Overclocking help - P4 1.6A with P4S533

[Bharat]

Hello people

I have had my system running now for about 3 weeks - a 1.6A, ASUS P4S533, with Samsung 512MB PC2700 memory, ATI Radeon VE (I know, it's not the best, but I intend to change it soon ), and the rest, which of course I won't sit here and list out each component.

When I powered on the PC first time around, it took me into the BIOS and asked me to specify CPU speed, so I selected 2.13. That is all I have changed in the BIOS.

I would now like to try and overclock and see how far can I go, but I am completely new to O/C, so can someone please guide me here a bit ?

Appreciate it....Thanks in advance

BTW : I am using a standard 300W PSU with 2 Y.S.Tech 80mm fans cooling the system, don't know if it's enough, but the CPU temperature is usually 37C idle and goes up to about 42 when putting some load - using a Coolermaster HSF.

 

[CoDerEd]

well, just try to increase the fsb until you hit the ceiling.

 

[dbwillis]

Hi-
I had the same system setup (mb+cpu), youll probably hit the 'wall' at around 150fsb with this baord, I believe its due to the PCI speed being way out of norm at 150 and above.

You should be able to run 150fsb, 4:5 divider for the memory, maybe set the CPU voltage to manual and use 1.575v or if Prime95 doesnt run for 6 hrs without an error, try 1.6v..dont go over 1.7v though.
Depending on your ram..you can run the memory at 'by SPD' or manual and try 2.5-3-3 or 2-2-2 (lower numbers are better, but more agressive and some RAM cant handle it).

Good luck, you should be about 98% able to hit 150fsb on that board.

 

[Duvie]

dbwillis has it right....The 4;5 ratio would make the memory 375mhz ddr so it should do it, but may require you raise the vdimm voltage with the jumper on the board to 2.7v....


Also asus mobos overvolt so whatever you set in the bios check it to see actual....It may overvolt anywhere from .03 to.06v...just keep that in mind when holding 1.7v vcore as the ceiling for you ocing...

 

[Bharat]

Thanks a lot for the hints guys, just about what I was looking for

Noted the suggestions, and just changed the following :

Set CPU speed to MANUAL
Set CPU Divider to 4:5
Set CPU Voltage manually to 1.600V

Rebooted the PC and CPU temperature reported by ASUSProbe was 41C

Went into Sandra 2002 SP1 and in CPU and BIOS Info, it reports :

Processor speed : 2.32GHz
Front Speed Bus : 4 x 145MHz (580MHz data rate)

In CACHE and MEMORY BENCHMARK, it says :

Bank 0 Setting : 512MB DDR-SDRAM 2.5-4-4CL

But when I try to run a Benchmark in Prime95 (CPU selected as a P4 with Speed 2300MHz), it does only gets this far and stops :

Best time for 256K FFT length: 10.866 ms.
Best time for 320K FFT length: 14.339 ms.
Best time for 384K FFT length: 17.581 ms.
Best time for 448K FFT length: 21.080 ms.
Best time for 512K FFT length: 23.615 ms.
Best time for 640K FFT length: 30.950 ms.
Best time for 768K FFT length: 37.487 ms.
Best time for 892K FFT length: 45.908 ms.
Best time for 1024K FFT length: 50.017 ms.
Best time for 1280K FFT length: 71.208 ms.
Best time for 1536K FFT length: 89.957 ms.
Best time for 1792K FFT length: 109.687 ms.

Execution Halted.
Choose Test/Continue to restart.


Is this normal, or is something going wrong maybe because I've made a mistake somewhere ?

During/just after this, CPU temperature reported by ASUSProbe was 45C. Is it getting a bit hot ?

 

[dbwillis]

Seems like your memory is still set 'by SPD', do you know if its CAS2 or CAS2.5 rated Samsung?
if its CAS2.5, you can leave it at 'by SPD', if its rated CAS2, try changing the memory to 'user setting' and use CAS2.
You can also set the jumper in the upper right corner for the Vdimm for 2.7v instead of normal 2.5v...by memory..I think the jumper needs to be on the 2 middle pins (out of 4 pins) for 2.7v
I run the torture test when testing Prime95..I let it run for 24hrs, if your still using the Intel heatsink/fan, then 45'c is OK, I was at about 57'c after 24hrs of Prime95 torture test.

Here are the settings I had run for a LONG time without a problem.
vcore 1.675v
150fsb
4:5 ratio
2-2-2-6-2t
vdimm 2.7v

Good luck!

 

[Bharat]

Hmm...

The memory I got was from Googlegear. I am not sure whether is it 2 or 2.5, I'll take a look. But yes, I haven't changed the memory settings in the BIOS yet.

I just ran the Torture test in Prime95 for about 25 mins, and the temperature was touching 56C. I have stopped the test about 1 min (approx) ago, and the temperature is falling (about 44C)...HOWEVER ! I just noticed that ASUSProbe is reporting between 1.666 and 1.68V.

Is that normal ? I know in the BIOS, I've set it to 1.600V.

Just FYI, I'm using a CoolerMaster DI4-7H53D HSF.

 

[dbwillis]

WEll 56 isnt too bad..Ive had mine up pretty high..esp when the room was about 90'F or 95'F
Yes, the Asus boards overvolt..so you want to keep it under 1.75v max in the probe readings (i use 1.7v as max, but thats just me)
When under load (like Prime95) the vcore shouldnt go below the BIOS setting (1.6v in yur case), try Prime95 again, see if it'll go for 3 hrs and what the voltage drops too.
If it goes for 3 hrs, Id try for 150fsb, 4:5, 1.625v, that would probably be your end results/max stable OC.


-Any case fans? maybe get better airflow in/out of the case to help lower the temps..

 

[Bharat]

Well, strange that you mention it. I just went into the BIOS and tried to set FSB to 150, it almost loaded into WinXP, but then it stayed with blank screen and message saying that there was a problem with Memory.

So I soft-rebooted, and tried to go back to 148. It booted up but within a few mins, I got BSOD with ATI2DRIV or some such driver/device failing (obviously my ATI graphics card !).

So I've changed back to 145 and just ran the Burn-In Wizard in Sandra 2002 SP1 with 10 runs, and it's JUST completed, without any problems.

So I am planning to do a Torture test in Prime95 and let it run for a few hours (until tomorrow morning basically) and if it goes well, I'll make the changes and adjust the jumper and try pushing upwards slowly.

As for the fans, I've got 1 Y.S.Tech 80mm at the top of the case, next to PSU, blowing air downward, another one behind the CPU (where the normal case fans go) blowing air in as well, across the top of the CPU (kind of) and a System Exhaust one between my Radeon and the 1st PCI device, so it can suck out whatever hot air is being generated by the graphics card at least. I think I MAY need another fan, but I'll see how this test goes.

Thanks once again for everything...

 

[Duvie]

Keep going!!!

I think you are starting to see signs that the cpu cooling is not all that effective....

While overvolting asus mobos are widely known for having the lowest reporting temps..The fact that you hit 56c after 25minutes and it could have likely raised to 58c by the time 3hours is up means that those temps on my epox or some other epox boards may have been in the mid 60's...

Did you use Artic Silver with the heatsink fan application?

Also too high of ram(memory) timings can corrupt drivers...so watch out!!!

 

[Bharat]

Yup, used AS3 between the HSF and CPU after cleaning the compound that was already there using nail-polish remover, and then wiped off clean with good, clean lint free cloth.

Well, I could not get a Torture test to go through last night, so I left the PC off all night and started it up this morning, nice and fresh 33C temperature.

Started the test and left it running, and found it went for only 57 mins before it got this error and stopped :

FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

Well, I'll try and change the jumper setting as you mentioned, and see whether that helps.

In the meantime, I've just received my OEM P4 2.0 Northwood today. Here's what it's got ON the chip :

2A GHZ/512/400/1.5V
SL5YR MALAY
L146B922-0176


Does that give out any info about whether it's any good ? Since it's OEM, got no other info

 

[dbwillis]

Well 57min on Prime95 isnt good, but its better than before!
Seems the ATI cant take the higher PCI bus of 150fsb (PCI/37.5mhz), or the Samsung cant take the 187mhz speed...maybe 144/145fsb and 4:5 for DDR might be good for you.
Good luck on the next test!

 

[Bharat]

Yes, one of them is not going on too happily. I'm not sure which one, as I haven't made any changes apart from the ones mentioned, UNLESS that affects the AGP/PCI automatically.

I have changed the jumper to 2.7 for VDIMM voltage (middle 2 pins, as rightly suggested but you guys )

At the moment, I have put in the 2.0A to see how it runs. I've left all the default BIOS settings, so it's running at base 2GHz only.

When I first put it in, I just wanted to ensure it works, so did not put a HSF on it. First boot into BIOS asked me for CPU speed as usual, and while I was in there for just about 30 secs, the PC suddenly shut off...

I starting wondering what happened, so I just touched the CPU, and ALMOST burnt my finger ! GOD, did that thing get HOT !!! I had to leave it for a few mins to cool down, then took it out and checked to ensure it's OK. Phew !

It's been running the torture tests for about 12 hours or so without a problem. The next straight option in the BIOS is 2.66GHz, I don't know whether I should give that a go, or shall I change the CPU voltage as well ? Any suggestions ?

 

[Bharat]

!!! UPDATE !!!

I could only really take the the 2.0A upto 2.4GHz for some reason. Anyway, since that is for the 2nd PC (I am on the lookout for a good, stable m/b for that one now), I decided to go back to my normal CPU, the 1.6A.

And this time, I managed to get it all the way upto 2.4GHz !!! But not for long

The difference was that I set CPU VCore to 1.575V instead of 1.6V, although ASUSProbe was show it to be between 1.62 and 1.64V.
I was a bit concerned about that, and I guess that might have been a problem.

FSB - 150
CPU Divider - 4:5
CPU VCore - 1.575V
MEM - Manually adjusted to 2.5-3-3-7T

I tried to increase the FSB, but just could not get into Windows with FSB just above 150, whereas the system kept reporting problems due to CPU overclocking and Memory failure if I went anything above 152 I think.

But I was still have Prime95 error within a minute, and the system seemed a bit unstable.

Therefore, I lowered the FSB again until the system stablized, which it is at the moment. I have the 1.6A running at 2.32GHz, with these settings :

FSB - 145
CPU Divider - 4:5
CPU VCore - 1.575V
MEM - Manually adjusted to 2.5-3-3-7T

Prime95 Torture test has been running fine for about 14 hours I think...temperature reported by ASUSProbe is steady 48C or so, with m/b temperature about 35C. VCore is between 1.568 and 1.632V in ASUSProbe.


Which now brings me to another question (which may be affecting things probably ?). At the moment, the system is running on a standard 300W PSU, and I am a bit concerned and may change to a reliable one. I have 2 options :

1. Enermax - EG365AX-VE (FMA) ACTIVE 365W
2. Chieftec 360W ATX - I don't have a specific model number.

The Chieftec one is a little cheaper. Any suggestions people ??