First Set of OC P4 2.4C Results and Thoughts

[Dunadan]

OK...I think I've got the basics down. Here is what I did with my new rig -

Rig -
P4 2.4C @ 3.0 GHz
Abit IS7
1 GB Crucial PC3200
Thermalright SP-94 HS + Thermaltake Smart Fan II

Settings -
FSB: 250
DDR400 (Ratio of 5/4)
Vdimm: 2.7
Vcore: 1.65
GAP - Off (won't boot with it on)

Ran 3DMark2001 and 3DMark 2003 and the CPU temp maxed out at 42.5C

Played Urban Terror (a Quake3 mod) for @ 45 minutes and the CPU temp maxed out at 51.5C

I had no stability issues running either of the above programs. Based on the temperature readings, I'd say that my little game of Urban Terror stressed my CPU way more than either 3DMark benchmarks.

Just for fun I tried to play Urban Terror with Prime95 running in the backround. After about 3 minutes my system crashed. Guess that wasn't the best test.

I was unable to get Memtest86 to work. For some reason my system wouldn't boot the floppy. Maybe I made the disk wrong.

Tonight I will try to stress the system playing some Halo. I will also try to run the 3DMark Benchmarks with Prime95 running in the backround. I did this the other night when I was oc'd at 2.7 GHz with no problems.

Any thoughts from you veteran OCers?

 

[Sunny129]

first of all, congrats on the overclock:beer:. 51*C is a little warm, but under stress it isn't bad at all. maybe you should try running prime95 by itself for 24 hours, instead of running it behind a game or other 3D benchmark. i mean honestly, i'd turn prime95 off while gaming anyways. i crunch SETI work units all the time, and i don't have to shut it off for games b/c i can set SETI priority to low. but also SETI is a bit less CPU intensive than prime95. i would just bench the system based on whatever realistic use is for you. i mean are you going to play games, do distributed computing, browse the web, and work in photoshop all at once on a regular basis? just b/c the system crashed while running urban terror and prime95 at the same time isn't grounds to say the system is completely unstable. i know with hyperthreading the most common train of thought is that it will multitask much better, but you have to remember that prime95 already takes up just about 100% CPU usage.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Dunadan

Just for fun I tried to play Urban Terror with Prime95 running in the backround. After about 3 minutes my system crashed. Guess that wasn't the best test.

Any thoughts from you veteran OCers?[/quote]

What about Prime95 by itself. I would suggest letting it run by itself (well, you can surf the net and do other stuff but no games) for at least an hour. It should just keep running by itself and never crash (you will notice it's icon in the clock tray will turn from red (active) to yellow (inactive) if it fails an iteration).

If you fail even one Prime95 run, then that means (IMO) your system isn't 100% stable (and the crashing in a game proved it). I can play games stably @ 3.3 Ghz, but Prime isn't stable above 3.1 GHz.

The first thing you should do is up the voltage. You're probably running at stock (1.525V) which heavily undervolts on our Abit motheboards. Up the voltage to 1.6V, which will give you about 1.55-1.56V actual (which is what 3.0 and 3.2 chips use anyways). That should get you prime stable.

If not, I'd go up to 1.625 or *maybe* 1.65V in the BIOS but I would strongly recommend against it if you are using the stock cooler, especially since your temps are so high already. I'm at 37C load at 3.1Ghz!

If that doesn't work, and you still have prime crashing at 1.625V, then I would back off the o/c a tad. Try ~2.9 Ghz or something like that.

 

[Dunadan]

Thanks guys.

I'm not too hung up on it crashing with Prime95 while gaming. It was more of a test. I figured that would happen, but just wanted to see it.

I normally just play games and mess around with benchmarks. I'll do other things while playing (surf the web, email, etc.) but nothing major.

I've got Prime95 running as we speak on the "torture test". By the time I get home it will have been running for 4 hours (if it runs continuously). If there are no errors I will assume what I have is stable. Then I'll up the voltage as recommended and give 270 FSB a shot.

Can anyone give me any insight into this "torture" test? What should I expect from the results. If I pass or if I fail?

I'm definatly keeping any eye on the temps. They stay lower if I keep my CPU fan on full blast. I'm not using the stock HSF, but instead a Thermalright SP-94 + Thermaltake Smart Case Fan II. It's just real loud, so I don't tend to have it up full blast.

I'll post the results of my torture test when I get home.

 

[Dunadan]

Prime95 torture ran for 4 hours this afternoon in blended mode. Then just ran for 20 minutes with Small FFTs. All tests passed. Time to up FSB and voltage to test 3.2 GHz.

p.s. How do I get a second instance of Prime95 going? What command prompt do i type the command in? Do I need to open a dos prompt? If so how? No really

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I'm back....tried to up the FSB to 270 (5:4 ratio), Vcore to 1.60 (then 1.625), Vramm to 1.65 (then 1.70) and I couldn't boot windows. I got the screen that says "We are sorry, but...". I lowered my FSB to 260 and got the same thing. I selected Load Windows as Normal at this screen and got into Windows. When I tried to reboot howeve I got the blue. Lowered my FSB back to 250 and Windows popped right up.

I guess this means I can't go past 250 FSB?