Getting the most out of my P4 2.6C

[Jobu]

So here's my setup:

P4 2.6C
Asus P4P800 Deluxe
1GB of Kingston HyperX PC-3500 (2x512) in Dual Channel mode
ATI 9800 Pro
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu Aluminum + Copper CPU Cooler
Antec "Performance Plus" Case w/ 430 watt PSU

I assembled the machine, installed Windows XP Pro, installed a few things, made sure that everything ran stable and then went to overclocking. Thus far, after playing with my settings, I've gotten the rig to a 250 Mhz FSB, giving me a 3.25 Ghz overall. Not too shabby. This is with the CPU Voltage running at 1.575 (or thereabouts), DRAM Voltage at 2.75, and memory divisor at 5:4, with SPD auto-configuring my timings (which, according to CPU-Z, are being set pretty loose, 2.5-4-4-8), turbo settings disabled. Oh, and I have the AGP/PCI bus fixed at 66/33, and temps seem to max out in the low 40s under load.

Thus far, 250 FSB seems to be the wall for me. I've tried pushing it to 255, but XP won't boot when I do that. I tried lowering the memory divisor to 3:2, and had the exact same results, so I'm thinking it's not the memory. In fact, as a test, I set the divisor to 1:1 and tested out how far I could push it, and I could get the RAM and FSB synced up to 225 Mhz (for an overall clock speed of 2.91 or something like that). So the RAM seems to be able to handle being clocked at 225, but since it's only running around 200ish when I run things with the 5:4 divisor, I'm guessing it's not the RAM that's holding me back now. Any suggestions on things I can do to get a little more out of this chip? I'm certainly not complaining about a 25% OC, but I was just wondering if there was anything else I could tweak to squeeze juice out of this thing without ruining it. My only guess at this point would be increasing the CPU voltage a little, but I'm not real sure how much these chips can take. Anyone know what the highest "safe" voltage is for these P4 chips? Also, when I look at the voltage in CPU-Z, it seems to be fluctuating between 1.575 and 1.63ish. Is this normal? Is the setting that you put into the BIOS the minimum voltage? I'm not terribly familiar with that sort of thing, hence why I'm hesitant to go changing it too much.

Any other suggestions/comments are welcome. Thanks.

 

[Dutchmaster420]

i have pretty much the same rig as you except only 3200 ram....whats your temps on this

 

[Jobu]

I think I was editing the temps into the original message as you were posting your reply...

Idle it runs in the low 30 C range, and under my normal load (which is basically playing BF 1942 for a couple of hours at a time) it hits the low 40 C area. Running benchmarks (like Prime95, Sandra, etc.) take it into the mid 40s. So I don't think the temperature is much of an issue at this point.

 

[Dutchmaster420]

yea my vcore also fluctuates...try diabling some stuff you dont need in the bios like speed spectrum...wjat do you have v core set to...auto?

 

[Jobu]

VCore in BIOS is currently set to 1.575 I think. I'm pretty sure I can go higher, I'm just not sure how high I can go without screwing up the chip. So I haven't played with it much as of yet. Anyone know what sorta voltages these chips can take?

 

[RussianSensation]

I have heard that the Asus P4P/C series motherboard overvolt slightly in contrast to Abit IS7/IC7 which undervolt that would explain why when you set in the bios 1.575 it fluctuates to 1.63. The reason that it fluctuates is because p4 tends to drop the voltage under load.

The safe voltage would probably be around 1.65 (actual) and if you are really brave take it to 1.70 not above without better cooling, but i'd say 1.65 is where I would stop. Your overclock is decent and seems to be about the average for 2.6 chips without exceeding the 1.65 (actual) vcore range. I am sure if you selected 1.7 you could get another 100 mhz out of it but then again it might not be worth it. Instead enable your Turbo settings and lower the latency on the ram to gain any possible improvements you could receive from an additional 100mhz overclock at significantly higher voltages.

I currently run 2.6@3.2 on Abit IS7 at 1.6000 V (BIOS effective) and the acutal fluctuates beween 1.52 and 1.54. If I raise the voltage to 1.70 it boots at 3.4ghz but I dont find it to be worth it since I dont want to risk reducing the life of my cpu significantly.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
I have heard that the Asus P4P/C series motherboard overvolt slightly in contrast to Abit IS7/IC7 which undervolt that would explain why when you set in the bios 1.575 it fluctuates to 1.63. The reason that it fluctuates is because p4 tends to drop the voltage under load.

The safe voltage would probably be around 1.65 (actual) and if you are really brave take it to 1.70 not above without better cooling, but i'd say 1.65 is where I would stop. Your overclock is decent and seems to be about the average for 2.6 chips without exceeding the 1.65 (actual) vcore range. I am sure if you selected 1.7 you could get another 100 mhz out of it but then again it might not be worth it. Instead enable your Turbo settings and lower the latency on the ram to gain any possible improvements you could receive from an additional 100mhz overclock at significantly higher voltages.

I currently run 2.6@3.2 on Abit IS7 at 1.6000 V (BIOS effective) and the acutal fluctuates beween 1.52 and 1.54. If I raise the voltage to 1.70 it boots at 3.4ghz but I dont find it to be worth it since I dont want to risk reducing the life of my cpu significantly.

I agree....Asus does overvolt and that is what you are seeing....Also Asus temps are ridiculously low so don't think that low 40c load is at all accurate...MOst who ave tested it say it is off of actual by as much as 10c...