Please Help With P4 3ghzC Overclocking

G'day from Australia everyone.

Ok, so I'm trying to boost up my new system, so far having limited success. Heres my hardware;

P4 3ghz C
Abit IC7-G with BIOS revision 1.14
1gig of Corsair XMS TWINX PC3200LL
Ati 9700 Pro
Audgy 2
SATA RAID 0
550watt psu, aluminium case, Intel HSF

So far Im running;

FSB 215.4 MHz / BUS 861.5 MHz / CPU 3230.6 MHz with 1.575v into the CPU, Dual Channell DDR 2.7v, memory 2-3-3-6 in Street Racer chipset mode

Temps under max load are system 28c, cpu 61c, PWM 49c this is with two sessions of prime95 for a few hours.

Ive orded an all copper Zalman with the 92mm fan and some artic silver which should arrive shortly. This should help with the CPU cooling a bit.

Memory timings og 2-3-2-6 are unstable at these FSB speeds, so Im using 2-3-3-6. Now if I ditch Street Racer mode and go for Turbo, I can get another 1mhz up on the FSB. Ive settled back to the 215fsb on Street Racer mode as that gives a better score in the sisoft memory benchmark.

I tried dumping the memory down to 3-4-4-8 and running 230 FSB - failed post. 225 FSb failed post. 220 FSB failed post. Gave up, went back to 2-3-3-6 on 215 FSB.

Putting 1.65v into the CPU seems to make no real difference.

Im not one of these people who can live with a flakey overclocked system. I have to be able to run Prime95 in dual mode for hours, same with 3dmark03 in loop mode for hours.

Im running AGP 3x, fast writes and side band addressing enabled.

Im only prepared to do air cooling. Is this all that I am going to be able to get?

I feel a bit stumped with what to do now, and I would appreciate experienced people offering help. Thanks.

AGP 3X? Is this a typo? That ATI 9700 Pro is an 8X card.

Anyway, what's your memory ratio set at? I'm assuming it must be 1:1 and if so, then your PC3200 RAM is holding you back. Drop down to the 5:4 ratio. Running 1 gig of RAM will not allow you to push the RAM as much as if you had 2 sticks of 256 Meg (although if you are currently using the 1:1 ratio, then DDR430 ain't bad for PC3200 RAM).

I never had much luck using those fancy game settings in the BIOS. I'd just use the default setting until you get things running the way you want. As you mentioned, temps are a little high, but sounds like you're addressing that soon. Make sure you have good case ventilation too.

You beauty thanks mate. Total Ripper. I took on your suggestion to goto 5:4 on the ratio CPU DDR, and now Im at 3517mhz with the stock Intel fan!

I cracked open a coldie in your honour!

Right now Im just doing a Prime95 session at this clock. If it runs for awhile, Im going to push her harder.

Cheers

Awesome mate... make it two cold ones, please.

Hi, thanks for the advice.

Ive settled into a 24/7 stable scenario under docmemory, prime95 and 3dmark03 that prooves its 100% stable now with;

CPU Clock 3499.1 MHz @ standard voltage
Front Side Bus Frequency 233.3 MHz, Bus Speed 933.1 MHz CPU:RAM divisor of 5:4
Memory 2-2-2-5 1cmd 186.6mhz auto game accelerator @ 2.7v

If I use the 1:1 divisor I can get 5180mb/s on sisofts memory benchmark. As Im using the TwinX 1gig RAM I dont have the headroom even at 2.8v to run it 1:1, so on 5:4 with the highest FSB my CPU can reliably handle and the most aggressive memory timings it can handle, 2-2-2-5 1cmd, I get around 5000mb/s.

If I try any of the game accelerator settings other than auto it will crash.

All the other memory chipset settings below the game accelerator are at auto.

Is there any of these I should try to up my memory performance?

I cant raise the FSB anymore as Im now CPU limited for it stable at the FSB Im running. Perhaps when my Zalman and 92mm fan arrives I will be able to pump it up a bit more.

Ok, Ive fitted my Zalman all copper cooler with 92mm fan, whacked the fan into normal mode and used Artic Silver 3 thermal paste.

Definate improvement over the Intel HSF.

I went from 3499.1mhz to now 3543.8mhz all on the standard Vcore.

Im still running 5:4 divisor, 2-2-2-5 @ 1.7Vmem but now with the extra FSB my ram bandwidth has improved.

The stock Intel fan had 63C full load temps, now the Zalman is 56C full load.

At idle, the Zalman is nice and cool at 38C.

I may see further improvement as the Artic Silve 3 settles in.

Overall Im very happy for an air cooled overclock.

My ram is holding me back with not being able to goto 1:1 divisor, but with dual channell operation and 1 gig of RAM you can complain much when your over 5100meg per second in memory bandwidth.

Im not prepared to goto supercooling like a Prometia, and now Im happy Ive got a solid air cooling overclock that better still, isnt noisy with the fabulous Zalman 92mm quite fan.