IC7-G Turbo Mode

Dempsey

In the bios I see Turbo Mode. I dont want to try until i know what it actually does. Can anyone tell me?

ChipZilla

It gives you more aggressive memory timings.

Dempsey

Originally posted by ChipZilla
It gives you more aggressive memory timings.

Go again mate:D What will more aggressive timings do?

Woden

when you see certain memory you see timings such as 3-4-4-8 or 2.5-3-3-7 etc. i don't know the exact definition of the numbers but the fist one i think i the CAS or the CL the latency i think.

basically the lower then numbers the better the performance of the memory is so for example 2-2-2-6 has tighter timings then 2.5-3-3-7.

so if you more agreesive timings you should have better performance, however find out what ram you have and what timings its rated for and there should be a custom option in the bios for you to set it to that. the ram however like most things can be overclocked so just because it is rated for certain timings doesn't mean you won't get more out of it if you increase the vdimm.

have tighter timings could lead to memory errors and you can test you ram using a program called memtest

data

ChipZilla

Originally posted by Dempsey
Go again mate:D What will more aggressive timings do?

dataisgod explained it. To find out what the memory you've got is rated for, use Belarc Advisor or Sisoft Sandra. If you're using cheap generic RAM, there's less chance turbo mode will work - the board might not even boot. If you have cheap or slow RAM, you're better off tweaking the memory settings gradually, istead of all at once with turbo mode.

Dempsey

I have the notion that the lower the better something or other but hadnt a clue exactly.

The timings dont affect the speed of the FSB or do they?
Will putting the RAM into turbo mode cause more heat?
The RAM i got is OCZ EL DDR RAM PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum What can i expect out of this

Col_Loki

At DDR400 / Pc3200 your memory should run 2-3-3-7 without any problems. Id bet its prob fine up to Pc3500 at those timings. Turbo might just put the ram at 2-3-3-7 as normal will prob be running your Ram at slower timings.

You could even try setting them manually and trying for 2-3-2-7, 2-2-2-5 etc. Do a benchmark to see the difference , you have good ram mite aswell get the performance from it !! Prime95 will also really stress your memory, if its unstable then it should pick up on it.

Ram doesent get that hot, the heatsinks are more for show than anything....... dont worry about heat.

ChipZilla

Originally posted by Dempsey
I have the notion that the lower the better something or other but hadnt a clue exactly.

The timings dont affect the speed of the FSB or do they?
Will putting the RAM into turbo mode cause more heat?
The RAM i got is OCZ EL DDR RAM PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum What can i expect out of this

Yeah, I've got that RAM too. 2-2-3-5 are the timings. It's actually not that great for overclocking considering what it costs.

Dempsey

Im not happy hearing that the ram isnt great for overclocking

Anyone have a detailed guide for overclocking P4's?

Woden

ah just use the athlon guide knocking about it can't be much different except for the dividers which come into play and the fact that the vcore is different.

up the fsb test stability, when you don't have stability try increasing the vdimm, find out what vdimm is the highest you can put through the chips without voiding the warranty.

there will come a point when increased vdimm wont give you increased stability, then you up the vcore. run prime 95 to check stability and watch you temps.

however as i mentioned with the p4's you can use dividers if you feel you ram is holding back you overclock

data

Dempsey

What are the dividers all about? What about the AGP:PCI ratio thing, what do i do with that?

Woden

him i reckon that you pci/agp frequency should be locked on your motherboard, either way you want the pci at 33mhz and agp at 66mhz

with regards to dividers, afaik dividers allow you to run the memory and fsb out of sync so say you have pc3200 capable ram so that can do 200mhz only but you find the processor is capable of doing more then 200mhz

so you set to divider to something like 5/6 or 6/5 i don't know which one it is

so that the ram runs at 5/6ths of the processor frequency (i think) so you could have a fsb of 240mhz and the ram at 200mhz

this is never an issue with athlon xp systems as performance losses are obtained running the ram out of sync but its ok for p4 systems i think

it is better if you can run them in sync if you have memory that is capable of high fsb. that is why manufacturers are prodoucing memory that can do 250mhz and above so that overclocked processors can be run 1:1

data

unkel

What cpu do you have Dempsey?

If it is a p4c, I'm surprised you got PC3200 ram, albeit very good quality branded stuff

The timings of the ram are not that important when overclocking the p4c because of the very high front side bus (FSB) achievable. This is one of the dividing lines in overclocking with the AMD camp on the one side (with very limited FSB, which only clocks at dual level, so timings are very important) and the Intel camp on the other side (with quad pumped clocks, where memory speeds are very important and timings not that important - best to run 1:1 even at 3,4,4,11)

Just to illustrate, a 440 FSB would be very high on AMD platform. A 1200 FSB would be very high on Intel platform

Hope this helps, but please do post your cpu

unkel

Originally posted by Dataisgod
ah just use the athlon guide knocking about it can't be much different

The principle is the same, but the area that needs consideration is very different

Originally posted by Dempsey
Anyone have a detailed guide for overclocking P4's?

As above, but FSB is everything. Best source of info is prolly abit forums

unkel

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
Ram doesent get that hot, the heatsinks are more for show than anything....... dont worry about heat.

Hey, always reckoned the heatsinks looked over the top but never knew for sure

Touched ram sticks loads of times and even the ones without heatsink didn't even get nearly as hot as e.g. the hard drives

Dempsey

Originally posted by unkel
What cpu do you have Dempsey?

If it is a p4c, I'm surprised you got PC3200 ram, albeit very good quality branded stuff

Its a P4 2.8c I thought about going PC3500 and getting the IC7-G MAX3 but i didnt know anything about overclocking so i didnt bother shelling out more cash on parts that i might not get the benefits of. Right now i wish i did.

I understand the dividers now. I think I read somewhere that you need to have the P4 in sync with the memory. Im not sure so ill have a look around.

Thank with all the help so far:)

unkel

Originally posted by Dempsey
Its a P4 2.8c

That chip is known to overclock very well if you have decent enough (air) cooling. What do you have?

It can overclock up to about 25% even with the stock cooling. Your mobo is fine and a grand overclocker. This means that you need to attempt to run your FSB at or even above 250MHz and you need PC4000 memory to run 1:1 if you want to go that route :eek:

I have come across your combo (cpu/mobo) in forums running at 3.7 stable on air cooling, that's nearly a 33% overclock. Even PC4000 memory needs to be overclocked in that case

The only reason PC4000 memory (and higher) is available in the market is the p4c' s overclocking ability

Maybe you can still sell your memory and buy faster stuff, but do your research. Most PC4000 ram is cas 2.5 or even cas 3, but don't let that scare you as I mentioned before

You can set the divider at 5:4 (fsb:memory) for now and try how far she goes using the same principles as in the AMD guide - watch the temps though

Dempsey

I have two exhaust. Upper top and back.Both are Vantec Stealth Fans 80mm. Standard Intel Heatsinkfan on the CPU. Load Temperatures max out at 65'C( thats in a warm room). But with Abit boards i think its actually 55'C Winbond Chip is inaccurate i read on the abit forums. Wont be able to buy any parts till about july:(

unkel

And that is under load but at stock cpu speed? If so, I'm afraid I'd advise against overclocking much if at all

Even if you've run out of money to spend on your pc, you could fork out €40 for a good cooler surely?

It is a pity to run that 2.8c only at stock speed though

Let us know your plans m8

Dempsey

Ya its high. Im thinking that the HSF isnt making proper contact with the CPU and im using a pad for contact not paste. Im a student unkel with no job at the moment.

During the summer i plan on getting another raptor, 9800Pro, thermal paste, Good Heatsink. Maybe PC4000 RAM if the temperature improves then and overclock it a good bit.

The airflow is good, so thats the only reasons that the temps are high are: HSF contact is poor or the chip itself wasnt made great.

So roll on the summer:D

Woden

hmm time for a thermalright heatsink then, sp94 is the high end pentium one at the moment, put your choice of fan on it and with pc4000 you can overclock like a bitch. will be some of the best air cooling you can buy, might want to buff up you case cooling if you can as well

Dempsey

Vantec SF8025L Stealth 80mm fan looked like they would do the business. What would be good Airflow. Nevermind quietness, my Antec Trueblue PSU is like a plane taking off

I tried putting in a intake and it made no difference with the two outtakes

Woden

i have vantec stealths but not sure i would use one on my cpu especially if want to overclock. i have a 92mm enermax fan that is adjustable from www.hitide.ie gives got cfm for its decibal rating.

however the forums on www.overclockers.co.uk will have a large number of suggestions for what fan to couple with your thermal right

unkel

Originally posted by Dempsey
Im a student unkel with no job at the moment

Aye, I understand - been there myself and back then computers were almost as expensive as Ferrari's

It's a pity though that you've bought a lot of expensive hardware when the money was coming in and the match of the parts is not great. You would have done better with a 2.4c, a cheap case and maybe a better cooler and faster memory. Thinking about it again, you would have been much better off going AMD nforce2 - when did you buy?

But I suppose that's all water under the bridge now. I went out of my way a few weeks ago to kill the most annoying noise generating yoke in my rig - the northbridge fan - by replacing it with a €3.99 Zalman NB heatsink (the older and obsolete version of this retails for €24.99 in maplins BTW) only to discover that when I dismantled the stock HSF combo, there were no mounting holes in the mobo to assemble the fan onto, just clips

Woden

Originally posted by unkel
by replacing it with a €3.99 Zalman NB heatsink (the older and obsolete version of this retails for €24.99 in maplins BTW) only to discover that when I dismantled the stock HSF combo, there were no mounting holes in the mobo to assemble the fan onto, just clips

would some form of epoxy adhesive do the job for ya?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Thermal_Materials_27.html

like the arctic silver thermal epoxy up there

unkel

That's funny data, I was just thinking that myself this morning

Only see your post now. Was in town for a bit today and decided to try and get some. Peats is closed on Sundays and Maplins didn't have it - what kinda city is this

While in Maplins, I saw the older version of the Zalman NB HS for sale (€24.99!!!) again. Picked it up and there were instructions in the package on how to use it with thermal adhesive. The adhesive was even included!

Must check if this would work for this HS too

Woden

great minds and all that, i'm sure it would work just as well on the other NB fan though the thoughts of a permanent fixture don't really appeal to me.

anywho you's are all damn noise freaks, my pc sounds like a rocket put on a bit of music or something

Dempsey

I was going actually to buy a Dual Athlon MP system but i decided against it because of Applications and the OS not being optimised for it.

I bought last july. Back then, money wasnt an issue, it wont be again this summer after the student loan is paid off:D

Bought the stuff as i thought they would serve me good, i wasnt considering overclocking but if the could be overclocked i wasnt against it, if ya know what i mean.

Data the vantecs are on the case, back and upper top, both outtakes. The CPU is intel standard HSF.

I only saw the 2.4c with the special overclocking stepping on overclockers.co.uk afterwards:mad:

unkel

Originally posted by Dataisgod
anywho you's are all damn noise freaks, my pc sounds like a rocket put on a bit of music or something

LOL and my pc doesn't even reside in my bedroom - I feel a bit like an obsessed frentic head alright

BTW have started a thread about my NB HS issue. Not too keen myself to grab the epoxy and permanently stick the HS and also by doing that, invalidating the warranty of the mobo. Two mobos have fried on me in the last 3 years :dunno:

Dempsey, best work all the hours and save up for a kewl rig next summer :cool:

unkel

BTW last time I just epoxy was when I bought an unfinished windsurfing board from a bankrupt manufacturer. While hammering in one of the plugs, needed to screw in the footstraps, into a hole I bored and filled with epoxy, the damned stuff shot up straight into my eye

I was blind for about an hour and don't really want to remember the pain I was in

Dempsey

Originally posted by unkel
Dempsey, best work all the hours and save up for a kewl rig next summer :cool:

I'll be doing 60+ hours a week:( Me student loan has sunk my boat:D

Ill just be adding to the current rig i reckon at most.

Im waiting till at least christmas to build a new system. With BTX, socket changes, Intels Tejas pinless sockets, proper 64 bit support im gonna sit on the fence, i dont feel the urge to build another just yet

unkel

Originally posted by Dempsey
I'll be doing 60+ hours a week:(

Is that all

I used to do a session of 10 consecutive 12 hour night shifts if I could grab them straight after my exams. That earned me about €300. At the minimum wage now that should gross you €840 - more than enough for a new rig

BigEejit

I have an IC7-G as well, my temps are showing roughly the same as yours (up to 60 under heavy load), tis the winbond chip on these boards - even Abit themselves say it can and usually will measure 10 degrees too high. In fact they suggest putting the shut off temp in the bios up to the highest you can. (I am using a Zalman 6500ALCU with AS3).
Are you using the onboard sound Dempsey? ... If I use mine sometimes it sounds like theres a tayto bag in there somewhere with all the crackles .... I checked 10 reviews of this damn board before I bought it and not one mentioned it... Just shows that reviewers get completely different boards to us plebs. Dont even bother to try to use a microphone on the built in jack .... the crackles will completely drown out what you are saying.
AFTER I had bought mine a review came out in which the reviewer got a board from Abit direct for reviewing and then bought one in the shop .... the one direct from Abit had all components in, the one from the shop hadnt, they were supposed to be the exact same board. He got a much better overclock using the same components in the direct board as well .... (but even so, he didnt mention crackles)

Dempsey

Yea i mentioned that earlier about Abit board and the winbond chip being inaccurate to about 10'C.

I am using the onboard. When the speakers are quiet I can hear the interference from the hard drive on the speakers.:mad: I cant remember what the mic was like. I had problems with noise but that was just me having the gain on which was picking up all noise, so i turned off the gain and it worked. It was reasonable quality. My Audigy is much better.