Overclocking Pentium 4 3GHz Northwood socket 478 CPU

[Link19]

What is the best way to overclock a Pentium 4 3GHz Northwood socket 478 CPU?? How much voltage is too much?? Is it safe to raise the voltage as high as you want as long as the CPU doesn't get too hot? Or is this not always the case? How much CPU VCORE do you need to achieve an overclock to 3.75GHz?? I have had to raise the VCORE to a minimum of 1.65 for Prime95 to run a FPU test for a long time without any errors? Is that voltage too high?? Even at that voltage, I still received an error after it ran for 13 hours. The error has always been rounding 0.4 to something. I tried raising the voltage to as high as 1.7V. When Prime95 ran for a long time at that voltage, Windows blue screened. But it was able to run for a long time without any problems.

I monitor the CPU temperature with the ABIT-EQ software utility (downloaded from their website http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/utility.php?categories=1&model=4), and the CPU temperature reaches 60C maximum when running prime95 at a voltage of 1.72V. I have heard that ABIT motherboard report voltages 8-10C too high. So I assume my CPU temperature is at about 48-52C when running Prime95. The motherboard is an ABIT IC7-G and is supposed to be an excellent overclocking motherboard.

I have ran MemTest 3.2 several times for 13 hours without any errors at the 250MHz bus speed with the RAM and CPU FSB running sychronously. The RAM is Corsair XMS PC4400 with 2 512MB sticks in dual channel configuration for 1GB of total RAM.


The AGP and PCI buses are locked at 66/33MHz respectively.

It seems I am so close to an almost successful overclock, it's just one tiny error on Prime95? What could be the problem? And is it ok to keep upping the VCORE as long as I ensure the temperatures don't get too hot? And will upping the VCORE to past 1.7V and high eventually solve the problem, or is that already too high for the VCORE needed for such a high overclock on this Pentium 4 Northwood CPU?

My power supply is an Antec True 550WATT power supply. I have measured the voltage rails with a digital multi meter, and they are all perfectly within spec when the system is under intense load. So I know my PSU couldn't be the problem.



Any ideas?

 

[Thor86]

What cooling are you using? If stock Intel, then I would highly advise against any vcore option over 1.575. If you are using a decent aftermarket aircooling setup, then 1.625 would be the highest I can recommend. Anything higher, and even with better cooling will ultimately shorten the life-span of a socket 478 chip quickly.

 

[Link19]

Originally posted by: Thor86
What cooling are you using? If stock Intel, then I would highly advise against any vcore option over 1.575. If you are using a decent aftermarket aircooling setup, then 1.625 would be the highest I can recommend. Anything higher, and even with better cooling will ultimately shorten the life-span of a socket 478 chip quickly.

I am using the XP-90 cooloer with Arctic Silver Thermal paste? I mean, shouldn't this processor be able to overclock easily to 3.75GHz at 1.6V?? I mean, it has failed right away with Prime95 when ever I have overclocked it with that voltage? Are the chances that Intel intentionally RMA'd me a weak CPU a couple of times??

 

[Furen]

I would not go more than 15% over the stock voltage, whatever that is...

 

[Link19]

Could the CPU voltage regualtor on the motherboard be faulty, and the system still able to run?? Or is that not possible?

Are RMA'd CPUs from Intel usually bad? I remember there were early problems with the Intel Northwood Pentium 4s with the 800MHz FSB and hyper threading taht caused occasional BSODs. I then RMA'd it back to Intel and received a new one. But eventually, that CPU started giving me BSODs as well, even when run at stock speed. The BSODs didn't always happen, but sometimes they did. They started to happen both when overclcoked and when run at stock voltage and speed. The temperature never reached over 60C when stress testing. I confirmed it was the CPU again when I swapped it out with a 2.4GHz 533MHz FSB Pentium 4, and it ran the Prime95 FPU stress test perfectly without any errors for 24 hours.

I heard it was rare to have a faulty CPU and for the system to still be able to boot and run to an extent unlike with faulty RAM?? Is that right??

What possibly could be the problem with these Intel Northwood Pentium 4s I have recieved?? or could it be something else?

 

[Link19]

I just did a calculation to how much percentage I overvolted the VCORE of my CPU. The default VCORE is 1.55 and I have mine over volted to 1.725. 1.55/1.725 came out to be approximately 0.89, and thus an 11% overvolt. So I am still within the 15% recommendation you don't want to go over.

 

[Hacp]

Northwoods can't really get past 3.2-3.4 GHZ. Your best bet would be to try to aim for 3.4 degrees. If your on water, you might bet 3.5-3.6 GHZ.

 

[yourdeardaniel]

1.65v for vcore
3.75 is a good overclock for air
your overclock just depends on if u get a lucky chip
intel RMA me a 30 cap hehehe 3.5 on stock voltage

 

[o1die]

My 2.8c northwood runs fine at 3.5 at 1.55 volts, which is actually 1.52 (my msi board undervolts). 250 fsb is a good setting as the memory will be running at 400 using the 5:4 ratio, or 333, whichever setting your board has.

 

[Link19]

Will a Prescott Pentium 4 overclock any better?

 

[DarkKnight69]

Mt 3.0E i searched and got a E0. It ran 3.8 on air but I usually only sat it at about 3.75. The northwoods OC well. DO NOT put the core voltage to 1.7 or higher. They have woody 1.7 death syndrome there (will randomly die). I lost a 2.4c to it!

 

[Link19]

Originally posted by: DarkKnight69
Mt 3.0E i searched and got a E0. It ran 3.8 on air but I usually only sat it at about 3.75. The northwoods OC well. DO NOT put the core voltage to 1.7 or higher. They have woody 1.7 death syndrome there (will randomly die). I lost a 2.4c to it!

If they die, will the failure be immediate and the system won't boot at all until you replace the damaged CPU? Or could the CPU be permanently damged while you are still able to boot, but with BSODs?

I just changed the VCORE down to 1.6V and reduced the overclock to 3.6GHz. I am running Prime95 with it at that. So far, it has been successful.