MSI Neo4 Platinum can't go over 300FSB.. problem?

dimitris

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Jan 22, 2005
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SORRY DOUBLE POST,

please delete.

Guys,

I have a Winchester 3000+, a MSI Neo4 Platinum, 2x512MB Crucial Ballistix PC4000 and an Albatron 6600GT. All are housed in a Coolermaste CM Stacker with ambient temp 20 degress celsius. CPU is cooled by Thermalright XP-90 w/ Thermaltake Silent Cat 9 fan.

I own the above setup for about a week now and I'm still trying to find the best values for it to overclock. Now, through extensive testing (prime95, superpi, memtest86+) I have found that the limits of my mem are :

2-2-2-8 : 222Mhz
2.5-2-2-8 : 245Mhz
2.5-3-3-8 : 268Mhz
2.5-4-4-8 : 270Mhz

These have been found with cpu, htt WAY DOWN!!

Now, I figure since I found memory ceiling I will try to find cpu limit. So I put a 133 Divider on memory (to be sure), lowered HTT to 2,5x and cpu multiplier to 7x. I have Ballistix' volt to 2.85V (as rated) and Cpu Volt to 1.425 + 8.3%. Then tried to bring FSB up in MSI's Neo4 bios. Problem is :

Until FSB 299 ALL IS WELL. BOOTS WELL INTO WIN AND OK !

if in bios you set 300 then after the POST, instead of seeing the black screen with the windows loading bar you just see a blinking underscore on the top left which stays there for a while and then screen goes into standby. This didn't work even with LDT 2x and Cpu Multiplier 6x. Above 300 I can't seem to have an o/s.

Now Booting into Win with 6x, 2x and FSB=299 Mhz, I fired up ClockGen, nTune and Corecenter. I brought my LDT to 3x (from Tune) and my CPU Multiplier to 8x (from ClockGen). Then began slightly moving up FSB from ClockGen 5Mhz at a time. I expected to see a lock up or something to that nature. NOTHING! Finally I throught maybe it needed some testing and not just waiting for a lockup. So my settings last night were :

FSB=330Mhz
Multiplier = x8
CoreSpeed = 2640Mhz
Memory = 220Mhz

With it (and without any reboots) I ran prime95 (blend torture) for 7 hours with no errors. After that I fired up SuperPI and calculated 16M with no errors. I have been running rthdribl for the past 30 minutes and computer is up and running. Temps are :

CPU : (heavy load) 46 celsius
GPU : (load) 62 celsius

Now my questions :
a) are these temps all right if i decide to leave cpu at that? What are the temps above of I should worry?
b) what other program could i run to check stability at core speed of 2640Mhz ?

FINALLY : does anybody know why Bios doesn't allow me to set over 299Mhz in FSB ?

Thanx,

dimitris