Just got my 2500 Mobile, newbie needs advice...

[digitalduck]

Okay, I just replaced my ram and cpu today with Corsair 2x512 3200 ram and a Mobile 2500 Barton and I have an NF7 to go with it and Win XP...

I am new to O/C (very new) and I dont have the best heatsink, its my next purchase. Right now I have a Volcano 5. Anyway, the mobile is like 1.89 or something and I set it at 200x10 off the bat and reached 2Ghz...I was happy, but then I tried 210x10...thinking it would be 210x10 or 2.1ghz...but I think that was wrong because it didnt even post. No boot, nothing. So I cleared my CMOS and changed it back to 200x10... I then tried 200x10.5 and then windows said something like its cant find windows/system32/config file or something...it could have been because i just cleared out my CMOS too. Anyway I reset and changed it back to 200x10 and all is good. So what settings should I do? Or can do? I will be getting a new heatsink soon but for now, what can I do..? Thanks

 

[4x4expy]

Your HSF is fine for a mild overclock as long as you have some decent thermal paste properly applied.(You want to give your HSF the best chance at absorbing and dissipating your CPU's heat). Are you still at 1.45v vcore? 200x10 is probably decent if you are. But bump it to 1.65 then try 200x11, if that gets to Windows try 200x12, if that don't work try 200x11.5, get the idea. You might also try bumping up the chipset voltage. Then you should get an idea on your chip's ceiling. You should probably get around 2.4 ghz on 1.65vcore. Once you get a better HSF, you can try to squeeze another 100-200mhz out of it at 1.8v or so. And even back down your multi and explore the FSB limit.


Hope this helps.

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

I would be real careful how hard you push your CPU without proper cooling. With a volcano5 you are not going to get real far but I would start by changin my Vcore to 1.65-1.75. Then I would go with changing the multipliers like 10 X 200 then 10.5 X 200 and so on till it won't boot into windows then go back to your last one and see how stable you are. The higher FSB's don't buy you a ton...but a little. The thing is that you are already giving it sufficient bandwidth for that CPU at 200 fsb. I really wouldn't run that particular setup much past 11 X 200 but the bottom line is 40C idle...that is where I draw the line. That will usually translate to somewhere under 50C loaded temps, but that is with a quality HSF...YMMV. You will be quite happy with an Artic cooling big ole HSF from SVC.com for about 20ish but Thermalrights are better but priced accordingly. I have a 2500@ 2.4ish with one of the artic cooling jobbies...nice and quiet too.

Hope that helps.

With the better HSF I would go up to 1.8 possibly1.9...prolly max out at 1.85 but I would let the temps dictate. Being your first project...don't go above 1.8 till you have a handle on what is happening in there.

 

[magratton]

Originally posted by: BlindBartimaeus
I would be real careful how hard you push your CPU without proper cooling.

Agreed Yes, the heatsink is important. I would recommend:
this one or this combo: Heatsink and fan.

To the levels you may be able to hit with you 2500mobile, I think that 200x12 should be attainable with your vcore at 1.65 to 1.7v. By setting the FSB to 210, you are also running the ram at 420fsb, which is above what it is rated at. You may have to relax the memory's timings and (but try the timings first) play around with the voltage being given to it. Instead, I would first try figure into a nice overclocked stable system at 200fsb so you have a nice fall-back position, then try playing around with overclocking the ram by dropping the multiplier by .5, then slowing raising the FSB by 5 mhz and relaxing the ram timings when it goes unstable.

Lastly, if you are going to be pushing your RAM, then it is a good thing to boot into MemTest86 as opposed to windows. It will save you a lot of time by not having to reinstall a corrupted windows system.

And one more thing, if you plan on keeping this system around for a while, dont go much higher than around 1.75vcore. I believe that is the common opinion of many folks around here.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

thermalrights are so damn expensive,i can't see how anyone can justify them. i paid $15 for my volcano 12 which is only outperformed by the heatpiped thermalright.

 

[selfbuilt]

A stock 2500+ non-mobile does 166x11 (1825 HGz) at 1.65V. The mobile defaults to a lower voltage (about 1.4 I think, depending on the board) ... which sounds to me like the reason you can't go higher than 200x10. Even with your cooler, you should be able to do much better if you run it at stock 1.65 voltage. I would start at stock speeds (166x11) at 1.65, and slowly work up the FSB and multiplier as 4x4expy recommended. I wouldn't go above 1.65 with the cooler, though.

As for coolers, I love my Vantec aeroflow. My mobile barton 2500+ easily does 2.4GHz at 1.65V set (although my asus A7N8X overvolts ~0.5V), paired with Corsair 3200LL (2-3-2-6 timings) at 198 FSB (my board doesn't seem to like higher FSB). Enjoy your new setup!