EDIT: <<<<HELP ME OC MY XP1900!>>>>

[GrimReefer]

I just picked up a P4 2.4ghz 533fsb chip with a MSI 845G MAX-L, it came with the standard stock HSF but I wanna overclock it. I have never overclocked before so this Padawan is now seeking out the help of the OC Jedi Council (you guys). Please instruct me in the dark art of overclocking. Tell me what heatsink/fan I need to get, how to set the FSB and voltage in the bios, anything I need to know to get this thing up a few hundred mhz. How high do you think I could get this thing using only air cooling? I have a pretty damn sweet case for it as well, the Antec alienware case with a bunch of intake and exhaust fans. Thanks-

Grim

 

[Duvie]

Well you need to list p4 chip specs....List numbers on white label of retail box or numbers on the heatspreader of the chip....

If it is a newer packing date chpi it chould do "couple hundred mhz easy"...

I am not sure of the quality of theretail hsf for a 2.4ghz...I mean I don't know if it is beefed up from the 1.6 and 1.8 retail hsf's I hav seen...

Otherwise...Get an Alpha 8942 heatsink and a high cfm (around 45-50cfm) 80mm fan and you will be set...

Aircooled with some of these newer chips are getting to 3ghz and sligthly beyond...

 

[GrimReefer]

so how do I overclock it? What are the steps I need to do?

 

[Duvie]

First p4 ocing is all fsb as the multilpier is locked and no simple way to bypass it like the athlons...

First set the ram memory ratio to 1:1 and use default settings for ram timings....Ram ocing is pretty much tweaking and should come after you identify cpus limitations.

Secondly, lock agp/pci bus if available in the bios...

Thirdly, move the fsb up in small jumps and each time test to make sure it post, loads windows, watch vcore and temps, run some sandra benches, and prime95 test it for 1 hour....

keep climbing in fsb until the processor errors out in prime95 and then boost the vcore +.025 or .05 (whatever the smallest increment your board allows)

Keep going until you reach 1.65v-1.7v in actual voltage....This should be your safe limitation of vcore for a northwood p4...That means you need to use a monitoring program in windows that shows voltages and temps at both idle and load (during prime95 test)...

Once you arrive at cpu speed start playing with ram timings and ratios to find the best performance for you...test it with prime95 like above at each stage...You may have to jump back a few fsb to gain stability for use with lower latency settings and higher ram speeds with certain ratios...

Once you arrive at final speed...go ahead and prime test it for 12 hours...if it passes your set...if not back off 1 fsb or boosty .025v if you have it left...retest...


MSI are notorious for undervolting and reporting higher temps then other boards...

1) be worried if your temps are loading in the mid to upper 60's...cause you likely will have little room to keep climbing...

2) Follow the vcore as shown in actual volts in windows...the bios is often not wat is being delivered...

3)since MSI undervolts you likley may not have enough vcore boost to get to 1.7v let alone 1.65...what can I say MSI has their heads up their arses...May have to employ a wire mod to get more...May have to apply wire mod past a certain point anyways as crappy undervolting mobos like MSI will likely begin to have restart issues...


Get the new hsf and some Artic silver 2 or 3 thermal conductor....Come back here and list total system specs and chip specs (markings on cpu)...list OS used and list how much mobo is running temps and voltage wise for default speed and voltage only....This may help us get a better idea of what may be the limitation with this board.

 

[GrimReefer]

Duvie, thank you so much for taking the time to explain that to me. Very much appreciated. Ill let you know my final result once I get the parts in the mail and get it up and running.

Grim

 

[GrimReefer]

what is the best p4 overclocking board?

 

[Duvie]

Likely it is the asus p4b533, but you will need to use some dipswitch on the mobo to get the 3:4 ratio past 133fsb...a little hoakie to me, but it works...Asus mobos overvolt sligthly which I believe is an advantage unless you want to wire mod the chip...

The Epox mobo 4g4a is nice as well and only 102 bucks with bout same on board setup as the msi board you are looking at...Has 4:5 ratio with no extra fiddling to get it...However it undervolts slightly...I also think epox mobo are more picky with ram timings and may limit you faster with your ram then the asus mobo...I think epox has some work to do, to become as good as asus, but for the buck it will give you the bang!!!

 

[GrimReefer]

Jesus dude! I just looked at your sig, thats awesome! What kind of cooling/mobo are you running?

 

[Duvie]

I am running an alpha 8942 like I suggested with AS2 and a YSTECH adjustable 80mm fan that runs 3700rpm (32db, slightly more noticeable then the retail fan) and pushes 48cfm....Nothing special...Paid like 47.00 shipped for that combo...


I am running an epox 4bda mobo which is based on the older i845d chipset...It is likley holding me back a very slight bit...The ram pickiness pisses me off and the undervolting is annoying...It also reports higher temps then the asus mobos by about 4-6c....

I am think I am going to get the 4g4a since the 1.6 with its lower mulipler and thus higher fsb would work better with the 4:5 memory ratio at getting my corsair pc3200 to run 400+ mhz...The 3:4 ratio for me craps out at 162fsb as the board has restart issues with the ram past 430mhz ddr...The 4:5 would allow me to run at 428mhz ddr with my 171fsb....It has locking agp/pci bus as well...

 

[GrimReefer]

Right now I am overclocking my 1900xp (1.6ghz). I haven't touched the multiplier but I increased the FSB slightly to get it up to 1.65ghz. How soon will I need to increase the voltage and how do I know what its at right now?

 

[Duvie]

Well you have only gone like 4 fsb so you maybe able to go a bit more...

Get 2 programs...

1) get MBM5.1.9.1...this will monitor the temps and vcore...some mobos overvolt slightly ther as well as I have seen 1.74-1.78v from boards and 1.75v is default...Watch the temps closely. You are likely to be more limited with heat with an amd athlon setup then with a p4 setup...The athlon can raise the vcore up quite abit but the heat will start to be unbearable with modest air-coolong alone.

2) get prime95...run that test for atleast 1 hour and follow my instruction for ocing a p4, except watch the heat closely...

 

[GrimReefer]

do I have to buy these programs or can I download them from somewhere?

edit: can I play with the multiplier with a athlon xp 1900? Or do I have to pencil in some bridges? Also, how will I know when I need to increase the voltage?

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: GrimReefer
do I have to buy these programs or can I download them from somewhere?

edit: can I play with the multiplier with a athlon xp 1900? Or do I have to pencil in some bridges? Also, how will I know when I need to increase the voltage?

They're free, just google 'em. You have to unlock XPs, but its a bit more complicated than just penciling in a bridge. Just search on "unlocking XPs" either here or on google and you should get a few hundred hits. Keep increasing the FSB until its unstable, when it stops being stable (and your temps are still reasonable), its time to increase the voltage. You may need to increase vdimm as well as vcore.

 

[Gozu]

Originally posted by: Duvie
First p4 ocing is all fsb as the multilpier is locked and no simple way to bypass it like the athlons...

First set the ram memory ratio to 1:1 and use default settings for ram timings....Ram ocing is pretty much tweaking and should come after you identify cpus limitations.

Secondly, lock agp/pci bus if available in the bios...

Thirdly, move the fsb up in small jumps and each time test to make sure it post, loads windows, watch vcore and temps, run some sandra benches, and prime95 test it for 1 hour....

keep climbing in fsb until the processor errors out in prime95 and then boost the vcore +.025 or .05 (whatever the smallest increment your board allows)

Keep going until you reach 1.65v-1.7v in actual voltage....This should be your safe limitation of vcore for a northwood p4...That means you need to use a monitoring program in windows that shows voltages and temps at both idle and load (during prime95 test)...

Once you arrive at cpu speed start playing with ram timings and ratios to find the best performance for you...test it with prime95 like above at each stage...You may have to jump back a few fsb to gain stability for use with lower latency settings and higher ram speeds with certain ratios...

Once you arrive at final speed...go ahead and prime test it for 12 hours...if it passes your set...if not back off 1 fsb or boosty .025v if you have it left...retest...


MSI are notorious for undervolting and reporting higher temps then other boards...

1) be worried if your temps are loading in the mid to upper 60's...cause you likely will have little room to keep climbing...

2) Follow the vcore as shown in actual volts in windows...the bios is often not wat is being delivered...

3)since MSI undervolts you likley may not have enough vcore boost to get to 1.7v let alone 1.65...what can I say MSI has their heads up their arses...May have to employ a wire mod to get more...May have to apply wire mod past a certain point anyways as crappy undervolting mobos like MSI will likely begin to have restart issues...


Get the new hsf and some Artic silver 2 or 3 thermal conductor....Come back here and list total system specs and chip specs (markings on cpu)...list OS used and list how much mobo is running temps and voltage wise for default speed and voltage only....This may help us get a better idea of what may be the limitation with this board.

That's a very nice mini-guide you have here! Great work man. It will certainly help me as well when i get my new pc. 5 brownie points for you!

GrimReafer: You can find links tho those programs (and more) HERE

 

[GrimReefer]

I got my processor up to 1.70ghz, increased the voltage to 1.8 and Im still getting 28 degrees off the cpu after an hour of MOHAA.... it seems like when I try to go higher, then after post the comp freezes on a blue screen that has some winxp error message and says to restart the computer. The other thing that happens is xp will start to load and right before the login screen, the comp restarts and continues restarting everytime. Why is it causing errors like this even though my temp is 28 degrees?

One problem I've thought of is I have 1.5gb of ram in there right now, and I thought it was all 2700 but apparently I have been scammed. One of the dimms is actually 2100! Could that be holding me back? Im gonna pull that one out and keep the real 2700s in there. Do I have to tinker with any other BIOS settings? like the advanced tuneup section, spread spectrum, 4 way interleave? I have no idea what most of that stuff means so I just have been messin with each one, one at a time.

edit: also, do I have to clock the ram at 133 or 166? and do I have to change its voltage as well as the cpus?

 

[CrazySaint]

Try upping the vcore on your XP to 1.825 or 1.85, also try upping your vdimm a notch. Keep your mem ration at 1:1 as you don't get any improvement on XPs by running the RAM asynchronously. One other thing, if you haven't unlocked your CPU, then you've probably got the FSB set at 141 or 142, and if you don't have PCI/AGP lock (very few AMD boards seem to have that feature), you're running your PCI/AGP out of spec (71/36), which could be your problem. If your board has a 5/1 divider at 166, then you will probably need to unlock your CPU and decrease your multiplier, so you can set the FSB at 166 and enable the divider and put your AGP/PCI busses back in spec.

 

[GrimReefer]

How do I unlock the xp1900?

 

[GrimReefer]

what should I set the multiplier at then?

 

[Lonyo]

I got my XP 1900+ up to 1744mhz (145mhz fsp, not unlocked) not sure if it's stable as I didn't leave it for long because I don't really need to, and I have retail cooling, but it didn't seem to bad (mind you, I tried again this morning and Win 2k gave me a bsod, but I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, probably nothing to do with the processor)

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: GrimReefer
How do I unlock the xp1900?

Recent thread..

what should I set the multiplier at then?

Pretty much whatever it takes to get the maximum CPU at or near 166FSB. For instance, if your chip can do 1.8GHz, then you would set the multiplier at 10.5 (same as a locked 1600+) then the FSB at 171, for 1.8GHz.

 

[GrimReefer]

and by doing it that way the PCI buses will be in the right mode or something?

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: GrimReefer
and by doing it that way the PCI buses will be in the right mode or something?

Basically, yeah. At 166 with a 5/1 divider, the PCI/AGP busses will be exactly in spec, at 171FSB, they'll be close enough.

 

[GrimReefer]

So basically the only reason I can't get my system to run stable past 139fsb is because its throwing my pci out of spec? I've tried everything, voltage, check, cooling, check, bios options, check.... to no avail. I just ordered the XP Unlocking kit, so hopefully it will work when I lower the multiplier.

 

[GrimReefer]

So am I stuck at 139 until I can get it unlocked?

 

[Duvie]

Wow what POS pci card do you have that can't handle 35mhz??? Do you have a NIC card or a SBLive??

Hve we discussed whether or not your mobo has a 1/5 pci divider??

If so,definitely try the 10 multiplier with 166fsb, and I think you could be good to go another 100mhz past that....But you definitely have to get to that 1/5 divider...

If you don't have it...get a boad that does!!! Or try 12.5,13,13.5, etc...