Newbie Help plz

Hi

I have just upgraded my mobo to an abit IS7E

Now im just wondering what I can overclock my P4 2.4 Northwood with 533fsb processer too..

I am also running 1gb of PNY 256mb DDR 400mhz ram..

What can I clock this setup too ? and how do I do it ???

Any help will be appreciated

I've got mine running at 162fsb right now, think it's about 2.9ghz. Should be able to get that from what I've seen. I don't know what the bios settings are on that mobo but, lock your pci,agp settings at 33/66mhz, set the memory settings to auto?, start bumping your fsb 5MHZ until you start to have problems booting into windows/os. Then back down a little or up the voltage to your cpu but never higher than 1.7v for a P4. IMO let it run there for a couple of days then try bumping the fsb again.

Well as you know, or may not, overclockign depends on many factors. IT depends on how high your chip can go, on how fast your memory can run, and the temperature and the type of cooling you use, just to name a few things.

No one chip is the same. Some people get great results, and some people wish they could get another chip. The basics of overclocking mean raising the FSB in the bios to achieve a higher clocked CPU. But that alone doesnt make a good overclock. You have to play around with your memory timings, and depending on how brave you are, you could increase the voltage to your chip and your memory. ( but that poses a rick to your equiptment, becuase after all, you will be running those things with a higher voltage!!! ) To be on the safe side, i would get some better cooling to make sure that when you do overclock, that the extra heat generated but doign this, can be easily dissipated. ( this is to not let your chip get to hot, becuase HEAT is bad.. mostly. ) The most important thing about overclocking is to make sure that after you overclock, your system is stable. Because what good is an unstable system which would crash or hang up.? SO you have to be careful and play around at your own risk, o! and one more thing.. dont raise your voltage too high, because if you heavnt heard, there is something called SNDS which is really bad, and you wouldnt want that happening! Here is a sticky which you can read more about SNDS . Remember Overclocking voids warrenty, so only do it at your own risk! Also, do not forget to lock the AGP/PCI frequency at 66/33. Raising this is for more advanced users, it poses a risk to your expansion cards and just like any overclocking, it may damage your system.

but, just letting you know, almost everyone here does it, and has had success, so dont be too worried!

To find out what others have clocked their chips to, go to the CPU Database and just search for whatever informatino you need.

This should give you some starting point on how to overclock, but i encorurage you to search for and read other posts by people on these forums, so to get a better feel of what to do. What is a better way to learn then from other people's experiences?

Raven

Right I have changed the fsb and locked the agp/pci @ 66/33 mhz

The system seems stable running at 2.65ghz

What can i do now to make it run faster, i was hoping for closer to 3ghz..

Raising it to 2.65 doesn't seem to have raised the cpu temp atall, so I assume that is a good thing...

I did try taking it to 2.70 ghz, but the pc wouldn't even boot up.

try switching to a more relaxed memory timing. this is done by changing the 2-2-2-5 type numbers, the higher the numbers the looser the timings are. also probably right now, you are running your memory at 1:1 try taking it down to 5:4. but just letting you know, this decreses the performance by a bit, but if u get a better overclock, your performance will probably still inscrease.

Ok just changed that setting from by spd, to 4:5 and upped the processer to 2.70ghz again, but it crashed before it loaded the bios screen after it rebooted

so im now back to 2.65ghz

fixed agp/pci @ 66/33

ram set by spd again

default voltage

anything else I can try ???

well first of all, that ratio would ahve put more stress on your ram. i beleive ir ead somewhere that 4:5 means it takes a number divides it by 4 then multiplies by 5. im sorry, i forget what thread it was. But try to set it to 5:4 or for even looser timings, set it for 3:2

to make it more stable, you might ahve to up the voltage on both the chip and mem. But make sure you have adequate cooling for this.

only settings it would give me was

"by spd"
"1:1"
"4:5"

thats all it would give me

If I up the core voltage, what chance is there of damaging something ???

@ 2.65ghz the cpu is running at 38c

Try this:

1) Make sure you have bios 16 or 17, update if needed from abit usa's site.

2) Set Vdimm at the board's 2.8V max.

3) Set cpu voltage to 1.65V.

4) Set cpu strap to 800fsb.

5) Set memory timings to 2.5-3-3-7.

6) Set GAT to auto, auto, auto, disabled, disabled.

7) Increase fsb until cpu becomes unstable.

These settings will be easy on the ram, hopefully allowing you to see how much clock rate your cpu has in it. After you figure out what the max stable fsb is for 1.65V cpu voltage (the most I recommend in your case), you can go back and set the memory to higher-performance settings. After you do the above, do this to the memory:

1) Stay at 1:1. Do not use the 4:5 ratio.

2) Work memory timings down one at a time, checking for stability. 2-2-2-5 is preferable if the memory will do it.

3) Try setting the first GAT field to Turbo, Street Racer, or F1. If more than one is stable you must do some performance testing to see which is best for performance. The futurmark PCMark2002 memory test is great for this.

Once you do all of the above, the final step is reduce voltages as much as possible. 1.65 and 2.8V won't hurt anything, but if you can reduce them without losing stability do so.

ok followed what you have said

now running at 2.81 ghz

with the ram at 2-2-2-5

cpu @ 1.65

ram @ 2.80

GaT is on F1

agp/pci is fixed

however now my screen seems to have lines (like interfearence going through it)

is this safe still ??

cpu on bootup (when loads all my startup stuff) is 50c when idle is 42/43c

edited to say

Highest it will still load into windows on with those settings is 2.85ghz

anything higher than that (even 2.88ghz) it will reboot whilst trying to load windows xp..

Lines still on the screen tho....

If i turn the GAT down to street racer, will I get more from the cpu ???

And if I do, will it make the pc any faster as i assume F1 means everything is runnin flat out ????

p.s Lines gone from screen, soon as I auto adjusted the timming for the screen it was fine, even tho I not changed the agp settings

RsT said:

If i turn the GAT down to street racer, will I get more from the cpu ???

Click to expand...

If you followed the instructions above, no. Remember, we started with GAT turned off (that's what choosing auto in the first GAT field does) to allow us to see how much the cpu has in it before getting agressive with the memory settings.

RsT said:

And if I do, will it make the pc any faster as i assume F1 means everything is runnin flat out ????

Click to expand...

F1 is the most aggressive memory setting. It runs the fastest on my system, but like I said above you have to do some testing to find out for your system. Run PCMark2002 three times, once with F1, once at SR, and once at Turbo and use the best-scoring setting. Likely F1 will be the fastest for your system as well, but there are times when F1 is too agressive for the ram, and you actually go faster with SR or Turbo.

It sounds like your cpu only has 2.8GHz in it. My system is essentially identical, except for that my cpu has 3.42GHz in it. To be honest this isn't a huge difference for most apps, your system will still be fast at 2.8 due to the 1:1 memory ratio, tight timings, and high GAT level.

I have to run my cpu at 1.71V to achieve stability at 3.42GHz. This is a little higher than I like, but still sane. If you try 1.7V on your cpu you may pick up some more clock rate, but it is likely to shorten the cpu's life as compared to observing the 1.65V limit that has proven pretty darn safe. Personally I've never been able to kill a cpu though, and I have tried at great length, so I don't worry too much about exceeding 1.7V on P4s if the cooling is good and the system is stable.

well I have now tried turning the cpu voltage down to 1.60 and it wouldn't load windows, so set it back to 1.65

I have however left the gat @ F1

and the v Dimm setting is now back down @ 2.5v (the lowest setting) and is still stable at 2.85ghz

So are you saying up it back to 2.80 and try street racer etc..

running the benchmark tests in between...

Yes, the cpu's sensitivity to voltage is showing that it is indeed the cpu that is limiting you now. As mentioned you can try 1.7V and see if it responds further, but of course there is an increased risk involved.

Leave it at 2.85GHz.

I would set the vdimm back to 2.8V, and test F1 vs SR vs Turbo to make sure you've got the best one for your ram. Once you see which of the three is fastest, set it back down to 2.5V and re-run the test to make sure you get the same sort of result as you did at 2.8V. If you don't have enough memory voltage F1 may be too agressive. You will have to test to find out which setting is best, and whether it is still best with the Vdimm reduced to 2.5V.

well I have just tried some different settings, best i got was 2.90ghz @ 1.7v

with ram set @ 2.80v 2.5-3-3-7

but was very unstable

so now back to 2.85ghz @ 1.65v

ram set back to 2.80v 2-2-2-5

however when I try run the benchmark tests it closes the app on the 3rd (cpu) test

Sounds like it's not stable then. Try running the test at 1.7V and see if it completes. If not, try backing the fsb off a little.

If changes to the cpu clock rate and voltage don't effect the error, go back to the first memory configuration I described above, and work towards the aggressive setup one setting at a time until you understand where the instability comes from.

RsT

Just make sure you are carefull with that voltage. Even with proper cooling, higher voltages make the chip go out of spec, and do not nessasarly guarentee you the full life span of the chip. If anything, a high voltage will decrease the life of your chip. I encourage you to read the SNDS thread that i posted a link to. You can just click HERE to go to it again. Since your chip is of the northwood variety ( but this applies for all chips) it might suffer from SNDS.

looking at this one member's results ( this was posted by Krag btw. this is the first reply in the SNDS sticky. )

MY 2.26b died after only a month and a half of use.
99% of the time @ 3011mhz @ 1,6v
5 min @3164mhz then lockup @ 1.7v

Click to expand...

you can see here that he was running his voltage higher then spec and his died in 1 and a half months. So all i am saying is to be careful, because unless you have lots of $$$ to spend, you might not want to take this risk with your chip! But if you do feel it is nessasary, and you do understand all the risks invovled, then im behind you 110% in your overclocking adventure!


Raven

PS.. What type of cooling do you have on your chip? is it the stock HSF or have you bought an aftermarket HSF (heatsink fan)? any case fans?

Hi

I have the stock HSF and a case fan aswell, + the mobo fan, and the fan on my gfx card aswell. also 2 fans on my psu unit (not gonna do alot but has them non the less)...

I have now returned it to 2.40ghz as this is the only setting I could benchmark on for some reason, but all is not lost atleast I know my only real limitation is my cpu, so as I have my old (elite ece P4s5a) motherboard 512mb ddr 333mhz ram and this processer, im gonna chuck it all on ebay, and buy a new chip...

Any recomendations ? must be socket 478..

RsT said:

Hi

I have the stock HSF and a case fan aswell, + the mobo fan, and the fan on my gfx card aswell. also 2 fans on my psu unit (not gonna do alot but has them non the less)...

I have now returned it to 2.40ghz as this is the only setting I could benchmark on for some reason, but all is not lost atleast I know my only real limitation is my cpu, so as I have my old (elite ece P4s5a) motherboard 512mb ddr 333mhz ram and this processer, im gonna chuck it all on ebay, and buy a new chip...

Any recomendations ? must be socket 478..

Click to expand...

people are having great success with the 2.4C M0 and the 2.8C M0 stepping.

If you want to overclock, i would also invest in some better cooling. Some good cooling would be the thermalright SP-94 with a quiet fan and some AS5 (Artic Silver 5). You should also try somehow to inscrease the airflow in your case, since one fan isnt the greatest and you could go to the cooling section or click Here and read up on cooling.

ok decided im going to go for either a p4 3.0ghz 800fsb or the 3.2ghz 800 fsb as the hyper threading will be handy too..

Will I really notice a difference between the 2 tho ? and will the oc difference be much either ???

thanx