noob asking for experienced advice

[silencerius]

hi
I could use some advice here.. I want to overclock my system..
I have a P4 2,6C @ 2,87ghz o/c, Kingston ram modules 2x256mb PC3200 DDR400, mobo Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, and i would like to overclock as much as the cpu can handle with no problems like crashing or something.. At the current speed (2,87ghz) I have no problems except a couple celcius deegres rise from time to time, which are no big deal. I was wondering if someone could guide me through voltages and stuff like that cause I have no clue and I'm quite afraid playing with these settings by myself.

Thanks alot in advance

 

[cnhoff]

First i would raise the fsb in smaller steps until your reach the barrier where the system gets unstable in prime95 stress testing. This will be way beyond the 3 GHz mark.

Then you can try to raise the vcore in 0.05v steps and see, if it has an impact on stability. I personally wouldn't advise to rise vcore at all, i didn't see major leaps in overclockability by raising vcore and this definitely can shorten the lifespan of your cpu.

Otherwise, just try it out, other than raising vcore too much you actually can't damage your system imho...

 

[Soulkeeper]

make a memtest86 bootdisk so you can not worry about corrupting windows

also isolate one thing at a time if you can with the mem/fsb ratios
and be sure to lock the pci/agp

i agree with the above post you shouldn't have to mess with voltages much if at all



good luck

 

[silencerius]

Hey! Thanks a lot for that quick response

But, here's the deal.. up to 3.0Ghz i'm totally fine, Prime95 keeps on testing for several minutes (it run 4 tests till I got bored ), but from 3.0Ghz and above it stops testing in the first minute displaying "Hardware Failure" or something... I raised the Vcore up to 1,65V which I'm not sure if it's high or not since I don't know the default core voltage value (any help on that?).. What's wrong? Wasn't it suppossed to go much higher than 3Gs? Oh and btw, I have no clue on how to lock PCI/AGP! Is that serious? And something last, I saw you mentioning lifespan shortening. About how much time are talking about? (I know it depends, an estimate would be fine).

Thanks A LOT for the help guys!

 

[bjc112]

What is your current FSB? Are you currently using any dividers?

IF you are running the 1:1 ratio, you can be pushing your memory too far which is causing the instability. However, 2.6C's aren't the best overclockers.. We still should get ya 3.0ghz stable.

For a P4 i would consider 1.65V the highest, Athlon's 1.8V. With a Northwood you could end up with a SNDS.. And we don't want that.

What is your current Vdimm? Put it at 2.8v if it is not.

 

[silencerius]

what exactly are dividers ? (sorry if i'm making a lot of stupid questions wasting your time but i'm quite a noob at this..)
god damn this mobo my vdimm is on "auto" mode, i can't tell which voltage is the auto mode.. is there any other way to see it?

i currently am on 200mhz FSB (2,6Ghz - default), max FSB i ever had is 235mhz, the pc worked fine but Prime95 showed hardware failure.

could it be my memory? i have 2x256 kingston pc3200 DDR400 CL3 (btw when i booted up until now it displayed "Memory frequency 266Mhz" and a friend told me I had to change that to 400 from the BIOS, and so I did).

 

[silencerius]

ok i changed vdimm setting from auto to 2.8V anyway, it doesn't seem to do any difference though.. :\

thanks again for the help

 

[Soulkeeper]

Originally posted by: silencerius
what exactly are dividers ? (sorry if i'm making a lot of stupid questions wasting your time but i'm quite a noob at this..)
god damn this mobo my vdimm is on "auto" mode, i can't tell which voltage is the auto mode.. is there any other way to see it?

i currently am on 200mhz FSB (2,6Ghz - default), max FSB i ever had is 235mhz, the pc worked fine but Prime95 showed hardware failure.

could it be my memory? i have 2x256 kingston pc3200 DDR400 CL3 (btw when i booted up until now it displayed "Memory frequency 266Mhz" and a friend told me I had to change that to 400 from the BIOS, and so I did).

Dividers are the ratios or factors that determine the various clock speeds of components in comparison to the pci or fsb speeds

also you can check your vdimm, vcore, vagp, psu rails, etc in the pc health section of the bios, most every new board has such a thing.

It most likely is your memory itself hitting a limit
my pc3500 has trouble getting much over 215 on high voltages and low latencies so don't feel bad

also if you want a few more mhz you can try lowering cas latencies and hope this yeilds a few more mhz on the mem/fsb

good luck

also 2.8v is a good vdimm but i wouldn't go much higher unless you really have to, cause it usually won't help to go much higher and will just add heat to the situation and decrease your memory's life span