Overclocking the DC and where to get the Increase

[kohan69]

Yes, ptr mentioned that he did, and he can no longer run at 200Mhz.

As in- if he turned off and swirched to either position, it will always tay overclocked!?

And remember kids, small "ns" numbers yield higher clockspeeds. Simple equation for SDRAM:

1000 / ns-speed = max rated speed

Example: 1000 / 8ns = 125Mhz

I can't remember where the whole 1000 thing came from, I assume it was from me cutting corners.

Are you referring to the memory timings?
PS; did anyone solder out and put in some better ram yet?

[quzar]

You'd have to be a robot to be able to do that. The rom chip has fairly large legs, but the ram's are tiny tiny tiny.

[kohan69]

You'd have to be a robot to be able to do that. The rom chip has fairly large legs, but the ram's are tiny tiny tiny.

or have a friend that fixes laptop hardware for a living

[Morph]

You still need some mad skillz. I know someone from GameTZ who MIGHT be able to do it. He's one of the best solderers on the US, but even then it'd be hella hard. You'd probably have to get the same RAM from the same manufacturer, and hope it's faster.

Lord knows if the DC will accept "non-standard" RAM. Hell, for some ungodly reason it might NEED 10ns RAM (couldn't understand why, though). So far, I have seen NEC, and Hyundai memory as main memory. Both 10ns. Again, it'd be much easier if we can find one with faster memory.

I actually suggest opening up a Rev2, and checking the main memory. It's the newest, it might also be the fastest.

[Morph]

As in- if he turned off and swirched to either position, it will always tay overclocked!?

as in, it no longer runs at 200Mhz, the setting doesn't even work any more. You do realize backtracking through this topic can answer many of your questions, right?

[Morph]

It's funny, I decided to look over my old DC motherboards, adn I found that my ODDBALL Rev0 has 9ns NEC memory for both GPU, Sound, and Main. Hm.

[kohan69]

I read all previous posts

btw, talking about old posts:

Once the OC is working, I'm gonna do some benchmarks vs a standard 200MHz DC and a standard OD'd 240MHz DC. I was thinking that, along with the Delicious Hardware Demo, I could also run Super Mario War, Quake 3 Arena, and Unreal Tournament all with FPS counter on and set on custom bot-matches to tax the hardware.

Wouldn't timedemos be more accurate since bots produce random behavior?

Also- did someone try measuring the voltages (IC 104 ?) while the dreamcast was
ON idle (system menu)
heavy load <25fps (shenmue rain, snes emu)

and overclocked ON idle (system menu)

and overclocked heavy load <25fps (shenmue rain, snes emu)

That could lead to some thing


and one another thing:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/sho...8&postcount=21

What textviewer has 'fixed font view' ?

is this it?

But why are you people bothering with all that stuff anyway? Seems very $#@!bersome. Instead of going to all the trouble of building your own power supply, wouldn't it be much easier to just replace the controlling resistor with a higher rated one to up the voltage? No muss, no fuss

I see his point, but wouldn't that increase the voltages to ALL components? May that have an unforeseen negative effect?
I doubt +0.05v could do any significant damage though.


~Peace Outside,
KoHaN

[kohan69]

It's funny, I decided to look over my old DC motherboards, adn I found that my ODDBALL Rev0 has 9ns NEC memory for both GPU, Sound, and Main. Hm.

Does it outperform the 10ns one? (benchies! )

Do you think 10ns + 9ns may be mixed, and will they bot run at 10ns?


I got some info on the voltmod - it is possible

the voltage is converted onboard from the 3.3v line
mod in the PSU's 3.3v line and u'll get more volts on the ~1.8v cpu line

[Morph]

I believe that that diagram came from a DCDEV member.

Also, I can try benchmarks, but I have yet to find a game with a frikking FPS counter. It is quite frustrating. Also voltage is not generate from the 3.3v line. DO NOT MESS WITH THAT! That voltage is used for the CPU I/O, and not as vcore.

Thats a sure way to blow a processor, mess with the I/O voltage. And the voltage is converted from (possibly), IC104, which generates the 3.3v, AND a 2v line (or was it 1.8v, can't remember), which might explain why the CPU can handle a 20% overclock as "standard" and not even flinch.

Also, I am not sure if that board even works. Its.....ODD.

[Morph]

Ya'll are gonna LOVE this.

I just purchased a Revision 0 Dreamcast. And it isn't just a Revision 0, it's a pre-launch DC. Manufacturing date is August 1999 (if everyone remembers, the N.A. DC release date was 9-9-99, and this console predates that by a month).

It has a heatpipe cooler. The SH4 is:


9E3, BP200, HD6417091R, Japan


Thats a revised SH4, something I've only seen from Revision 1 and 2's up til now.

But wait, it gets better. The GPU and sound memory are the usual Vanguard 8ns (125Mhz) chips. BUT! Get a load of the SYSTEM chips:


SEC Korea 928
KM432S2030CT-G8


8ns MEMORY!! This means the CPU and GPU memory have max clockrates before you're actually overclocking, of 125Mhz. Thats great news, because 133Mhz is just a stones throw away, and 150Mhz (300Mhz SH4), is only 25Mhz away for the both of them.

I HAVE to get a digital camera!