limit of overclocking?

the raven

hey i was hoping i could get some tips on how not to fry my cpu while overclocking it...
i'm only at the moment overclocking a P4 2.6 512cache to a lttle over 2.8. i'm sure its different for everone's machine but how high could i safely go? abit is7-e mobo
... and without having to upgrade the fan...

quoth the raven...

Ryaner

What fan have got atm?
And what temps do you currently have?

Col_Loki

Also what FSB chip is it?? 533 / 800mhz ?? Ohh and any idea of your Ram??

the raven

er... not at home at the moment can't remem exact details... will update soon.
800mhz, 512RAM 3200

temps, temps... got a hardware doc thing, will i find the "temps" (which i take to be temperatures... i hope) there?

Ryaner

Yeah temps - temperatures - try get as many as you can. Cpu, case.
Do list what fan you have on the cpu, case and case fans

the raven

heatsink, cooler (fansink) (the fan that came with the box... the Northwood P4, as komplett call it)

TwinMos PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL2.5

FSB 800MHz

Ryaner

I aint the most familiar with the std P4 heatsink. Best thing is to find out the temps on it.
The P4 has a trigger temp. This is a safety feature thats in place that slows the cpu down if it gets too hot. You wanna stay below this on max load. It's actually quite hard to fry a P4. I've seen them running without heatsink. Very slow but still running.

Don't try that tho. :P

The trigger temp is up in the 70's tho. The higher part I think.Try stay low 60's on idle if your pushing it that far. Then do a burn in test after each step up

Sir Random

Originally posted by the raven
er... not at home at the moment can't remem exact details... will update soon.
800mhz, 512RAM 3200

temps, temps... got a hardware doc thing, will i find the "temps" (which i take to be temperatures... i hope) there?

Hardware Monitor will show your cpu, mobo, and system (mosfets) temps. You should be ok up to 3.2Ghz with the stock cooler and default vcore (cpu voltage).
Your Abit mobo gives high readings (+7c) so you should be seeing ~42c idle, ~56c load at 2.8Ghz. I wouldn't let it go much higher than 60c at full load (prime95)

tuxy

might as well throw my question in here also
how far do you think i can safely push a 2.8 ghz p4 800 fsb PC3200 ddr ram
stock cooling a vcore

joePC

tuxx: It really depends on the quality of the RAM and if you got luckly with your CPU some P4 can only overclock 2/3/400Mhz or so while others 8/9/1000 Mhz try uping the FSB you should be able to get @ least 3.2Ghz the P4's are really good overclockers.

As for the stock cooler this is not good when trying to overclock, get a Thermaltake or Zalman HSF.

Thanks joePC

garthv

how do you overclock a pentium?
i have a 3.06ghz p4,512mb RAM and i wanna overclock it,
how?:)

Sir Random

Originally posted by tuxx
might as well throw my question in here also
how far do you think i can safely push a 2.8 ghz p4 800 fsb PC3200 ddr ram
stock cooling a vcore

roughly same as a 2.6, 3.2Ghz with stock cooling (same for any P4 from 2.4 up to 3.0, stock HS should do up to 3.2, if it gets there)

EDIT: tuxx, do you know the stepping, or the s-Spec # of your chip? If it's M0 (SL6Z*) stepping, then it should do 3.5Ghz on air. CPU-Z will tell you the stepping if you can't check the cpu/box.

Originally posted by Garth_Vader
how do you overclock a pentium?
i have a 3.06ghz p4,512mb RAM and i wanna overclock it,
how?:)

What mobo?
Lock your AGP/PCI at 66/33 and set the CPU/SDRAM divider to 5:4
Now raise the FSB to 150 for starters, run prime95 for 10 minutes and if all's ok try 155, then 160 etc.
If 150 won't post, try 140 and work from there.

Ryaner

Originally posted by Garth_Vader
how do you overclock a pentium?
i have a 3.06ghz p4,512mb RAM and i wanna overclock it,
how?:)

You normally start by pushing the cpu's fsb. You do that in the bios. Watch the agp/pci speeds tho. If they arent locked (not all mobos give you the option) then dont over clock. Pushing them can kill gfx cards, pci cards, corrupt hd's. Kinda sucks if it happens really.
Watch temps too

Woden

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=138583

here is a good guide for overclocking amd systems, you can modify it accordingly for p4 systems there is also some general discussion about individauls problems such as the ones i had

the raven

great help guys. thanx loads!

now i just hafta figure out what the hell all that tech-speak means... where's my dictionary??

Ryaner

Originally posted by the raven
great help guys. thanx loads!

now i just hafta figure out what the hell all that tech-speak means... where's my dictionary??

netin you dont understand just post it here and you'll get a nice, plain english explantion I'm sure

the raven

cheers ryaner!
was kinda kiddin tho... kinda... well... ok maybe not...

so i fixed the PCI/AGP to 66/33 and the CPU/SDRAM divider to 5:4.
temps are as follows at 3.11GHz on the P4 2.6GHz:
(using the "Winbond Hardware Doctor")

CPU idle: 38c/40c
wrkn it like a mofo: 55c/57c
System idle: 23c/25c
active: 30c/32c
PWM (what the hell is "PWM"??????) idle: 35c/37c
active: 54c/56c


thanx again ryaner, random, joe!!

(i keep boasting about it... its so beautiful!)

(yes i do have a life outside of overclocking)

Woden

Originally posted by the raven

wrkn it like a mofo: 55c/57c

these temps are kinda high, did you have to up the voltage to get that stable or do you have similar temps at 2.6Ghz, it may have been since you had the stock cooling that you already had temps this high which is fair enough but if you had to up the voltage and your temps shot up i'd be concerned.

also have you run prime95 for about 10 hours to see if its stable?

have fun data

the raven

heh... em, i'm only just readin up on that now data...
hmmm...
let me get back to you on that one...

tuxy

Originally posted by Sir Random

Your Abit mobo gives high readings (+7c)

Originally posted by the raven
wrkn it like a mofo: 55c/57c

Originally posted by Dataisgod
these temps are kinda high

48-50C sounds very safe to me should be fine

the raven

haven't tried anythin DDR voltage wise yet...

so ya, downloaded prime95, started it up...
1 minute
i got 1 whole minute before it said there was some stupid flaw...

so clocked it back down to about 2.99GHz...
its been going for about an hour now... i'll probably leave it overnight...



(*on getting to prime95 site* "what? what the hell is this?? some fukn prize bonds thing?? WHAT?? where. the. hell. is. the. benchmarking. software.? whats that say... blah...blah...blah... 'overclockers use this program as benchmark'... blah blah blah... wait a sec... 'overclockers'... that's me!!)

Woden

Originally posted by tuxx
48-50C sounds very safe to me should be fine

aye i didn't see that yeah 48-50c should be alright suppose its decent enough with the stock cooling

if you haven't tried anything with voltage yet then if you do increase the voltage, this is the vcore now not the ddr voltage (vdimm) you will probably find your temps increasing, with the temps you are at, at the moment, i wouldn't recommend increasing the voltage much without getting better cooling. as i think p4's are meant to run cooler then amd chips as well.

good luck with the prime 95

joePC

Here is the limit of overclocking

5Ghz P4

Thanks joePC

Woden

practical and he got a great series of benchmarks out of it

unkel

Originally posted by Dataisgod
practical

LOL, yeah and he messed up a bit as well iirc

neokenzo

Originally posted by unkel
LOL, yeah and he messed up a bit as well iirc

Going off topic for a while, but what does iirc means? Sorry, bit backdated on the terms. Just found out yesterday what AFAIK means LOL

I have and Asus K8V Deluxe, Athlon 64 3200 and 1Gb kit EL DDR PC-3200 Platinum Limited Edition from OCZ. How much do you think i can overclock the sucker?

Sir Random

Originally posted by neokenzo
Going off topic for a while, but what does iirc means? Sorry, bit backdated on the terms. Just found out yesterday what AFAIK means LOL

I have and Asus K8V Deluxe, Athlon 64 3200 and 1Gb kit EL DDR PC-3200 Platinum Limited Edition from OCZ. How much do you think i can overclock the sucker?

iirc = If I remember correctly
O/cing the A64 may depend on your ram, I've seen them at 237 (x8.5) but your ram may not go that fast without a volt mod.

neokenzo

Originally posted by Sir Random
iirc = If I remember correctly
O/cing the A64 may depend on your ram, I've seen them at 237 (x8.5) but your ram may not go that fast without a volt mod.

If my understanding about o'c are right, that would mean I'll be running at 2014MHz? Is that right? Seems thats a low increase?

the raven

hmmm...
just a little update to tell ye how i'm gettin on...

prime95 ran for about 8 and a half hours (2.99Ghz) before it found a fault...
so i'm wondering if that's acceptable to me...
max temps reached:
system: 37c (but if you take into account what was said about abit mobos... 30c)
CPU: 63c (56c)
PWM: 61c (54c)

idle temps:
sys: 39c (32c)
CPU: 42c (35c)
PWM: 35.5c (28.5c)

am running prime95 again now (2.95ghz)...
about 9ish hours its goin now...
i'm really tired...

Woden

i still think your temps are a little high , i reckon it could be worth your while investing in some better cooling something like this is cheap and should do the job a good bit better then the stock, that and get some arctic silver 5

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=120133&cks=PRL

Sir Random

Yeah, you need some better case airflow.
Your PWM temps are a bit too high, so you might need a side-case fan blowing on your mobo and another fan extracting at the back. The heat from your CPU isn't getting out of the case fast enough.

the raven

yez're right but am flat broke at mo...

what exactly does upping the voltage of the vcore do?
i'm a bit hazy on its exact purpose in the system...
heh, i know its effects just not how it happens...

Woden

increased vcore puts more volts through the chip which can given better stability, why i don't know extactly tbh either, however the side effet is greater heat is generated which is never good.

secret_squirrel

I knew once...then I forgot...reading here reminded me why I chose to forget

the raven

thanx squirrel, very helpful article!

the raven

so i took the side panel off the tower, and left it off for a while...

these are the temps for a stable (prime95 for 10+half hours) 3.01GHz:
max temps:
sys: 32c
CPU: 58c
PWM: 56c

min temps
sys: 25
CPU: 37
PWM: 31

oh and i gradually bumped up the vcore from 1.5 to 1.65...

any comments?
like could there be something i'm missing...

the raven

was just reading one o the other threads there...

do i really need to set back my RAM? i.e. to 5:4?
its TwinMos pc3200 512mb cl2.5

got my fsb @ 231

secret_squirrel

if its working leave it alone. If you start getting memory errors set it back.

Woden

i still think your load temp is high and if its that with the case side off you would do well to invest in a new heat sink when you can

the raven

k so, advice on board... thanx much guys:)

Sir Random

Originally posted by the raven
was just reading one o the other threads there...

do i really need to set back my RAM? i.e. to 5:4?
its TwinMos pc3200 512mb cl2.5

got my fsb @ 231

Are you sure it's running 1:1?
462Mhz is very good for DDR400 without raising the vdimm. If your ram frequency is set to Auto in the BIOS, then it will probably be automatically using a 5:4 ratio. You can check your exact cpu and ram frequencies with CPU-Z, great for checking your stats in windows:
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php