[Ludivous_Kain]

I'm having a rather interesting problem here. First of all, I'm running one of Bender's chiller cores in my case, and it keeps my proc at a chilly 2C when idle. However, my main problem comes up when I try to overclock it.

I have a 2.4C Northwood P4, being run on an Asus P4C800-E. I also have an X800 XT vid card, and a pair of WD Raptors on the ICH5R sATA ports.

Whenever I try to push the fsb any higher than 215mhz, my system becomes wildly unstable, regardless of the vcore I use. When I go to start the system, it sometimes can't find my HDs as a possible boot device. Other times, it'll start to load XP, but the system will do a violent restart (as denoted by the HDs completely stopping, like when you turn the comp off) and then hangs for a couple seconds when the ICH5R tries to detect the HDs again, since they have to re-initialize themselves.

Have I already reached the oc ceiling on this processor? I seriously doubt thats what this problem is, though... Could it be some incompatability with the ICH5R and raising the fsb? I already have the AGP/PCI locks in place at 66.6mhz and 33.3mhz, respectively. I also had my ram locked at 400mhz (since its Corsair XMS DDR400).

I'm at a complete loss here. Even if you don't know what this problem is being caused by, input is still welcome.

[Sentential]

PSU issue perhaps?

[Ludivous_Kain]

I don't think so.. Its an Antec TruPower 430, and all the volt lines seem to be where they're supposed to be...

[ukdan]

set your ram to 320 (5:4) and try again.

[Ludivous_Kain]

Okay. I did two things. First, I updated to the latest Bios. I completely forgot about doing that first. Then I set the ram to 320. One, or the combination of both, seem to have solved my problem so far. I can't wait to see how high I can clock this bad boy.

Also, anyone who wants pics, swing by www.medrep.us/pics

[Ludivous_Kain]

Okay. Couple of issues here. First, the memory doesn't like to run at 400mhz when I raise the bus speed. Second, I had to change the CAS latency to 3.0. And I also had to change the MPS revision to 1.4 (it defaults back to 1.1 for some reason)

I know I'm reaching some other limit here... I can get a stable overclock up to 250 on 1.525v. But when I raise the fsb to 255, the system won't even post anymore.

Should I down-grade to the second-newest bios, assuming its a mobo limitation?

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by Ludivous_Kain

Okay. Couple of issues here. First, the memory doesn't like to run at 400mhz when I raise the bus speed. Second, I had to change the CAS latency to 3.0. And I also had to change the MPS revision to 1.4 (it defaults back to 1.1 for some reason)

I know I'm reaching some other limit here... I can get a stable overclock up to 250 on 1.525v. But when I raise the fsb to 255, the system won't even post anymore.

Should I down-grade to the second-newest bios, assuming its a mobo limitation?

Now your PSU might be an issue. I have the same PSU and I had to do the sense mod because my rails, especially the 12v which was running at 11.1. I'd suggest using a DMM to test your rails under full load; the molex in the back of the TP430 is great for testing with a DMM. Also, there are 2 different makes of the TP430, the older one only has 20A on the 12v while the newer one has 26A. I have the 26A 12v rail on my TP430 and I did the sense mod and it worked excellent.

[Ludivous_Kain]

What's a sense mod, and how do I do it?

I need to do a bit of searching to find the original case for this PSU, since I removed it to put on the UV acrylic one I currently have. I'm going to assume i have the 20A model, though, since this particular PSU is well over a year old (I purchased it in September of 2003).

I didn't think my PSU was really going to be a limiting factor, though, since I'm only running a pair of Raptor drives, one Plextor DVDR, and an X800 XT... Of course, there are the various other things, like 4 80mm fans, 3 CCFL inverters, 2 slot fans, and a pair of Papst 120mm fans... Plus, a 12v relay to allow my cooling system turn on when I power my computer on. Don't worry, it doesn't draw off the PSU. I have a seperate 500w 24v PSU that runs the pelts.

[Ludivous_Kain]

Nevermind my question about the sense mod. I just read all about it. Thing is, though, even when running Prime95, my 12v rail never drops below 11.9x, my 5v line never goes below 4.92x, and my 3.3v rail never goes below 3.28.

edit-
However, I just ran Sandra's "Mainboard Information" and its saying my 12v line is running at (consistantly, I re-ran the test a few times to confirm) roughly 10.70v. The Sandra module confirmed the other power ratings I recieved through Asus Probe.

I'm going to assume that the 10.70 is probably correct, but I can't be certian until I check it out with my DMM. I've got a new UPS comming, so I'll wait that's delivered to my warehouse before I pick up my DMM from there, too.

[Ludivous_Kain]

Meh. I'm sad now. My DMM is no longer functional, because I dropped it while I was trying to carry this 125lb UPS. And to make matters worse, I stepped on it while I was trying to see where it fell. Oh well. I guess I needed a new one, anyway.

Got a new one and tested the volt rails. Everything looks to be in order, except my 12v line. When running Prime95, the +12v drops to 11.01. I'm not going to do a sense-mod, though, since I'm going to be getting a new PSU in a week or two. Going for a PC Power and Cooling PSU. Most likely it'll be their 530w SLi model, to allow for future expansions.

[jenko]

Isnt running the ram at ddr400 making it run faster then the fsb?dont 2.4c have a fsb of 133? so i would set the ram speed to ddr266 so its 1:1 in sync then see how high you can push the fsb.

[Ludivous_Kain]

Actually, the 2.4C procs run at 200fsb, so a 1:1 ratio would put the ram right at spec, which is 400mhz.

[Ludivous_Kain]

Okay. Just ordered (Friday, to be exact) a PC Power and Cooling 510 Turbo Deluxe. THIS should solve the overclock issue. I also backed up my data, moved my drives to the Promise chipset, and reinitialized the array. Some combination of the above should finally fix my overclocking issues.