OC question(soyo fire dragen+p4 1.8a Ghz)

[kenski]

Hi the OC experts out there,

I am pretty new to OC, and I was wondering if anyone tried this combination(fire dragon+1.8a Ghz skt478). I have heard lots of good things about the soyo fire dragon board(for overclocking).

My question is: what is the limit that I can OC with the default hsf? I would like to push it to 2.5Ghz, would I need a better hsf? if so, what would you recommend(price around $20-30)?

by the way, this is what I plan to put in my case:

fire dragon + p4 1.8a Ghz
256mb DDR2700
cdrom + cd writer
45 gb 7200rpm(IBM)
120 gb 7200(WD)
2x18 gb 7200(quantum) RAID

would a 300w PS be enough?

thanks a lot in advance!

ken

 

[bub]

Since nobody answered you, I'll take a whack at it.

I have the Soyo Dragon Ultra (sis 645 chipset)P4S board with a retail P4 1.5 (not 'a' type), pc2700 Kingmax memory, etc. It is a VERY stable board, BUT is not the greatest for overclocking. Mine goes 1.8gb Turbo with all other options at default. Buss speed at 120. At 124 my mouse gets erratic. This 'Turbo' (normal,fast,turbo) feature runs the memory at cas2 as far as I can tell. Your 'a' type cpu should do better, but don't count on alot.

There are tons of options for overclocking; raising voltage on cpu and memory, etc., but in my case nothing helped. And when it doesn't work you have to reset the cmos jumper every time and start all over. Pain in the butt.

Tomshardware.com just did a review of 10 sis boards including the Soyo P4S and says this is the best board of the 10. He says they spent 2 hours adjusting the bios for optimum speed, but does not give the setting details. I'd give a dollar... maybe a little more.

The retail heatsink and fan should be fine in my opinion. It's nasty. I took off the thermal pad and used Artic Silver compound.

Oh... I've had this board for about a month or so. They already have a new bios update, 2nd sound update, etc. If you have to flash your bios, MAKE SURE TO READ THE DIRECTIONS OVER AND OVER FOR A WEEK BEFORE FLASHING, cause if you make a mistake, you'll be dealing with Soyo for a new MAC address file. Just to be safe, write down on paper the numbers on the stickers on the BACK of the board. Cause you need it for the MAC address.

Also, the new sound driver is only on their Tiawan site.

Email me for any other questions.