Overclocking advice needed

Zion

I've just got this new AMD XP 2400+ and I've tried my first attempt to overclock it and now it's showing XP 2800+ in the bios everytime when the computer is on. All I did was increased the FSB from 133Mhz to 148Mhz, nothing else. I ran the program Prime95 for about three hours ( I heard it's recommended to run it for at least six hours but I've no time ) and it didn't give any errors. The temperature sensors showing 58 degrees for the CPU and 35 degrees for the motherboard. Just wondering what is the safe temperature range for the CPU? Also do I have to do anything with my RAM in the bios if I've increased the FSB? The RAM I have at the moment is 512MB PC2700. Should I keep my PC running at that speed? coz I always scare the CPU wouldn't last long.

Thx in advance.

Col_Loki

What motherboard are you using and what cooling??

Your ram will be fine up to 170mhz FSB . The main thing that reduces CPU life it the Vcore voltage. If you stay around or below 1.75v and your temps are ok - then its safe enough. If your board doesent have a PCI & AGP lock then you risk damaging your graphics card or curupting your hard drive by uping the FSB mhz by mhz as there are dividers specially for 133mhz, 166mhz but not say.... 143mhz. It means you are overclocking other component aswell.

If you have a Nforce2 chipset methinks your safe enough that way. Did you increase your voltages at all??

Zion

The motherboard I'm using is ASRock K7VT2 KT266A. A ridiculous cheap motherboard (£á~33) for a poor student like me but yet it got everything like onboard sound, LAN, USB 2.0 etc.

The cooling I got for the CPU was just a 80mmx80mm fan and I placed four other one around the case. They are quiet enough running at 2500rpm.

So how do I know is the AGP and PCI are locked? I really don't want to damage my hard drive . I didn't increased the Vcore voltage at all, it's staying at 1.66V as it's at 2400+.

What exactly is the safe temperature?

Col_Loki

AFAIK that board doesent have a PCI lock so you risk hard drive coruption, mabye video card failure . I would recomend overclocking using multipliers alone. mabye set your FSB to 140mhz but wouldnt go any further.
Mabye 140mhz X 16multi??

Your CPU has higher level multipliers anyway. 1.65v is the stock voltage alrite, but 58 degrees sounds about as high as id go ***.

2.2ghz is pretty nice performance, and €33 for a mobo - nice one .

How many case fans did you say you have?? For best performance you should prob have 3 extractor fans, and one blowing air in.

2.2ghz on 1.66v is doing well, mite be worth getting a better cooling??

Zion

This is unfortunate then for not able to lock other components speed. How to know that the mobo would support that function next time I'm getting a new one?

I'm not too sure but I don't think I have an option in the bios that allow me to change the multiplier level at all.

ATM I have three fans blowing air in and one blowing out. I don't even know is the temperature readings right in or not in the bios coz when I checking it in Sandra it only went up to 50 degrees max ever.

Col_Loki

All the new Nforce2 boards have PCI and AGP locks.

Temps arent that bad then, you should be fine running at that 24/7 . Even a few degree's more is definetly acceptable. Just for pig iron try changing the fans to 3 sucking air out and 1 blowing in??

Im not familiar with your board's bios, strange that it doesnt let you change the multipliers and lets you change FSB.

Stock voltage hitting 2.22ghz , would be nice to see what that chip would hit with better cooling & mabye a better mobo (multiplier unlocked)....... nice one so far

Zion

I'm glad that I got a good chip then. It was a joy to see the chip was running at 2220.19 Mhz but I guess now I would just tune it back to 133Mhz FSB speed coz I really don't want to risk all other components especially the graphic card and hard disk. Might try it again when I'm getting a new mobo.

Anyway, cheers COL_LOKI for all the help

Zion

I've just seen these two boards MSI K7N2 DELTA-L and Asus A7N8X-X in Komplett.ie will they have PCI & AGP locks? Which one is better to overclock my AMD XP 2400+?

Col_Loki

I'll go for secret option 3 , an Abit NF7 v2.0 . Have that board myself and its such a brilliant board for overclocking. Am running my barton at 2400mhz at this very min (running prime95 aswell) . Very stable board and great overclocking features.

If thats not an option then id go with the Asus A7N8X-X . Both are very good boards with Nforce2 chipsets (pci & agp locks) .

Zion

Finally got myself an Abit NF7 v2.0 for Christmas (thanks for the advice COL_LOKI ). I haven't start to overclock my PC yet.
My question now is if I only want to overclock the CPU should I just put up the Multiplier and leave the FSB speed alone? Should I bother overclock the RAM coz it is only running at 266Mhz.
The components I have are still the same (except the mobo ):

AMD XP 2400+
512MB PC2700

RicardoSmith

What coolers are you guys using for your 2400xp's and where did you get them?

Col_Loki

Since your ram is Pc2700 it will run at 166mhz FSB as standard (333mhz FSB) . This will be a nice performance increase from running at lower FSB.

I would recomend setting the FSB to 166mhz - 175mhz and then upping the multiplier to see what your CPU can handle. Watch your temps (on the abit boards 58 degrees is the max id ever run a cpu 24/7) and always test with prime95.

Im using Innovatek water cooling (XXS kit from hitide.ie) and have an Xp2500+ @ 2480mhz at the min.

Zion

Can I ask is the PCI and AGP locks is always on or do I have to lock it? I couldn't find an option for that. Just afriad I would overclocked the hard drive and graphic card if I increased the FSB. And do I have to change the CPU FSB/DRAM ratio? At the moment I'm using the default setting By SPD.

The cooling I'm using for my 2400+ is just a 80x80mm fan running on average 2500rpm. It's doing a decent job but of course it's not as good as COL_LOKI's water cooling kit .

Col_Loki

There is an option to set the graphics card speed, this should be set to 66mhz as default so you dont need to change anything. Setting the ram by spd should be fine, pci & agp will not be affected by FSB increase as there locked with that board .

Zion

cool....might try to do some overclocking now.

Thanks COL_LOKI