Can't even Hit 200MHz...

I have been freqenting this site for a couple weeks now, to gather information on how to go about O/C'ing my CPU. I have come accross a lot of good info that has helped me to gain the confidence and semi-understanding to go noodling around in my BIOS. I have been paying close attention to other peoples setups and temps to compare with my own and have been diving in an out of my BIOS testing and retesting to get my computer out of the "166 FSB" zone, but have only have minor, temporary victories.

I see peole posting scores of 220MHz FSB's with 11.5 multi's and 1.85 Volts on air alone, and I am awstruck. The reason I am this way is because after trying it for myself, I cant even hit a 200 MHz FSB!!! Nevermind a 1.75 Volt rating without getting in the 60 degree C. zone. It's driving me frickin' nuts!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my chip (AMD 2700+ Tbred) should be able to comfortably reach a 200 MHz Fsb, at an easy 11 Multi and 1.675 Volt setting. This is 2200MHz, which is not a lot. I'm not even really O/C'ing at this point am I? I have an Asus A7N8X-Delux MOBO - W/ 1GB Corsair DDR - Matched MEM. - Good stuff no? Seems to me other here are using the same and getting like 2500MHz out of their chips.

After messing around some more last night, I realized that after having installed my new video card 2 days ago (Chaintech Nvidia 5900) that I had installed the drivers that came with the video card from the included CD which may or may not have been older that the one I had on there already. So I took a trip to NVidia, downloaded and installed two things which seemed to help keep my system a bit more stable a little longer:

1. The newest Video Card Driver (Nvidia 5900)
2. The newest Chipset Drivers (NForce 2)

However I am still having issues which leads me to my main question:

Could the video card I installed have anything to do with the stability problems?

More inportantly: Why the hell can't I hit 200MHz FSB without stabilty. (Keep in mind I cannot even go up to 1.750 Volts witout heat issues with a Volcano 7+ on 5200 RPM - Arctic Silver)

Arrrrrrrrg!!!!

You say you have a matched pair of Corsair memory, but what type and what speed is it rated for?

This personal opionion more then anything but I would think that you need better cooling to get above 200 fsb.Maybe pick up a thermalright slk900 for a heatsink with a nice high speed fan.With that said your video card will not hold you back on a nforce 2 chipset because it locks the agp and pci bus.

Mustanley said:

You say you have a matched pair of Corsair memory, but what type and what speed is it rated for?

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PC3200 DDR Dual Channel - TWINX 512's -(Two matched CMX256A-3200) They have black heat spreaders.

I think my settings are 8-3-3-2.5

$5 to the first person here to help me hit a stable 200 MHz FSB!!!

also could you list your system temp and cpu temp at load and idle I think that might help to sort this out.

bill941 said:

This personal opionion more then anything but I would think that you need better cooling to get above 200 fsb.Maybe pick up a thermalright slk900 for a heatsink with a nice high speed fan.With that said your video card will not hold you back on a nforce 2 chipset because it locks the agp and pci bus.

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Are there any quiet high speed fans out there? My Volcano 7+ is like 80DB. It's rediculous! Sounds like theres a small jet in the room.

bill941 said:

also could you list your system temp and cpu temp at load and idle I think that might help to sort this out.

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Well... There is another issue.

My BIOS reports the temp about 14 Degrees higher in Celcius than my Asus probe software that runs under WinXP.

Bios average no load: 56 Deg. Cel.

Asus Probe no load: 42 Deg. Cel.
Asus Probe Load: 54 Deg. Cel

This is at 166 x 13 to achive a "2700+" rating (Not MHz)
It actually comes down about 2-4 degrees when I switch over to 200 MHz FSB, and lower the Multi.

I'm not sure what to belive, the BIOS temps or the Asus Probe Temps... I tend to lean tword the Asus prob temps, but this could be wishful thinking.

thermaltake volcano's are pretty much crap. I had a volcano 11+ with a vantec tornado on it and it still sucked. Just poorly designed stuff, the problem lays in ur cooling, 60 aint cuttn it for nothin more than stock and thats the bottom line, give up untill u get better cooling, then after u get decent air crank that volatage and watch the mhz fly.

also ambient temp play a big role too, is ur case well ventilated?? The volcano could just be blowing around the hot air in ur case.Ur parts are top notch and ur cpu is defintly capable, its ur temps. Dont think that all athlons overclock well on low voltage, mine wont even budge at anything lower that 1.85.

twitch579 said:

also ambient temp play a big role too, is ur case well ventilated?? The volcano could just be blowing around the hot air in ur case.Ur parts are top notch and ur cpu is defintly capable, its ur temps. Dont think that all athlons overclock well on low voltage, mine wont even budge at anything lower that 1.85.

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Well I have 1 fan up front, 2 in back, a side fan, and two fans in my 450 watt PS, and the room its in is always around 68 Degrees F.

The case is also a full aluminum tower. Big difference from my old metal mid tower that housed 4 hard drives (Two of which were SCSI) and all the other heat generating junk.

The air that comes out the back is moderately warm, so there doing thier job, but is that a bad sign?

I'm definatly going to look into the ThermalRight with a good fan.

Any advice on applying the Arctic silver? I always follow the directions when appling, but mabey you guys know something I don't...

I looked up some stuff for ya at newegg some good choice for fans and the heatsink I was talking about.If the heatsink fits either a 92mm or 90 mm which i beleive it can you would better to go with that size fan they less noise then most 80mm unless you go for some ultra high speed fan which in that case it wouldn't be much of a improvement with the noise level but ask around and find out if it does indeed fit that size fan.


Heatsink
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=35-109-011&depa=0
Fan choices(I believe but I could be wrong that it will fit a 92 mm fan).

80mm kind of loud fans
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-109-013&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-999-111&depa=0

80mm average fans but put less cfm or airflow and less noise
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-999-604&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-999-001&depa=0

even and thin as possible, dont use ur fingers, rub into heatsink first and work into the microscopic cracks, then buff off. Bill has listed some good parts for good air cooling although i would recommend the heatpipe model if ur already gonna spend over 45 buks for a heatsink, but u can rest assure this is the best heatsink u can probably buy


http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-109-113&depa=0

i also always follow the directions it seems to work fine for me.
temps currently on this system is
26c system
38c for the cpu

under full load
30c system
44c cpu

it's alot better when the air outside my house isn't 85 but not too bad for a thermaltake v 11 which I have to admit blows compared to any thermalright stuff

I have one 120mm evercool fan in the front another in the side 2 80mm thermaltake smart fans as exhaust and two fans on the powersupply.

Awesome guys, I will give this a shot and then look into pumping up the MHz.

Thanks!

Try looking at svc.com for that heatsink, last I looked it was ten bucks cheaper there.

Do I have to drill into my MOBO to mount this? And if so is there a chance of destroying it if I do?

the one with the heatpipe needs four holes around the cpu for mounting some mobo's have some don't the slk900 that I listed mounts the same way that your current heatsink mounts with the clip so if you don't have the holes don't drill any use the slk900 instead of the heatpipe one.as far as price check around as the one person list svc.com might have it cheaper I just showing you what would help.In short yes drilling the board would destroy it

if you look at the pictures of the slk900 it will show the normal style clip I tryed to link to it but it wouldn't let me.

i checked out svc.com it's a few bucks cheaper then newegg.here is the link

http://search.store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/nsearch?catalog=svcompucycle&query=slk900

hey theres a guy sellin a sp94 heatpipe on the forums here if ur intrested, only 35 buks!!, u dont have a hundred post but well see what we can do if ur intrested

What is the revision of your motherboard? If its not rev 2.0 then that could be why you can't get over 200MHz FSB. Also it could be your powersupply, as the FX5900 draws some serious wattagge.
What is your power supply rated wattage and what is it's model and brand?