Help with overclocking P4PE

[Bharat]

Hello again people

This is my new setup now :

ASUS P4PE/LAN/Sound (Onboard sound disabled now) - Updated BIOS to latest Beta 11 (dated 14 Mar 2003)
P4 2.0A Northwood
Creative Audigy 2 Soundcard
MSI GeForce Ti4200 128MB Video
Alpha 8942 h/s, running with Y.S.Tech 80mm fan (as my Sunon 80mm has not yet arrived !)
Corsair Platinum Series XMS3500 434MHz CL-2 512MB DDR 'Memory with Muscle' (CMX512-3500C2PT XMS 3502v1.1)

When I booted the system up, and went into BIOS, it had different options when compared to my old P4S533, so initially I was lost. I tried to start off with FSB of 140, but the system would not boot up. Then I went down to 130, and still no luck.

I've now managed to get the system up at 125 FSB (so running at 2.5GHz). These are the current settings in the BIOS now :

CPU Frequency Multiple - 20x (This item is greyed out, so I guess I can't change it)
CPU External Frequency - 125
Memory Frequency - 333
AGP/PCI Frequency - MANUAL (set to 66.66/33.33)
CPU VCore - 1.600V
DDR Ref Voltage - AUTO (Haven't got a clue about these settings)
AGP VDDQ Voltage - AUTO ( " " " " " )

In the SDRAM Configuration, I have it on USER DEFINED at 2T-3T-3T-7T.

System Performance Mode - TURBO
Memory Turbo Mode - ENABLED

CPU temperature @ 2.5GHZ is 50C, and it was about 44C when no o/c had been made (base 2.0GHz).


Now, I would be grateful if someone could check and see if I'm going wrong anywhere. In Sandra2003, Memory Bandwidth Benchmark seems to be well below when compared to an actual 3500 based chipset. Is that because of some mistake I might have made ?

Is this probably the limit of o/c I can get ? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks...

 

[Bharat]

BUMP (Hoping some one sees...)

 

[DAPUNISHER]

OK, up the PCI/AGP a notch or 2 because our board has a bug and the lock doesn't work right which means that the PCI/AGP can limit your overclock like in days gone by because of the extra voltage going through them. Next, with the mem and system performance set to Turbo it's likely you'll get a lower overclock because of the aggressive settings so turn them off for now until you have established the CPU's max stable overclock then you can do the hrs of benchmarking other's do with various settings to find the sweet spot for overall best performance.

With the DDR voltage (increasing the voltage increases the fault tolerance just like with the CPU) I recommend you keep 2.7v as the max for longevity of your ram. Your memory timings are the defaults so that's fine.

For the CPU voltage keep it@1.675v or lower because our board overvolts and it's the general consensus that 1.7v actual voltage is the max safe voltage for the P4.

What Power supply do you have? it's vital to a good overclock and stable system so a quality PSU of 350w+ is a must and a +12v rail of at least 20A minimum is a good guideline for selection. Is the CPU temp of 50c@2.5ghz idle or under a load like prime95, SETI, encoding, ect.? If that's idle then take it while running a proggie like the ones mentioned and see what it's like after 10min. You can't get a better air cooler for P4s so just more agressive RPM fans and properly applied AS or Shin-Etsu are alll that's left for helping temps.

To improve your bandwidth scores check what your mem frequency is set at, it's probably auto so set it to the highest number it allows@the FSB you're at.

In the final analysis you have a nice overclock already@500mhz over default clock speed so anythingyou get from here on out is all gravy

There's more specific info for this board regarding mem speed settings and such but this'll give you someplace to work from for now

 

[Bharat]

Ah, just the kind of help I was looking for

I have noted down your suggestions and will try them in a couple of minutes, thought I'd give you some more details.

The PSU is an Enermax EG365AX-VE(G)(W) FMA PSU (Active PFC Series). I have set MEM Frequency to 333MHz, it seems to be changing according to the FSB change I make. So at the moment, a FSB of 125 has given me max of 333.

ASUS Probe reports the VCore between 1.63 and 1.66 most of the time, so it's obviously overvolting like normal ASUS motherboards.
When you refer to DDR voltage, I guess it's the DDR Ref Voltage setting, so I'll check it out, and if it is the correct one, change it to 2.7V as suggested.

As for the temperature, it's 50C idle at 2.5GHz. When I tried to run the Torture test in Prime95, the test ended within seconds, but the temperature had climbed to 52C. I don't know if that's a good sign. Also, as per the Alpha8942 manual, it shows the fan should be pushing air AWAY from the h/s. I was wondering if I flipped it and pushed air INTO the h/s, would that make a difference ? I'll try it out. Unfortunately, the supplier does not have the Sunon fan I ordered, so I am using a Y.S. Tech for the time being. I am slightly concerned with the amount of noise created by these fans. Any particular suggestions for a good performance one, which is not too loud (33dB would be a decent limit ? )

Will let you know how I get along, but if you have any further ideas, please do let me know...thanks a ton for the guidance !

 

[Bharat]

Ok, here's the update so far.

Upped the AGP/PCI Frequency by a couple of notches from 66.66/33.33.
Changed VCore to 1.65v.
Changed DDR Voltage from AUTO to 2.7v.
Turned OFF the Memory TURBO mode, and set System Performace mode to AUTO.

Tried to go to 130 FSB, system would not boot up ! Went down to 128, got Windows System file errors. Went further down to 127 and managed to boot into Windows, but no luck with Prime95 - crashed a couple of times.

Changed back to 125 FSB, and Torture test seems to have run for about 10 mins without any problem.

BUT !

I am confused about what I saw in ASUS Probe...

At idle, the VCore is between 1.712 and 1.730. +12V is at 11.904. Idle temp is about 48C.

When I ran Torture test, the +12v fluctuated between 11.772 and 11.87. The VCore went down between 1.624 and 1.698. Temperature was about 58C, so I think the flipping of the fan and blowing air INTO the h/s seems to be doing a slightly better job !

But I am confused about these voltage readings. Can some one please throw some light into this one ? Thanks...

 

[Duvie]

Watch out...the asus mobos are notorious overvolters and that 1.65v set in bios to actual 1.71-1.73v is likely correct.....

The 12v rail will drop under load and the totals you have listed are well within spec so I don't think that is an issue....Mine reports 11.77v on my board and loads tyo 11.6v and I have no issues ocing to 3.33gha with my 2.4b and it shows those similar signs all the way down to 3ghz....

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

dont go to 1.65vcore in bios
on my friends, 1.65vcore in bios meant 1.72vcore acutal, which means norhtwood death in no time

its a 2.0a...those were not good ocers at all (wel not as good as compared to tohers)

i think you also had a 1.6a right?
try that, you rpobably will have more luck using that one (if not more speed, it will be a higher fsb, which is good)


temps are also hot...i think you did something wrog when installing perhaps?
did you use the right nuts? (if its anything like swiftech)

 

[Jgtdragon]

Is that 2.0a a b0 or c1 stepping? Maybe you hit the limit with the cpu.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

My bad on the advice about the max Vcore setting! I run SETI 24/7 so my load voltage didn't exceed 1..698v actual even with the Vcore@1.675v in the bios when I tested it for reference, but i negelected most people's systems run close to idle quite often. BTW you don't need to up the DDR ref voltage since your ram is already underclocked and you can try to run it as aggressive a timings as possible to try and get the most you can from it.

I agree that the 1.6A could possibly exceed the overclock it's getting on the P4S533 due to the PCI/AGP lock on the P4PE and possibly will allow you to get higher FSBs that will take more advantage of your ram.