Northwood 1.6a, any OC difference between Malay or Costa Rica? Updated-Some Early Conclusions

[dajeepster]

Dammit.... I wish you people would stop this... Now I have to go out and build another computer
(like I could keep myself from doing it anyways )

 

[Tesser]

Ok, I am a long time lurker (WMC) and created an account just for this thread


My chip, MB and ram, ordered from Newegg Sunday, got it yesterday:

MB: Asus p4b266-c
ram: Mushkin 512 Mb (newegg) 2-3-3 2100
Chip: 1.6a P4
Costa Rica
Batch 3149a726

- I have tested stability with Prime95
- cpu with stock heatsink + fan
- Turbo 1 selected

initally:

FSB133 CPU 2128 Mhz
Default voltage
8 hours prime 95 no errors
Max Temp 43c Idle 34c-36c

FSB150 CPU 2399 Mhz (as per sandra2002)
Default voltage
lock up booting XPro
Max temp ?

FSB150 CPU 2399 Mhz
Voltage 1.6
Stable, but errors would stop prime 95 after 5 minutes
Max temp 47c Idle ??

FSB145 CPU 2320 Mhz
Voltage 1.6
Stable No Errors >5 hours (current testing) prime95
Max temp 48c (final) Idle 33-35c


Questions:

1) is it worth removing the conductive pad (metal?) between the heat sink and cpu and applying radioshack conductive goop?

2) is it worth upping the voltage to 1.65 and testing faster than 2320 for stability (I hope so ) ?
-my temperature with stock sink + fan is ~46c

3) the listed temperature maximum for the P4 northwood 1600 (from intel.com) is a whopping 70 c, should I really be worried about long term usage (24/7) at 46 c ?

4) why would 5 Mhz in FSB speed create errors in prime 95 wile the rest of the system seems to run well at 2400?
-what else should I use to ensure stability?



Tesser.

 

[johto]

I'll put all my results in this post. You can read it from the bottom up to see the process I went through.

CPU: P4 1.6A Costa Rica (Newegg), Batch 3149A726, SL668
Cooling: Stock Retail fan and Radio Shack silicon heat-sink compound
Board: Asus P4B266-C
RAM: 512MB Crucial PC2100 (Samsung chips)
Graphics: ATI retail Radeon 8500 AGP (not overclocked)
Network: Belkin 10/100 PCI
Drive: 5400 RPM 15gb (for now)
CD: Teac 16x CDRW
Power Supply: 400W Antec ATX (not P4)
Nothing else is plugged in for testing (no case fans, other hds, cdroms, floppy, etc)

(I just realized this is basically a hot deals PC)

(still at 150, 1.65vcore, 2.6ddr) After putting my SB Live 5.1, DVDrom, floppy and tape drives and plugging in 2 case fans (of 4, but aren't needed anymore), my 12V line is sitting around 11.1 most of the time. I'm a little worried about that, especially since I can no longer run Prime95 without errors (it takes about 3 hours to error out). I'm going to try to fix that and keep it at 2.4GHz before going for 2.5

150 FSB, 1.65VCore, 2.6V DDR Overvoltage (ddr@600)
Prime95 running for 1.5 hours and no problems. Under load PC Probe is reporting 53C. I suspect my hasty application of radio shack (crap, AS3 should be here monday) is contributing to this.


150 FSB, 1.6VCore = 2399 (ddr@600)
WinXP boots, 3DMark2001 runs, sisoft sandra runs, **prime95 errors after 2 minutes**
3dmarks 2001 8983

145 FSB, 1.6VCore = 2320 (ddr@580)
Only thing I tried to do was prime95 from below from this higher voltage. After 2.5 hours, Prime is still running, asus probe is reporting 45C though. Anyways, I'm going to leave this running tonight and try 150 tomorrow. (now tomorrow) Prime ran for about 11 hours with no error. PC Probe said it was at 50C.

145 FSB, 1.5VCore = 2320 (ddr@580)
WinXP boots, 3dmark2001 runs, sisoft sandra runs, **Prime95 torture test errored after 1 minute**
Power (+12V, +5V, +3.3V, VCore) from PC Probe: (11.7, 5.1, 3.2, 1.5)
Temps from PC Probe: 40C Idle
3dmarks 2001 8856

140 FSB, 1.5VCore = 2240 (ddr@560mhz)
WinXP boots, 3dmark2001 runs, sisoft sandra runs, prime for 1.5hrs
*Still does that mouse thing. I'm not gonna worry about it this minute though.
Power (+12V, +5V, +3.3V, VCore) from PC Probe: (11.7, 5.1, 3.2, 1.6)
Temps from PC Probe: 40C Idle, 40C after 1.5 hrs Prime (again, hit 41c)
3dmarks 2001 8692

133 FSB, 1.5VCore = 2128 (ddr@533mhz)
WinXP boots, 3dmark2001 runs, SiSoft sandra runs, prime for 2.5hrs
*Interestingly, though, if I have my USB mouse plugged in it will not boot (the light blinks on and off)... but if I plug it back in under windows everything is fine.
Power (+12V, +5V, +3.3V, VCore) from PC Probe: (11.9, 5.1, 3.2, 1.6)
Temps from PC Probe: 40C Idle, 40C after 2.5 hrs Prime (it did hit 41C for a few minutes)
3dmarks 2001: 8514

100 FSB, 1.5VCore = 1600 (ddr@400mhz)
Everything fine (as it should be)
Power (+12V, +5V, +3.3V, VCore) from PC Probe: (11.9, 5.1, 3.2, 1.5)
Temps from PC Probe: 40C Idle, 40C after an hour of Prime95
3DMarks 2001: 7601 (My dual 1GHz P3 did ~6600)

 

[iahk]

Dammit boy! Hurry up, I'm getting impatient!

 

[BigJ]

<<
4) why would 5 Mhz in FSB speed create errors in prime 95 wile the rest of the system seems to run well at 2400?
-what else should I use to ensure stability?



Tesser. >>



Prime95 will pick up ANY instabilities in the computer relating to processing. I personally think Prime95 is "the" program to use for stability testing. The torture test will bring an overclocked computer to its knees if it isnt 100% stable.

 

[Tesser]

good to hear, I figured that prime95 was the way to go


a correction to above,

at FSB 145, V 1.6, CPU 2320
It just finished 8 hours prime95 no errors,

the max temp was 48c , idle is 33-35c (not >40c)

I wonder if the radioshack goop will help vs. the stock heat strip.


next I'm going to try to see if it will remain stable at 2320 with voltage at 1.55.


I'm quite happy with this chip.

 

[vspt]

Yeah, looks like the CR chips are doing okay. I just want mine to goto 140-145 fsb. Ordering 2 Maxtor 40 gig hd's, anyone know if i might have any probs if i go with a raid config route, at high fsb's...

Btw, flatbroke, looks like I have the same batch as yours from newegg... it's a 709...

 

[BigJ]

<<
I wonder if the radioshack goop will help vs. the stock heat strip.
>>



I was just wondering, why even bother with the Radio Shack goop? It costs, what, about $3 including tax, plus the hastle of u leaving ur nice warm computer chair and going out? (hey, I'm lazy and its freezing in NY right now). Why not pick up some Arctic Silver 3 from SVC? It's $6.99, no tax for me, and it includes free first class shipping (mine came in a little padded envelope). Sure, the goop $4 cheaper, and unless ur gonna overclock it won't make a difference, but why not get AS3 and know that something as silly as a thermal pad/ radioshack goop isnt holding you back. It'll definitely bring down the temp a few degrees compared to the thermal pad, and most likely, bring down the temp compared to the radioshack goop also. My $0.02.

AS3 link for all who care, recently posted in Hot Deals by another User

 

[Flatbroke]

DRS, thanks for the report, you have some very interested (and happy) readers!
jonto, maybe so on the box idea.
Looks like my A709 is odd chip. Is this a week code anyone? Update: Looks like 2nd two numbers in FPO/Batch is week, probably everyone knew this but me.. HD won't get here til next week now. Hurry up and wait...
Editvspt, missed your post, ok 2 of them now...
Maybe Anandtech needs a couple of these HotDeals Northwood computers for servers, man site is slow, lots of fingers (on keyboards) flying.

 

[WheelsCSM]

Flatbroke: I too have the A709 Chip (from NewEgg). I don't have a motherboard yet (probably will come in Monday) so I can't tell you how it does. Hopefully somewhere around 145-150.

Where do you get Prime 95?

 

[Flatbroke]

3 now! WheelsCSM good question, I did a quick search and came up with:
Prime95

 

[WheelsCSM]

any idea how high they are going? (from the other person with one). BTW Link doesn't work

Edit: nevermind, I see Vspt's post

 

[Tesser]

BigJ

I know the as3 is probably the better move, but it's Friday, I have the RS goop sitting here from many other oc's, and I don't think I can wait to play
(and it's not too cold in NY today, at least compared to earlier this week...)

Update:

Rock Stable at 2320 at v1.6, idle 32, HL TFC temp 45 c

prime95 errors if I drop the voltage to 1.55, debating whether to push 1.65 to see if stable at 2400, but I think I'm going to install some games and play with 2320 for a bit


Tesser

 

[Ark]

Newegg CPU ordered Sunday, Shipped Monday (feb 11):
Malay on the chip, nothing on the box.
FPO/Batch L150A422 Pack Date 01/11/02.

 

[DRS]

Here is an interesting tidbit about AS3... Today I got mine from that place that sells it for $7 shipped. I took quite a bit of care removing the thermal pad with carb cleaner and then finished it off with alcohol and a quick dusting with the canned air. Then I followed the directions found here to the letter. Powered the computer back up and my idle temp never goes below 40C even if I open the case in a 72degree fahrenheit room, so it seems the monitor has a floor error. Anyway, I run prime 95 and it gets hot pretty quickly. AND, here is the intersting part, my max temp is now 50C under full load after 1 hour - it used to be 46 with the thermal pad. The artic silver page does say this however:

"Due to the unique shape and sizes of the silver particles in Arctic Silver II, it will take a minimum of 48 hours to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity. (This period will be longer in a system without a fan on the heatsink.) On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will drop as much as 2C to 4C over this "break-in" period."

Even with a 4C change I'm back to 46C - the original temp with the thermal pad!

edit: I forgot to mention the one positive change that I am noticing is how quickly the temps change in Asus probe under full load. With the thermal pad it would take quite a bit more time as compared to AS3 to reach top temp. Also, once CPU activity ceases the cpu temp returns to idle temp much faster using the AS3.

 

[Uclagamer_99]

i have a 709 batch as well...costa rica chip...will hit 135 FSB...which is almost 2.2ghz...but i bumped it down to 133fsb, 2133mhz because that is where it is the most stable...1.5V

 

[LoverBoyJ]

you guys are making me envy and droool with ur set-ups.

I got one question tho, with all the overclocking hoopla, how do you know that ur chip is not "throttling down". From what I heard, the P4 have a circiut that lowers the speed when its getting hot.

 

[Kroffty]

tesser
You have to consider its not just 5 mhz.
for the mem its 5mhz but for the cpu its the multiplier X the fsb.
so 5mhzX16 = 80 mhz and could need a voltage boost.

 

[johto]

i had the same question... how do we know the p4 isn't stepping itself down?? so far things are going pretty well, i think...

 

[cyberizer9]

<< Yeah, looks like the CR chips are doing okay. I just want mine to goto 140-145 fsb. Ordering 2 Maxtor 40 gig hd's, anyone know if i might have any probs if i go with a raid config route, at high fsb's...

Btw, flatbroke, looks like I have the same batch as yours from newegg... it's a 709... >>



Hi! My components are same too. Ordered from Newegg. Where r u getting the maxtor HDs from? The cheapest i could find was $100 -$20 from Staples for a Maxtor 40 gig 7200. Thanks!

 

[Flatbroke]

cyberizer9, I would give you the link to the thread but I don't know how. Do a search for Staples, it is the thread that says "Warm! Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM HD @Staples.com for $79.95 - no PM or MIR". They DO charge tax to all states so my total was $85.13 I think for retail HD. Some report getting ATA100 drives and some ATA133 drives, where have I run into receiving different versions before, hmm... still ok enuf for me, Staples say ATA66, but no one got that, so it's an upgrade either way.

 

[Possum]

I got my 2 Maxtor 40 GB drives from Staples (label on box says Diamond Max, but drives were indeed D740x, phew!) and installed them this afternoon on a hacked Promise Ultra100 (hacked to Fastrak 100). I'm using a 155 MHz FSB on an ASUS P4B266 and the RAID 0 setup is running fine (after a ton of struggling with stubborn Windows XP, and I ended up using Partition Magic to force a drive letter change).

 

[Uclagamer_99]

hmm...i've been looking at the motherboard mon. 5 readings it it states that my voltages for the core are hovering around the 1.65~1.7 region?! i've set it to 1.5V...what gives?

and my 12volt is only doing an average of 11V...could this be contributing to my lack of overclockability over FSB133?

 

[Flatbroke]

Fixed the link to Prime95 above, (long time, no linky), ha, HenHowc, I just looked at my MBM5 12v on my "old, slow" 1.3gig Athlon, = jeeze, are we nuts or what? with 300W PS, and it says 12.37v. I think 11v is low, are you powering a couple 12v fans off the 12v connectors or MB?
Try looking at voltages in bios.

 

[Dug]

Up and running 16x133 with a p4b266-c and Costa Rica chip from Newegg. Running through the passes right now to make sure nothing is wrong.
So far not a hiccup. Will try higher speeds later.