P4P800 Dlx - Hitting a wall

Hello all and congrats for the informative forums !

I am a newbie in the OC field and want to see what my system is able to reach.

I have a P4P800 dlx, Northwood 3.2 GHz, 2*512 MB of PC-400/3200 "OEM" DDR RAM (2.5-4-4-8). Standard fan cooler, 300W PSU. Using Asus BIOS 1018.

I have been able to OC the FSB to 225 (3.60 GHz) and the system is stable, idle CPU temp around 45 C, with the memory still at 1:1 (400 MHz), AGP/PCI locked at 33/66 and all other settings on "Auto".

Now if I try to OC it a notch further at 226, the system hangs (GUI frozen, no BSD), but at a very late stage of the boot process : XP desktop is displayed and some startup applications, like the anti-virus have already icons in the notification area.

Whatever tweak I try to apply to the settings, like changing voltages, RAM timings or FSB/memory ratio it always hangs at that (late) boot stage with a frequency of 226 or higher.

Before you tell me that my system has insufficient cooling, power or crap memory, which I already know by having read some other threads, I would like to know if anybody has an idea of why I am hitting this wall at 226 MHz, while the system is perfectly stable and not overstressed when configured one notch below ?
I had the feeling that the system would gradually experience problems or overheat when the FSB would be pushed higher, not that it would suddenly stop working at a given rate.

M.

able to reach 231

marder said:

I have been able to OC the FSB to 225 (3.60 GHz) and the system is stable, idle CPU temp around 45 C

Click to expand...

That is way too high for your idle temp.
If you meant your load temp, increase your vcore to 1.575, 1.6 at the most and change ram voltage to 2.85

Sorry to tell you what you already read.........

Your temps are too high.
Your PSU is insufficient.

Turn off spread spectrum.

So far I agree, PSU is too small, get a name brand 400 or faster, I went with an Antec TC 550, get a really good heatsink as those temps are way to high, My P4 2.8C at 3.5ghz idles around 28C. On a P4P800 Deluxe board.

Thanks all for the answers.

I thought the temps were OK, compared to the AMD PC of my children that stays around 54 C idle and over 70 C at load

Anyway, I am starting with a small step by buying some Arctic Silver paste to lower theses temps.

I finally managed to break the 225 MHz wall by using the SetFSB utility. I am now running reliably at 230 MHz, I will try to see up to where I might still go.

M.

marder said:

I finally managed to break the 225 MHz wall by using the SetFSB utility. I am now running reliably at 230 MHz, I will try to see up to where I might still go.

Click to expand...

Don't overclock until you get the temps sorted, you will probably kill your CPU with such a high temp. You need to keep you load temp below 50 degress at full load.

psu should be more powerfull and you should consider a better cooling - i suggest anter 430 true power and Zalman CNPS7000A-Alcu.

wow the prescott are so much better. i have a 3.0 and at 3.75 totally stable with stock cooling. temps are about 46-48 range idle and max load about 62-64. which i think isnt bad for stock. but case has great air flow. my ram is kingmax DDR466 and 2 X 512, also dual channel. but anyhoo.. just goes to show you the prescott do a lot more, without problem