I'm a bit confused... 2.4C OCing

[canadianpsycho]

OK, so I bust out the 2.4C. Plug it in my IC7, and boot it up. All going well. I go to 250 with the 5:4 ratio. No problems. I then basically go by increments of 5, until I know my GEiL PC3500 will be at its limits @2-3-3-6 (as the person I bought it from stated he'd only been able to push it a couple MHz past 433.)

So I'm at 275 @1.6V OS boots, Prime 95 fails instantly. But I can play a bit of online gaming.

270 same.

265 same.

I back it all the way down to 250 and just wake up to find it has just Prime 95'd for 8 hours, no problems.

Now granted, I haven't tested it thoroughly yet (just started @ 255FSB... 3:2 to ensure its the CPU.), but doesn't it seem weird that I need to drop 25 MHz in FSB to find a certain stability? Do these P4Cs actually need to be burned in? Is P95 just no longer viable if I can game all day long? With my 400 and 533's Usually a P95 error would be fixed by dropping a few MHz FSB and I'd know it would be stable... 20 or so seems fairly high.

I'm a pretty casual overclocker... Using a simple cooler on it (thermaltake). Plan on investing on something like the Zalman CNPS-7000 very shortly.

Anyone have any ideas what I can chalk this up to? Or does this sound normal?

Thanks.

 

[mrman3k]

Burning in is basically a myth. Try playing a bit more with memory timings, etc. to find which component doesn't like the overclock.

 

[canadianpsycho]

Well it's looping through P95 at 255 now as we speak...

I'm more inclined to think its the RAM... Nowadays with PCI/AGP locks and all. Don't get me wrong, I'm more than pleased with anything >3GHz.... Not the greedy type, just wondering why the heck it wont stay stable near 275... Find out in a day or two I guess what the actual limit of the CPU is.

 

[Y23KC]

How old is your IC7? I purchased mine when it first came out and am having some of the same issues as you. About 265mhz is my max prime95 stable and I've been tinkering with ram settings and voltages for the past week. I have a bit more aggressive cooling (mcx4000 w/ 92mm Tornado 119cm fan) but most peeps at overclockers.com forums seem to get 3.3mhz (275 fsb). I'm not real happy, so I'm gonna purchase another ic7 and a 2.6c since they seem to think the later made boards are overclocking a little better.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Try finding your ram's limit using 1:1. Maybe boost the ram voltage a little...

 

[huthut]

Lack of voltage is also a limiter. Give your RAM and CPU more juice.

 

[jdogg707]

Prime95 errors usually result from CPU voltage, the IC7 undervolts by .25, so your 1.6V is actually 1.575, try going 1.625 and see what happens

I've got the same RAM and Motherboard as you do, with BIOS v. 1.3 and my 2.6C I am at 3.513GHZ and my RAM is at 2-3-3-6 @ 2.7V, CPU at 1.625V (1.6V Actual). My FSB is ay 270 right now, so see what happens when you give it a little more juice, also make sure the performance setting in the BIOS is disabled, had troubles with anything over 250 with it even set to fast.

 

[SnowBoarder9455]

I have the same system as yours: 2.4C, IC7, Geil Ultra Platinum 3500, retail heatsink.

I'm running @ 275 FSB.

Here are my settings:

VCore 1.625
VDimm 2.8
AGP/PCI Ratio locked
N/B Strap By CPU
Ram 2-7-3-3
HT ON

On the two new settings with bios 11, start with them at low, and move up from there. I think I have one at Enhanced and the other at Fast. Its slipping my mind right now what they are called, they are underneith the ram timings. I'm not sure what they do, so I reduce them before my FSB.

my friend with the same system, can only get 270 with stability, and i couldn't get 275 until I increased it to 1.625 VCore. The 13 bios helps the timings, I think i could get it to 2-6-3-3, but the increase in effiecency to get tight timings makes you lose a lot of FSB, and its not worth it.

 

[canadianpsycho]

Thanks for the replies so far...

I'll have to check that I don't have the performance mode on in the BIOS totally forgot that.

Not sure how new the board is, I've personally owned it less than a month, bought new locally in T.O.

I was aware of the undervolting, so maybe I'll go 1.625 in the BIOS... I'm seriously considering some HyperX just because I know if the chip craps out around 433 with the HyperX I can at least get close to 2-2-2-5... Not disappointed with the GEIL, its performing as advertised (I think) and I knew it wasn't bigtime OCing RAM to begin with. I'd like to try that Golden Dragon stuff, but so few reviews (ie. NONE) and also I can't see me shelling out huge $$$ just because I may need 10-15 more MHz. I'd addicted to my PC, but not that addicted. Yet.

Gonna have to wait until tomorrow before I fiddle with it some more. BUt at least I can "stress" test it playing Splinter Cell, DAOC and other games.