New to OC'ing - Epox 4BDA - a few questions...

[lung]

So on Friday I got my new gear: P4 1.6a (Maylay Pack Date 05/06/02 Batch L211A881), Epox 4BDA, and one 512MB stick of non-true Samsung PC2700. The RAM will be replaced in a bit though... So far, I have the system solidly running at 2.4. It has gone through about 12 hours of Prime95 (two 6 hour blocks) with no errors. If I try to push it up to 155 FSB, it will run 3DMark 2001 fine, several times through, but on Prime95, it will have errors after about 2-3 hours. What might be my stumbling block here?

My System:
P4 1.6A
Epox 4BDA
512MB Samsung PC2700 (non-true)
Abit Geforce4 MX440
Soundblaster Audigy
80GB Maxtor D740X HD
Acer 10X DVD
Yamaha 20X CDR
Realtek NIC
Enermax 350W Adjustable Speed PS
Stock Intel HSF

Bios Settings:
DRAM Timing Selectable Normal
CAS Latency Auto
Activate to Precharge 6
RAS# to CAS# Delay 3
RAS# Precharge 3
Refresh Mode Auto
Delayed Transaction Enabled
AGP Aperture 128
Delay Prior to Thermal 16Min
- all other settings in section are disabled

Auto Detect PCI Clk Enable
Spread Spectrum Disable
CPU/FSB 150MHz/2.40GHz
Memory Frequency DDR 200
AGP/PCI Clock AGP 66MHZ - PCI 33MHz
CPU Voltage +0.100 (1.600)
AGP Voltage +0.000 (1.500)

Another thing that has me concerned is that at Boot, it shows that my +12 Rail is above the warning limit at +12.52. Does this mean that I should be getting a higher wattage power supply?

Motherboard Monitor Readouts

Full Load 46C
Idle 37C
Mobo 27C

+3.3 2.62
+5.00 5.05
+12.00 12.40
-12.00 -11.94
-5.00 -5.29
Core 0 1.50
Core 1 1.57

Current Sandra Scores

CPU Arithmetic 4644 / 1253/2980
CPU Multimedia 9523 / 11608
Memory 2246 / 2245

So, after this glut of information, what reccomendations can the more experienced overclockers give me? I will for sure be buying better RAM in the next month or so. No where locally had true Samsung, so I decided to bite the bullet and get the non-true stuff now so that I can at least get this system operational. I feel that I should get a bigger PS as well. The +12 issue wasn't there when I was running at stock speeds, so that would seem to indicate that more power is needed. The main area I need help in, is the BIOS. I am not sure exactly what some of the settings should be put to for optimal performance so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Sukhoi]

That's weird with the 12V rail increasing in voltage..usually they drop when you don't have enough power. Try upping the CPU voltage a little more to see if 155 FSB is stable. It's possible your processor just doesn't want to go any higher.

 

[oldfart]

You are running DDR310 @ 155 FSB, 1:1 ratio, so that should not be limiting you. I think you need to bump your Vcore up a bit to run the higher FSB. Its hard to say if your mem will be able to handle 3:4 for DDR400+. Once you get that settled, change your mem setting to Memory Frequency DDR266 which will get you running @ DDR400 @ 150 FSB @ 2.4 GHz. That will give you a nice performance boost.

 

[lung]

What would be the upper limits of what I should put the Vcore to?

So, having the memory at the setting of 200 is 1:1 ratio and 266 is 3:4? Are there any other setings in the BIOS that are particularly important?

Even if the processor is the "stumbling block" and won't go any higher, I think I'm pretty happy with it at 2.4...

Thanks for the help by the way. The only bad thing about getting this info right now is that I am at work, so I have to wait about 7 hours until I get get back to the fun stuff..

 

[oldfart]

What would be the upper limits of what I should put the Vcore to?

You can go pretty high if you want to. The BIOS will go up to 1.85. It sounds like you are pretty close. Maybe you just need the next step which is 1.625. My CPU is not that great. I need 1.675 (1.65 read in MBM5) to run 2.4 stable.

So, having the memory at the setting of 200 is 1:1 ratio and 266 is 3:4? Are there any other setings in the BIOS that are particularly important?

Yes 200 = 1:1, 266 = 3:4. The rest of your settings look good. If you want to run DDR400 (you do), you need to run conservative mem timings. I run normal 2.5, 6,3,3. Try normal 2.5 7,3,3 first. Its hard to say with the ram you have. Some non original is very good, some is pretty crappy.

 

[lung]

Well, it would seem that the RAM is not all that great. Not a big shock though. I got the system running stable at 155FSB, 1.70V, but when I tried changing the RAM to 266, the system wouldn't even POST. I would get the power and HD led's on, but he monitor wouldn't kick in and the system would just sit like that. So, back to 200 for now. Although, I am currently running Prime95 with the system at 160 FSB, 1.775V. The cpu temp is up to 58, so I will probably go get a better HSF.

 

[oldfart]

Can it do 150 FSB DDR400? This would be a faster setup than 155 FSB DDR310, probably faster than 160 FSB DDR320 as well. You will be able to run faster and cooler and wont need a new HS/Fan. Set it up for normal, 2.5, 7,3,3

 

[lung]

Well... As soon as I change the ram setting to 266, the computer wont post at all. Even if I leave it at 200 and up the FSB to 160, it wont post, so it looks like the max that my ram will do is 310... I forgot to change the Activate to Precharge to 7 instead of 6. Would that make the difference?

Even so, I have it running stable at 2.56 so I'm pretty happy with it right now. Oh, thanks again for reccommending the 4BDA. I have had no problems with it whatsoever and it is so completely easy to setup and overclock the pants off of the processor..

 

[oldfart]

7 or 6 wont make much of a diff. Looks like you would need to get better ram if you wanted to increase your DDR speed.