Results for overclocking 1G T-Bird on KT7a

[TeMpT]

DaddyG

So I guess many more a late nights for me, too, as I slowly eliminate the 'umpty thousand switches/settings on the darn KT7A. Woe is me.

 

[copperdude]

I had Windows instability problems with my 1G@1.2G. The resolution was in the RAM cycle setting. I backed it down from 2 to 3 and now it works fine @ fsb 142. (2x128 pc133 micron cas3 sticks). If you get a better RAM you'll be more successful pushing it at high fsb.

 

[Taplight]

Daddy G,

I actually took your advice and tried to take down the settings on the memory. The highest I got with all the settings at optimum was 152 but would not load windows. When I took down the settings I still couldn't break that threshold. It seems something else is the limiting factor. At 153 the computer doesn't even post. I wonder what it could be. Any other suggestions?

Something interesting though. I took down the video hardware acceleration in windows to none and I actually got higher marks in 3dmark2000. Not much but a difference. Also, when I enabled agp master read and write in the bios I got lower numbers. Setting the apature size from 64 to 128 made no difference. I tried setting the hard drive to no dma and the thing was so slow (relatively) I couldn't imagine how high the fsb would have to be to get the same performance with dma so I just set it back. Also, when I compared the 3dmark scores for 146 vs. 150, they were almost identical. It seems at 146, everything is running optimally and I don't get any hiccups. My programs run great and I guess I can't complain aboout how fast they open up. It seems that even if I could get a few more mhz out of it, I wouldn't notice the difference. As far as video performance, I have a g450 so I'm pretty much pushing the edge of that card. It was not meant for gaming. If I decide to get a 3rd monitor I may get a high performance pci card for games if I want more fps(if one exists).

The only thing I'm upset about is that the memory I have is rated cas 2 at 150 so at cas 3 it should do more n'est pas? The fact that I can't(for whatever reason) makes me feel like i could've bought cheaper memory that would run at 146 cas 2 and saved some money. I may still do that and use this memeory in a different systemj to see if it will do more. anyway, thanks for the suggestions and if anything, this project was a great learning experience. Not bad for my first time

 

[Taplight]

Tempt,

Hey, that program you recommended is great. It really seems to stress the system nicely. Haven't tried all speeds yet but 147 passed but at 150 it locked up. Didn't report any errors before it locked though. Anyway, thanks and BTW how's your o/c going? Lemme know.

T

 

[DaddyG]

Tap,

I think you should enjoy what you have for a bit. My next suggestions involve gutting your machine to bare minimum for windows uselike no sound card, no modem or NIC, just AGP video. What you would be trying to do is to determine if a PCI device was limiting your overclock. With FSB 150, the PCI Bus is 37.5 which is just about the speed that PCI devices begin to freak. Maxtor harddrives usually start to fail around this speed as do some NICs and sound cards. Some hard drives don't fail completely, they just slow down due to error retries so it usually takes lots of time and effort to breat 150 with good stability.

 

[Taplight]

DaddyG,

Sounds like fun, where do I signup? You're right though, I will enjoy what a have for a while. What you suggest is pretty hard core and sounds like something I should've done from the get go. Doh! I was just too green to know and was too excited to get the thing up and running. I'll probably figure out that I'll have to replace half my hardware if I want 150 and beyond sending me into another online shopping frenzy. How scary is that. Anyway, thanks for the help and support. I learned a lot off this thread and hope others did as well. If you have time, can you list some hardware that you've had success with at higher pci and fsb speeds. Not for me of course, uh.. it's for a friend

Taplight

 

[TeMpT]

I guess I am on the same bandwagon as Taplight. This is "My First O/C" and jumped the gun on the hardware already. I guess I stick this stuff out for a while. Something did come out of this is that I am about to ghost(image backup) my windows drive so that the reinstallation process isn't as painful (stupid 98 keeps recovering from a "previous" version of *.ini, making all my apps very unhappy).

I'll play with it a bit more and see where it gets me...

btw..Taplight, what bios you on now? ww or wz?

 

[DaddyG]

Tap, its tuff recommending PCI devices that like high FSBs, The stuff changes so fast that its near to impossible. The BX133 days, not really that long ago, stressed AGP and PCI pretty hard. Increasing Vi/o sometimes helps with PCI devices, but thats the thing with OCing, its always a crap shoot on the hardware that you buy.

But, a big roomy case, good case ventillation, good hsf and thermal compound, and a good Power Supply that isn't stressed are the starting point for a OCed system.