Have I hit a brick wall with my 1.6a and P4S333?

[dbz007]

Right now I'm running the p4 1.6a with an Asus P4S333 with the 1006 bios for the P4S533, along with two 256MB Kingmax PC2700(5ns), Radeon 8500, Enermax 350watt PS(using the P4 connector), 80g Maxtor, Adaptec 2940U, 32x liteon CDRW, Pioneer SCSI DVD, Plextor 32x, 2 NICs, onboard audio. All this is an Antec case with 2 intake and 2 exhaust fans so there's plenty of circulation.

It's running at 142fsb with the 4:5 multiplier, which is 2.27GHz and 355 mem all at stock voltage. It very stable at this speed running prime for 24hrs and looping 3dmark2001 overnight.

As soon as I up it to 143, prime will crap out on me in the 2nd or 3rd test in the torture test.
I've tried upping the voltage slowly all the way up to 1.8 but it still craps out on the 2nd or 3rd test of prime. I've also tried bringing the mem down to 1:1 and even 4:3 to see if it was the ram but that still didn't help. I've also tried upping the memory voltage up to 2.9 as well.
I've also tried taking Everything out and disabling the sound, leaving just the MB, CPU, Ram, Video, and HD as well.

The +12v from Asus Probe never drops below 11.968 even at full load. Temp for the case is at 27c. CPU temp at full load is 43c +/-1c and idle temp is at 34c. So I don't think it's a temp issue either.

I've also tried all the different bios from Asus including the new P4S333 1006.03 and all the older ones as well.

One thing that's bugged me bout the Mobo is that once in awhile when I reboot be it from windows or with the reset button, the Adaptec ScSI card doesn't show up during the initial bootup scan. I know it's not the scsi card since it was working fine in my older system. Has anybody else had this problem or am I the only one?

Could this possibly just the fact that the CPU hitting its limit or have I missed something? I don't think I've heard too much about CPUs just hitting a brick wall and not being able to overclock any higher even with a voltage increase. I'm fine with the fact that it's gotten this high at default voltage though but kinda dissapointed it can't go more.

Any ideas or thoughts?
Thanks

 

[THUGSROOK]

welcome to the club
quite a few of us are starting to think this is a moboard problem.
mine cant go over 145fsb, and im still on default voltage at 144fsb

 

[dbwillis]

Yeh. me too, cant seem to get above 145/146..even with more voltage

 

[Regalk]

When I first got mine (1.6A) I was able to hit 150FSB quite easily using the latest BIOS. I dropped it back to 140 and have left it there ever since since I use the machine heavily for gaming etc. I have since flashed to the P4S533 bios but have not tried 150FSB although I am sure it will hit 150 again if I want to. So I think it is cpu related - some are excellent o/cs while the majority are just dead at 144/145FSB.

 

[THUGSROOK]

out of curiosity i just ordered a p4b266-c.
this board should be able to take my 1.6a higher then 145fsb easy.
if it can - we will know for sure that it is a moboard problem on the p4s333.

i have (2) 1.6a's - both die at 145fsb on the p4s333.
coincidence that so many die at 145?

 

[MindDetergent]

What exactly do you experience when trying over 146FSB? I get windows errors of all sorts and sometimes BSOD's. Otherwise, it boots just fine.

 

[THUGSROOK]

it might boot just fine - it will crash/bsod/drop to desktop/etc with the slightest load.

i did the usual - slowed down/disabled/removed just about everything in my comp - no difference.
leaving me with it being either the cpu or moboard that cant run there. (2 cpus cant?)
hopefully the p4b266-c board will tell me the truth

i WILL report back with my results !

 

[Nate420]

From everything I've read/heard, and my own experiences, I feel the P4B266 (or P4B266-C) is the best mobo for getting every last Mhz out of a P4. I won't be surprised at all if you come back here to report that you hit 150+ with one/both of your chips.

Good luck

 

[Duvie]

Watch that high 1.8volts with this board....both thugs and I burnt out something on the board...Now we can't do anything stably at 1.7v and above....I cant' do anything above 1.55v...At default speed and 1.6v's...failure and stack dumps. This is with ram underclocked. Take same chip and run 400mhz overclocked with 400mhz ddr and 1.55v and no failure...NOt PS either as the PS has been replaced and tested.....


I am looking at another board as well...maybe the Epox board....

 

[dbz007]

Thanks for everybody's comments.
I didn't run it at 1.8v for very long, just got to loading up windows then blue screen. It was only a test just to see if it was the cpu.

I've been reading this forum off and on bout different overclocks and setup and what not but didn't really notice there were other out there having problems getting above 142-145fsb. I've read on other forums that people have gotten above 145fsb with this mobo fine so I'm wondering if its a problem with our CPUs not being able to go that high or if it's either a quality control issue with asus or a problem with the sis645 chipset.
I really like this mobo and the sis chipset. The memory bandwidth on this mobo/chipset is amazing compared to intel.
The new sis645dx mobos are starting to come in stock at a few vendors so look out for reviews on those.
I'm really stuck at which mobo to get. I was thinking of the p4b266-c, Epox EP-4SDA+, or maybe a new SiS645DX chipset based Mobo.
Decisions decisions.

 

[Dink]

I'm in the same boat as you. I've got the Gigabyte GA-8SRX (sis645) chipset. I'm at 140 FSB. It can run at 142 fine, but right when I get to 143, it gets errors at boot up and everything. No voltage will help. I'm watercooled as well. Temps say 38c at full load. Just doesn't feel like the CPU causing the problems. PCI doesn't seem to be the issue as well cuz all my PCI devices ran fine with my last mobo all the way up to 161 FSB. (1/4 divisor) Maybe it's just a weaker chip than most of the ones i've seen around. chip or mobo. I just dunno.

 

[Jwyatt]

Thanks for the thread. I was thinking about ordering a MB with the SiS chip, but now i wont. My MSI 845D is running happily at 160fsb with 1.65v applied its set at 1.7 in the bios though. I dont think its a speciel CPU. The intel chipset is strong, but my MB doesnt support locking the multipliers. Im going ot try to stick with this chipset, but a different MB that offers that.

 

[chasM]

Thanks to all who have posted this thread. I am not alone.
I to have had the same experience it seems. I have a 1.8a , epox 4SDA , and 256ddr crucial system. I was blown away when I booted it up to 2.4g and ran hot cpu test lite all night long. I neglected to download prime 95, but ran pcmark, and 3dmark2001se without a problem. Then I went to my games and got nothing but crash after crash. After a week of that I loaded up prime95 and ran the benchmark with no problems. I tried the torture test it stopped almost immediately. I ran the normal prime and another stoppage. I tried again by increasing the cpu voltage to 1.65 no joy. Finally I reduced the cpu voltage to 1.55 and the FSB/MEM bus to 124/155. I ran normal prime all night long without an error. That's the last time I DON'T use prime95.lol
Of course I'm counting on the possiblity I used it correctly. If someone thinks/knows I didn't please post me.
I thought my situation was significant because my symptoms/cpu speed is very simular to what some in this thread have described. Yet, I have not come close to the FSB speed some of you have gotten. Possibliy we have reached the end of our cpu's capablity?

Regards

 

[THUGSROOK]

i got my P4B266-C moboard yesterday and will be installing it tomorrow.
it doesnt have the memory ratios available above 132fsb like the SiS645 does, but thats ok.
i just wanna see how far a 1.6A will go on it.

...it would only go 145fsb on the P4S333 on default voltage. (see my previous posts)

ill post back with results.

 

[dbwillis]

Waiting...........