Hey folks,
So I got a shiny new 3800+ Toledo X2 to replace my 3500+ Venice.
You will see my other system specs below.
I was hoping that a moderate overclock would be very easy, at least 200-400MHz. I have a competent CPU cooler - a Zalman CNPS-7000AlCu. Indeed, heat does not seem to be a limiting factor for me.
Strangely, when I do a simple overclock, I get intermitent hard system shutdowns.
Procedure:
Drop HT to 4x
Drop RAM speed to 100MHz (in my BIOS that means you set the highest divider), and set CAS3 /1T, other SPD timings to take RAM out of the equation
Bump up FSB to 220, leaving voltages stock and test.
Increase 5 MHz at a time, and see how things go.
I was able to get the system up to 240 MHz FSB easily, and didn't want to push things. I got the RAM up to 333MHz (which is really 400 MHz after the FSB boost), and things looked good. I passed an overnight Prime95 on both cores, with temps in the high 50s when I checked in the morning.
All good, I thought, but then I started encountering occasional shutdowns without warning. So I figured, maybe some vCore would help. I boosted it a bit, but still occasional shutdowns.
I backed down to a 220 FSB, and was again 2x prime95 stable overnight, with temps in the 50s (stock vCore). But still, shutdowns persisted occasionally.
I finally gave up and put everything back to stock.
What do you guys think is happening? It seems like thermal shutdown is kicking in, but I disabled it in my BIOS.
Maybe my PSU is just not enough? It's a good 3 years old, and is a 450W Antec that has been a workhorse that took overclocking my 3500+ to 2.6 without issues for a long time. I eventually stopped that due to noise considerations.
Suggestions would be appreciated!
~Misfit
So I got a shiny new 3800+ Toledo X2 to replace my 3500+ Venice.
You will see my other system specs below.
I was hoping that a moderate overclock would be very easy, at least 200-400MHz. I have a competent CPU cooler - a Zalman CNPS-7000AlCu. Indeed, heat does not seem to be a limiting factor for me.
Strangely, when I do a simple overclock, I get intermitent hard system shutdowns.
Procedure:
Drop HT to 4x
Drop RAM speed to 100MHz (in my BIOS that means you set the highest divider), and set CAS3 /1T, other SPD timings to take RAM out of the equation
Bump up FSB to 220, leaving voltages stock and test.
Increase 5 MHz at a time, and see how things go.
I was able to get the system up to 240 MHz FSB easily, and didn't want to push things. I got the RAM up to 333MHz (which is really 400 MHz after the FSB boost), and things looked good. I passed an overnight Prime95 on both cores, with temps in the high 50s when I checked in the morning.
All good, I thought, but then I started encountering occasional shutdowns without warning. So I figured, maybe some vCore would help. I boosted it a bit, but still occasional shutdowns.
I backed down to a 220 FSB, and was again 2x prime95 stable overnight, with temps in the 50s (stock vCore). But still, shutdowns persisted occasionally.
I finally gave up and put everything back to stock.
What do you guys think is happening? It seems like thermal shutdown is kicking in, but I disabled it in my BIOS.
Maybe my PSU is just not enough? It's a good 3 years old, and is a 450W Antec that has been a workhorse that took overclocking my 3500+ to 2.6 without issues for a long time. I eventually stopped that due to noise considerations.
Suggestions would be appreciated!
~Misfit
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