Gunshy 8PE667 Ultra 2 owner needs overclock advice

Cautious newbie needs a bit of help.

What's the best "safe" way for overclocking my Intel P4 2.4b C1 (SL6EF) on a 8PE667 Ultra 2 mb? (Just purchased from NewEgg.)

I really just want to try and push the chip "a little", without risking my system stability. Fyi, I have 2 sticks of Crucial 512MB 2700 RAM ($67 shipped from Googlegear!), plus the retail stock Intel CPU fan.

Specifically, what settings would make sense on the BIOS Freq/Volt. Control Screen? (Or should I just use EasyTune?)

Sorry, I'm a relative newbie at this (last time I overclocked was a Cel550/850 on an Abit Bx6).

Best,
Aj
Detroit

I've got pretty much the same setup, save 512 megs of memory, and it's corsair XMS. Anyhow, Virtually ALL 2.4B C1's will do 166 FSB. And that's just skimping...

Keep it at stock voltage and shoot straight to 168 or so. Play a few games, see how it does. If it doesn't have any hiccups for at least 2-3 hours of gaming, I'd say you're golden. By gaming though, I mean you'll have to be playing some intense stuff ike UT2003, or some relatively new game like that. After doing that, go up in 2Mhz increments with the FSB. When you reach 178 or so, you should probably start having problems (ie. no POST, or no windows startup etc.). It's no biggie. Just turn your computer off manually (ala the power switch on your case) and wait about half a minute or so. Turn it back on and increase the voltage to about 1.625-1.675 if you want to go as high as 178 to 180, which is where I have mine at, and it's running just fine. I tihnk I'm pushing it pretty hard though, so I'll probably back off after Saturday's MCAT, as that's when I'll have all the time in the world! WHOO HOO! hehehe .

Now, people are going to start telling you to run Prime95 and a bunch of other garbage that puts a whole lot of stress on your computer. Yes, they're right in the fact that you're computer doesn't work when at that FSB and running the CPU at 100% work load for hours upon hours, but who the hell is going to do that in the real world? No one, that's who. My computer will lock up on Prime95 in about 6-7 hours woth of work, and I can't do anything else but surf the net when it's running. But I NEVER have anything running that runs my CPU at 100% all the time. I doubt you will either...

So just test it in and around the 170-180 range, and you'll be just fine. Anything past that though will need a lot more voltage and will most likely hurt your precious little baby!

Have fun!

Oh and BTW, doen't use EasyTune. It's garbage that yu don't need taking up space. You can andle stuff in the BIOS more easily and it doesn't waste any HDD space (although EasyTuner doesn't ake up much anyways )

yes I agree easytune is not very great

I find the interface confusing, and overclocking while in windows just plain hurts

Everything is easier in the BIOS

Oh, and I have a 2.4b C1 and it won't get higher than 160fsb on stock voltage
right now it's at 163 at 1.6v

so don't be too ambitious, and then worry about why it won't boot at 175fsb, thinking it's the mobo

I suggest in the bios that you run the ram synchronious (x2.0 ratio), lock pci/agp, turn off top performance, leave everything else the same and bring up the fsb as high as possible

then from there tweak your ram (voltage, timings) and everything else

it's not too hard

Ah yes, I forgot to mention ram timings. I think the 2.0x DRAM ratio will give you plenty of memory bandwidth for any application. Your CPU won't use that much of it, because Intels simply don't. Also, leaving it at 2.5 will stop you from increasing any of the other timings.

I've got mine at 2.5-2-2-5, which is the lowest all the timings will go on the board, except the CAS, which I left at 2.5 b/c I've heard people getting no better scores with 2.0. Note that this is different from teh DRAM clock ratio mentioned above.

Snowwie, if you relax the DRAM Ratio to 2.0, you'll be able to run your CPU all the way up to 175 on stock voltage, no problem. You're probably running your memory at 2.5 and are just limiting yourself because the memory can't go any higher than 408, at 163 FSB. I've got my memory running at 360, which lets my CPU go at a smooth 180...

Try it out. Your CPU won't even be able to use up all that memory bandwidth, so it's pointless to have it that high.

Ok guys, thanks for all the help. Lemme just review then...

I go into the BIOS, and set-up the "Freq/Voltage Control" screen as follows:

CPU Host Clock Control: ENABLED
CPU Host Frequency mHz: 166
Fixed PCI/AGP Frequency: 133/66
Host DRAM Clock Ratio: 2.0
Memory Frequency mHz: 332
PCI/AGP mHz: 33/66
DIMM Overvoltage Control: NORMAL
AGP Overvoltage Control: NORMAL
CPU Voltage Control: NORMAL
Normal CPU vcore: 1.525 v

Then I boot, play some marathon UT2003 (or run PRIME95 for several hours, if I'm picky).

If it all works, I can ratchet up the CPU Host Freq a little at a time & retest. Or, if I have probs.... I can kick up the CPU Voltage (but probably not past 1.625 with a stock fan) & see if everything is stable.

Cool?

Aj

P.S. Just curious - any reason to mess around with the PCI/AGP mHz?

yeah, that's pretty much how it goes. You're settings look fine, so you should be golden. Have fun! Just don't poke any eyes out!

I've tried everything for my CPU

it's not that suprising, though

I got it back when only very few got their 2.4b to 3GHz, and C1 steppings were somewhat new

week 36 phillipines sl6ef I think

the sl6ef (phillipines in particular) chips started getting real good around week 38-40

oh well

now i wait for prescott

and about the pci/agp lock, I've seen some people let it around 5MHz higher; some find their overclock higher or something, but I leave at 33/66, because I don't want to fool around with my video card and other precious components.