O'C Stability Issue Question

[AllWhacked]

A question about overclock stability. I have experienced the following issues when I overclock my system:

1) Random restarts
2) Game slows down in old school games like Planescape: Torment
3) Inability to uncompress large or chained rar/zip files.

Since this is my first overclock since buying my first Celeron 300A I don't know if this is something I should simply accept as the consequence of faster performance or if I need to do some adjustments like lower my overclock/adjust the memory, voltage, etc.

My specs are as follows:

A64 3200+ (O'C 2.65GHz)
DFI nForce 3 250 Lanparty
1GB (2x512MB) OCZ Memory (forgot the specs)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
ThermalTake 480 Watt PS
XP-90 Heatsink

I ran the usual stability tests, memtest86 and prime95 and followed the Overclock FAQ on this forum. For the most part I was satisfied with my overclock and the quirks of having an overclocked system. However, these quirks got annoying and I have since reset the system back to stock and it runs fines now.

That was about 18 monts ago (I had it overclocked for the first 8 months) and I am planning on upgrading to a new system and moving this system to my office. I'm wondering if the problems I had experienced while overclocking are typical or unique in my case. Because if they are typical, I may spend more money and buy a system that is faster but not as overclocking friendly. Or if I can expect better stability in a new overclocking attempt, I'll spend the money towards better parts, etc.

To you overclocking veterans, your input would be appreciated.

 

[dermotti]

Possibly the northbridge overheating?

Put your finger on it during a load and see if its hot.

 

[AllWhacked]

I'll try out the Northbridge later, but my question is whether others have experienced the same things with overclocking and whether this is normal behavior or not?

Basically, I just want to know if this is the trade off for overclocking. If so that's fine and I can live with it, but if not, then I'll look into fixing the problem in my next upgrade.

 

[tersome]

It sounds like your overclock is just on the verge of stability. It's definately not normal for a stable overclock to have any problems. Try bumping up your voltage a few notches and see if that helps.

 

[AllWhacked]

Originally posted by: tersome
It sounds like your overclock is just on the verge of stability. It's definately not normal for a stable overclock to have any problems. Try bumping up your voltage a few notches and see if that helps.

Thanks, for the info. When I rotate my 3200 back to my house I'll give it another go. I remember that I didn't up the vcore from stock because it "seemed" stable at the time.

 

[bjp999]

There are some standard stability testing tools that you should run to verify that your system is stable. Just being able to boot into Windows isn't enough.

Check out Prime95. It runs a very complicated algorithm that pushes the processor about as hard as it can be pushed. If you are running a dual core, you need to run one of these for each processor. If you search, you should easily be able to find instructions. Otherwise post back. A program called Orthos runs dual Prime95s for you, and is handy for dual core.

There is also a memory stability program called MemTst86. It will make sure your memory is handling the OC.

Run these each for at least 4 hours each (some people run them for 24+ hours). At 4 hours you should have a high degree of confidence that you're system is pretty darn stable.

 

[AllWhacked]

Originally posted by: bjp999
There are some standard stability testing tools that you should run to verify that your system is stable. Just being able to boot into Windows isn't enough.

Check out Prime95. It runs a very complicated algorithm that pushes the processor about as hard as it can be pushed. If you are running a dual core, you need to run one of these for each processor. If you search, you should easily be able to find instructions. Otherwise post back. A program called Orthos runs dual Prime95s for you, and is handy for dual core.

There is also a memory stability program called MemTst86. It will make sure your memory is handling the OC.

Run these each for at least 4 hours each (some people run them for 24+ hours). At 4 hours you should have a high degree of confidence that you're system is pretty darn stable.

Thanks for the reply, as I said in my first post I did run Prime95 and Memtest. And like you stated, I got a feel for how high the system could run by running them under prime for 4 hours and then running them under prime for 24 hours. And the same goes for memtest.

In any case, Tersome answered my question about whether an overclock should run 100% stable or not. Some people would boast about their overclocks and say, it's 98% stable at XXGHz and so assumed that the 2% was what I was experiencing.

 

[bjp999]

Originally posted by: AllWhacked
Thanks for the reply, as I said in my first post I did run Prime95 and Memtest. And like you stated, I got a feel for how high the system could run by running them under prime for 4 hours and then running them under prime for 24 hours. And the same goes for memtest.

In any case, Tersome answered my question about whether an overclock should run 100% stable or not. Some people would boast about their overclocks and say, it's 98% stable at XXGHz and so assumed that the 2% was what I was experiencing.

Sorry, first few lines put me on autopilot. Should have ready more closely.

The last CPU I OC'ed was also an old Celeron 300A! 300MHz to 450MHz was pretty awesome in those days. Since then just didn't seem to be worth it for the small % improvement until the C2D.

People that are prime95 / memtest86 stable do not tend to have the problems you listed. These apps stress your CPU / memory more than any other normal applications. I wonder if you have inadvertantly OCed your PCI bus and/or PCI-E bus. (On my MB I need to set to 33 / 101 respectively and not auto when raising the FSB).

I believe that if you read the forums you will see that the C2D platform is very OCable and that you should expect to get about a one gigahertz improvement if you get the right memory and HSF. Maybe a little more. Most (all?) people that reach stability with dual Prime95 and Memtest86 repost 100% stability when running normal apps / games.

I am running an E6600 (2.4GHz stock) at 3.6GHz and it runs great! No slowdowns.

Hope this helps.

BJP