Limited overclocking with P1.6A / BD7

[IanW]

Hi,

I've recently purchased a P4 1.6A and Abit BD7 with the intention of overclocking.

Currently the best I can manage is 130 FSB giving an overall speed of 2.088GHz.

I'm using the latest Beta BIOS from Abit. I've set the PCI bus speed to fixed 33MHz and the memory ratio to 1:1 (underclocking the memory). The CPU temperature is 42C at idle and 52-53C full load (running Prime95).

If I go any higher with the FSB the system reboots. I've tried increasing the CPU voltage but it makes no difference (except to the temperature <G>).

Is the rebooting a symptom of a motherboard deficiency or is this CPU just not going to overclock any more?

Regards, Ian.

 

[MIDIman]

i believe the rebotting is a symptom of CPU voltage - up it to 5% or 10%. also try turning up DRAM voltage to 2.6v. i am easily stable at 133fsb with these settings.

also make sure your hs/fan is attached properly and ventilation is ok in the case.

 

[IanW]

Originally posted by: MIDIman
i believe the rebotting is a symptom of CPU voltage - up it to 5% or 10%. also try turning up DRAM voltage to 2.6v. i am easily stable at 133fsb with these settings.

also make sure your hs/fan is attached properly and ventilation is ok in the case.

Thank you for your reply.

I have already mentioned that increasing the CPU voltage had no effect (other than make it run hotter). The DRAM voltage is not an issue (as the memory is not being overclocked).

The HSF is a Volcano 7+ and I did have trouble fitting it initially. The temperature hit 70+ :|. The problem was that the four plastic lugs that hold the HSF carrier to the board are just high enough to prevent the Volcano from seating properly on the CPU. I had to ease them apart slightly to get proper contact.

I realise that my case is probably not that good at keeping things cool, but I'm finding it difficult to justify another one, but it is still an option.

I'd still like to know which of the components (CPU or MB) is the likely cause of the problem as it may influence what components I buy when I upgrade my son's PC. (Easier to justify to the wife that way ).

Regards, Ian.

 

[o1die]

My 1.6a statistics are almost identical to yours. Something of a disappointment, but still faster than my old 1700 xp. Increasing the cpu voltage above 1.65 results in only higher temps, but no performance gain. You may want to try a 1.8a or 2.0a cpu next time, as the price of the 1.6a is actually rising. Choose the mobo with the features and price you desire, not expecting too much in the overclock.

 

[VotTak]

Temperature range of my 1.6a is the same as yours.
I was able to boot mine at 2500MHz but it was not running stable due to high temp.
I believe that problem is the CPU.
You never know how high your CPU is able to go... It's just a luck.

 

[IanW]

Hi o1die,

It's kinda refreshing to hear about other's 'not so good' overclocking experiences. At least I know I'm not alone .

Regards, Ian.

 

[IanW]

Hi MIDIman,

I had another go at increasing the core volts and to my surprise I actually spent the whole evening running at 133FSB . I guess my previous attempts were a little too conservative.

I started by increasing the voltage to 1.7 and have since reduced it to 1.65 and it's still (or was last night) stable. The downside is that the temperatures appear to have risen about 5 degees over previous readings. Running Prime95 it maxed out at 62C.

I'm using a program called Speedfan to monitor temps and voltages, as well as fan speeds and it shows the Vcore to be 1.62V which is 0.03V less than the setting in the BIOS. I wonder how acurate these voltage readings are .

So, bottom line is I'm running at 133FSB giving a CPU speed of 2.13GHz.

Thank you all for your help.

Regards, Ian.

 

[sticky52]

I seemed to have maxed out at 133FSB myself with the last official BIOS update, although 135 would boot it got a little flakey. I haven't bothered to crank it up farther and look at the POST codes to troubleshoot, but it would probably be worth the effort.

 

[MIDIman]

heya - i actually got mine up to 150fsb yesterday. temps were high though - about 50-53 idle - so without stronger fans i probably wont go higher.