Typical Results?

[Rick G]

I know results will vary greatly, but I'm trying to determine if there's something getting in the way of greater results than I'm experiencing now. My config:
CPU: P3 550 Mhz
Mem: 512 MB 133 CAS 2
Video: Visiontek Xtasy GTS-V (5332 w/32MB AGP)
MBoard: Abit BH6 v. 1.01 (FSB=100)

Have overclocked to 612 but feel like I should be able to get more based on the previous owner of the MBoard/CPU combo.

When I change the clock to 124 (682 Mhz), Windows XP launches but shortly afterwards will lock up. After the auto reboot (at which point, I restore original settings), XP suggests a problem with the video driver causing the previously abnormal termination. Have cruised around the Overclockers Forum for insight re: the Xtasy board, but haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe that it couldn't take the heat.

I've up'ed the core voltage from its default 1.65 to as high as 1.8 with no success.

Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Rick

[RED Hot Machine]

Welcome to the forums,

Thats not a bad overclock you've got there. It could be down to temps what temps are you getting? Also what cooling do you have?

[BrianCapps]

Hmm- not sure where this post belongs. It'll probably get moved by a mod. My guess is that when you are upping your FSB that high, it is pushing your AGP bus too far out of spec, thus causing XP to think that it is a vid card issue. I don't think that you can do much about this though.

Is your RAM rated at CAS 2-2-2? Or are you forcing it to run that fast? If it is not rated at cas 2, you might try putting it back to 3 and then OCing. Win XP is very RAM-sensitive, I've found. Also, what ratio are you at? 4:4:1? 4:3:1? If you are at 4:4:1, you can try dropping down to 4:3:1. Remember, when you up the FSB, you are also upping the PCI bus and Ram bus.

HTH

[Rick G]

Red Hot Machine - Thanks for the welcome. While I mess with the OCing, I've left a side panel off. There's a CPU fan though. Case fans are on their way. It's running at about 89 degrees.

BrianC - The memory is rated 2-2-2, but I've tried it both ways. Ratio settings are not an option for the bios I'm running...All FSB options are for 3:1. Re: AGP bus speed...I've tried setting it to 2/3 [of the FSB], rather than 1/1; the result is a locked up black screen.

Thanks for the responses. It helps to know if I'm going down the right path - you folks are asking the same questions.

Any other ideas?

[Dtown]

Is that Katmai or Coppermine? If Katmai you are at about the max. If Coppermine maybe a small bit faster. I think it's a Katmai core chip though. Anyway...Nice OC!!

Dtown

[Yodums]

You probably have the Katmai core which sucks for overclocking .. I also have the Katmai core so I'm stuck with not ocing much...

[Rick G]

Good thoughts...I'd hoped (sort of) that the OCing limit was due to the CPU, but I've heard (and thought) that I should be able to get more out of the Coppermine core. I'm told by the previous owner of the mobo/cpu combo that he was able to get into the 700's and maintain stability.

As an act of desperation, I'm waiting on a stick of [borrowed] Micron memory to see if it does any better. If it does, I'll order some new DIMMs.

I know I should be happy with what I have, but I'm the kind of guy who use to load stuff into high mem, back in the Windows 3.1 days, just because it was possible to use it up.