P4 2.6C in Sonata - minimal cooling @ 3.25ghz

[gramboh]

Hi, just thought I'd share my early overclocking experiences so far. Specs are:

Asus P4P800-UAY (non deluxe) running 1007 final BIOS
P4 "C" 2.6GHz CPU
Thermalright SLK-900U Heatsink with Panaflo L1A 92mm fan (27db 43cfm)
512meg Corsair TwinX PC3200LL RAM (2 x 256)
WD Raptor 10,000rpm Serial ATA 36.7gig drive
Maxtor Diamondmax 7200rpm ATA133 40gig drive
Asus V7700 Deluxe Geforce 2 GTS 32meg (haha I know)
Antec Sonata with standard 120mm Antec exhaust (have two Panaflo L1A's waiting to go in but installing them is a bitch in this case)

I've been running it at stock while I installed things and made sure Windows was stable (all is well except I accidently installed the stupid Q818529 IE patch and now have trouble using IE and for some reason it's not on the uninstall list). Just tonight I bumped it up to 225 FSB (2925MHz) and putted around for a while without any problems. Now running at 250 FSB 320 RAM (1000MHz FSB and 400MHz DDR) for 3250MHz with HT and MAM on. Stock voltage, RAM at 2.65v running 2-3-3-6. Haven't had time to stress test but I played an hour of games (DOD, Quake3) without any issues. Asusprobe reports CPU at 36 under load, 27 idle - MB at 30 idle 34 load. These temps don't seem possible, but both the BIOS and Asusprobe report them the same. When I try to uses MBM5 it thinks the CPU is running at 85-90 (it does this no matter what, even right after a boot at everything stock, no idea why).

I'll update this after. Just thought I'd post about how well the 2.6 seems to do, and this case only has one 120mm exhaust fan blowing at ~1600 RPM and a single 80mm in the PSU also doing around 1700rpm, pretty quiet

 

[Corporate Thug]

very nice OC, esp considering the temps. i think it has room for some more OCing (after stress test of course)

 

[ViRGE]

That sounds very similar to a friend that just picked up a 2.6C Retail, and an Abit IC-7. While I was helping him OC the box on Saturday, we got it up to 3250/1000(4x250) on default voltage and the retail HSF. The temp was in the 50's if I remember correctly, but that's still well within spec. We managed to bring the memory settings down to 2-2-2-5 too, so the box is really flying. I'm kicking myself right now for not buying my own 2.6C rig.

 

[gramboh]

Well running 2 x Prime95 for the past hour or so at 100% CPU (both logical). CPU has gotten up to 40 and MB to 34. Not bad, going to try more tommorow.

 

[mngisdood]

Bump. Very similar to a box I will be building shortly. How do you like your Sonata?

 

[tacom8]

Hey man

Thats a great system you put together (too bad bout the vid card tho).
Pretty much the same parts I'm planning on picking up,

I was wondering tho, since I'm in Edmonton, where you buy your parts from?

tacom8

 

[render]

kick ass system with Geforce 2 ?? :brokenheart:

 

[stardust]

good job.. i got 250 on my 3.0C and its running fine with 2-7-2-2 at 1:1 ratio. (PC3500) ur temps are amazing..mebe its because you are still at default voltage!

 

[gramboh]

Heya,

I picked up the parts locally from Memory Express here in Calgary. I could probably have saved $50-75 via mail order but Memory Express offers a 7 day cash refund/exchange (I might be swapping for 1gig TwinX or 2 x 512 PC3500, really tempted haha) and 1 year in store warranty which beats RMAing stuff.

The Sonata is great, my old T-Bird 1200 was in a generic case with 80mm intake and outtake, a generic PSU (loud) and had one of those early model Volcanos with the 5000rpm 60mm screamer fans. While the Sonata is not silent by any measure (at least not unless you really tweak it out) it is maybe one fifth as loud as my old case or less. The most annoying thing I can hear now is the rattling 40mm fan on my GF2. I am going to be getting a new video card soonish, I just want to be sure I will be able to run Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 at high FPS (leaning toward 9800 Pro if I can't wait long enough for the next gen to come to market).

The new version of MBM5 released on Sunday supports the P4P800 properly, and the temps now agree with what Asusprobe and the BIOS are saying. No idea if it's under-reporting but I have had no issues (ran two instances of Prime 95 @ 100% usage for the past 12 hours with no probs).

BTW anyone know why 3DMark2001 won't work with DirectX 9.0a installed? It says I need DX 8+ compliance or something, it ran fine on my old machine. With this video card I can only run one demo from 3DMark03 and I can't loop it so that is not good for testing.

Thanks

 

[tacom8]

hey again,

ya i think i might go with dangeo, you heard anything about them? they seem to be fairly cheap. The video card issue is really holding me back now too... not sure if i should drop cash for a gooder now, or just go cheepo for a bit, then make a jump to a better card... Anyone got some tips or advice for a noob like me? would a 9500 np cut the cake for d3 and hl2, or do i gotta spent the cash?


Hows that WD raptor holden out? it a worthwile buy?

tacom8

 

[gramboh]

I've heard of that site in a Canadian retailer thread on here but never bought from them, looks like good prices though. Not sure how the 9500 nonpro will handle HL2/doom3. Personally, I prefer 75-100fps in first person games and want a fair amount of detail which is why I am trying to wait as long as I can on a video card. The 9800 pro 128meg is running about $550 now and the 5900 Ultra was just listed as in stock on www.atic.ca for $645 (OUCH) 256meg version.

 

[HeatMiser]

Posted this in the case and cooling, but since seeing Gramboh's post, it looks relevant here too (Antec Sonata + 2.6c). One of my Corsair XMS3500 sticks couldn't hit stock speeds, so I've had to send it back (now running 1 stick in single channel). My rig is P4C800D, 2.6c, 2x256 corsair XMS3500C2. Here are some temps (loaded means running Prime95 for many hours and seeing where the high point is):

Case fan on "fan only" header (FSB - CPU Idle/CPU Loaded/Mobo)
200 - 42/50/30
210 - 44/51/30
245 - 43/52/30
250 - 46/57/30

At this point, I thought things were getting high. So, I connected the case fan to a regular header:
200 - 38/42/25
255 - 43/52/26

I plan to o/c higher, once I get my RMA'd corsair stick back (I could only hit FSB210 in dual channel). FSB above 210 are all with 5:4 divider. This 2.6c seems to o/c very well so far. I'm sure I can go higher. Gramboh...I'm curious how much higher you try going...let us know.

 

[gramboh]

Looking good, personally I'm pretty much sticking to 5:4. I've got 2.75v running to my TwinX 3200LL (I think the TwinX3200LL and 3500 C2 are the same RAM chips but have different timings programmed into the SPD? They cost the same amount, this is my guess anyway) so I am able to hit 2-2-2-5 timings now (2 x 256 in Dual Channel).

I ran two sessions of Prime95 torture test (one on each CPU) and SPEC Viewperf for 10 hours overnight and it didn't crash, so I am assuming it's pretty stable. Ran memtest86 for about 10 hours today (250 FSB, 400 DDR 2-2-2-5) and got one error, going to try to reproduce that later.

I'm going to be swapping my TwinX512 for TwinX1024 (1 gig, 2 x 512) tommorow since I'm planning on keeping this machine for 18-24 months and I'm sure I will want more than 512 and don't want to shoot myself in the foot and be forced to do 4 x 256.

Later tonight I'm going to drop it to 3:2 and see how far the CPU will go (just simple testing by playing 3D games) and maybe try to push the RAM up using loser timings. I'll post here.

HeatMiser what heatsink/fan are you using?

 

[Brutuscan]

good post gramboh! Glad to hear of your experience as I am going to be building a similar system ... sonata case, P4P800, p4 2.6C. I will probably go with Kingston Hyper X PC3200 memory (2x256) instead as it is a bit cheaper.

My video card is old, a Radeon 64 mb ddr. But it has vivo so I really like it. I will be buying a new card later in the year, most likely a ATI 9800 aiw.

 

[Ghamu]

Any reason why you guys are choosing 2.6c's instead of 2.4c's? Why not save $50? Is the higher multipier better somehow?

BTW, can some do a quick post laying out the FSB's and mulipiers you guys are using for either the 2.4c or 2.6c so I can get a feel of how you are getting these effective speeds....

And are your overclocks limited by your FSB speeds or your cpu's themselves...?

 

[floben]

Good post. I have a similar system and have the Sonata case with a P4 2.53 Ghz @ 3.33 Ghz, super stable with pretty good temps. I love the case, it's so quiet!!!

 

[ChemicalX]

I was wondering if you guys like your Antec Sonata case? I find it pretty nice to use except on how the HD enclosures are place and how they align to the case. Maybe I'm just a bit old school.

Darryl.

 

[gramboh]

I was set on a P4 2.4 but decided to spend the extra $60 for the 13 multiplier. Since P4's are multiplier locked, the lower the multiplier the higher the required FSB for an equal overclock. I thought it was worth $60 more to get 13x250 = 3250 than 12x250 = 3000 (I was sure both CPUs would be capable of 250 FSB, and this puts memory at DDR 400 which is a very safe bet with PC3200 obviously). The 2600 just seemed to be a better bet for OC'ing without having to push the clocks too far, I'm going to try for a bit more (270 FSB - 432 DDR which the Corsair XMS3500 I will be picking up in a few hours is rated at for 2-3-3-7 timings). If it will handle it, that would be 3510MHz (I'm sure I'll have to up the voltage for that).

As I said, I like the Sonata so far, I like the hard drive enclosure except that it is difficult to get the cables routed neatly behind it (not impossible, just hard to do it, once its done its fine though). The only other complaint is that mounting the front fan is VERY hard, I haven't been able to do it yet, the screw holes to attach it on the hard drive cage are so close to the motherboard im not sure how to do it (without removing everything which I really don't want to waste hours doing).

Ghamu for the record I am doing 250 FSB (quad pumped for 1000MHz FSB) and 200MHz memory (400MHz DDR) via the 5:4 ratio (which is achieved using the "320" DDR setting in BIOS - 400 = 1:1, 320 = 5:4, 266 = 3:2).

 

[Lyfer]

Corsair XMS3200LL @ 250mhz, wow!

 

[Brutuscan]

One question about your hard drive installation... can you not reverse the hard drive so the connectors go through the open side of the case?

 

[Oakenfold]

You can mount a front fan in this case? I thought the hard drive bay blocked it?
Hmm, pics?
I don't like this case for that reason, seems rather warm but other than that this case is really nice! I've bought three of them, never used one until I gave one to my brother in law.
I'd like to put a front 80 in for him to help with airflow.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: Oakenfold
You can mount a front fan in this case? I thought the hard drive bay blocked it?

It doesn't mount on the inside of the front of the case, it mounts on the inside of the drive cages near the middle of the case. It sucks air over the drives, it doesn't blow air onto the drives.

Another issue is that the plastic openings in the front sub-bezel are small and restrictive which gives fairly poof airflow. Some people will mod the sub-bezel by cutting away a bunch of that plastic to give better airflow.

 

[gramboh]

Actually it is a 5:4 divider so the RAM (at that point TwinX512-3200LL) was running at 400 DDR 2-2-2-5, didn't even dream of trying 450 DDR hehe.

The front of the case does seem a little hot and I will be putting a 120mm L1A behind the drive cage once I can get some isolaters to attach it with (screwing in the fan with stuff in the case is nearly impossible, I can't do it). It won't do much for intake but it will pull hot air off the drives.

I swapped the TwinX512-3200LL for 2 x 512 CMX512-3500 C2 (XMS 3500 non-LL) on Friday since I wanted a gig of RAM. This CMX512-3500 will _NOT_ do 2-2-2-5 or 2-2-2-6 timings even at DDR 400 (stock 2.6) even at 2.85v. It easily does DDR 434 and more (didn't go past DDR 434 because CPU was crapping out, not sure why yet) at 2-3-3-6 timings in dual channel.

I got up to 270 FSB and was able to run Sandra memory bandwidth (I'll post score when I get home, it was around 5800-5900 mb/s) at 5:4 (DDR 434) but the CPU would get errors in Prime 95 with spec perf running in foreground. I bumped voltage up to 1.575 (reported as 1.6v in Windows) and Prime95 would run for a bit with Spec Perf but then it would hard lock (possibly due to heat, although MBM never said over 42 for CPU and 36 for MB -- I'm beginning to think the MB sensor on the P4P800 is under the Northbridge since it never goes below 28 even with the side panel off and a floor fan (probably 1000 CFM) blowing at the computer from 6 feet away). I'm swapping the XMS for TwinX1024-3200LL since I doubt I will run much over 255 FSB which I am doing now at 5:4 (3.3GHz, stock voltage 1.5 bios 1.54 reported due to overvolt) 100% stable and want 2-2-2-5 timings

 

[gramboh]

Sorry I keep writing essays for some reason, lol.