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A few questions about my new system.

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Freelancer071

Registered
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Location
Europe
Hi all

Since my old fcpga2 system's slowness was no longer tolerable, I've decided to upgrade. I'll start with the specs:
P4 2.4C
Asus P4P800
2×256MB Corsair value PC3200
This is my first P4 rig, so go easy on me :)


Right now I'm running my chip @ 3.06GHz with 5:4 mem dividers (hey, stability testing takes time :)).

1) OK. So first off: ASUS probe reports my IDLE temp to be 23°C (73F). But if I restart and go to BIOS hardware monitor, the temp is 30°C. What's the deal? Is the proble lying to me? I'm using stock cooler without any thermal compound (i'll get some arctic silver ASAP :)) @ ambient temp 15°C.
Probe reports my LOAD temperature to be 41°C. It's hard to check this with bios, since the cpu will cool down a bit before I'm able to restart, but it pretty much checks out. The heatsink is barely warm to the touch after a few hours of load, though.

2) I'm using default vcore (1.525v), but CPU-Z says my vcore is 1.616v (sometime [very rarely] it drops to 1.568 and goes back to 1.616). The probe confirms this. Is this normal?

3) I'm running my memory @ 204MHz, 2.5-3-3-6, default vdimm (so far, hee hee :)). My Sandra 2004 Standard memory scores are:
255_2.5-3-3-6.jpg


Isn't this a little low? I've heard that good scores start at 6000, which would make my scores pretty crappy. Is this true?

Thanks for your input!
Freelancer


PS: My PSU is 400W with 220W max. 3.3&5V output.
 
you only run ur memmory at 204 mhz, you can make it higher pretty easy by uppting the voltage, and you got good ram, just go for it youll be in the 6000's score easy
 
Freelancer - Regarding your first issue:

For temp readings, I would grab Motherboard Monitor:

http://mbm.livewiredev.com

Regarding the second:

The voltage jumps on the P4P800 are normal. They've been somewhat fixed in the recently released BIOS (1014), but keep in mind that P4P800 boards seem to over-volt at IDLE. However, they go (roughly) to whatever voltage you set in the BIOS at LOAD. This is counter-intuitive, I know, but that's how they've done it. GrandpaDan has a post or two regarding this issue. You can test this with CPU-Z... check your voltage at idle... it'll be as you mentioned--higher than what you set. Then try running Prime95 on both procs... and boom, you've got a lower voltage, roughly in range according to what you set in the BIOS. Anyway, you may want to keep this in mind if you ever change from the stock voltage.

And finally, your 3rd issue:

I dunno about the Corsair Value series, but I'd try upping the vdimm and tightening up those timings if you can. I think the Value series is rated at 2.5, but you can prolly tighten the other timings a bit. Good luck!

Goliath
 
Looking in the BIOS at boot up will not give you true idle temps... unless you wait a few minutes. During post there are a lot of tests and things the CPU does, so it's not really idle.

Your Sandra scores look fairly good for only 3 gig using the 5:4 ratio with those timings. You'll need to hit 3.3 or 3.4 gig before you have a shot at 6k. Your bandwidth will improve as FSB and DDR speed increases. Like was said, lowering the timing will help improve your benchmarks a little too.
 
Thanks for all the replies.
I've installed MBM 5 and right now it reads 32C and 25C.
Asus probe shows 32°C mobo / 25°C CPU (I'm browsing and checkign email). I just don't understand why my CPU is cooler than my mobo... Should be the other way around :)

I'll do some investigating about that voltage.
I've bumped the FSB to 260 and so far so good. Things seem to be stable and my memory scores have improbed a bit:
260_2.5-3-3-6.jpg


My ram is rated for CL2.5 I think. It really doesn't like CL2.0. Wont boot at all. It also doesn't like 2.5-2-3-6 or 2.5-3-2-6 @ 255FSB. I'll try 2.5-3-3-5 when I get the chance, but if it doesn't work I'll just keep 2.5-3-3-6 and bump the FSB a bit further. I just hope my CPU can take it :) I dont want something like a SNDS happening to my new baby lol :) Are 2.4Cs supposed to be running so cool? I'm getting worried, this thing is too cool :). Well, I am using 15°C ambient for the case, but still... My old 1.3 tually would hit 50°C real fast when oced.

Off-topic: While I was updating my BIOS to .14 yesterday, my CPU-Z was on and for about 10 seconds it showed a frequency of 22GHz :) I'd love to do some benchies on that, hehe.
 
I've done some more tests. 2.5-2-3-6, 2.5-3-2-6, 2.5-3-3-5 are all no-go. I tested 2.5-2-2-5 starting from 160MHz mem. Anything above ~168MHz mem will not work. Pretty much useless I guess.

I've tried bumping up the FSB a bit more @ default vcpu. I've reached a wall at 275FSB. I'd get a bluescreen as soon as windows starts loading.
I tried changing the mem divider to 3:2 to rule out the cpu - Windows almost loads up completely and then hangs.
So I guess it's pretty much the limit of both CPU and the RAM. Anything above 270FSB is pretty much unstable anyway. The best stable setting seems to be 267FSB@default vcpu and memory 214MHz 2.5-3-3-6 @ 2.65vdimm.

I guess I could loosen the timings and oc the CPU further, but they're loose enough as it is. Plus I don't want to increase vcpu anyway, since my P4P800 has decided that my default voltage is 1.616v, which is high enough as it is.
I'll keep an eye on vcpu under load. I'll do more tests when I get some more time.

These are my final sandra scores
267_2.5-3-3-6.jpg

I guess they're not too bad considering I've got such cheap RAM :)
 
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