How far should I push this P3 550?

[Rick G]

As a result of my last adventure with a new Alpha HS/F (customized to allow use of DIMM slot 1), I've been able to increase the FSB to 155 (853Mhz). But I have to say, I had a heck of a time getting here...Window reinstall, reseating cpu & mem, reapplication of AS II. Still don't know if my last cpu reseat did the trick, but so far, so good.

Had one freeze that went away after reboot, but decided to bump up the core voltage to 1.7 anyway.

So now...Do I start trickling my way up past 155? If so, what are the potential hazards? I guess I'm worrying about any repercussions re: the rest of the system.

[Pinky]

You can pump some extra voltage so long as your temps are low enough ;).

[muddocktor]

At 155 fsb you are probably getting close to the limits where your pci bus cards and hard drives will start giving you trouble. Also, your AGP bus is already over 100 mhz @ 155 and I'm not sure how much further your video card will tolerate the increased frequency. That is already way up there as far as the AGP bus frequency is concerned. You can try and see how far you can go, but I would only do it in 1-2 mhz steps and test carefully each time. That's a great overclock already, congratulations.

[Rick G]

Was wondering if there's any danger of permanently damaging any of the more expensive components (e.g. hard drive).

Re: the video card. As I have an Xtasy GeForce2 card (NVidia), I've always wondered if it's possible to underclock it after the Coolbits tweak to compensate for the oc'ed FSB.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[Godfodda]

Originally posted by muddocktor
At 155 fsb you are probably getting close to the limits where your pci bus cards and hard drives will start giving you trouble. Also, your AGP bus is already over 100 mhz @ 155 and I'm not (snipped).

Does this board have a different AGP divider than mine? At that speed, my AGP bus would be 77.5. It steps at twice PCI, which above 124 is 1/4 (*2=1/2). Not trying to be an ass. Just curious.

RickG: If I understand correctly, underclocking the video card wouldn't help. But my knowledge there is pitifully weak. The guys in the Video forum may be able to help more there.

As to anything else going bad, I've personally never lost any device due directly to overclocking, but my experience is limited. I have lost a couple of things due to my own ineptitude (HD, fan header, and the like). I have also done a good job of scrambling a hard drive at high speeds. Constant backups keep me safe there now.

When the OC goes unstable, finding a solution to that is more important than continuing at higher speeds (as you've already found out). That will save many headaches from cascading problems.

[Yodums]

No I doubt you'll damage anything but its possible as some site are very bad at overclocking.

Your video card should be fine if you run your AGP bus at 2/3.

[Rick G]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Godfodda: The Abit BE6-II has a 1/1 and 2/3 setting for its clock.

[Yodums]

Originally posted by Rick G
Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Godfodda: The Abit BE6-II has a 1/1 and 2/3 setting for its clock.

By the way I add your using the 1/4 Divider right because?

Because at 150(1/4) your PCI spec is almost perfect at 37.

[Rick G]

Settings for latest oc test are as follows:

Core = 1.7V
IO = 3.5V
AGP = 2/3
PCI = 1/4
FSB = 155
CAS/RAS = 3-3-3

Note: CPU Temp = 27 C idle; Haven't load tested but so far max during normal use = 31 C

[funnyperson1]

that is a sweet oc you have right there....what was holding you back before?

[Rick G]

I'm assuming it was cooling. I just recently added the Alpha HS/F. Took one step back to take two forward...To fit the Alpha, I had to move the mem stick from the first to the third slot. System became unstable. Couldn't have that, so I sliced off the ends of some of the fins on the HS to fit the DIMM back into slot 1. Had to mess with it for a while, but I got back to FSB150 and was then able to bump up to 155.

BTW...I could not have come close to these oc levels, not to mention the fun I've had, if not for the insight from all you folks.

Thanks.

[muddocktor]

Originally posted by Godfodda


Does this board have a different AGP divider than mine? At that speed, my AGP bus would be 77.5. It steps at twice PCI, which above 124 is 1/4 (*2=1/2). Not trying to be an ass. Just curious.



Goddfodda, I have never had a BE6-2 rev 2 board but I know that it is a BX chipset board, just double-checked at Abit's site. The only AGP dividers that the BX chipset has ever supported is 1:1 and 2/3. Therefore, if Rick G has his board on a 155 fsb, the lowest his AGP bus could possibly be is 103.33 mhz(155*2/3). That is the main reason why Intel phased out the BX chipset, because in many other ways it is still fully competitive with i815. I've had 2 BX chipset boards, a BH6 and the board in my Intel box, so I have plenty of experience with the chipset. Now if Rick G had a PCI video card, he would probably get a higher overclock out of it as the BX chipset does have a 1/4 pci divider implemented on his board. I'm not trying to flame you or anything but I want Rick G to know what he's putting across the AGP slot, frequency-wise. Run SiSoft Sandra on that board and see what it reports back on the AGP frequency at 155 fsb and you'll see what I mean.

Rick G, I've never done any hardware damage to any hard drives or cards from high pci bus speeds tha I know of(although I did have a IBM 75GXP die recently:mad: ) but I have messed up my windows install before from data corruption and had to reload my system. Luckily I have all the important stuff backed up on tape, so I wasn't totally out of luck. Also, don't worry about increasing your vcore up to 2.0-2.1 volts if you need to; that 3125s is 1 awesome heatsink. I just wish there was some way to mount it on my t-bird box, I'm sure it would cool better than anything else out there, bar none. It just has so much more fin area than even a 8045 or MC462 it's not even funny. I was running 1 on a slot 1 P3 1000E proc I just sold to a friend and had it up to 2.0 volts vcore trying to push it past 1260mhz and it wouldn't get over 105° F.

[Rick G]

Muddocktor, you are so right about the Alpha...I have to assume it's the cooling that is allowing me to bump the FSB some more - to 157 as of this post. I know, there will be some fallout like Diskeeper lockups, but everything else is running fine so far. OK...I'll admit I tried the jump to beyond 900Mhz, just for grins - and it very politely fed me a blue screen. It froze on me once at 1.7V, so I increased it to 1.75. I'm idling here at about 27C. Will run like this for a few days to see if it holds on at 864Mhz!

Am I crazy for messing around with this? What's the rule of thumb? Is the sky the limit, or does one back off after the first app has problems?

[funnyperson1]

i agree about them slot 1 heatsinks, i hate sockets!!! can you imagine an all copper P3125 or VOS32.....Swiftech just might go out of business.....

[Rick G]

Just a followup FYI... The only problem thus far at FSB 155 was Diskeeper locking up during defrag. Since everything else seemed to be running fine, I took a shot at an update. Went to their website, and voila!...A second edition. Downloaded the update, and voila! again...Seems to be holding on.

Have also posted this info in the "Other Software" group.

[Yodums]

Originally posted by Rick G
Just a followup FYI... The only problem thus far at FSB 155 was Diskeeper locking up during defrag. Since everything else seemed to be running fine, I took a shot at an update. Went to their website, and voila!...A second edition. Downloaded the update, and voila! again...Seems to be holding on.

Have also posted this info in the "Other Software" group.


How about running the actual Win defrager does it lock on you?

[Rick G]

Tsunami,
Uninstalled Diskeeper to test...No lockup with Windows Defrag.

[tainice]

Muddocktor, you are so right about the Alpha...I have to assume it's the cooling that is allowing me to bump the FSB some more - to 157 as of this post.

Guys, i have a p3125 with two sunon fans on top of it, and guess what? i cant even get my 300a to post at 450!!! yes, that is right, i checked, temp is astonishingly high, like 50C full load!! man, i was ****ed off big time:eek: oh, one thing to add, i can boot this baby to 450 no problem with ..with ..."Intel orginial FSH" wa hahahahahah:( sad...i pay that much of money and get such a rip off.

[Rick G]

Two notes:
1) Even if the Alpha design didn't improve temps (unlikely), it shouldn't hurt. Therefore, I would wonder about installation...specifically, the thermal compound application.
2) I didn't have a post problem, but I did have a stability problem after I installed the Alpha. i.e. With stock cooling, I could push to FSB150, although temps were sporadic...after, it wouldn't hold together at FSB 145. It turns out, the real problem was associated with the movement of a mem stick to an alternate DIMM slot - because the Alpha covered the first slot. I ultiimately resolved this by cutting some of the HS fins so that I could use the first slot again. Again, not a problem associated with the Alpha cooling mechanics.