OK, so recently I've noticed that my computer is slowing down a little bit. My setup is a P4 2.4b (533MHz bus, northwood, 512k cache) with 1024mb of PC2700. I run it on an 875P MSI motherboard. I have a nice Thermalright heatsink with heatpipes. I forget which model exactly but it uses a 92mm fan and has very good reviews. I have an aluminum case.
I used to run this computer at 2.7 - 2.9~ GHz. This overclocked my CPU only, since the motherboard was rated to do 800Mhz FSB and the ram was PC2700. I have 2x 512 sticks of unmatched generic PC2700, so I don't run them with the most aggressive timings. I was running an FSB of about 162 (x4) to keep my processor running fast. In order to do this I upped the voltage to 1.550, 1.575 Vcore. Eventually I upped it to 1.6 because I believed my rig was undervolting.
I have heard of Northwoods dying over time if too much voltage is applied. Recently the overclock seemed to falter (I lost some stability, didn't test it very much and just reduced my clock speeds). I returned the rig to default settings and left it alone.
Now, I just got a new MP3 player (a Sony) and I am noticing that the SonicStage program is ridiculously slow. I also have noticed that my computer takes forever to load pictures from my digicam as opposed to my 2Ghz centrino laptop. So, I tested the thing using SiSoft Sandra. Both the CPU and Memory scores are downright atrocious - the CPU arithmetic marks are in line with a 750MHz Pentium III and my Dual Channel DDR can't beat single Channel PC2100.
What happened? Should I first investigate my motherboard, CPU or memory -- I was thinking the CPU should be the first culprit but I thought my memory scores would be OK if this was the case.
If I do need to replace my CPU, how should I go about getting a replacement... I don't really want to drop $200+ on a new P4, but I'm not going to RMA a chip I overclocked.
Please give me some advice! Thanks!
I used to run this computer at 2.7 - 2.9~ GHz. This overclocked my CPU only, since the motherboard was rated to do 800Mhz FSB and the ram was PC2700. I have 2x 512 sticks of unmatched generic PC2700, so I don't run them with the most aggressive timings. I was running an FSB of about 162 (x4) to keep my processor running fast. In order to do this I upped the voltage to 1.550, 1.575 Vcore. Eventually I upped it to 1.6 because I believed my rig was undervolting.
I have heard of Northwoods dying over time if too much voltage is applied. Recently the overclock seemed to falter (I lost some stability, didn't test it very much and just reduced my clock speeds). I returned the rig to default settings and left it alone.
Now, I just got a new MP3 player (a Sony) and I am noticing that the SonicStage program is ridiculously slow. I also have noticed that my computer takes forever to load pictures from my digicam as opposed to my 2Ghz centrino laptop. So, I tested the thing using SiSoft Sandra. Both the CPU and Memory scores are downright atrocious - the CPU arithmetic marks are in line with a 750MHz Pentium III and my Dual Channel DDR can't beat single Channel PC2100.
What happened? Should I first investigate my motherboard, CPU or memory -- I was thinking the CPU should be the first culprit but I thought my memory scores would be OK if this was the case.
If I do need to replace my CPU, how should I go about getting a replacement... I don't really want to drop $200+ on a new P4, but I'm not going to RMA a chip I overclocked.
Please give me some advice! Thanks!
