Stress testing

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
21,938
6
81
I'm trying to push my XP-M 2500+ as far as it will go.

I keep getting errors though, in Super Pi (on about the third iteration of 1M places).

Would this be cause by pushing my RAM too far, or a CPU issue? I'd guess RAM.

I have some PC2700 which I'm pushing and anothing over 205 fsb and I get errors, so I'm assuming it's RAM (voltage is maxed at 2.9).
I know the CPU can do 2.3GHz, but I don't know how high it can go (I think 2.4GHz is out of reach).
Currently it's NOT stable at a little over 2.3GHz with a 210MHz FSB. Is the RAM being pushed to far?
 

Tiamat

Lifer
Nov 25, 2003
14,068
5
71
whats the voltage of your cpu when it is overclocked? For me, the CPU was the limiting factor and I got the rounding errors. When I increased CPU voltage by .025V they went away in SuperPI 2M. However, testing 8M, they came back. So, I again increased CPU voltage by an additional .025V for a total of .05V increase. The Rounding errors went away. I then proceeded to do 16M and 32M and did not have any further rounding errors.

Also if you dont feel like Prime 95, a quick way to see if your cpu needs more voltage is playing UT2K4 for 30 minutes or more. This worked well for me, as I dont have time to do Prime 95. My computer has not crashed under various gaming, or real life usage for 2 weeks. I usually have to restart every 2 weeks for some reason or other, so I cant say if my system is stable for 3 or more weeks at a time - and I dont really care if it is or isnt.

Final Fantasy XI benchmark - if it is still downloadable, stressed over 512MB of my ram. So if that fails, you might be able to narrow down if you have a ram problem.

Your PC2700 probably, if it is good, will max out at PC3200 speeds, or thereabouts

Try Klah's suggestion of using the mem/cpu divider - or just be happy with 200fsb and up your multiplier. The difference between 200mhz and say 220 mhz with same cpu overall speed is pretty much negligable. Also, if you are using a mem/cpu divider, your system will not get any benefit from high fsb.

I am assuming you can change the multiplier since you have a XP-M.

 

Megatomic

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
20,127
6
81
Lonyo, what rev. of the NF7 do you have? Is it a newer board with the NF2 Ultra 400 SPP or one of the older ones? If it is an older board you may just not be able to run at much over 200MHz FSB, and you'd be lucky to be able to run at 200MHz stably.

I have an XP-M 2500+ on a newer NF7-S R2 and it's doing 12x200 at 1.70Vcore (undervolted to 1.68 by the board). Your chip should be capable of similar speeds.

The first thing I'd check if I was you is the RAM. Do this by running Memtest86. If it passes Memtest, I'd look at the motherboard as the next likely culprit. And then finally the CPU.