some questions on overclocking my 1.6a P4

[tenest]

ok, here's the set up:

P4 1.6a Retail
Abit BD7-RAID (newest bios version)
512meg Crucial PC2100 (1 stick, Samsung is the name stamped on the chips)
AVC Sunflower with Artic Silver 3
3 intake fans (1 blowing over the hard drives)
2 exhaust fans
500watt PS with 1 intake and 1 exhaust fan
Gainward Geforce3 Ti 200 Golden Sample
WinXP Pro

if i'm missing a component, let me know and i'll add it

i've been running it un-overclocked for a week, making sure that it is stable BEFORE overclocking and to give the artic silver time to bond. CPU temp (MBM 5) is usually 98ºF (37ºC) and the case temperature is typically 82ºF (28ºC). MBM5 registers the core voltage to be 1.47. I first tried pushing it to 133FSB with a 1:4 ratio (PCI 33Mhz) and the voltage left at cpu default. I can boot into windows, my services can start and everything looks ok, but if i try to use IE, then it will lock up. Temps were reading CPU 107ºF (40ºC) and the Case 87ºF (30ºC). so then i started bumping the volts up a little at a time (while fighting the reboot issue that abit is now famous for) and each time, the same thing would happen... everything looks ok, try to run IE and crash. No change in the temps despite the increase in voltage.

what i havent touched yet is the dram voltage settings. should i be bumping those up as well? default is 2.5v. i've also seen mention of setting the "timings" on the ram, but i couldnt decipher if they were talking about DDR or rambus.

any ideas on what else i can try? surely this thing should be able to hit 133FSB.

also, what are the best apps for "burning in" the CPU or testing for stability? is MBM5 the best to use for temp/volt measurements, or is there something better?

thanks in advance!!!

 

[Nate420]

I'm not familiar with that mobo, so I can't offer any real insight on that matter.

However, to my knowledge, MBM is the best sensor reporting app.

I don' think the memory is holding you back. I have the Asus P4B266/1.6A combo, and the same ram only 256Mb. Since I have to use a jumper to set my dram voltage, I just went with 2.6 right from the start, so I'm not sure if the .1V addition is helping me or not, but I've run at 150fsb/2-2-2-5 fairly stable. Fairly meaning that Prime95 (good for burn-in) errored after about 2 hours, but every other app I ran was fine, 3dmark included. I backed down to 140fsb just for complete stability. I also have the thermaltake heat spreader/fan kit on the ram. I'm running default Vcore (1.5V)

I guess I'd try upping the mem to 2.6V first and see what happens. Unfortunetly not all P4s are equal, so you may need a Vcore bump as well.

 

[tenest]

hhhmmm.... what does the "2-2-2-5" stand for?

also, where can one find Prime95 ?

 

[Dre]

Prime95 download

Enjoy

 

[Nate420]

Prime95

The 2-2-2-5 are the values for the following settings in BIOS for your memory: CAS Latency(2) - RAS to CAS Delay(2) - RAS Precharge Delay(2) - Active Precharge Delay(5)

Not every motherboard will give you the option to adjust them all. Lower numbers means better performance. But the settings will depend on the quality of your ram. Getting to extreme memory speeds may require you to raise the numbers a bit, like 2.5-3-3-6

In the words of my Asus manual:
CAS Latency = The latency between the ram read command and the time the data actually becomes available.
RAS to CAS Delay = The latency between the ram active command and the read/write command.
RAS Precharge Delay = The idle clocks after issuing a precharge command to ram.
Active Precharge Delay = The number of ram clocks used for ram parameters.

I'm no rocket scientist, and I don't know how memory actually works electronicly, so that sh!t doesn't make complete sense to me, I just know the lower the better

Maybe someone else here can explain it better, and we can both learn something..lol

 

[tenest]

now THIS is what i'm talking about!!! finally, 133FSB and stable!! sweet! seems that instead of having a CPU:RAM setting, like many others of you here have mentioned, abit decided to use the term "Mem Freq". i didnt even notice the it first 100 times through the BIOS. all my other abit boards have listed it as DRAM clock or DRAM speed. plus, the only choices are DDR200 and DDR266. since my memory is PC2100, i had chosen DDR266. in fact the manual says to leave it on "Auto" but thats not even a choice in the BIOS... LOL.

in either case, after setting it to DDR200, 133FSB, 16X and default voltage it booted right up and has been running CPU Stability ever since. I'll try out Prime95 once i have a sec to look at what i'm supposed to do with it... hehe.

what i would like to find out is what abit considers the difference between DDR200 and DDR266 in terms of the frequency ratio between CPU and DRAM. i thought that PC2100 was DDR266 which meant that it is PC133 running at 2X, and DDR200 is PC100 running at 2X. so i'm trying to figure out if their DDR200 setting means a 1:1 ratio and DDR266 is CPU clock + PCI clock? or is DDR266 the 1:1 and DDR200 is CPU Clock minus PCI clock? this would be soooo much easier if they just used a ratio system like they do for the CPU to PCI bus.

any ideas?

on a side note, can anyone point me towards an explanation of the naming system behind DDR? all this PC1600, PC2100, PC2700, DDR200, DDR266 DDR333 has REALLY got me confused

before i forget, the CPU temp is stable at 115ºF at full 100% load and case temp is 95ºF.

 

[KenAF]

tenest,

From my understanding of the BD7...DDR200 refers to 100MHz DDR when the system bus is at 100MHz; DDR266 refers to 133MHz DDR when the system bus is at 100MHz. Thus, the DDR266 refers to a 4/3 (1.33) memory multiplier. When you had your FSB at 133MHz with DDR266 set, you were trying to run your DDR at 1.33x133=177MHz...which apparently your memory could not handle.

 

[tenest]

well, if that's the case



<< When you had your FSB at 133MHz with DDR266 set, you were trying to run your DDR at 1.33x133=177MHz >>



then i'm REALLY stoked, cuz it would boot up and run for awhile, just not very well. which, hopefully, means that the memory will run successfully at 150MHz. and if it DOES run well at 150MHz, then i should be able to squeeze out 2400MHz.... WOO-HOO!!!!!!