How do I know if my PSU is my bottleneck?

[batmang]

I'm wondering if their is any way to find out for sure if my PSU is my bottleneck in my oc? I've been battling my oc for a while, wondering what is my bottleneck. If theres anyway to test the psu, please lemme know. Thanks in advance.

 

[Duvie]

What do your reported volatges look like at idle and load?? At both default and current speed???

Also try running with limited onboard features turned on and limited components right now...Run with a HDD and the basics, vid card, one stick of ram, mobo and cpu....See if it helps the reported volatges or allows you to oc further....


The key here is ofcourse the +12v rail....Loading dipping below 11.5v will be a concern...I had an albatron mobo that loaded to 11.55v and I was completely stable...I took the same psu to an abit IC& mobo and oc'd chip to same level (no further could be had) and the +12v rail only loaded to 11.84...In that case the mobo was effecting my volatges being delivered...

Abit undervolt as you already now...I would definitely be running with a 1.6v vagp (1.57-1.58v actual, very safe) and 2.8v (2.78v actual)...

Report your VTT and VDDQ voltages as well....

 

[batmang]

also, im not sure if there is a bios issue with the is7-e, as in, which bios is best for oc'ing. im running version 14 right now and it seems to be better for oc'ing. i had it at stock voltage 1.525v using 5:4 ratio at 3.1ghz. it ran games/applications fine, but once i ran prime95, it failed. the only oc ive had prime95 100% stable on was a 1:1 ratio 2.8ghz , 215fsb, 2-3-3-7 ram ratio setting. im running it right now at 246fsb, 5:4 / 2.5-4-4-8 ratio/timing fine in applications and games, but of course it fails prime95. and one thing i noticed, no matter what settings i use, it will not boot at 250fsb. even if i set the vcore to 1.7v+ , ill report back with the rails.

 

[batmang]

these are the results when the cpu was at 3.2ghz / 246fsb / 3:2 ratio | 2.5-4-4-8 / 1.65vcore / 1.65vagp / 2.8vdimm

psu voltages
-------------------------------------------
agp vddq - 1.64v
ddr vtt - 1.39v
atx +3.3v - 3.34v
atx +5v - 5.13v
atx+12v - 11.97v - 12.03v
battery (+3v) - 3.31v
standby (+5v) - 4.89v

I'm using an Allied 450w psu btw.

 

[Duvie]

Actually bios version 17 was the best for the IC7's so I wonder if there was a similar bios version 17 for your board...

Also make sure you disable all PAT or MAM features if you can...ANY CPC??? disable it....

MY 2.6c would only do 2.4ghz max with 1.65v actual and still pass 2 instance of prime....However that was 250fsb and that same board runs my current 2.4c at 292fsb stable so I know the mobo is not the factor for my 2.6c's performance.....


Also can you load it with say superpi with any of the tests larger then 2mb so it will last at least a few minutes and give me the voltages seen then.....


At idle the voltages look good for an abit mobo, or at least par for the course....Shite!!Better then my board with my PSU....

Have you fully tested those ram sticks with some memtest at those speeds??? YOu can run it and isolate running test #5 for say 100passes at least...It obviously doesn't take that long to just run just that one test versus them all....

I would be looking at memory since 215 passe prime and nothing does all the way to 246fsb...NO WAY that is the cpu caue if it was truly unstable at 216fsb you would have used all your vcore to even boot by the time you got to 246fsb and that system would be so flaky it would reboot by launching simple apps....

 

[batmang]

gat settings are at:

auto/normal/auto/disable/disable

not sure what cpc is? ill run the memtest now. im at 3.1ghz right now, 1.57vcore, 239fsb, 5:4 ratio | 2.5-3-3-7 timings

still fails right when i run prime95. but all games/apps work perfectly fine.

also, whats superpi?

 

[Duvie]

It is another prime number generator type program that stresses system and helps push temps.....You need to run this with say another app and probably not prime95 for the time being since it errors out fast...have any encoding apps or anything when it runs it like to use all available cpu cycles??? the superpi is not HT enabled so it will only use 50% as per task manager and therefore is not effective by itself has a true stress of the hT enabled chip...This instance by itslef versus say superpi plus prime95 for me adds about 3-4c more of heat on the cpu....

 

[batmang]

i ran the memtest overnight while i was sleeping, on test #5, passed 494 times, failed 0 times, had no errors at all. so it must not be my memory. ill try the superpi later on today after work.

 

[batmang]

the spuerpi gave an error when i ran it. still, everything works in games/applications. i dont think its the memory or psu, maybe i just got unlucky and my bottleneck is the cpu. but ive not had it freeze once, the highest ive gotten it to boot was 3.21ghz, 247fsb, 1.65vcore, (actual is 1.6v), 5:4 ratio / 2.5-4-4-8 timings, 2.8vdimm, 1.65vagp. games work fine, applications work fine. fails prime95, and fails superpi. but passed memtest 494 times on test #5, so its not the psu, its not the memory. unless its something im missing, its prolly the cpu. but that doesnt explain the hours of working in games/windows/misc. applications, and not one hiccup, but it fails prime95 and superpi after seconds. any ideas?

 

[batmang]

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