Can you guys help me w/overclocking and testing

Hello,

Here is the system that I am trying to overclock. AMD XP1500, 512 Generic PC2100 RAM, AK31 motherboard. (don't think it is the ak31a board)

What I have done so far. I just wanted to do FSB so I turned it up grad. to 145 ran prime w/no problems. Did a seti bench before and after and came up with no errors. Next jumped it to 150FSB and Prime crashed my computer within seconds..

I just dropped the Vcore?? .025 and upped the FSB to 150 and am 33 tests in on Prime w/ no problems...

Can someone tell me the best approach to get higher FSB. I have searched the forums for a bit and will continue to do so for a while but value your input as to what I should do so I don't mess up my Seti results.

Also, is my bench before and after a good way to make sure the seti results are pure and can be used by Seti not just thrown away?

Thanks!!!

Usually, you want to Raise, not drop your V-core to obtain stable higher FSB speeds, the Shuttle AK31 r3.1 is a good board ( i have two pc's built on this board) and overclocks well...you may also have to play around with your Memory settings.

I know it sounds funny but lowering it actually helped???

If it did... then I'd look toward your cooling. What are your load temps?

with prime 41 C??? I am going to try again with raising the vcore. Don't remember what I did the last time I raised the vcore?

what kinda stepping is ur XP1800?

To really maximize the oc I find it necessary to unlock the cpu- even if the mobo doesn't like high fsb, this allows more flexibility in achieving different speeds.

Obviously, I unlock all my AMD chips

Unlocking allows me to test both the CPU and FSB as independently as possible:
*note that when starting I use the MOST aggressive ram settings in bios*

I drop the multi as LOW as I can and raise the fsb until I get unstable- this lets me know how high the system is capable of running FSB(ram/pci/agp/chipset issues)

Then I will drop the fsb as low as I can- usually 100- and increase multiplier- this makes sure the unlock is good, and tests how high I can run the cpu without fsb influencing it(much)

With those two pieces of info I can actually determine a good starting point: I know how fast I can push the Bus speeds, and I know how high the cpu will go. I figure what stable FSB/Multi. combination will get me to the max for the cpu. Usually that figure ends up wrong and I have to drop one or the other down a bit, but its a starting point.
After I get everything stable at aggressive memory settings I start playing with voltage increases and dropping ram settings a bit.

Long process, but the rigs all run stable for months at a time, and at pretty good oc levels.