Overclocking a P4 550 on a DFI 915p-t12

[benDalton]

Here's my situation, I just got this mobo/proc and have the stock hsf on which is cooling effectively now. I have some DDR400 Kingston memory with cl of 3 and a decent powersupply which produces reliable voltages.

I need some advice/help. So, this proc has a multiplier locked at 17, but dfi just released a new bios which lets me unlock it and drop the multiplier down for a good multiplier x bus speed ratio. I'm not certain what is the best way to overclock this machine or if I even can until I get new ddr2 memory.

I tried the bus speed at 210mhz and the standard multiplier which got me 3.57ghz which seemed fine, but i did experience some instability (it crashed once).

I cant even get the machine to boot with the unlocked floating multiplier and a bus speed of 226 (which should get me ~3.4ghz)

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[LTC8K6]

You can only use one lower multiplier though, right? Whatever it speed steps down to. 14X, I think.

 

[benDalton]

yes, i believe so, i know it starts out at 14x...

 

[benDalton]

bump... any help?

 

[benDalton]

advice y'all?

 

[stevty2889]

Still running it at default core voltage? I am running a P4 540, 3.2E. I couldn't get past about 3.5ghz until I upped the voltage a bit to 1.48v. It's at 3.6ghz now, prime95 still running with no errors 30hours later. I am running at 240mhz FSB with a 15x multiplier. Not really having any luck getting it higher than 3.6, locks up after about 5 minutes of prime95 at anything higher. Don't know your motherboard, do you have memory dividers?

 

[benDalton]

After some more trial-and-error, I've concluded that my largest roadblock is memory. I could only get 3.6ghz stable at 3v to my ram anything less and I'd bsod our almost immediately. Seeing other 550's, I'd assume my processer has at least a little head room left at stock voltages. No, my mb will not let me run my memory at anything besides a 1:1 ratio - Memory:FSB, which should normally be ideal when decent memory is had. But being as I have 'Value Ram' rated at 200mhz (pc3200), seeing issus above that is not unexpected. Hopelly with the addition of better memory, I should see better results.

Also, which would be more ideal? 17x210 or 14x255 ? I have a feeling the 255 would be harder to attain, but maybe not w/ decent memory.
Any recommendations on memory? DDR2 w/ low CL? I'm thinking about the Crucial Ballistix...

Here are some links about my board:
http://www.legionhardware.com/html/doc.php?id=336
http://www.hardwarezoom.com/vi...ntent.jsp?ReviewID=227

Thanks for the help!

 

[stevty2889]

The higher FSB is better idealy, as it gives you more memory bandwidth. I still can't get anything stable over 3.6ghz. I wish memory was my limiter, since I have dividers, but unfortunatly anything over 3.6ghz and windows locks up within 5-10 minutes. Crucial Ballistx is good. Can't really say much about DDR-2 other than it's still overpriced. Might help with your OC if you had some ddr-2 533, but so would some decent PC4000 ddr. When I go over 3.6ghz my lock ups occur whenever I try to start any 3d program such as 3dmark 03, or EVE online, so I am begining to wonder if my APG/PCI lock is actualy working right..