2.4C, P4P800 non-deluxe @ 266fsb Final

[Thor86]

Have another double! LOL! No seriously. You're points are valid, and taken into account, especially when I plan on purchasing my next board.

 

[cjsketchy]

Nice post Quackmaster. I hadn't really thought about it that way, and it seems very feasible. No doubt these boards will get better and better in the future.

Now, time to test 2.4c number 2. It's a 3312Axxx (costa rica week 12), so I really have no idea what to expect.

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: cjsketchy
Nice post Quackmaster. I hadn't really thought about it that way, and it seems very feasible. No doubt these boards will get better and better in the future.

Now, time to test 2.4c number 2. It's a 3312Axxx (costa rica week 12), so I really have no idea what to expect.

Hehe, good luck with Costa Rica!

 

[Slammy1]

Nice thread. I really have a stable point at 260MHz FSB on the 2.4 and HyperX PC3500. I didn't plan to overclock, but it's by far the most stable and best performing speed for my equipment and usage. I tried 266MHz, but I had a failure in Nascar 2003 that forced a hard reset. Everything looks good. My Sandra scores:
CPU Arithmetic 15309
CPU Multimedia 37174
Memory Bandwidth 10494
File System 32315
LOL. I only ran a single instance of Prime95 for a little over 8 hours. MemoryGold really seemed to heat the case up (10 hours on a warm day). MemTest did not run. I was told that I can get it to run by disabling legacy USB, but haven't tried. Cheers!

 

[Thor86]

Thanks! Nice overclock you got there too, post some bios info/settings and maybe we can get you to 266fsb as well and have Nascar run. I haven't had a chance to run 3D benchmarks or games as I am waiting for my 9800 to come in, but I have been running two instances of Prime95 for over 24hours with this setup without any hiccups. Memtest is good for testing your memory and cpu cache memory, but that's about all, you really have to run it for at least a couple of hours if not more to really test stability at whichever settings. I have memtest run for a day, but still not Prime95 stable after a few hours. Go figure.

 

[cjsketchy]

Well, I'm hitting the exact same wall I did with my other chip, so I figure it must be the board. Also settling in at a stable, fast 260fsb for now. I think this is plenty of speed - but I want to try and max out my cpu. This evil voice inside my head will keep bugging me until I do. :evil:

Edit - noticed a new 1008 beta bios on the asus ftp, going to try it out

Quick Edit 2 - Same results, can't really tell the diff from 1007 without doing benchies

 

[Quackmaster]

Originally posted by: Thor86
Thanks! Nice overclock you got there too, post some bios info/settings and maybe we can get you to 266fsb as well and have Nascar run. I haven't had a chance to run 3D benchmarks or games as I am waiting for my 9800 to come in, but I have been running two instances of Prime95 for over 24hours with this setup without any hiccups. Memtest is good for testing your memory and cpu cache memory, but that's about all, you really have to run it for at least a couple of hours if not more to really test stability at whichever settings. I have memtest run for a day, but still not Prime95 stable after a few hours. Go figure.

Yeah, Thor's right dude. Hook us up with more details and maybe we can help you. I got the same Kingston etc too.

Originally posted by: cjsketchy
Also settling in at a stable, fast 260fsb for now. I think this is plenty of speed - but I want to try and max out my cpu. This evil voice inside my head will keep bugging me until I do. :evil:

Edit - noticed a new 1008 beta bios on the asus ftp, going to try it out

Quick Edit 2 - Same results, can't really tell the diff from 1007 without doing benchies

lol, the sicko performance seeker in us all just can never get enough MHz/bandwidth. It's only 'cuz I'm broke and can't afford another cpu that I don't go harder after more MHzs. As for the Bios, I'm still spooked :Q . I see too many people getting issues (over at abxzone.com) with the 1007s. I'm sticking with 1005 till there's a better consensus on what works for nearly everyone.

What blows me away is you buying two chips! I got too many bills/bachelor parties to go to/etc. This was a lot of money for me to spend right now, so I stressed on making sure I maximized bang for the buck. Getting luck and receiving a good chip just made it all the sweeter

cjsketchy & thor86, if either of you do try the "burn-in-then-undervolt" cpu thing, can you let me know your results (even if it's a month from now)? PM me if you do. I'm letting the heads at the Hardocp and abxzone(asusboards) forums know what's up with this. Most of 'em are still locked into the old OCing method of UP the voltage only, but I'm trying to find out how often this method works (plus it has far less chance of hurting the cpu). Maybe you could buy another 2 or 3 cpus and boards cjsketchy?

 

[Slammy1]

Hey, thanks for the offer to help. I think I'll stick with 260 just because it runs so stable. I've been running it for ca 1.5 weeks and the only probs I've had were when I tried other configs or settings. I'm definitely not the caliber of o/cer that you folks are, I just want the gratest stability. It's funny how it seems this board is most stable on a rather substantial o/c.

I didn't have much luck with MAM. I got a bit of a boost (a fair anount, probably the 2-5% you hear about). But memory speed and throughput are both important, and MAM deals with speed whereas o/c deals with throughput. That's probably a misunderstanding on my part, but I've noticed Sandra and PCMark2002 both give somewhat different results. I've done some 3D benching. I've stuck with a 345/380 o/c of my 9700 as HD drive performance starts to fall at anything higher. Anyway, here are the benchmarks and specs for my current config.

3dMark01 17967
PCMark2002
CPU 7613
Mem 9037
HD 1172
3dMark03 5965
Prime95 55-56C for 8 hr
MemoryGold for 10 hours no errors

Overclock: Manual (260 MHz = 3.14 GHz)
Performance Mode: Turbo
Memory Freq: 320MHz
Memory Accel: Auto
DRAM Idle Timer & Refresh Rate: Auto
Mem By SPD
Graphic Aperture: 128MB
Rage 3D o/c 380/345

Note: I did not over-volt memory or CPU, which I think is really great for a 30% o/c of the FSB.

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: Slammy1

3dMark01 17967
PCMark2002
CPU 7613
Mem 9037
HD 1172
3dMark03 5965
Prime95 55-56C for 8 hr
MemoryGold for 10 hours no errors

Nice scores!

Overclock: Manual (260 MHz = 3.14 GHz)
Performance Mode: Turbo
Memory Freq: 320MHz
Memory Accel: Auto
DRAM Idle Timer & Refresh Rate: Auto
Mem By SPD
Graphic Aperture: 128MB
Rage 3D o/c 380/345

Note: I did not over-volt memory or CPU, which I think is really great for a 30% o/c of the FSB.

Turn Performance Mode to Standard. You will get less stability with it on Turbo mode when your memory is at 320mhz. Doesn't make a performance difference, only instability when NOT using 1:1 memory ratio - ie: 400mhz memory settings.

Turn Memory Accerlation Mode to Enable, Auto is leaving it off. Set your Memory by Manual, and not SPD, and start with 2.5-4-4-8-8 timings. When you get stable Prime95 torture testing (min 24 hours), start tightening the memory timings and try and aim for 2-3-3-6-4, and boost your VDimm to at least 2.75. My Corsairs will only run at 2.75 (They are rated to run between 2.7-2.9 VDimm), and at 2.65 will not even boot Windows XP! You will not need 2.85 VDimm unless you are trying to run extremely tight memory timings - ie: 2-2-2-6/2-2-2-5, but I doubt your HyperX ram will run those timings at such high FSB speeds.

Try running your graphics card at default clock speeds until you get your system running stable first!

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

 

[Slammy1]

I'll play with it tonight (another weekend project). Well, I might have a hockey game tonight, and an all day concert on Sunday; but I'm sure I'll do something. I've had problems reading my memory speed and timings using CPU-Z and Sis Sandra, so I really don't know what my timings are when run by Spd. Big change from a 1GHz P3 to this system. Thanks for the help!

 

[Quackmaster]

OMFG d00d!!! I guess I shoulda read your sig, eh? didn't realize you were packin' that kinda hardware. Who cares about optimizing when your 3dMark score is nearly 18 thousand...?!?! Here I'm all happy 'cuz I'm gettin' ~16,600-17,100 depending on overclock (And still can't get good frames at 1600x1200 4xAAin UT tournament :| ).

I haven't even clocked my vid yet, too much fooling with the P4 and mobo. I do wonder tho are you at 8x AGP? And are your fast writes on? If so, that's great 'cuz a lot of peeps have been posting threads here and at every other forum I know regarding Radeon 9700 (pro & non-pro) problems. And they ALL seem to have different fixes, somtimes it's AGP 8x, sometimes it's mobo BIOS, somtimes it's just a friggin' pain in the rear requiring lots of troubleshooting :disgust:

My Radeon has been fine, but I see a lot of people spooked to even by them now. It's not like theres a lot of Geforce 5800/5900s floating around. Plus 9700s are WAY cheaper. I'm also curious about your being in turbo mode in lthe BIOS. Maybe you could test and see if your Sandra Unbuffered Memory Benchmarks are faster with turbo "off". Won't change your 3dMark, but might get your other scores up a little bit.

Ahh well, not like it matters since dat box 'o yours is supafast. Please tell me you game on something more vid intensive thatn Counterstrike with that thing? I'd hate to think that nice and pretty 9700 pro of yours is just sitting there bored or else I might have to come give it a new home

Hey, and one more thing, what are your temps like at idle and what's the ambient in humid Illinois? 'cuz in LA right now it's been ~70-75 the last three days (SWEET!!) and @ 3.3GHz with voltage at 1.525 in BIOS settings. The p4p800s have been notorious overvolters so far with my 1.525 really being measured as 1.536 in AsusProbe. Although that overvolting is small in mine, I've seen peeps with test gear (my dang B&K broke :| & I can't afford a Fluke ) measuring as much as 0.06 more volts (wtf?!? Like I need that done for me grrrr). With that voltage I'm getting temps in the 125-9F (53c) range under load with this cool ambient of 70F. Soon it'll be 90s again and time to drop to 3.2 or lower Okay, I'm gonna shut up now and crawl into this hole. Please post your temps

 

[Quackmaster]

Originally posted by: Thor86
Set your Memory by Manual, and not SPD, and start with 2.5-4-4-8-8 timings. When you get stable Prime95 torture testing (min 24 hours), start tightening the memory timings and try and aim for 2-3-3-6-4, and boost your VDimm to at least 2.75. My Corsairs will only run at 2.75 (They are rated to run between 2.7-2.9 VDimm), and at 2.65 will not even boot Windows XP! You will not need 2.85 VDimm unless you are trying to run extremely tight memory timings - ie: 2-2-2-6/2-2-2-5, but I doubt your HyperX ram will run those timings at such high FSB speeds. Try running your graphics card at default clock speeds until you get your system running stable first! Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

hmmm, it would appear I gotta not let the reply window sit open for 45mins or so before posting a reply without looking back at the webpage

I agree with EVERTHING he said except the memory part. TRY it just as Thor86 said, but be sure to bench in between RAM timing changes on the way to tight timings. I kept testing on mine, and it ended up being fastest and most stable when set to spd. Asus is saying we shouldn't run 4 of these kingston Hyper X sticks on the P4p800s, so that makes sense. Also, DO up the voltage on your memory. JEDEC spec'd RAM to handle 2.7volts. So any decent stick of DDR oughtta do just that. no problem. Mine NEEDS 2.75 in the BIOS to be stable, or else it crashes during many 3d games.

 

[cjsketchy]

Originally posted by: Quackmaster

Originally posted by: Thor86
Thanks! Nice overclock you got there too, post some bios info/settings and maybe we can get you to 266fsb as well and have Nascar run. I haven't had a chance to run 3D benchmarks or games as I am waiting for my 9800 to come in, but I have been running two instances of Prime95 for over 24hours with this setup without any hiccups. Memtest is good for testing your memory and cpu cache memory, but that's about all, you really have to run it for at least a couple of hours if not more to really test stability at whichever settings. I have memtest run for a day, but still not Prime95 stable after a few hours. Go figure.

Yeah, Thor's right dude. Hook us up with more details and maybe we can help you. I got the same Kingston etc too.

Originally posted by: cjsketchy
Also settling in at a stable, fast 260fsb for now. I think this is plenty of speed - but I want to try and max out my cpu. This evil voice inside my head will keep bugging me until I do. :evil:

Edit - noticed a new 1008 beta bios on the asus ftp, going to try it out

Quick Edit 2 - Same results, can't really tell the diff from 1007 without doing benchies

lol, the sicko performance seeker in us all just can never get enough MHz/bandwidth. It's only 'cuz I'm broke and can't afford another cpu that I don't go harder after more MHzs. As for the Bios, I'm still spooked :Q . I see too many people getting issues (over at abxzone.com) with the 1007s. I'm sticking with 1005 till there's a better consensus on what works for nearly everyone.

What blows me away is you buying two chips! I got too many bills/bachelor parties to go to/etc. This was a lot of money for me to spend right now, so I stressed on making sure I maximized bang for the buck. Getting luck and receiving a good chip just made it all the sweeter

cjsketchy & thor86, if either of you do try the "burn-in-then-undervolt" cpu thing, can you let me know your results (even if it's a month from now)? PM me if you do. I'm letting the heads at the Hardocp and abxzone(asusboards) forums know what's up with this. Most of 'em are still locked into the old OCing method of UP the voltage only, but I'm trying to find out how often this method works (plus it has far less chance of hurting the cpu). Maybe you could buy another 2 or 3 cpus and boards cjsketchy?

heh heh, yeah. Normally I wouldn't go this far to get a nice setup going, but I do have a bit of extra cash, so I indulge while I can. And I will sell everything I end up not using (on redflagdeals.com for all you canucks ). No more boards and cpu's for now - by the end I'll have gone through and tested 3 of each (I also tried out one of them 1700+ 1.5v chips, ended up killing the bios on the a7n8x though).

By burning it in then undervolting, do you mean running it at less than 1.525v while oc'ing it at the same time? I can't remember if the bios has options for anything less than 1.525 vcore, I'll have to check that out later.

 

[Quackmaster]

Originally posted by: cjsketchy
By burning it in then undervolting, do you mean running it at less than 1.525v while oc'ing it at the same time? I can't remember if the bios has options for anything less than 1.525 vcore, I'll have to check that out later.

My undervolting technique (on this, or any other of my past boards) has been thus-

Clock like crazy and up the voltage as neccessary.

after a few days with LOTS of burn-in period, keep the CPU overclocked, then begin dropping voltage. On some of my past boards I've had to do it in increments. More often I've just undervolted a little (like from say 1.6 to 1.55 in this case), and if it worked pretty good for a few hours, THEN just dropped back to stock voltages WHILE staying OC'd. Sometimes crashes occur, ("usually", I should say), but I just keep slowly upping the voltage again as though I was OCing it for the first time and didn't know what it could handle MHz-wise. Twice I've actually been so stable on the drop back down to stock voltage that I truly did run the cpu at lower than stock voltage. But most of the time I've still had to up the voltage, just not as high as the first time up the scale. Then I usually find the sweet spot to be less, and as a result have lower temps due to less voltage.

Example, I did just that method to my 2.4c and now I'm at 1.525 @ 3.3GHz with temps in the 125F to 129 F range (53c). Before this process I was at 1.55 or something like that (can't pop into the BIOS right now while I type ) with temps going from 128 to 133F.

And the BIOS does go to below stock, I ran at 1.475 for a few days, but eventually had to come back up (but at lower volts than before).

 

[Slammy1]

After Prime95 I was reading 55C with occasional 56C reading. Yes, I've been running Nascar 2003, UT2003, and Tiger Woods Golf 2002 (and a couple other less intense games). I can only get 1280X1024 on my LCD, so that's all I've been running at. Out of those games, the golf game runs hottest (57-58C). I've been running with the probe alarm set to 60C, and it hasn't gone off yet. I'm running stock fan and (gasp!) the thermal pad. Like I said, I wasn't planning to o/c, it's just so much more stable. I've noticed running by Spd seems the best on benchies also. No known probs with the AIW, in fact at 3.14GHz I haven't had any issues (at least since I took out the SBLive). I can get my 3dMark scores higher, but it starts messing with my HD transfer rates, if that's an issue. I run 8X AGP and Direct Writes all on. Maxed out displays at 1280X1024 on my gaming. And Cat 3.4 drivers and 1.005 then 1.007 BIOS. It's a -10 series card.

 

[Thor86]

Nice, those temps are about right with the stock hsf and themal pad. Install/crank up the case fans!

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: Quackmaster
My undervolting technique (on this, or any other of my past boards) has been thus-

Clock like crazy and up the voltage as neccessary.

I'll give it a go in a few days and see if there are any improvements to the cpu/fsb, and update this thread.

 

[Slammy1]

Originally posted by: Thor86
Nice, those temps are about right with the stock hsf and themal pad. Install/crank up the case fans!

I have 3X8cm fans (plus my PSU 2 fan). I really should mod my case to remove the grills.I was thinking about an SLK-900, but I need to get my time out of the retail fan. My understanding is that if you're going to use thermal grease, you need to do it before breaking in a thermal pad becase the paraffin seeps into the grooves and blocks the grease. One of those hind sight things. I'm going to try some of your suggestions, I'll let you know how it goes. Still can't run CPU-Z for some reason.

EDIT: Before I start, my vcore runs a stable 1.584. My light usage (internet surfing) is around 35C (temps cooler than in LA, let me tell you. This box does put out some heat. Typically I run only 1-2C above MB temp, so when I turn it on on a cool day it hangs below 30C until I do something to make the temp rise.

 

[Slammy1]

Well, I increased my VDIMM to 2.75, performance mode to standard, and MAM to enabled. Here are the benchmarks:

PCMark2002
Original New
CPU 7613 7590
Mem 9037 9220
HD 1172 1183

3dMark03 5965 5931

Sis Sandra
Original New
CPU Arithmetic 15309 15063
CPU Multimedia 37174 37203
Memory Bandwidth 10494 10455
File System 32315 32634

Only 1 significant difference in the PCMark2002 memory score. I think I might see if I can get stable with MAM and performance mode to turbo at 200FSB with the memory o/c.

EDIT: Turns out setting my VDIMM to 2.75 was the issue. I set it back to auto. I know I've read in a review that PAT is memory enhanced, but I guess it was wrong or I misread it. Still, not a huge jump.
PCMark2002
CPU 7603
Mem 9199
HD 1163

Sis Sandra
CPU Arithmetic 15420
CPU Multimedia 37233
Memory Bandwidth 10517
File System 33129

 

[Slammy1]

Well, I played around with your suggestions. The overvolting on the memory only came into play when I increased timings. I optimized at 260MHz, just because I've been running it stable for a bit. I gave up some, got something else, at this point it's all give and take for benchmarks. Prime95 is next, but I ran it some to make sure there were no errors (esp w/ Asus Probe). Here are my final specs:
Overclock: Manual (260 MHz = 3.14 GHz)

Performance Mode: Standard
Memory Freq: 320MHz
Memory Accel: Enabled
DRAM Idle Timer & Refresh Rate: Auto
Mem 2-3-3-6-4
VDIMM: 2.75
Graphic Aperture: 128MB
Rage3D 380/346

PCMark2002
CPU 7618
Mem 9592
HD 1190

Sis Sandra
CPU Arithmetic 15383
CPU Multimedia 37191
Memory Bandwidth 10785 (5346/5443)
File System 33456

AIDA32: 4890/1540

3dMark01 18310
3dMark03 5998

Prime95 46 min. no errors with WinAmp (Visuals), ATI TV, Task Manager, Probe (80-95% CPU usage, 56-57C)