What could be the (overclocking) problem - D 805

[Fluence]

I am trying to overclock a Pentium D 805 processor, which currently won't even get to 150 FSB (3 ghz) and remain stable.

It will boot to Windows at a frequency of 200, even, but won't load windows. At 180-ish, it will load to Windows but not run anything. At 166 FSB, it boots to windows, but programs crash frequently and I've seen two blue screens. CPU temp at idle is 45 - 52 C @ 166 FSB.

It should be at 166 perfectly stably, right? Have I just been unlucky?

Here's my config:
Gigabyte GA-8i955x Royal, no U-Plus DSP (is this the problem? I don't have the U-Plus thing)
Scythe Ninja Plus with fan, Arctic Silver 5
Antec P180 - 1 fan intake, 2 fans exhaust. I'm thinking of moving the Ninja fan to intake until I can get another fan, though I was planning on watercooling eventually. Still, three fans should be plenty...
2 GB OCZ Gold edition PC2-5400 DDR2-667 (this: Link to the OCZ chips)
Pentium D 805 Smithfield, are any other specs important?
XFX 7900GTX EE...

At the regular FSB speed of 133 (2.66 Ghz), the setup seems to work perfectly (1.247 Volts, per CPU-Z). CPU Tempurature right now is 45 Celsius after running the PC for over 10 hours, and running some intense applications.

To overclock, I have ONLY adjusted the FSB frequency, as I wanted to just see it work at higher clock speeds, then play around with it. I have not tried adjusting any voltage settings or memory timings. I tried both EasyTune 5 and BIOS overclocking.

I was going to watercool if this ran stably, now I'm looking to scrap this completely, wait for the AM2s / Conroes, and then buy an Athlon X2. Or is there anything I could try?

What I think I should try:

1) Reinstall the heatsink...
2) Up the voltage (currently on Auto)
3) Adjust memory timings (also currently on Auto)

Any other/better suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[stevty2889]

You most likely will need some Vcore adjustments to get a decent OC. You didn't mention what power supply you were using, smithfields are power hogs, so the PSU is also an important factor. They do run very hot though, at 3.7ghz I'm hitting 57c on water.

 

[bongsteen]

give it a little more juice. ~ 1.4 volt is safe.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm only guessing that you read the recent Tom's Hardware article: "4.1 Ghz for $139? Can It Be True?"

I think you have the right memory. But I would start by manually fixing the memory timings, and upping the VCORE (cautiously). Also, you didn't say what VDIMM voltage your memory requires or what you set it for, unless it falls under your note about "auto" settings. Further -- why are you changing the settings and booting directly to Windows? You should be running MEMTEST86+ from a floppy to test the memory, adjust the voltages and get stable results before getting into Windows.

Did you install Windows with the system at default settings?


But if you're going to bump up the voltage, the temperature at the processor will rise in proportion to the square of the increase. And your temperatures seem high, but that's a Smithfield you have there -- what is it? 130W TDP-spec? And you're using one of the best coolers to nail down the idle-to-load temperature spread.

I wouldn't rule out faulty memory until you run MEMTEST86. I had a pair of bad DDR400's from Corsair -- had to replace them as a result of the same symptoms you report -- and the problem disappeared.

The THG article includes your Gigabyte mobo as one which makes it possible to OC the 805 Smithfield, but their recommendation seems to lean toward the ASUS P5WD2-E Premium and the P5WD2-WS (not yet available). And I think their choice of chipsets had something to do with their success. The article touted the i975x chipset.

I myself had entertained the notion of following the THG project, but I don't like the thermal power it generates at the over-clock setting. Some of the Preslers run at only 95W TDP. My own plan is to build on a mobo that supports Conroe with backward compatibility with Presler -- if that is possible. Then, I'll watch the forums to see how Conroe shakes out, and upgrade the processor.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

PS

As per advice already posted -- add up the wattage draw from your processor, memory, motherboard, graphics card, PCI (etc.) cards, hard disks, optical drives and fans. Compare these to the maximum provided by your PSU -- and especially -- make sure that the 12V rail(s) are not overloaded.

Another possibility -- the PSU may not be delivering power that is clean enough, or it may have a sagging voltage on the 12V rail. Many things to consider.

 

[ND40oz]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
The THG article includes your Gigabyte mobo as one which makes it possible to OC the 805 Smithfield, but their recommendation seems to lean toward the ASUS P5WD2-E Premium and the P5WD2-WS (not yet available). And I think their choice of chipsets had something to do with their success. The article touted the i975x chipset.

On a sidenote, the P5WDG2-WS is available and has been since March. I would have bought it, had it been out in Jan. when I bought my 975 board. Only would have been 80 more then I paid for my Gigabyte. P5WDG2-WS

 

[dalbaht]

it very well could be the psu. how much have you adjusted vcore? quality psu can make a huge difference stability wise. what are your current temps? cpu steppings?

 

[Fluence]

The PSU I'm using is the Coolermaster eXtreme 600w, which is supposed to be a very high quality 500w PS. The one from this thread (link)

As for the 8i955x, I bought it refurbished for just about $130, else I would have spent more on a higher quality board (such as the P5WDG2-WS). It's not really that I need to save money on this PC, I just thought I'd see if I could get a supercomputer for really cheap

Two PCs ago I had one of the Celeron 300As overclocked significantly, and it was just nice to have...

Oh, and I tried giving it 1.4000 volts, and it still did not run properly.

 

[zephyrprime]

It's a mystery to me. Everything you have looks ok. You should really be able to get better than that pretty easily. I would take a look at bios settings. Could be some weird issue with timings or some peculiar gigabyte bios feature.

 

[Kuky]

I have the following setup:

Motherboard: ASUS P5WD2-E
Processor: Pentium D 805 - B0
Cooling: Zalman Reserator Plus 1
Video: Some 6800 card I don't remember manufacturer
Case: Antec P 180
Power: ETASIS EFN-560
HDD: 2 x 250 Western Digital

I was able to run smoothly at 3.33 Ghz, just raise the FSB to 166.

Room temp: 28 Celsius (my AC it's broken)
Idle temp:57 Celsius
Full load: 78 Celsius - seems that the Reserator is not a good solution for OC I use only the top fan (outake) set at low position.

But, you can hear any whisper in my room due to the Reserator

 

[HHstpgo]

My setup
Motherboard ECS C19-A
Pentium D 805 with stock fan (retail boxed)
PQI turbo 2x1GB PC2 ddr2-533 time 3-3-3-8-16(2T)
Maxtor 250GB SATA-I
EVGA 6800XT 256mb PCI-E
Ultra X2 500W PS
CPU voltage set as 1.5v
DDR2 voltage 2.0v = PQI voltage
3 80mm Case fans(2 fans next to PS, one with see-through window in the center taking care of hard drive, all 3 fans are as intake air out)


What? 57C and 78C? what program do you use to report temp. It is tooooo high if you use speedfan.

I overclocked to 3.55Ghz with stock fan, run speedfan to obtain temp for
CPU1 46-49C idle, 49-52C full load
CPU2 40C idle, 49C full load
Hard drive at 40C

at 2.66GHz, CPU1 40C, CPU2 38C idle.

The temp all of them are at over 50c if the case is opened. The key is air flow of the case design. But I feel it is too high if the temp is over 50c. The current voltage for CPU is adjusted to 1.5v. Don?t you think 1.5v is too high? My hand feel burning if touch it when it is over 50c. I have no idea what is the voltage for Pentium D 805. Please let me know if anyone knows it.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: HHstpgo
My setup
Motherboard ECS C19-A
Pentium D 805 with stock fan (retail boxed)
PQI turbo 2x1GB PC2 ddr2-533 time 3-3-3-8-16(2T)
Maxtor 250GB SATA-I
EVGA 6800XT 256mb PCI-E
Ultra X2 500W PS
CPU voltage set as 1.5v
DDR2 voltage 2.0v = PQI voltage
3 80mm Case fans(2 fans next to PS, one with see-through window in the center taking care of hard drive, all 3 fans are as intake air out)


What? 57C and 78C? what program do you use to report temp. It is tooooo high if you use speedfan.

I overclocked to 3.55Ghz with stock fan, run speedfan to obtain temp for
CPU1 46-49C idle, 49-52C full load
CPU2 40C idle, 49C full load
Hard drive at 40C

at 2.66GHz, CPU1 40C, CPU2 38C idle.

The temp all of them are at over 50c if the case is opened. The key is air flow of the case design. But I feel it is too high if the temp is over 50c. The current voltage for CPU is adjusted to 1.5v. Don?t you think 1.5v is too high? My hand feel burning if touch it when it is over 50c. I have no idea what is the voltage for Pentium D 805. Please let me know if anyone knows it.

Thats not at all abnormal for some Pentium Ds. We had a bunch of client machines with 820s running stock that were hitting 65C just idling with the stock cooler and near 80C on load. Even with XP-90C upgrades they idle above 50C. This is on the ASUS P5WD2 Premium, which is almost the board the previous poster has. I am pretty sure that the board reports temps a bit high.

 

[TheJollyFellow]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
You most likely will need some Vcore adjustments to get a decent OC. You didn't mention what power supply you were using, smithfields are power hogs, so the PSU is also an important factor. They do run very hot though, at 3.7ghz I'm hitting 57c on water.

woha, I'm getting ~40c idle to ~55c load at 3.7GHz using a ninja....you might want to reapply that block!

 

[devinwagner]

I just built a rig based on an 805:

ASUS P5ND2-SLI (nforce 4)
BFG 7900 GT OC
2 X 1 GB CORSAIR 6400 RAM
STOCK INTEL COOLER
ANTEC P180, DUAL 120MM FANS @Med
550W ULTRA CONNECT PSU

I was going to get a water cooler next pay check so I have tried it out with the stock intel cooler. I can't even believe the results.

Overclocked to 3.6, at idle this runs at 35 C. At full load running Super PI and Prime 95 (one for each core) the temp hit 47 C. That is stupid low. I didn't believe the results so I touched the fins on the heatsind and they were barely warm!!!

I think it may be the case? There is alot of air flowing through this.

I'm going to try this for a few days and see if I can get this stock cooler up to 4.0 Ghz.

This PC was dirt cheap and eats games at their highest setting. I'm going to go play some BF2

 

[Solarlights]

Hi, my name is Greg, I have same motherboard and processor. I am looking for a ittle assistance with the overclocking of my machine. are you willing to give me a little coaching to get me started with overclocking? if so should i email you or phone?

Thanks for your help.
Greg