Overclocking - Am I good, or just lucky? (Benchmarks and CPUz included)

johnm304

Junior Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Let me start this by saying that I've never overclocked before... and am doing so instead of buying a new machine. So, I am by no means an avid OC'er.

I have a P4 2.4C (Costa Rica, I believe) on a P4P800SE motherboard and 1 GB of Corsair Value RAM. I have a Thermaltake POLO 735 heatsink and fan.

I've overclocked the FSB to 272 with my memory running at 5:4. The thing seems to blister through Sisoft Sandra (can't remember the exact scores, but I will post if anyone is interested.) I haven't modified voltage.

They way that I've tested is to run Prime 95 and Sandra Burn-in for 12 hours. (I've done this because I can't seem to get Prime95 to hit 100% utilization, I suppose because of hyperthreading.) I haven't gotten any Prime95 errors after 12 hours of this combo testing.

And here's the kicker... my highest reported temps while testing were 41 degrees according to MBM.

So here are my questions... I am happy with the performance, but am I over looking anything? Those 41 degree temps seem reasonable to me, can anyone way in on that? Is this thing just gonna blow up in a couple of weeks?
 

Shimmishim

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2001
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the p4 2.4C is a hyperthreaded chip.

you need to run 2 instances of prime95 in order to reach 100% utilization...

or prime95 and another program that'll push your cpu usage to 100%
 

johnm304

Junior Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Um... I did that... see above:

"They way that I've tested is to run Prime 95 and Sandra Burn-in for 12 hours. (I've done this because I can't seem to get Prime95 to hit 100% utilization, I suppose because of hyperthreading.)"

Task manager reported 100% utilization for both "instances".
 

Wentelteefje

Golden Member
Dec 6, 2005
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Welcome to the forums, you lucky b*st*rd... ;) So, according to what you stated, your chip went from 2.4GHz to 3.264GHz on stock voltage... That's within the line of expectation, those chips are known for their fabulous overclocking potential... Congrats! :)

Try pushing it further, you seem to have a good chip, and the temps are very good as well! :evil:
 

tuteja1986

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2005
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amazed at your ram not crapping on ;( .. anyways its good oc with that ram.. but i have seen people oc 2.4Ghz to 3.4Ghz but they had a high end ram/ocverclocking mobo.
 

Shimmishim

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2001
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Originally posted by: johnm304
Um... I did that... see above:

"They way that I've tested is to run Prime 95 and Sandra Burn-in for 12 hours. (I've done this because I can't seem to get Prime95 to hit 100% utilization, I suppose because of hyperthreading.)"

Task manager reported 100% utilization for both "instances".

well i was saying if you wanted prime to hit 100% then run 2 instances of it.

i shoulda clarified.
 

johnm304

Junior Member
Jan 2, 2006
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I wanted to run 2 instances of Prime, but couldn't figure out how to do it. I thought my solution was sufficient, but like I said, I am a noob... do you think I should pursue testing using Primex2?

Edit: I found the -a0 and -a1 switches, and am currently running a dual instance prime95 test.
 

johnm304

Junior Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Originally posted by: tuteja1986
amazed at your ram not crapping on ;( .. anyways its good oc with that ram.. but i have seen people oc 2.4Ghz to 3.4Ghz but they had a high end ram/ocverclocking mobo.

The highest I've gotten the RAM to go is 245Mhz. That's why I am running at 5:4 (or is it 4:5?). What I find interesting is that my Memory benchmarks from Sandra are higher if I run my FSB at 272 with 5:4 memory, then if I run FSB at 245 with 1:1. (Plus, the PC just feels faster with 272/5:4). That doesn't make sense to me.

I just bought the Corsair ValueRam... and I've seen on other forums that the most recent batch of this stuff seems to OC better than the older stuff.

EDIT: I just had a thought... this P4P800 MB has Asus' HyperPath. I wonder if that gets disabled above a certain speed. Something worth looking into, I suppose.
 

stevty2889

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2003
7,036
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very nice OC. The 2.4c was one of the best overclocking northwoods, but getting that on stock voltage is very impressive. The other good thing about the northwoods is they didn't run nearly as hot as prescotts.
 

bob4432

Lifer
Sep 6, 2003
11,726
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your temps seem too low, i would be concerned about that. but prime will fail usually before there is any damage. do you have any cpu-z validated info? that is a amazing o/c.... :thumbsup:
 

johnm304

Junior Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Originally posted by: bob4432
your temps seem too low, i would be concerned about that. but prime will fail usually before there is any damage. do you have any cpu-z validated info? that is a amazing o/c.... :thumbsup:


You just hit on my biggest concern... I am afraid that my temps are reporting too low. I've done a search on the P4P800 to see if I could find an issue with temperature reporting, but I haven't been able to find anything.

I ain't home right now, but I will certainly post some screen shots of CPU-z when I get there.
 

Wentelteefje

Golden Member
Dec 6, 2005
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I wouldn't worry too much about the temps... That ThermalTake Polo 735 looks like a serious cooler, having an 80mm fan (the three blades look cool) that spins up to 5500RPM... Noisy, someone? :p
 

johnm304

Junior Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Originally posted by: Wentelteefje
I wouldn't worry too much about the temps... That ThermalTake Polo 735 looks like a serious cooler, having an 80mm fan (the three blades look cool) that spins up to 5500RPM... Noisy, someone? :p

Oh, she is noiser than a woman with PMS, but it comes with a very nice speed control system... fits right into the extra floppy drive slot on the front. So, when I am not taxing the CPU, I turn it down. Its almost silent at around 2200 RPM. When I gaming, I usually crank it up to 5500 rpm. Kind of sounds like a Dustbuster. Doesn't bother me though, because I usually have headphones on while gaming.

I wish I would have taken the time to get temps with the stock HSF for comparison.
 

Wentelteefje

Golden Member
Dec 6, 2005
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Originally posted by: johnm304
Originally posted by: Wentelteefje
I wouldn't worry too much about the temps... That ThermalTake Polo 735 looks like a serious cooler, having an 80mm fan (the three blades look cool) that spins up to 5500RPM... Noisy, someone? :p

Oh, she is noiser than a woman with PMS, but it comes with a very nice speed control system... fits right into the extra floppy drive slot on the front. So, when I am not taxing the CPU, I turn it down. Its almost silent at around 2200 RPM. When I gaming, I usually crank it up to 5500 rpm. Kind of sounds like a Dustbuster. Doesn't bother me though, because I usually have headphones on while gaming.

I wish I would have taken the time to get temps with the stock HSF for comparison.
Yeah I noticed that fan controller... Looks pretty nice! :thumbsup:
 

johnm304

Junior Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Originally posted by: bob4432
your temps seem too low, i would be concerned about that. but prime will fail usually before there is any damage. do you have any cpu-z validated info? that is a amazing o/c.... :thumbsup:


Okay... here you go: CPUZ and Benchmarks link

I threw in some of my benchmarks from Sandra. Believe me, I am not bragging.... I don't know if my results are worth bragging about. Mostly, I am wondering if I am missing something... this just seems too good to be true. Especially because I did not have a clue that the 2.4C was going to be a good OC'er when I bought it.
 

Regalk

Golden Member
Feb 7, 2000
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Been running my 2.4C on the Asus P4P800 for over 2 years now at 280 FSB at 5:4 mem speeds and idle temps are approx 34C and low 40s for load. Been there done that - this has now been relegated to my office system since my AMD64 Opteron is now my gaming rig.
But good OC nevertheless.