Newbie to OC please help me boost my system.

Hi everyone. I am new to OC. I have read through some of the newbie files. This is what i have for a system.

1.2 amd 266 axia y chip
MS-6341 (K7-Master)
512 DDR Samsung and Micron CL2.5
40gb 7200 Maxtor
Geforce2 ultra 64m
Creative Sound
Coolermaster heatsink and fan
2 case fan

I guess I was lucky because the chip came with the L1 and L2 already connected. I have been able to get the chip to run at 1400 for 2 days solid by changing the volt to 1.675 and just changing the mulitplier to 10.5. The case temp is 36 and the cpu boots up at 51. However, when I run Half-life the temp moves to about 53-54 cpu and 38 or so for the case.

What I need to know is whether the heatsink I have is suffient for the increase in temp? What should be the max temp (still within safe parameters) the CPU be? Should I be looking at other cooling methods if I don't want to take the CPU any higher? Can I run the system indefinetly this way without hurting the life expectancy of the CPU?

Thanks everyone for their help and suggestions.
Kyppyk

get a Delta Black label fan and some earplugs!!! you probably should invest in a better HSF. I use the WBK-38 and it works great!!

I have the same motherboard with 1.33Ghz and that temp sounds right. I have Thermoengine with 7K Delta fan and I get about 51C on startup and up to about 53C after 3DMark testing. So I don't think you'll be able to lower temp that much with better heatsink unless you're gonna overclock.

People have been reporting higher core temp with K7Master than with other motherboard and one speculation is that the thermo sensor on this board is placed much better than other boards which leads to more accurate temp reading. I'm surprised that you even got that thing to work at 1.675V. I think default is 1.80V. Is that voltage from the BIOS or from other monitoring utility? Because the voltage reading in the BIOS of K7Master is incorrect. You should use monitoring utility such as the PCAlert that came with the mobo or Sandra to get actual voltage setting.

--BrianC

I also think u should look around for some better cooling. I know ur temps are in the safe range, but they are in the high end. Get something like the WBK 38 or the Taisol CGK760. These are good, but no to expensive coolers.

I am getting the temp reading from the Bios. I think with the software reading it was around 1.70. I am not 100% sure. Would have to read it again. I have been do some research on this site. I feel in love with the Silverado. Does anyone know of where I can get one? or recommend one that is better? Noise is a problem for me because I have a baby in the other room and we have super thin walls.

Thanks again for everyone's feedback.

Kyppyk

Brian,

Hmmmm.....I used the default setting of the Bios. At first I did not know what to do about the volt setting so I went the AMD website and download the specification. I thought I read somewhere that the norm for the 1200 C is 1.75. I think the range is somewhere 1.65-1.85. Do you know what the volt is when I leave the board bios to default, Brian? I have to say that this board has been a pleasant surprise. I have built other computers using mainly Asus and Abit. I think the quality has been very close to those boards. The only annoying fact is that the bios resets if I pull the power cord. Think they have fixed this with a new update for the bios. I will have to check that out tonight.

I don't think Silverado is availabel in US. It costs a lot and takes a lot of vertical space. If noise is an issue and if you're brave, try watercooling. Otherwise, you can't get high performance cooling without Delta fan thesedays. Here's link for fan database and mp3 of how loud these fans are.


--BrianC

Thanks alot Brian. Do you have the live bios thing install? I notice there has been a new bios version 1.1. I tried to manual install it but the file said something about the lock sequence not being the same so it could not flash it. So I install the live bios and the only version that showed up for that was the 1.0. Have you tried to update yours?

I did check the vcore setting. I manually set it at 1.675 through the bios my PC alert is tell me it is 1.70 so you were right. The bios is off. Also it tell me the CPU temp is 36 and the case is 36. Granted it is a little chilly here in the Northeast, I was surprise to find it so low considering I am running at 1400. Is this unusual?

el (May 24, 2001 09:05 a.m.):
get a Delta Black label fan and some earplugs!!! you probably should invest in a better HSF. I use the WBK-38 and it works great!!

Click to expand...

I highly AGREE !!

I flashed my BIOS using the floppy. Haven't tried the live bios. You sure you flashed them correctly as explained in readme file? Try resetting CMOS and flash again using manual install.

36' core temp with Coolermaster? Are you using your system in a freezer? Something doesn't seem right. Either you left machine off for several hours and read that temp right after you booted, or your PCAlert may be confusing sensors. Temp you read from PCAlert should match the temp from BIOS. Uninstall PCAlert and try Motherboard Monitor 5. It's much better and has a lot more features. If you never used it before, read the help doc for setup instruction.


There are 3 thermal sensors on K7Master. 686B1, 686B2, 686B3. I believe B1 is the chipset, B2 is the CPU core, and B3 is the case temp.

--BrianC

Kewl, Thanks again. I will try to reset the CMOS tonight. Yeah I thought the 36 thing was really weird. I even ran the 3dbenmark2001 test yesterday and after it was done the temp only reach about 43. I did think there was something seriously wrong. I will try the program you recommended and keep you posted.

My 1.2, under load, temp is 53. It might sound a little high, but I haven't had any stability problems(yet). I'm running at 10x133.

ACK I need help. According to the D-led of my mobo it says that "This will set low stack and boot via int19h? What the hell does that mean? I am guessing that the motherboard will not let me boot up until the 19hour? Does that make sense? Please help I have tried everything to get the board to start up.

That's what you get when your DIMM's are not seated properly. Make sure your all of your DIMM's are seated properly.

I had that happened to me and that stupid D-LED threw me off. What the hell does low stack and 19h got to do with incorrectly seated RAM? That made me search elsewhere for problem whereas I would've checked RAM first if there was no D-LED.

By the way, I bought a MaxCool case from www.thecardcooler.com and my core and case temps dropped by 10'C even tho my CPU is running 30% faster than before!!! I was surprised.

--BrianC

I have tried everything. From taking everything out and starting all over again. I was going to call tech support but they are closed on the weekend. I will there was a section on this MSI webpage that will explain what all these stupid lights mean. I will look into the website. Good thing this thing is still under warranty. I don't want to return it because I would have to send it away and wait for a return. What pain in the ***.

what was the last thing you did before the problem? On my board, I had to push the DIMM's pretty hard until it made a "click" sound. Try using one DIMM at a time if you have more than one stick.

--BrianC

Last thing I did was do the automatic upgrade with the live bios. I did try one stick at a time. I made sure the click is there. I am thinking something went terribly wrong with the automatic upgrade. Do you know how to fix a bad bios flash? This is what I am guessing. It is the most logical explanation.

Does anyone know how to fix a bad bios flash?