a penny for your thoughts.

[FriedRiceBob]

here's my scenario:
Epox 8k5a series mobo
AGOIA 1600+
This Coolermaster Heatsink.
I cannot seem to get stable 166x10.5 operation, i have had to push vcore to 2.00v. Prime95 keeps erroring out, but it completes more loops with each voltage increase: at stock voltage, it errors on the first; at 2.00v it errors after 4. I am reluctant to push the voltage much higher, as my load temps are already up to 59 before prime95 errors out. beyond that i have a GC68 HSF unit that i might try instead of the coolermaster, do you think this will help me reach my stable 166x10.5 goal?
EDIT: Furthermore, do you think i should increase vcore anymore, or only if i get some better cooling first.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

What Ram are you using Bob? Have you tried bumping the Vdimm alittle? Are the timings by SPD? What week AGOIA?

 

[FriedRiceBob]

Currently the Samsung 2700 DIMM is opperating under SPD, and i did bump Vdimm up to 2.6, resulting in 2.65 actual, however i may try more.
I will get the week information if and when i switch to the GC68 heatsink

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Actually it all looks good Bob and you shouldn't need that kind of Vdimm to run that RAM and your temps aren't that bad even@2v as I used the GC68/52cfm fan/ASII with the 1600+ AROIA@166fsb on a 8K3A and the load temp was as high as 66c but still stable so the only real suspects left are if the CPU is just a dud by AGOIA standards or your PSU isn't cuttin' it. What do the voltages look like in the bios? are all the lines strong and close to spec? any fluctuating substantially? Look at that and if they all look good then it may be the CPU.....

 

[FriedRiceBob]

PSU: Antec 350W power supply
The 5v rail fluctuates down to 4.75 and up to 4.84 under load. that is read from MBM5. Beyond that, power is spot on, and i wouldnt think that said power fluctuation is terrible, but i have been wrong before
EDIT: also, the system is mainly stable, only Prime95 errors out, and then only once temp climbs from the 49 idle up to 58 or 59, so i have the cpu isolated as the wrench in the mix.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I think your right Bob, and if the system isn't flakin' out on any of the games or apps you run then I would say pi$$ on the torture test errors

 

[Jeff7181]

Sounds to me like it's getting too hot... hot "wires" don't conduct electricity as well as cold ones. Increasing the voltage probably overcomes that extra heat for a while, then it heats up even more, and more voltage is required to overcome the resistance in the "wires" created by the added heat. You can increase the voltage more, but the problem with that is that you'll just create more heat... not to mention the fact that increasing the voltage causes the logic gates to break down a lot faster and your CPU will have a shorter life.
Try running at 10x166 and see if it's stable. If that won't even work, then your 10.5x166 goal looks too high.
I think from what I've read, Palomino's don't like 166 Mhz FSB's... that's more in the Thoroughbred territory.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Season's Greetings Jeff7181 you may well be correct that it's heat related instability since it's nigh impossible to say what the true core temp is but I and many others here have had locked 1600+ Pallys in the high 170's to low180's fsb, particullary the AGOIA stepping so I can assure you it's not just t-bred territory

 

[DAPUNISHER]

BTW, have you ever noticed it's a penny for your thoughts but you have to put your 2 cents in? Somebody's makin' a penny!

 

[loafbred]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Season's Greetings Jeff7181 you may well be correct that it's heat related instability since it's nigh impossible to say what the true core temp is but I and many others here have had locked 1600+ Pallys in the high 170's to low180's fsb, particullary the AGOIA stepping so I can assure you it's not just t-bred territory

I think it's the quality of good KT333 and newer motherboards making the difference. Since most are buying new cpu's when they buy new motherboards, we're not reading about many older T-Birds and XP's running high fsb on newer boards. While I was unlocking my XP, I put my old T-Bird 1.2 in my Epox KT333 board, and it ran 166 fsb all day without a problem. And speaking of temps, when I had that 1.2 T-Bird running 1.4 GHz w/1.85v core in my Asus A7V133, it read 44* at idle. In the same case/cpu cooler with the Epox board, it read 36* at idle.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
BTW, have you ever noticed it's a penny for your thoughts but you have to put your 2 cents in? Somebody's makin' a penny!

The government takes the other penny