When should I raise the core voltage?

[DaBigJ]

I have an Athlon XP 1900+ (that's 1600 mhz). It gets unstable when I go over 144 fsb with stock voltage (1728 mhz). My temps are 47C idle ~56C load with a Volcano 6cu/NO thermal paste :P (for now). My question is at what point should I need to raise the core voltage? Right about now? Also, are my temps reasonable, considering my mobo is, I think, reading the temps from the thermal diode on the chip?

[Fever]

I really suggest you don't push it anymore than what you have already. Those are bad temps, and more voltage would make them shoot up even higher. Invest in a good HSF before you OC more.

[Milkman]

I agree with Fever your voltage isn't holding you back , those temps are, get the temps down( Better Hsf, or watercooling) and you may not need more voltage to get things stable.

mamer

[Namagomi]

Originally posted by DaBigJ
I have an Athlon XP 1900+ (that's 1600 mhz). It gets unstable when I go over 144 fsb with stock voltage (1728 mhz). My temps are 47C idle ~56C load with a Volcano 6cu/NO thermal paste :P (for now). My question is at what point should I need to raise the core voltage? Right about now? Also, are my temps reasonable, considering my mobo is, I think, reading the temps from the thermal diode on the chip?

uh woah. those temps are crap. my o/ced 2200 gets better themps than that :( Anyways, dont touch the voltage. leave it at stock until you get some thermal paste on there! Lordy, i didn't know anyone would run a CPU w/o some AS2/3 on there :eek:

raising voltage will only help stabilize an overclocked chip, and it will also raise temps. keep your voltage stock until you get some AS3 on there!

[rogerdugans]

Yup_ your problem is temp related more than anything else right now.

Thermal paste is the first priority:)

Even the white silicon gunk at Radio Shack is better than nothing!

I have run quite a few machines at high voltages using both water and air-cooling, and none of them were above 45c load temp (in socket thermistor reading.)

[Yodums]

Your problem is definitely thermal paste. Go out and get yourself a tube of Arctic Silver 3 and you'll see a huge drop in temperatures. Go crazy on cooling but don't buy thermal paste and that would be a waste since nothing is going to transfer the heat from the core to the heatsink. Don't wait now, that 5-6 bucks spent on a tube of AS3 may save you a burnt chip.

Yodums

[villham308]

Right, mate dont worry about your temps honestly!

these guys like to keep their stuff cold but 47*C really isnt that bad!! you've got a good heatsink and good contact with the core of the cpu, but any higher and it will go unstable, so dont go playing unreal tounament deathmatches just yet!!

You will wanna get som arctic silver 3 for you chip tho!! it helps a lot with the temperatures!

Next if youre serious about overclocking you'll wanna get a better heatsink and a load of case fans, cause airs a good thing! :D Once you've got that you'll wanna try overclocking again.

Cause then you can start to find out what it is that making your system crash! remember theres a lot of things that could make it crash!

I've only been playing with my computers for a few months, but its proving to be VERY fun! something for me to f*uk about with when im not stoned! oops! should i say that? oh nevermind!

Anyway, what i wanna say, dont start pumping voltages untill you've got everything ready! you wanna keep those temps bellow 45*C at all times to be comfortable (i dont run my cpu at 45 tho, more like 52load, but that cause i have a very quiet pc!, if i switch on some more fans it'll be a lot cooler, but a lot noisier!

So just trust me you dont wanna fry your cpu! broke 2!!!! since i got my system set up!!!!!!! one 1900xp, and one 1600xp!!!! mainly due to my stupidity but still...

Enjoy messing about with your computer!!!

Willem. :cool:

[Namagomi]

^^ do not listen to above. the 6 bucks and 10 minutes to apply AS3 will save you in the long run. it's wreckless and a little bit stupid to even start a CPU without thermal grease IMO, much less keep it running for an extended period of time. (says the guy running 51c idle)

[villham308]

DaBigJ says hes running 47*C idle, which is well below recomended AMD temperatures!!! (over 85*C) my mom's Duron at home runs at something like 56*C and its perfectly happy!

I ADVISE him to use arcic silver as soon as possible!

As i said: You will wanna get som arctic silver 3 for you chip tho!! it helps a lot with the temperatures!

Namagomi man, you gotta read all everybody writes! Your making me look bad man!! ;) :D

Willem :D

[Lord Moreira]

Is it unlocked?
i got the oposite prob :P
i got 28c\26c but can't get my 1800+ to be stable even @ 140fsb
Mine is locked , and since this rig is for a server in 2k3 i'm not going to unlock it
the thing is i see alot of ppl claimming high fsb's (locked) and i can't do it
any sugestions? multi\fsb\vcore?
see sig for specs
all help welcomed:)

[DaBigJ]

Increasing my fsb from 133 to 140 does NOT increase my temperatures in the slightest. So my problem is temperature?

[Lord Moreira]

56c isn't exactly room temperature :)
think copper :cool:

[Namagomi]

Originally posted by villham308
Namagomi man, you gotta read all everybody writes! Your making me look bad man!! ;) :D

Bah, i just need to read every other sentance. :D But really, running without any thermal paste is like, not even an option. With the huge temp drops you can get from using it, there is no reason not to.

[DaBigJ]

I have not had a problem with heat on the other computer I have overclocked either. It is a 600 mhz emachine @750 mhz with stock cooling. It is limited by the voltage and NOT high temperatures. Unfortunately I have no way of increasing the core voltage on it's mobo.

[Lord Moreira]

Don't think we've asked this 1
Is it unlocked?

[DaBigJ]

No the Athlon XP is not unlocked. I may never unlock it because I prefer to raise the whole system speed.

[Lord Moreira]

then ur problem has just been answered :)
the diference between locked and unlocked ii the diference in limitations.
i personally think ur @ ur limit (locked)
try active cooling on ur mobo chipset but ur asking for to much
my tops is 144 but i can only run 3dmark 70%
i'm sure u can tweak it some what but....
u should drop ur tools and be happy
or pick up the tools and unlock it
i'll be around
:)

[DaBigJ]

At my limit? 144 fsb is only 1728 mhz on the cpu. That's a 128 mhz increase over stock, or a mere 8%. No, I'm sure it can go higher.

[Lord Moreira]

i respect ur will power :)
good luck
i'll keep a eye on this thread :)
i got the same specs more or less :P

[Seal]

will lower temps alone help stability?

[Crazy Jayhawk]

Originally posted by seal
will lower temps alone help stability? Yes.

DaBigJ: Put some thermal compound between your CPU and HSF. Your other OC'ed machine doesn't have a problem because it's running less than half the speed of your AMD machine. Heat output is affected by both voltage and clock speed. Increase either and your temperatures go up.

[Tismedt]

DaBigJ first thing WELCOME to the FORUMS
Now where do you live? IS getting thermal compound a problem? If not there is no reason to not have it. I think the Volcano 6cu comes with a thermal pad. You are using that right?
Cooling is part of the backbone of overclocking. Along with a good PSU and a good stepping CPU. That 1900 may be at its limit. What is the stepping? My locked 1700 agoga wont go past 146fsb and remain stable with good cooling.

BTW Yodums I'm dissappointed you did not welcome DaBigJ into the forums. :D

[DaBigJ]

You all seem to assume that I am not planning on getting AS3 or better cooling. My question was at what point do you think I would need to raise the core voltage? Could someone just answer the question instead of telling me that I'm a crazy lunatic?

edit: The Volcano 6cu came with a thermal pad. I took it off because I thought I got some thermal paste (which turned out to be thermal adhesive). But apparently the thermal pad wasn't doing any good because my temperatures aren't any higher without it.

[Namagomi]

Originally posted by DaBigJ
No the Athlon XP is not unlocked. I may never unlock it because I prefer to raise the whole system speed.

uh. you mean whole system stress, don't you? :( Raising the FSB to very high levels (200+) can really hurt stability, and can even damage PCI cards and harddrives. It's best to unlock, as it insures a more controlable, and more stable, OC

[obliv]

you want to raise the voltage when you get system hangs while overclocking. If it hangs in bios, definately a boost, if it hangs in windows, u might wanna try different ram settings. But you only really up the vcore when ur computer is hanging from an o/c (not enough power for the chip to run that fast). that help?

[DaBigJ]

you want to raise the voltage when you get system hangs while overclocking. If it hangs in bios, definately a boost, if it hangs in windows, u might wanna try different ram settings. But you only really up the vcore when ur computer is hanging from an o/c (not enough power for the chip to run that fast). that help?
Thank you obliv. You are the only person so far who has responded with a real answer to my question.

uh. you mean whole system stress, don't you? Raising the FSB to very high levels (200+) can really hurt stability, and can even damage PCI cards and harddrives. It's best to unlock, as it insures a more controlable, and more stable, OC
The only reason I would unlock my cpu (yes, I probably will end up doing this after all) would be if my system can't handle increased fsb speeds. I am not worried about high pci speeds because a 1/5 multiplier kicks in to reduce pci to 33 mhz before it gets dangerously high, or when my fsb hits 166 mhz. The bios will not go any higher than 166 fsb.

[Lord Moreira]

Hey obliv what would u do in my case
got 1800+ locked on a MSI KT266A
without unlocking what would u do?
i can't get past post if i pass 140fsb
but 140 runs just fine (1900+)
temps are not a problem 29 / 28 idle a lil more loaded
my multi is default @ 11.5 and vcore is default also 1.71 to 1.73 i think acording to pc alert III
any suggestions?

[ChillPhatCat]

Most XP's run at 1.77-1.81V stock depending on the motherboard's setup... If you're at 1.73V then I'd say you're at the absolute limit. Try 1.82-1.85V and you'll probably be able to push it much further... If you have an unstable system and the temps are great, or acceptable then it's probably voltage holding you back. I would'nt dump more than 1.9V into an air cooled system though... even that's a bit much... Water/TEC/Phase change cooling will probably support 2-2.1V though...

Unlocking my chip (partial success) gave me a higher FSB and Clock speed... I seem to hit a wall at 186 FSB though... perhaps that's a voltage problem too.

[Lord Moreira]

now thats a answer!!!!!!
much gratefull
will try that :)
kinda used to clear my cmos by now anyway
didn't know the vcores's were so much higher then mine

don't know what stepping mine is but i know i bought it soon as it came out

my palomino is probably a knock off :D

thanks
later...

[DaBigJ]

posted by ChillPhatCat:
Most XP's run at 1.77-1.81V stock depending on the motherboard's setup... If you're at 1.73V then I'd say you're at the absolute limit. Try 1.82-1.85V and you'll probably be able to push it much further...
So depending on the mobo your "stock" voltage may vary? What do you mean exactly by "motherboard's setup"?

[macklin01]

Actually, this is true. Different mobo's may implement the standards differently. You'd be amazed ....

For example, I just got my PIII-S. It's supposed to run at 1.45V. However, when set to default voltages, my mobo, according to the BIOS and sandra, only supplies 1.42V. When I manually set it to 1.45V, it gives it 1.48V, and when I try 1.425V, it gives it 1.7V. (All reported voltages.) When I set it to 1.4V, it gives it 1.42V, just as in the default configuration. Since the board is 100% stable, I'm guessing that it's a combination of the board supplying too little voltage and the sensors under-reporting those voltages. This is all on a Shuttle AE25.

Now, I got the CPU from deez, and on his board (Asus TUSLC2, if I remember correctly), it always reported as 1.45V. So there's an identical CPU on two boards with the same chipset, showing different voltages ....

Strange, eh?

-- Paul

[DaBigJ]

Yeah, strange. Also interesting. So the quality of a PSU cannot be determined by voltage readouts from the mobo, eh?

lol--I said "eh" also... didn't realize it.

[macklin01]

Guess not. (At least not entirely.) You can guage relative performance (one PSU vs. another on the same mobo), but otherwise, I would say a multimeter is the only way to get an accurate reading.

Some mobo makers are better than others. (In my case, apparently Asus.) If one maker has a particularly good reputation for accurate readings, then I suppose you could trust them. Otherwise, I would use the onboard readings for relative comparisons.

Alas, I don't have the "guts" to splice into my ATX cables and read my voltages, nor to find the proper contacs on teh mobo to read the core voltage, so I guess I'm stuck from here ....

Later! -- Paul

[DaBigJ]

thnx all

[macklin01]

No problem. BTW, I just noticed how recently you registered. Welcome to the forums! -- Paul

[ChillPhatCat]

Originally posted by DaBigJ
posted by ChillPhatCat:

So depending on the mobo your "stock" voltage may vary? What do you mean exactly by "motherboard's setup"?

I'll answer this question using my own experience, my celery box's Mobo won't let me chose a voltage, instead the manufacturer claims that it will suck up as much as it needs.

My Gigabyte Mobo doesn't let me select a voltage either, but it's better about it, I can tell it to run a certain % above spec if it needs to... basically meaning it will always run at that % over spec... so if I say 5%, then my 1.82 default turns into 1.95V, 7.5% gives me 2.0V and 10% gives me 2.05V I have it at "stock voltage right now and according to sandra it runs at 1.79-1.82V.