Help with overclocking a 1.8a

[Fant]

I'm trying to overclock this chip to 2.4 using 1.775v to the core....CPU Hot Tester runs fine for the 6 hour test. However 3dmark2k3 causes a reboot. I'm using an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. I'm lost as to what the problem is as the cpu is clearly able to run at this freq according to cpu hot tester.

 

[Corporate Thug]

1.775 is a lot of vcore for the northwood, how much of an OC can u get on stock voltage?

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Fant
I'm trying to overclock this chip to 2.4 using 1.775v to the core....CPU Hot Tester runs fine for the 6 hour test. However 3dmark2k3 causes a reboot. I'm using an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. I'm lost as to what the problem is as the cpu is clearly able to run at this freq according to cpu hot tester.

First...before we say this is too much voltage lets find out what mobo you are using. Some undervolt and you may be running less then 1.75v or the limit I personally recommend going over with the p4a chips....

Secondly I don't think we can necessarily attribute the reboots in the 3dmark2k3 to the cpu. Drop all the memory settings to the most conservative, make sure you have no infamous driver issues with ATI, and please go grab prime95 and run that.

Finally...Have you tried any games on t?? Actual playing??? Try some. I do not base an entire opinion on stability on one test alone until I thoroughly isolate or can duplicate the issue elsewhere.

 

[obeseotron]

That is too high a voltage for a northwood, I fried one running 1.8@2.4 at 1.8v in just 3 weeks, even with a pretty good alpha heatsink and 38CFM fan. I would drop the memory ratio and timings to the the slowest possible settings, and disconnect all your nonessential drives and cards to be sure its not a problem with the memory or power supply first. I'd pay special attention to the power supply because even a good 350W PS can run into problems with overclocked P4's with high end graphics cards and fast drives. See how far you can take the chip under these conditions using voltages under 1.7.

 

[Fant]

I had this running for awhile on my old motherboard. But i'm having problems on this Abit IS7 running in Dual Channel. The voltage should be pretty accurate for this motherboard. This is pretty close to a fresh install with only the ATI 3.6 catalyst drivers loaded. The only game that I've had a problem is in bf1942 after playing mutiplayer online for 30 min it will reboot. However when I run 3dmark2k3 it will reboot within the first few tests. I'm running the memory at stock (166/SPD) and have run memtest and it passes all the tests. I have run CPU Hot Tester (equivalent to prime95) for 6 hours no problems. If I drop my cpu to default 1.8 and default voltage all seems to be fine.

I find it hard to believe that my cpu would work fine and my memory would work fine but the videocard wouldnt even tho its not o/c'ed. I've even tried having 3 fans blowing directly on my video card memory or cpu and no help so somehow I dont think its heat related. Could it be just that the chipset is getting too hot with this much voltage? I believe it ran fine before I got an extra memory stick and started running in dual channel.

 

[Fant]

Ok at default voltage (1.5v) highest i can get it stable is at 2.1ghz (FSB = 118mhz x 18)

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Fant
I had this running for awhile on my old motherboard. But i'm having problems on this Abit IS7 running in Dual Channel. The voltage should be pretty accurate for this motherboard. This is pretty close to a fresh install with only the ATI 3.6 catalyst drivers loaded. The only game that I've had a problem is in bf1942 after playing mutiplayer online for 30 min it will reboot. However when I run 3dmark2k3 it will reboot within the first few tests. I'm running the memory at stock (166/SPD) and have run memtest and it passes all the tests. I have run CPU Hot Tester (equivalent to prime95) for 6 hours no problems. If I drop my cpu to default 1.8 and default voltage all seems to be fine.

I find it hard to believe that my cpu would work fine and my memory would work fine but the videocard wouldnt even tho its not o/c'ed. I've even tried having 3 fans blowing directly on my video card memory or cpu and no help so somehow I dont think its heat related. Could it be just that the chipset is getting too hot with this much voltage? I believe it ran fine before I got an extra memory stick and started running in dual channel.

Well I do not think cpuhot tester is equivalent to prime95, but that is my opinion but if you want ppl's help you damn well should listen to them then.

Hard to believe??? What have you reall tested. IMO nothing. You need to stay open minded to all sort of issues before you jump to a conclusion.

If 2.1ghz is as high as you can go with 1.5v then it is likely that 2.4ghz will be unattainable at the vcore you have been trying. It usuaklly starts tailing off fast from default at like an inverse square type pattern. Once I get to about 1.7v somethimes just 1-2 fsb needs another .05v. Most I usually saw was 200mhz max after needing vcore above default levels...

 

[Fant]

I used to use prime95 but hot cpu tester seemed to get my cpu hotter than even prime95 so thats why I began using it. They both do the same thing, run intense cpu pushing calculations and compare with known results to determing if your CPU is erroring out. I can get an error from cpu hot tester quicker than i can from prime95 thats why i began using it for stability testing.

I've tested my cpu with cpu hot tester, memory with memtest86, and video card with 3dmark...what do you mean I havent tested anything? I am open minded to any suggestions that you may think it is.

I think you may be right on the voltage thing. Since i'm at 2.1ghz at default voltage and it seems stable from all tests, I think I will stay here. While I'd like to run at 2.4ghz, the 300mhz wont kill me. Whats more is that since i'm not pushing the voltage the cpu doesnt run as hot so I can run my system with less fans and more quiet. I think I found a good compromise for the time being. I still didnt understand why 3dmark would fail but cpu hot tester wouldnt even tho my video card is not being o/c'ed.