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24/7 Vcore - Northwood

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J

Jakalwarrior

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Joined
Apr 5, 2004
Location
Louisiana
I know it has probably been discussed ad nauseum but I cant seem to find it with the search feature and dont really trust what I find on google. I am no longer limited by temperature so what should by max vcore be on a northwoord?
At first I wasnt going to bother and was going to stay at 1.575 @ 248 fsb since I didnt think getting around 260-265 would make any difference, but it gives me about 800-1000 in sandra artithmatic and 300 or so in memory bandwidth. So where would be a safe place to leave my vcore 24/7 for a while.
I am going to order a new chip and mobo next week but I will probably build an alternate system with these parts so I dont want to fry em.
 
Well my Celeron Northwood, Bios Vcore is set to 1.625 but CPUZ tells me its set to 1.585 idle. I would say upto 1.625 Vcore is about as high as you want to go...you might bump up to 1.65 but tat would definetly be the highest I would go.
 
Jakalwarrior said:
I know it has probably been discussed ad nauseum but I cant seem to find it with the search feature and dont really trust what I find on google. I am no longer limited by temperature so what should by max vcore be on a northwoord?
At first I wasnt going to bother and was going to stay at 1.575 @ 248 fsb since I didnt think getting around 260-265 would make any difference, but it gives me about 800-1000 in sandra artithmatic and 300 or so in memory bandwidth. So where would be a safe place to leave my vcore 24/7 for a while.
I am going to order a new chip and mobo next week but I will probably build an alternate system with these parts so I dont want to fry em.
Click to expand...


1.65 actual voltage is the most i'd ever go with a northie.
 
Although it would stop most people's hearts, I run up to 1.725V with a lot of Northwoods. I can't say I really believe much in SNDS. The way I look at it, if the cpu won't run the clock I need, I need another cpu anyway. I've run serveral chips at this level for more than a year, and they are still pluggin' away.
 
I've also run mine at 1.75v for short periods (5-7 days) but I regularly leave mine set to 1.65v and folding 24/7/365. No particular problems either, and that's after 1 1/2 years of running like this.
 
From most of the things I've read on here, 1.60 (if it's getting to the actual core at that voltage) is the "safe" thing to do. That is not saying you couldn't go higher though. I do believe in SNDS, because it happened to me, but I didn't know some of the things I know now from this great forum and others like it.

The better the cooling and the more efficient that cooling is the more you can draw that heat away from the core. If you had water you could go higher, or if you had phase you could go higher.

What bothers me though is the lack of protection of the Northwood. If it does get too hot, it will not protect itself. You may be in a bench run or something where you cannot actually see the temps.

When you get into the fine line of "how far can I push it up there" you have to have a feel what what that specific hardware is doing on *that* very system. Lots of testing and benching reveals things. I know it has for me.
 
larva said:
Although it would stop most people's hearts, I run up to 1.725V with a lot of Northwoods. I can't say I really believe much in SNDS. The way I look at it, if the cpu won't run the clock I need, I need another cpu anyway. I've run serveral chips at this level for more than a year, and they are still pluggin' away.
Click to expand...

I have a P4 Northwood C 3GHz OC'ed to 3.75GHz w/ the vCore @ 1.7v. So far it has been extremely stable. Would reducing the vCore slightly less make a difference? I'm using air cooling and the average idle temps are 42 to 44C w/ max load temps at 47 to 52C. Performance has been very nice and SNDS is something of a concern. I think your view on it, larva, has been very insightful.
 
1.6 - 1.65 IMO, a bit more if you got serious cooling


D

PS: sometimes it dont help as much as you might hope, my case 1.65 helps, anything above doesnt :(
 
1,75v on a 2,8c at 3,5ghz in a Shuttle SFF for over a year know. I've never heard of a Northwood B or C that died because of too high voltage. With a Northwood A I wouldn't go over 1,7v 24/7 if you want to keep it alive.
 
Well, I tried 3.2ghz at 1.75 volts. Single prime stable but not dual :( . Does shave 3 seconds off my superpi though. Guess ill go ahead and buy that X2 tommorow though. Bye bye intel :(
 
I had a 2.8C degrade after several months of running at 1.65v. I was able to run 3.5 gig, but then I could barely do 3.4 gig. I left the voltage at 1.65v like a dummy and next thing I knew my max O/C dropped to 3.3 gig. A friend of mine is now running it with default vcore at 3 gig for the last year. I had an older 2.0A that I ran at 1.75v for months back when I didn't know any better and it survivied. TC, a senior member here, fried a Northwood with 1.7v using watercooling. So yeah, Northwoods can degrade or die with too much voltage. Maybe not all of them and it usually takes a while, but it can be real.
 
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