What component is making your overclock fail?

[ncage]

Hey guys i have heard certain people say like...umm my memory is making my overclock fail or my power supply is making overclocking impossible. I guess my questions is how do they know? Oh sure if the only thing that makes your system crash is games or 3dmark2003 is easy to tell that your video card is making the current overclock fail but otherwise how do you know unless you start buying new components and replacing the old ones which could get expensive. Of course when your cpu is making your overclock fail then you are done .

ncage

 

[lobadobadingdong]

the only real way is to test out various parts. most people have OC'd enough to guestimate pretty well what is holding thier OC back. in my case I'm running kingston pc2700 value ram, my max oc is 138x12.5, anything higher than that and I get instabilities. all the rest of my parts are more than adequate for a higher OC. of course the only way I'd be able to prove that the memory is the issue would be to get some good pc3200 and further test.

 

[rogue1979]

After careful consideration, I have determined my wallet is causing a critical overclocking problem!

 

[PhoenixOrion]

trial and error by switching out parts.

my bottleneck is my cpu.

my 2.8c can oc to 3.36 on default vcore. I have to up the vcore from default 1.52v to 1.62v to get it to run stable at 3.5ghz.

all the other components and bios parameters are on default or auto.

 

[oldman420]

motherboards made all of the difference to me
asus a7n8x 185 mhz max
asus an78x-e 200 mhz
abit nf7-s 205 mhz
dfi infinity ultra 225 mhz
these were my max fsb settings for each board with the rest of the hw in my sig.
i think that the mainboard if you get a good one makes the most difference

 

[BlvdKing]

at the moment my motherboard is making my overclock fail. I bought an Abit KV8 Pro for the AGP/PCI locks and my board had working locks when I got it. Unfortunately, every BIOS after 14 that Abit has released disables my working locks! The beta 15 BIOS is very quirky and there have been no more beta BIOS released since then that enable my locks.

So far this Abit motherboard for my A64 3400+ CG has been real nightmare.

 

[Calin]

The mainboard makes overclocking impossible (but again, it could be the processor).
Components:
ECS K7S5A mainboard
AMD Duron 600 MHz
Some 350W power supply (came at 30$ including the computer case)

There is a overclocking option on the mainboard to set the FSB from 100 to 133 MHz, but Windows won't start (and most of the times, not even boot messages appear).

Hmmm, thinking that cooling might be a problem... should I try with water cooling?

Calin

 

[TGHI]

Calin....Duron 600s are great, I got one too on a KT7-Raid and I can get it to 800Mhz *just* by adjusting the multiplier (on stock voltage!).

As for the rest of the topic, it's actually my CPU that causes my overclock to fail. It's a barton 2600, and it can make it to 2.2Ghz (200*11), but it only takes half an hour to fail prime95, even at 1.725V, but I'm a chicken with overvolting since the second factor of my overclocking success, money, is short.

That's why I hate prime95.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: TGHI
Calin....Duron 600s are great, I got one too on a KT7-Raid and I can get it to 800Mhz *just* by adjusting the multiplier (on stock voltage!).

As for the rest of the topic, it's actually my CPU that causes my overclock to fail. It's a barton 2600, and it can make it to 2.2Ghz (200*11), but it only takes half an hour to fail prime95, even at 1.725V, but I'm a chicken with overvolting since the second factor of my overclocking success, money, is short.

That's why I hate prime95.

Many people dont need their system to be as stable as prime 95 stable. You probably could "get by" without being prime 95 stable depending on the type of apps you run. If, however, you get the random reboots/bluescreens, then you know your system is clearly not stable for everyday use.

 

[CraigRT]

in my current setup, my memory is my bottleneck.. it's CAS3 DDR400, running at 400.. I have tried overclocking it past 200 and it doesn't get very far.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: rogue1979
After careful consideration, I have determined my wallet is causing a critical overclocking problem!

hahaha yeah I know that one.

Strangely, the only thing not holding me back is my PSU.

My memory is too slow, my CPU is a palomino, and my motherboard doesn't reliably go past 166fsb, and has no multiplier adjustment support (well, wires...).

My video card also has a dead fan, which probably doesn't help it go fast eithre

 

[Mullzy]

I think in most cases OC's fail because the CPU in the equation just isn't a winner. I can't get to 240FSB with my 2.8C no matter how much voltage I throw at it... while others are over 250 at barely above stock.

I imagine most oc's are more limited by the CPU itself than the mobo/psu used (disregarding REALLY cheap components).