For all those who are getting AMAZING OCs with the P4 NW: Have you tried running Prime?! UPDATE!: I Found the problem!!!

[x86]

I have a P4 NW 1.8, TH7II-RAID, 1GB RDRAM, and a Retail Radeon 8500. I can get my system up to 2.4Ghz (133FSB). I have ran PCMark, 3DMark, Sandra, etc, without any errors, but when I try running Prime95 Torture Test, I get errors within the minute. I have tried everything including increasing the voltage and more fans. It seems that Prime is the most picky, and/or reliable tester out of all of them.

My question to the people who get 800+MHz OCs is: Have you ran Prime95 Torture Test for 24 Hours? PLEASE Give system specs.

Thanks

-x86

 

[Challenger]

@2320mhz 1.7v Prime95 will run for about four hours and give me a rounding error.@2240 1.7v Prime95 runs forever,otherwise @2320 no problems running anyother stress test infinitely

 

[Jumpem]

My 1.8A @ 2.4(1.66vcore) will run prime 95 for at least a couple hours. I'm going to get e better cooler before I let it go overnight.

 

[x86]

As I said I got up to 2.4, but I throttled it down to 2.25 (133) (1.75v). When I run Prime, it gives me an error after 10 minutes. Right now it's at 2.07 (115) (1.675), and it has been running Prime in the background of UT w/o any errors.

Does anybody know the reason??!?! Hints/suggestions?? I could it be the 1GB of RDRAM? Or perhaps the voltage is too low?

Thanks for your help

-x86

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

That's an impressive overclock as it is x86. I would be careful, especially pushing the Vcore over 1.65 volts. I realize at $133 it's not an expensive chip, but still...

 

[Jwyatt]

1.6@2.6 running prime in XP for 8 hours now. When in win 98 it errors (from heat?) after 4 or 5 hours.

As far as pushing the vcore. I have mine set to 1.725 or 1.75 cant remember, but in sandra it shows 1.63-1.67v So i feel pretty safe.

 

[Jwyatt]

BTW, what is my pci cycles at right now. My fsb is 163. Sandra doesnt show it on this machine for some reason. On my XP1700 it does show it.

 

[XBoxLPU]

System in my sig...


1.6500 Vcore in the bios

148 FSB and I can run Prime 95 for over 10 hours with no problems.

 

[Nate420]

P4B266, 1.6A, Crucial 256Mb PC2100

Ran Prime95 at 2.4Ghz(1.55V) for a little over 12 hours without error. The only strange things I've come accross stability wise was when I ran Prime95 and 3DMark2001SE @2.5Ghz with only 1.55V. It ran through the first game scene, and the low res part of the second game scene. Soon as the high res part of game 2 started it rebooted on it's own. Prime95 errored after about an hour. It also liked to lock up all together after about 10 mins of RTCW. I upped the Vcore to 1.6V and everything is silky smooth @ 2.5Ghz.

Personally, if all my apps and games run fine, and I can go several days or more without rebooting, I couldn't care less if Prime95 gives errors or not. That's where I'm at right now, every app and every game I have runs perfect, no lockups, no blue screens, ect.. If I run Prime95 tonight and it errors, I won't change a thing....The hell with it

 

[GrumpyMan]

If it runs everything with aplomb then it's a moot point, no?

 

[x86]

<< P4B266, 1.6A, Crucial 256Mb PC2100

Ran Prime95 at 2.4Ghz(1.55V) for a little over 12 hours without error. The only strange things I've come accross stability wise was when I ran Prime95 and 3DMark2001SE @2.5Ghz with only 1.55V. It ran through the first game scene, and the low res part of the second game scene. Soon as the high res part of game 2 started it rebooted on it's own. Prime95 errored after about an hour. It also liked to lock up all together after about 10 mins of RTCW. I upped the Vcore to 1.6V and everything is silky smooth @ 2.5Ghz.

Personally, if all my apps and games run fine, and I can go several days or more without rebooting, I couldn't care less if Prime95 gives errors or not. That's where I'm at right now, every app and every game I have runs perfect, no lockups, no blue screens, ect.. If I run Prime95 tonight and it errors, I won't change a thing....The hell with it >>



The only thing that I am afraid of is DATA CORRUPTION!!!!!! If Prime errs (note spelling ) then there is a matematical discrepency, thus it will corrupt your data. I rather have smooth as silk data than junk. This is why I wanted to know how long can your OCed computer hold out untill you get an error. In retrospect, I can run 1.8 @ 2.4, but then my programs start to freak out (text distorts, words become illegible, etc.) I really don't want this to happen, so I run at a speed where I don't get any errors whatsoever.

Does anybody have any tips on reducing errors? How much would increasing the voltage help?

Thanks

-x86

 

[WarCon]

Well the only choices you have to stabilize it are upping the voltage or get better cooling. If its your memory causing the errors (you should check with Memtest86) then you can up the RDRAM voltage. But RDRAM gets hot, I guess more so than DDR (my Crucial barely gets tepid even when running Memtest). If your unstable because your memory is unstable at overclocked speeds then you have the choice of replacing it or trying to cool it better or living with lower fsb.

BTW, 148fsb @ 1.725 (1.70 highest with MBM, Asus Probe, or Bios). Prime95'ed for 12+ hours.

 

[mschell]

Prime errors also mean any other distributed computing type programs (SETI, Folding@home etc) will generate error ridden junk data that will have to be rerun by people with more stable setups. Of course if you don't run those programs then you could be ok for awhile.
Seriously, there's no tangable performance increase when running a somewhat unstable 2.513Ghz over a relativily stable 2.4GHz. Newer stepping processors will be out in a month or two that will blow away all those overtweaked CPU's anyway.
I find it a bit amusing that some seem to brag about their OC'ed setups running 1.5v core voltage or whatever like they are proud that their CPUs will last a good long time. Yea, just what you need 5 years from now - an working but unstable 2.5GHz system to run alongside your 25GHz system. The moral here is, run enough CPU voltage to get a stable system and don't worry about the actual voltage numbers, it won't matter in the long run.

 

[RalfHutter]

I'm running my 1.8A at 2.308Ghz (128FSB), P4B266, Vcore set at 1.65 in BIOS, memory at 340Mhz, CAS2.

At this setting I've ran Prime95 for 24 hrs with no errors. I've also ran Memtest86, all 11 tests, looped for 24+ hrs with zero errors. I've run up to 132FSB but would get an occaisional Prime95 error after some period of time. I just kept playing with FSB and Vcore untill everything was completey stable. I agree with the people that want 100% stability over pure speed. That's why my OC isn't as outrageous as a lot of folks'.

 

[Nate420]

I started Prime95 last night about midnight, and just shut it off a few mins ago. It reported ZERO errors after 10hours 38mins @ 2.5Ghz.

 

[Fant]

P4 1.8a up to 2.4ghz....I have run prime95 for 24hrs with no errors...of course I had to increase the voltage in order to get it stable. Take a look Fant's Overclocking Results

 

[x86]

<< I'm running my 1.8A at 2.308Ghz (128FSB), P4B266, Vcore set at 1.65 in BIOS, memory at 340Mhz, CAS2.

At this setting I've ran Prime95 for 24 hrs with no errors. I've also ran Memtest86, all 11 tests, looped for 24+ hrs with zero errors. I've run up to 132FSB but would get an occaisional Prime95 error after some period of time. I just kept playing with FSB and Vcore untill everything was completey stable. I agree with the people that want 100% stability over pure speed. That's why my OC isn't as outrageous as a lot of folks'. >>



Agreed. Concerning memory cooling, I have added a 80X80X25 fan on top of the memory to cool it down from (under load) 67C to 40C. I consider that a GREAT decrease, and it has helped limit crashes. I reason that since RDRAM comes equiped with heat spreaders, the cooling from the fan will be even more effective on RDRAM as opposed to DDR. I recommend ANYONE that is OCing RDRAM to cool it.

Concerning the CPU: My temps under load can be up to 53C with stock cooling and AS3. Would anybody recomend a new heatsink? How much will this increase my OCing capacity? Stability?

Thanks for the input

-x86

 

[x86]

<< P4 1.8a up to 2.4ghz....I have run prime95 for 24hrs with no errors...of course I had to increase the voltage in order to get it stable. Take a look Fant's Overclocking Results >>



I just took a look at your OCing results. The are GREAT!!!! I wish I can get up there with 100% stability. BTW, wouldn't you consider 60C a bit too high under load, considering that the opperating temps (direct from Intel) is <67C? 67C being the limit. What cooling do you use?

-x86

 

[Kuroyama]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Sandra and other benchmarks only check how fast computations are done while Prime95 checks if the work is actually done correctly. Sandra, 3DMark, etc. might help you judge if the system is stable but not if it is stabily generating bad results.

 

[x86]

That's correct, but Prime is also a stability test.

-x86

 

[Grendel99]

Where can I get Prime95?

Thanks

 

[Drsignguy]

 

[Drsignguy]

 

[x86]

I think that temperatures have an effect on this. PLEASE POST YOUR TEMPERATURES!!! And how long Prime ran for.

By the way, you can get prime here: Prime

Thanks

-x86

 

[BlvdKing]

I got Prime 95 errors from the memory not having enough voltage, not the CPU. If your memory is running over spec, try running the memory at a higher voltage to see if that helps. I run my Kingmax PC2700 at 2.8 with no problems and it cleared up the Prime 95 errors.