Asus P4B533-E or Asus P4B533-V or Epox 4G4A+

[snicky]

hi, I currently have

P4 1.6A (batch 1/25/2002 costa rica) @2.24 1.725v
Epox 4BDA+ running at ddr200, wont boot on ddr266
2x256mb Kingmax DDR333 @2.8v
Asus 7700dlx 32MB
SB Live value
dlink 538tx
maxtor d740x.

but its not that stable it sometimes freezes on bootup or the first few minutes of use. I burned in it for 8hrs already using prime95 & sisandra 2002 its ok. I'm not sure which one is the culprit, although i can boot to 2.4 but the temp is too high 60c idle & not stable. My room temp is around 35C & cpu temp is around 48C idle - 57C Load.

My options are:
1. change to water cooling of CPU
2. change the P4 1.6A to a new one
3. change the memory to 512MB Samsung DDR333
4. change the Motherboard to Asus P4B533-E, -V or Epox 4G4A+
- which one of the 3 is the better? heard all the good stuff & bad stuff but I need to use raid ports coz I have to 2 writers & dvd drive & 2 hd. dont want to spend add'l on pci raid controllers.

I want to try & clock my system to 2.4 or higher, stable & be able to make my fsb using the ddr333 or ddr400 value. I don't have the luxury to buy & change the whole stuff. please advise. thanks.

 

[Rkonster]

People have been getting better results with your board. Seems to perform better than the newer 4G4A+. From what you are saying, I am thinking that it might be the processor.

 

[oldfart]

You have a good board already. You may have a dud of a CPU, ram or both. The later date CPU's seem to be better overclockers. 2.24 GHz @ 1.725V does fall a bit into the "dud" area. A new mobo wont help that. I run the same board, 1.6A @ 2.4 GHz, 1.65 Vcore, Samsung PC2700 @ DDR400. Finding ram that will do DDR400 is a bit difficult. People getting new Samsung rev "D" are not having the same success as the rev "C" mem.

 

[snicky]

So you would recommend that I change my 1.6 to a new one? What batch is ok? The only available is from costa rica or phil. Would you recommend that I change my ddr memory to samsung ddr333? how about the temp? I think is too high, my room temp is around 32-37c & my case temp is around 38c. Would you recommend water cooling, coz a new shop just open which has all the neat stuff like cold cathode, case mods & other stuff. : )

 

[oldfart]

Those are some high room/case temps! My case temp is ~ 28 - 29C. Its hard to say. Overclocking is a crapshoot. You may get a better CPU, you may not. There are no sure bets. The Samsung PC2700 is good, but again, people who have recently got the rev D stuff are not hitting DDR400 like the rev C did.

 

[ScorpioNv]

Samsung PC2700 is dead. Pick up some PC3200 for the same price as the "legendary" NewEgg Samsung stuff.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: ScorpioNv
Samsung PC2700 is dead. Pick up some PC3200 for the same price as the "legendary" NewEgg Samsung stuff.

From where? Newegg?

 

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: oldfart
Those are some high room/case temps! My case temp is ~ 28 - 29C. Its hard to say. Overclocking is a crapshoot. You may get a better CPU, you may not. There are no sure bets. The Samsung PC2700 is good, but again, people who have recently got the rev D stuff are not hitting DDR400 like the rev C did.

Who says that ? I have the newer Samsung DDR 333 memory with "D" and i am running it at DDR 435. Can the old "C" even reach DDR 425 or 430 ?

 

[oldfart]

Yeah, I saw your post. Nice overclock. Very confusing. There are people who got DTL that cant get past DDR366. There is obviously more to the CTL/DTL story.

 

[GRIFFIN1]

I just got an EPOX 4G4A+ and P1.6A bundle from mwave, and it's running fine at 2.4 GHz at the default voltage. The only snag I encountered while trying to get windows installed was with the philips acoustic edge drivers. My problem was solved when I realized that I have a Santa Cruz card in here. I'm still feeling like a dumba$$ over that one.

 

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: oldfart
Yeah, I saw your post. Nice overclock. Very confusing. There are people who got DTL that cant get past DDR366. There is obviously more to the CTL/DTL story.

I think that i was lucky to get the first batch of "DTL" from Samsung. The original DTL was supposed to be DDR 400 chips. But for some reason, Samsung has delayed DDR 400 right now. So it could be that i got one of those DDR 400 chips underclocked at DDR 333 ?

Right now, on Samsung datasheets, they say the "DTL" is DDR 333 (not DDR 333) so it could be that now they are just using the standard DDR 333 chips for that and are now saving the better chips since they are going to realease DDR 400 soon (isnt that November 02 ? )

PS: I got my chip from newegg and according to newegg's order, my chip is supposed to be "CTL" (it says CTL on the invoice) but the actual chip is "DTL". Even i was pissed the day i got it (and was more pissed for about 1 week - burn in process - as it wont cross DDR 375) but after 1 week, i tried again and voila.....ddr 426 and up up and away (i was actually going to return this chip and ask for the "CTL".........glad that i gave it one last try)

 

[oldfart]

What exactly did you do for a one week burn in?

 

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: oldfart
What exactly did you do for a one week burn in?

i think that i was running it at 150 FSB with 4:5 memory ratio for that week (DDR 375) max i could go......i was not happy though. Next weekend, i tried again on overclocking and it went up and up and up.....seemed like no stopping it......

right now....it seems like i have hit a new limit of DDR 435 (163 fsb with 3:4 memory ratio). It wont run 3:4 at 165 fsb stable yet (DDR 440)....(giving it 2.700 v.....so still in spec). I will keep it running at 435 for like 1 more week and then see if it will go any higher next week. i dont expect anything more out of it though but if still has some juice left in it, i am gonna suck it outta this stick

PS: Samsung specs say 2.500v +/- 0.200v.......so that makes the range of voltage from 2.300 - 2.700 v. I think max i will go is 2.800v on this thing just to see its upper limit and then see if it will do it at 2.700v