800+ (E4 Stepping) cpu on stock heatsink/fan?
So far I was able to OC'd my x2 3800+ to 2.48 Ghz on stock heatsink/fan (the stock HSF is from the x2 4400 model, the one that comes with heatpipes).
So far my CPU OC'd temps are at Idle 25C to Load 35C (with the HSF that came with the X2 3800 stock settings Idle 35C Load 41C)
System temps goes from 33C to 40C which was the same readings with the old HSF.
I got the FSB at 248
             multiplier at 10x
             CPU Volts 1.48v (went up from 1.36v)
             DRAM/FSB 5/6 making the XMS RAM run at DDR412 2.0-3-3-7 1T  2.80v
             HT multiplier ??? since I can't find it in BIOS only the frequencey and Bandwidth, that's HTT I think....
I think I can go higher but my Corsair XMS memory might cause problems, since it's not known to OC well (stupid me didn't know that until I found this forum ).
So has anyone was able to OC'd their X2 3800 past the 2.6Ghz mark?
I'm new to this OC business so any ideas would be much appreciated.
Oh I'm afraid to give my CPU anymore voltage than what I gave it.  I really don't want to fry it cause I don't have money to buy another one.  I got a case that comes with a temp display and case fans speed displays so I can keep an eye on temps and the Core Center running to check temps  I've tried speedfan but it doesn't show my CPU or System temps only HD0 temp.  Don't know if it's due to having the MSI K8N Diamond Plus board?
Oh my case does have 3 fans running, one at front, one at back and one at the Side panel.
Alexander

Answer 1

The average overclock on the 3800 is about 2.5 Ghz stable.  You can get up to 2.7 which seems to be the max for the 4200 also but it is rare and requires 1.55 volts on the CPU and water cooling or better.  The voltage range for the 90nm CPU is 1.3 to 1.45 volts (Warranty Range), beyond that your taking a risk as your temperatures can run away very quickly and fry your chip.  (Explained below, you can read it or skip it as I tend to ramble on.)  As for temperature monitoring, get a program called MBM5 with a sister program "ShutDown Now!"  this will monitor your MB and CPU temps and do an automatic hard shutdown a the temperature you choose.  High temp for the 90Nm is 53C and 60 begins to damage it. 
As for your HT, look for something in the Core menu right under FSB that reads 5x and change it to 4x or lower.  (You want to stay around FSB x HT Multi = 800 to 1050)
Explanation for Temp:
Since your OCing a dual core, Ill explain a little bit further since it applies to us more.  The silicon your chip is made out of is a semiconductor, sandwiched with a conductor, an insulator, and then another core. (Dual core as explained to me.)  Anyway, as temperatures rise in the core from higher loads, the silicons conductivity changes relative to the temperature on an exponential scale.  On the flip side, as the chip gets hotter, the thermal conductivity decreases on an exponential scale and the chip will cool slower. So when you up the voltage you come closer to the point where your generating more heat than the silicon can disperse, and with an increase in voltage the electron bleeding between paths increases (causing errors) and more heat.  This is more important in Dual Cores because its a further path from the center of the chip to the outside, hence why Dual Cores seem to run cooler but in reality the temperature in the center is most likely higher.  If you overvolt and or let the temp get too high, the chip becomes similar to a nuclear reactor meltdown, where the damage is done before you even see a sign something is wrong, and poof.....off goes the computer.  Because the curve is relatively flat at the bottom, you have alot of leeway between 1.35 and 1.45 volts and in turn can have a large temperature range from 48 - 53 C.  But the curve dramatically rises past 1.45 V and you can quickly get out of control temperatures if you dont have the proper cooler.  This is also why you need to move to water cooling when getting up to 1.55 volts and a freon or colder cooler for just a few more volts on top of that (1.65 V at 3.0 Ghz 4200X2)  Ok thats the end of my ramble.