The TRUTH about Prescott Overclocking...

Jun 7, 2004
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Im sure some of you have read this about MSI disabling CPU Core voltage tweaks because of Prescott.

MSI's explanation about Voltage Limiting with Prescott...

In their response they say that they did this to protect the CPU itself...this is BULL@#% in my opinion...here is why...

I have a 2.4A Prescott and the first board i overclocked it on was the 865PE Neo2-PLS. I didn't upgrade to the latest bios that takes away all voltage adjustment, and I had my system up running perfectly stable at 3.7 ghz running ~1.7 volts (I dont exactly remember).

I noticed a huge volage drop to the CPU under 100% load. On average I would say at least a tenth of a volt or more would drop from the VCORE. This seems to be the case for many boards with Prescott. After about 3 weeks, I was doing some light work and the system completely shut off. I thought maybe the Prescott had said goodbye...turns out the motherboard burned up.

From looking at the board it is easy to see one of the mofset's burned up...this is poor quality if you ask me.

I got an Abit AI7 and i have matched the overclocked speed/voltage with ease. The PWM gets very hot if not actively cooled by a fan, but at least it is monitored on this board.

I don't think it is a coincidence MSI is getting sued for sub par quality electrical components on their boards.

To sum it up MSI disabled voltage tweaking to cover up a problem with their product.
 

jhurst

Senior member
Mar 29, 2004
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What is a 2.4A Prescott? Either you have a major typo, or you are severely confused. A 2.4A is NOT a Prescott, it is a 400mhz FSB/ 512kb cache. Prescotts start @ 2.8ghz and more, and have a 1mb cache, and 800mhz FSB. Prescotts are also noted by the letter E (i.e. 2.8E, 3.0E, 3.2E).
 

mamisano

Platinum Member
Mar 12, 2000
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Originally posted by: jhurst
What is a 2.4A Prescott? Either you have a major typo, or you are severely confused. A 2.4A is NOT a Prescott, it is a 400mhz FSB/ 512kb cache. Prescotts start @ 2.8ghz and more, and have a 1mb cache, and 800mhz FSB. Prescotts are also noted by the letter E (i.e. 2.8E, 3.0E, 3.2E).

Ummm, there is a 2.4A Prescott. No HT support, 533Mhz FSB, 1MB Cache

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-178&depa=1



So, you overclock and raise the voltage from ~1.4 to 1.7 and then blame the MB for crapping out? You should have done some homework and realized that the Pres-hot taxes the Mosfets MUCH more than a Northwood core.
 

oldfart

Lifer
Dec 2, 1999
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Since when is MSI ANY sort of authority on overclocking? They wouldn't know how to make a stable overclokers board if they tripped over it.
 

BlvdKing

Golden Member
Jun 7, 2000
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sorry jhurst, but there are two versions of the 2.4A, one early northwood and the second is a prescott 533Mhz FSB part, 1 meg L2, without HT.

Oops, mamisano beat me to it. :beer:
 

LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
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Jhurst, remain calm. There is also a 2.8A Prescott with 533 bus, 1MB cache and no HT.

Don't blame us! :beer: :D
 
Jun 7, 2004
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Originally posted by: mamisano
Originally posted by: jhurst
What is a 2.4A Prescott? Either you have a major typo, or you are severely confused. A 2.4A is NOT a Prescott, it is a 400mhz FSB/ 512kb cache. Prescotts start @ 2.8ghz and more, and have a 1mb cache, and 800mhz FSB. Prescotts are also noted by the letter E (i.e. 2.8E, 3.0E, 3.2E).

Ummm, there is a 2.4A Prescott. No HT support, 533Mhz FSB, 1MB Cache

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-178&depa=1



So, you overclock and raise the voltage from ~1.4 to 1.7 and then blame the MB for crapping out? You should have done some homework and realized that the Pres-hot taxes the Mosfets MUCH more than a Northwood core.


i didn't build the board...

fact is they sell a board that is "prescott ready" with tons of overclocking features. If they used higher quality voltage regulation components it wouldn't happen and they wouldn't have to negate all core voltage adjustments.

all im saying is that msi is admitting their boards are not high enough quality to overclock with a prescott cpu...and i proved it as well...
 
Jun 7, 2004
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what is BS is that instead of telling the truth MSI is trying to say they are worried about the actual cpu failing at higher than default voltage, when in fact they are covering up the fault in their own product.
 

o1die

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
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Msi customer service is very good. But my replacement board died on me after only 15 minutes at idle. Have to send it back today. If the next board dies on me, I won't be getting any more msi motherboards.
 

DaNorthface

Senior member
May 20, 2004
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Originally posted by: rabidoverclocker
what is BS is that instead of telling the truth MSI is trying to say they are worried about the actual cpu failing at higher than default voltage, when in fact they are covering up the fault in their own product.

they are a company that's trying to protect their rep like any other company would. I don't know if any company would be stupid enough to say their motherboards sucks and that's why they don't allow overclocking.
 

alrox

Member
Nov 17, 2002
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According to Intel you were giving the CPU .3 to .45 more volts than it's supposed to get. I'm suprised it ran at all, 3 weeks is superb for 33% more juice than it's rated for.
 
Jun 7, 2004
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the chip itself handles added voltage very well...

i had this 2.4A up to 1.8 volts, although only about 1.6 seems to help stability
 

Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
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Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
Originally posted by: Budman
Yes only a fool would buy MSI.
Yes and only a fool would run 1.7v vcore.

i agree it is too high but with a .1v drop under load it is not surprising it would take that much. That would be like 1.63v for me as I only see a .03v drop with my abit IC7, and most would not say that was absurd....

I pretty much think run them at default as the amount of improvement, versus the speed, versus the heat, and versus the risk...is not worth it with P4 chips....
 

Mloot

Diamond Member
Aug 24, 2002
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Originally posted by: Budman
Originally posted by: BlvdKing
MSI has degraded in quality the last couple of years IMO.

Yes only a fool would buy MSI.


Call me foolish then, but my MSI board has been running great so far.
 

jhurst

Senior member
Mar 29, 2004
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Wow.....sorry guys for dropping the ball on this one. The different 2.4As is confusing, but oh well. Apparently this chip is an overclocking beast as well, I read a forum where someone had one of these running @ 3.6ghz on stock voltage/stock cooling. And raising the Vcore to 1.75, and using prometia, 4.4ghz! Thats a pretty nice OC.
 

3chordcharlie

Diamond Member
Mar 30, 2004
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i agree it is too high but with a .1v drop under load it is not surprising it would take that much. That would be like 1.63v for me as I only see a .03v drop with my abit IC7, and most would not say that was absurd....

I pretty much think run them at default as the amount of improvement, versus the speed, versus the heat, and versus the risk...is not worth it with P4 chips....[/quote]
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If I remember my 9th grade science class, power consumption is squared in voltage, and increases with frequency (linearly?). At any rate, 1.7^2/1.4^2 = 1.47, or a 47% increase in power consumption, and that's at stock cpu frequency. Your MSI board not being designed to deliver 150 (or maybe more like 200!) watts to the CPU may be disappointing, but it can't be that surprising... it's at least 50% above spec for the prescott. What you have is a board that was designed for overclocking northwood, and easily met the requirements for a prescott, but you didn't check to see if it could handle the abuse of a massive overclock on a chip that probably didn't even exist except in engineering samples when the board was taped out.

A 0.1 voltage drop at full load does not mean '1.6volts'. It means the power supply isn't even close to providing the current the processor is asking for at that voltage, when it hits full load. This means either the power supply or the motherboard is inadequate, or possibly that the chip is not at all up to the voltage selected (which does not seem to be the case).

Keep in mind that inaccurate readings, on the MSI or the Abit motherboard, could make a person think the two were running at the same v-core, even if they were not.

I'm glad you found a motherboard you're happy with - you're very lucky not to have fried the CPU.
 
Jun 7, 2004
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My 2.4A runs at 44C idle and 52C-56C under full load at 1.7 volts (which is always around 1.55-1.6) on my AI7. All of you saying 1.7 vcore is too much are most likely amateurs...

Im using a custom watercooling setup w/ a DTEK Whitewater. There is no advantage upping the voltage past 1.7, it does not yield any overclocking benefit.

I can run this chip @ 3.8 (1.8 vcore) but i keep it at 3.6 to keep the temps/workload on the mofsets down.

I've used my AI7 problem free for about a month, most of the time running prime95 torture and it gives me no problems.

I went and got a new MSI 865PE NEO2-PLS and set it to 18X200 (3.6ghz) with 1.6 vcore and the motherboard failed (burnt mofsets) just like the other one in less than 30 minutes under Prime95 Torture Test.

This AI7 can handle fine what TWO brand new MSI boards could not...go figure...

If you guys can't see lack of quality on MSI boards "supporting" the Prescott then that's your deal. You can physically see they skimped on the power regulation just looking at the board compared to the AI7. The solder points on the MSI board show they used only HALF of the capacitors, mofsets, etc. that the board was originally designed for in order to cut cost...and ultimately ruinined the quality of the board for serious overclocking...

You won't see ABIT, ASUS, etc boards burning up like this...
 
Jun 7, 2004
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at what voltage/speed? default? what cooling?

52C-55C under full load for 3.6/1.6 volts is pretty good...

i see your running at 3 ghz...cooling and voltage?

different boards read temps differently...abit's are known to be high, but i dont believe the core of my cpu to be any lower than the readings i get...