Lousy Overclock on 8KNXP :( Advice Needed!

Well after roughly 2 weeks of screwin around on overclocking my system I may have hit a brick wall. I built a system from the ground up with the hopes of overclocking my 2.4c to at least 3.2 ghz. Alas, the best I seem able to do is 3.1 with stability. My primary components consist of this:

Pentium 2.4c w/ retail heatsink and fan (upgraded to slk 900U)
Gigabyte 8KNXP
1 Gig of Corsair Twin X 3200LL Ram

At first my temps were around 52c idle and my PC kept rebooting at 60 degrees if I overclocked to 3.1x. So I went out and bought the slk 900u, ceramique and a 92mm Panaflo fan. Heat no longer seems to be a problem as I never seem to rise above 43c. However, I can't seem to reach anything over 258 FSB 3.1ghz with any kind of stability. I fail Prime95 every time within minutes. The weird thing is that I CAN get though 3DMARK 03 at 3.2 as long as I up the VCore to max (1.6) and Dimm to max (2.8) Problem is that I notice everytime I up the dimm to max then the next time I enter BIOS it says DDRV25 FAILED under PC Health. I am not even sure why I need to raise the DIMM voltage since with a divider I am way under 400mhz. I "assume" it was necessary though as my system seemed "slightly" more stable. If I attempt to use 270 FSB I will have to clear CMOS by removing battery EVERY time.

The bottom line is that I can run stable at 3.1 ghz (258 FSB) with normal voltage on DIMM and VCore but will always fail Prime95 at 259 FSB no matter how much juice I push. Heck, I can EVEN run at lowest Latency levels of 2-5-2-2 w/o adjusting juice! Do you think I just got a bum CPU? I assume that better cooling wouln't help since I am running a steady 43c. Should I assume that if I pump the max voltage available on my board that that was my only shot at a higher clock? About the only thing I havent added juice to is my AGP! Any advice\comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

are you runnign your ram at a ratio with your fsb?? because if you're not then your ram is way out of spec and its not suprising that your OC is failing

if your RAM was actually running at 258Mhz with those tight timings, it would be some pretty amazing RAM.

Don't I wish! No, I am currently running at 343 (1.33 divider) with 2-5-2-2 timings.

that is really weird. you can run 258FSB with stock voltages but can't run 259 with any voltage...

what power supply are you using? are your voltages looking good?

edit:

forgot to welcome you to the forum, so:

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!

Thanks for the welcome! I didn't skimp on power either. I have the Antec truepower 480watt. Yeah it is weird. As far as passing Prime95 is concerned I am as stable with NO power adjustments as I am with the juice turned up to the max. I also notice that I don't get that DDR failed message in the BIOS as long as I leave Dimm voltage at +2 (2.7). It's only when I push it to +3 (2.8) that I see that message. Even though the failed state doesn't seem to affect me negatively in Windows

I am stumped! maybe someone else with more experience has some more ideas...? sorry...

I just had an idea!

could it be that your chipset does not like running faster than 258fsb? do you have enough cooling for the chipset? can you maybe increase the chipset voltage?

Doubtful. The 8KNXP does have a fan on the chipset but I would have no idea if it wasn't doing a good job. I am seriously thinking that it is just the luck of the draw and my cpu just isn't that gifted. Oh well, still saved several hundred off a 3.0c processor Thanks for the advice!

Well, I just got a P4C 3.0 GHz, and I sure hope the board can push me into the 3.2 GHz range, or higher with air cooling.

PS: do you guys recommend me scrapping the goo off the stock HSF first and using my own Artic SIlver? I'd think it'd be hard to get the HSF off if I used the stock goo.

I will be upgrading the HSF soon if it doesn't give me good temps at this "minor" speed increase.

How high can the 3.0 GHz OC to? (got it with the Intel Retail Kit purchase).

PS: Selling my Intel 865G mobo.

deereal said:

Well after roughly 2 weeks of screwin around on overclocking my system I may have hit a brick wall. I built a system from the ground up with the hopes of overclocking my 2.4c to at least 3.2 ghz. Alas, the best I seem able to do is 3.1 with stability. My primary components consist of this:

Pentium 2.4c w/ retail heatsink and fan (upgraded to slk 900U)
Gigabyte 8KNXP
1 Gig of Corsair Twin X 3200LL Ram

Click to expand...

There is a very good chance it is the ram. Definitely make sure you have the latest bios for your board. Late model 3200LL is CH5, and CH5 does weird things like this when not in 1:1 mode. My money is on the ram.

The RAM or the board, Ive played with many intel boards at my work, and have gotten to overclock many different configurations, different ram, different cpus, and different boards, what larva said is of course true, the ch5s ive found are just kinda wierd in general, but in my experience, ive had crap luck getting any gigabyte board to overclock well, I'd say take it back and pick up an Abit IS7, Ive had great luck with those boards.