noob to o/c not sure what to do next

I have started to experiment after reading different posts here in the forums. But I'm not really sure what to search for to help me with the following. I search around for a couple hours read many post that contained interesting information but I don't think any of it really helped me figure what I need to do. I think that is mainly because this is my 1st o/c.

see bottom for pc specs.

Here is what i have done so far. Keeping the FSB at origional 133 (266) I increased the multiplier 0.5 from its origional 11.5. At each increase with the CPU running at 100% i ran prime95 torture test for aproximately 10 hours to see if it encountered any errors or if the OS would crash. I have managed to get to a multiplier of 13.5 with no problems so far. Except that to get the system to boot normally i had to increase the cpu voltage to 1.6v from the normal 1.5v when I made the increase to 13.5. So thats something around 300 mhz increase (1533 mhz to 1810 mhz [system may be a little off on reporting this number correctly] since 133 x 13.5 = 1795.5.

But anyways, I would like to see if I can get it faster but am not having much luck. Since I'm new to o/c I've been trying very small increases as I don't want to fry anything.

Here are some things I tried and the errors resulting.

Following the above pattern I went to the next multiplier increment: 14. Keeping the 1.6v the system wouldn't boot all the way. It hang partway through the bootup before the 1st win2k boot screen. So I increased the voltage to 1.65v. System boots all the way into win2k, startup apps load complete, but soon after OS bluescreens (1 of these: STOP 0x000000d1 IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL or STOP 0x00000024 [forgot rest on this one]). Despite this I thought maybe fiddling around with a multipler of 15 (settings stop 0.5 increments) and increasing the voltage more. 0.25v increments to 1.85v. Unfortunately i get the same results as the 14 multiplier at 1.65v 1 of the 2 bluescreens. Sometimes prior to win2k boot completion others after.

So I'm wondering what I should do or if this is the best I'm going to get.

Thanks for any help.


Abit KD7-RAID | 1800+ with volcano 12
crucial PC2100 512MB x2 (1024MB)
intake 3 Evercool 80mm (3000rpm) aluminum
out side 1 Evercool 120mm (2200rpm) aluminum
PSU Allied 400W
Leadtek GeForce4 MX440 AGP8x 64MB
2x 120GB and 2x 250GB WD 7200 8MB

alright I'll give you my two sense. I was told do not go over 1.8V on the v-core. Because you start to run into cooling issues, and along that line what are you temperatures? One thng that may be holding you back is the memory, most people recommend pc3200, and as you can see I don't have any, and am mad about it. Anyway, your overclock is almost 300mhz. Mine was about then when I topped out, so you could be at the max with your ram. I'd also run prime for a solid 24hrs. I didn't do it the first time and I had my chip running at 2.41, and then it proceeded to do crazy things to windows and caused me to have to reinstall windows.

Temps are at full load:

Case 41c, CPU Core 41c, CPU ext 36c, and the 4th temp sensor 35c (sisoft sandra reports this to be the mobo temp). I didn't think ram could effect the o/c speed when you aren't messing with the FSB plus the fact that in the mobo setting by default it is set to keep the ram at its designed clock. Goes to show I guess I will be a little while longer in learning. One other thing that got me figuring I could get more out of it was. The xp 2400+ is a 266 FSB too and that runs at 2.0 ghz. I was just assuming that the pc would thing it has the faster chip in it.

it may recognize it as a faster chip, but it is still limited to what you chip you, my 2600+ was reading as a 2800+, but didn't do much if it wasn't stable. As for the temps, I think the case temp is wrong. 41 for case is insane. My temps currently are 28 case and 35 idle. I would recommend downloading Motherboard Monitor, search for it on the forums. Core seems right, the 4th temp may be case, but if that is true, then you need to cool your case download. What type of case is it, fan configuration, also look at my sig, and try to do similar it will help people give you better recommendations

Sorry my temp reply didn't have the info my 1st post had it. I'll look at the settings to get it in all the time. as far as motherboard monitor 5 thats where i got the temps from. Also if i recall in the bios screen where temops are listed I believe it was also reading 41c. I'll add another temp i forgot to last post. Smartfan (or something like that) tells me the 2 250GB hds are at 28 and 30c and i assume the 2 120s are the same as spec wise are the same hds different capacity. Its a tower case here's a link to it.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductdesc.asp?description=11-156-011&depa=1

in the front i have on the left 2 80mm fan spots 2 fans see specs below. The 3rd 80mm fan I put in the bottom 5 1/4" bays as I thought this would help with airflow but I'm not sure it did by much I think maybe 2-3c. Also the HDs are mounted in the internal bays so part of the air flow from the 2 at the left bottom is going over the hds. I modded the side of the case for the 120mm fan in place of the stock 80mm that was there. and the PSU has its fans however much that helps your guess is as good as mine.

Abit KD7-RAID | 1800+ with volcano 12
crucial PC2100 512MB x2 (1024MB)
intake 3 Evercool 80mm (3000rpm, 35.45 cfm) aluminum
out side 1 Evercool 120mm (2200rpm, 84.76cfm) aluminum
PSU Allied 400W
Leadtek GeForce4 MX440 AGP8x 64MB
2x 120GB and 2x 250GB WD 7200 8MB

Well if that is true, then the case temp is high. I would switch the highest postioned evercool 80cm to be a outtake because the heat rises to the top of your case and you need to vent that. Also, the PSU is a no name one, you need a good one to get a good overclock. How are the readings on the rails?

alright to recap the things that are holding your oc back are
the psu (possibly), memory, and heatsink.

Forgive my lack of termonology knowledge.... what do you mean by rails? voltages? Just in case here is a list from motherboard monitor 5.

for the last 23 hours here is the stats (300 readouts)

Core0 (CPU) avg 1.6v high 1.63v low 1.57v
Core1 (RAM?) is steady at 3.33v
+3.3 is steady at 1.54v
+5 avg 5.07v high 5.08v low 5.05v
+12 avg 11.97v high 12.04v low 11.92v
-12 is steady at 2.58v
-5 is steady at 3.38v

Heat sink is volcano 12 so it should be able to cool even more than it is now cause the fan isn't even running full speed yet and assuming I understand heatsinks correctly this one seems to be a real good one from what I have read.

I was also considering moving that one 80mm fan cutting a hole in the top or turning the smaller 60mm fan spot on the back into an 80mm. See the link in the earlier post to a site with pictures of the case for reference.


Abit KD7-RAID | 1800+ with volcano 12
crucial PC2100 512MB x2 (1024MB)
intake 3 Evercool 80mm (3000rpm, 35.45 cfm) aluminum
out side 1 Evercool 120mm (2200rpm, 84.76cfm) aluminum
PSU Allied 400W
Leadtek GeForce4 MX440 AGP8x 64MB
2x 120GB and 2x 250GB WD 7200 8MB

okay first off I hat MBM5 because it always labels the voltages wrong. They all seem fine, As for the heatsink, yeah its alright, but for overclocking most people recommend thermalright (not thermaltake) usually the sp-97 or 94. But if your Volcano 12 is anything like my volcano 11+ Xaser edition, at full it sounds like a jet engine. Yeah a blowhole at the top would work good too. Would remove the heat building up around the heatsink.

Yea I'm not too terible concerned about the noice level as it seems to be a somewhat noisy pc with all the fans. The volcano 12s fan has gotten up to 4200 rpms and i still don't notice any increase in noise level so i think if it ran full speed i could tolerate it.

So now I'm left with a few question. 1st what are the corrent labels for the voltages? 2nd How do I know when the voltages aren't good? 3rd am I safe to assume that the ram is what is holding the o/c back? and if thats the case will o/cing the ram along with the cpu give a boost to the o/c of the cpu? ie if I take the fsb up a little say add 5 or 10 to it how will this effect the cpu and ram? Will I need to increase voltage on either or need some sort of cooling for the ram? or will I only need ram cooling if it is higher? also how does increasing the fsb effect the agp and pci (if it was like less or more than the 66 and 33 they are at under normal settings)? I know there is a ratio that can be set to 1 of 3 settings 3:2:1, 4:2:1 (current default for the 1800) and 5:2:1.

alright, well with me and in a dorm room, its hard to try to sleep with the computer on, so basically if I need to study and stay awake I live the computer on. That should tell you how load it is. Alright as for the voltages. I don't know much about your processor, my vcore is set to 1.65. Now the programs that monitor the voltage aren't that accurate, well within a tolerance, the best way is to use a multimeter, but thats a pain so most people don't do it. So basically your vcore should be close to what it is set in the bios, mine is 1.65 and it is +/-.02 (1.63-1.66). You want it to be close to what it is set. For example if it is the +12V you want it close to twelve, like mine is 11.82, which is okay but not the best.

As for mem overclocking, I have no idea how to do that. But I know the more you overclock the cpu and memory the more you have to raise the voltage from stock