how can i find my "overclocking bottleneck"?

[SickBeast]

i'm running 2 celeron 366s at 495mhz stable right now on an abit bp6 motherboard. i can go up in 1mhz incriments, and it tops out at around 523mhz right now (cpu temp.=~35C). i have an ISA scsi card that i suspect might be the problem...how can i find out for sure what's holding me back? thanks guys you're awesome

 

[Rastus]

Troubleshooting is all about isolation. Work on each element; cooling, memory, CPU, voltage, etc...; one at a time.

 

[odog]

my first suggextion would be to pull one chip out and see how well it overclocks... then do the other.....


this is of course with just one stick of ram, and a video card...


then after you've maxxed out the chips... and stuff back in till you have a problem... at that point you know what's doing it

 

[SickBeast]

alright cool thanks alot guys, maybe i can get to 550 now

 

[Rectalfier]

At 550 all your components should be running at spec. With a 100mhz bus, you want a 2/3 agp divider and a 1/3 pci divider. If you can't make 550, try a higher voltage and better cooling.

 

[squirrel dog]

swap your cpus.In a bp6 the socket0 cpu gets all the work in win9x.When you swap the cpus,be sure to clean all the dust off and reapply thermal compound.I have a bp6 with dual 366a's@550@2.0vlts.I've swapped cpus one time,and gained the stablity I was looking for.Unless you are running linux or win2k or a os that supports dual cps,then all you ever run off is the one.

 

[SickBeast]

it's strange, it POSTS at 550, but then windows 2000 won't load up completely...does that mean that 550 is within reach?

 

[Rectalfier]

yes, have you increased the voltage?

 

[SickBeast]

yeah, all the way up to 2.3 volts, my motherboard won't let me set it any higher than that...
i'm thinking it must be a heat issue or else one of my cards (ISA scsi card, ISA sound blaster, AGP voodoo3)

 

[troubledshooter]

Related, but tangential:


"it's strange, it POSTS at 550, but then windows 2000 won't load up completely...does that mean that 550 is within reach? "

"yes, have you increased the voltage? "

Is that always true?

My CPU posts @ 1100 (see below) but bails on me before it gives me the windows splash.

It actaully makes it all the way to beginning to load my couple of things in the system try before going down @ 1050.

Are these actaully potential realities?

thanks

 

[SickBeast]

ok i pulled out everything but the hard drive and voodoo3, and the highest it will post at is 97mhz FSB (533mhz)at 2.3 volts (my max). i can't remove the cpus cuz one of my golden orbs broke the "tabs" that hold one of my cpus down so i had to crazy-glue it to the cpu. anyways, any advice you guys have is greatly appreciated

 

[SickBeast]

dammit i'm 3mhz away from hitting the 100mhz fsb...what can i do to eek those 3 more mhz out of my system? more cooling? are the golden orbs i'm using crap?