Pentium overclocking questions

BloodBath

Right I have googled this and i've been messing around and so far the only stable overclock I can get is @ 3.54.(220*16) I'm not sure what the limiting factor is at the moment. Tried lowering the ram timings and changing the c.p.u to RAM ratios but it doesn't seem to be helping.


Just wondering what settings everyone else here are using with overclocked pentiums. What are your voltage settings, ram settings ect. Need to know the stock settings and your settings if you can please.

Temeprture is not the problem at the moment anyway.


Cheers.

BloodBath

Woden

well your limiting factor shouldn't be your ram so you shouldn't have to lower the ram timings as its rated to 250mhz. have you upped the cpu or ram voltage. check what voltage you ram is warranted up to, probably something like 2.8vdimm.

this is the first thing i'd up. you should have to mess with the dividers either, only do this if for some reason you think the ram is causing the problem which it shouldn't be.
if the ram voltage doesn't help its time to up the cpu voltage. the forums i was reading today where arguing over what voltage is safe to put through a p4 and they spoke of irreverible damage if you go to high, i think they mentioned the limit of 1.75v for this to happen, they seemed to think about 1.65v was ok though but this always depends on the person anyway. see what your comfortable with go with that.

i'll try to dig up the thread as well

data

[edit] http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17207025 [/edit]

Adeptus Titanicus

I've been digging around for general info on overclocking the P4 too. Take a look at this for some scary overclocks. Pity there isn't more details on cooling etc, but when you see a 3.2 overclocked to just over 5GHz you begin to wonder... :dunno:

Edit:

Actually http://www.vr-zone.com/ocdb/search.php seems more recent and has more detail added including voltages etc. Do a search for your chip and the ype of cooling. Some interesting reading!

BloodBath

Yeah it shouldn't be the RAM but i'm not sure what it is. Ok the BIOS is reading my RAM as 400mhz when it shoild be 500. It's been like this even after I updated the BIOS. Although after I updated it I saw no difference in the BIOS. It has all the exact same options nothing new at all.

It's stable at 220mhz*16 but when I try higher it either crashes while loading windows or crashes in a test like 3dmark. Just freezes. I have gone as high as 1.6v with the processor and 1.8 but it doesn't seem to help at all. At 3.5 the processor voltage is 1.5 stock setting. So a whole volt still doesn't make it stable at only 100mhz higher. I'm still not sure on all my RAM timings. The first set of options are at 2.5 - 8 - 4 - 4. Raising these didn't help and changing the ratio to 5/4 didn't help. At stock speeds if I try to lower the Timings I get a 1 long beep when I power on. Won't even load to BIOS so I have to hold control + I to get it to reset.


BloodBath

Woden

hmm if the divider is set 6/6 or something i'd expect the ram to go in sync with the cpu, so if your at 220 the ram should be the same, think you have to use dividers like 5/6 or whatever to go the other way or 6/5 i can never remember.

anywho try upping the ram voltage and see what happens or try both ram sticks individually if you have a ram issue more then likely its just problem with one stick that you should be able to identify

data

Col_Loki

That Ram doesent like tight timings, its perfect with loose ones 2.5 - 4 - 4 - 8 but it finds it very hard to run 2-3-3-7 unless you up the Vdimm. I would leave the timings alone, take out one stick of ram and see if this affects your overclock at all.

Also you might want to increase the chipset voltage a little, although the max3 should handle 220mhz with ease........ worth trying. Ohh and like data said up the Voltage to the ram (Vdimm) as Geil doesent work well with lower voltage either.

Just leave your Ram insync with the FSB, with loose timings ........ and hopefully you will get somewhere!!

[edit] beaten by data, gettin slow in my old age -

Woden

bah its ok loki, after that monster post your wrist must be killin ya

Mutant_Fruit

also, what are you using to test stability? Try running Prime95 for an hour or two. If any errors pop up in that, you really should reduce the overclock, otherwise bad things will happen to your computer and its files.

I know my overclock seemed stable, but i found that my bittorrent files would mysteriously corrupt, and i tracked it back to the overclock. It was too high, and so it was miscalculating the hashes.

Col_Loki

bah its ok loki, after that monster post your wrist must be killin ya

lol thank god for the nice MS natural keyb, only for that id have the wrists of an 80 year old!!

Try running Prime95 for an hour or two

Yea there really is nothing like good old prime95. 3dmark is more for graphics and wont stress your CPU and memory as much as Prime95 will (just have a look at temps and you'll see what i mean.

BloodBath

Cheers for the help guys. Some very useful information there. Great links too. Ok found what I was looking for. Time to test it out now.

Cheers.

BloodBath