[jeffro]

HI everyone. Looks like a good forum here! Looking forward to a little help. Apologize if this is repetitious and if so, let me know and I'll go look for some threads that answer my questions...

This weekend, put together a brand spankin' new P4 1.8A, with Asus P4B266, 512MB PC2100 Kingston stick, GF2 Ti, SB Live! 5.1, 60GB 7200 RPM Maxtor HDD.

First - I want to keep stock cooling for now.
Second - I'm running very stable at native settings.
Third - How should I start? Experiment with FSB setting in BIOS? What if I do something and can't POST? Can I still get into BIOS at that point and turn down FSB clock?

Do I need to mess around with voltages on CPU if I want to get up to, say, 2.2? Any watchouts when messing with voltages?

Are there any calculations I should do or is it just experimenting and trial/error?

I'm assuming I start with FSB Clock and find something stable with current cpu voltage. When I max this out, I may need to up the voltage on chip to increase FSB clock further. Is that right?

Any need to mess around with other speeds? AGP, PCI, RAM?

Your help and insight is appreciated!

[SteenkyBastage]

hey jeffro (you a hillbilly?)

I'm an athlon user, so I will refrain from giving advice on your p4, but just wanted to welcome you to the forums. I'm sure you'll get a ton of help here from the members.

also, the front page at www.overclockers.com has a plethora (yes, it's a word) of information about the basics of overclocking. browse around there and check the articles under the "begenners guides" section to get a good start.

[jeffro]

Thanks for the welcome (and no, I'm not hillbilly - I think you're confusing Jeffro with Jethro!)

[jazztrumpet216]

First off, WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

OK, if you want to keep everything stock for now, you're going to want to be a little conservative with how you overclock. Take baby steps... nothing more than maybe 110FSB on your first shot. Boot into Windows and run some sort of processor intensive application or burn-in utility for about an hour, and if it's stable, reboot, and try a higher FSB. Basically, this is trial and error. If you go too high and the system will not POST, you must find the "clear CMOS" jumper, and set it so it will clear the BIOS (your manual should have more info on this). This will restore everything to default, but it should let you boot.

You'll want to keep an eye on your temperatures. Make sure they never exceed 50C, and try to keep them below 45C.

If an overclock is somewhat stable, but still gives you some errors, you can boost the voltage, but then keep an even closer eye on the temps as that will raise heat, and the stock Intel HSF is not really good with dealing with excess heat.

You will be running your PCI/AGP/RAM/etc... out of spec, but there isn't much you can do about it. When you get to a certain point, some of your cards may not work properly and give you errors. If this is the case, you've about reached your limit. Most cards can handle up to a 40MHz PCI frequency well, but after that, start to flake out. Be especially careful if you're using a NIC.

Some good programs for burn-in and general system maintenance are Motherboard Manager 5 (MBM5), SiSoft Sandra, Toast, and Prime 95. You can check to see if some of these are available at downloads.com (I know Sandra is available there), and aoafiles.com also has some good CPU programs (and other nice, interesting stuff, as well).

G'luck, and report back with your max. speed and/or any problems you may have!

[jeffro]

Very helpful advice. Mostly what I suspected intuitively, never know sometimes. I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to overclocking...I guess i might do it sooner than later though - before getting all my software, etc loaded back on the new machine.

Very helpful on Temps and clearing CMOS to restore defaults (don't know why I didn't think of that).

Will report back on this thread when I have something to report!

Thanks

[TUK101]

Boy, it sounds like from the start of your thread that you have done this before. Either that or you have been around comps for an awful long time. You hit almost everything on the head. It sounds like the only thing that you needed to know was how to reset the CMOS. First thing that I would do if I was you, read the manual to the motherboard over really good and learn where all the jumpers are on the board. There shouldnt be more than 3-4 on that board. Also, with that large of an investment into a new setup, why not spend 20-30 dollars on a good heatsink/fan and some good thermal paste? The stock hsf is never very good for OC'ing as they weren't intended for extreme heat. Good thermal compound by itself can help lower temps a couple of degrees. My advise to you is to get a quality hsf setup before you go very high at all with fsb settings, and especially before you add any voltage. Good luck.

[jeffro]

Thanks! Have been around comps for a while...this is my 3rd rig and the first that really has any chance for O/C'ing. Others had intel boards - built for stability!

A couple things were very helpful here though - like CPU temps to watch out for and burn-in software reco's.

I'm interested in HSF reco's too if you or anyone has any good ones.

Much appreciate everyone's help here!

[deez]

Originally posted by jeffro
I'm interested in HSF reco's too if you or anyone has any good ones.

here ya go http://www.overclockers.com/articles373/

there are a few P4 listings there...if you have a question about a specific one just drop by the cooling forum

[TUK101]

Hey, most peaple say that you should try to keep temps under 40C for stabile operation. And with that P4 chip, I have heard that when they get too warm they start to "throttle" down. Which I am sure that you have heard, means that they lower the power too them and run at a lower speed to "cool" themselves down. That is another very good reason to invest in the best HSF combo that you can either afford, or get for that processor. (If memory serves me correctly there arent a whole lot of choices for the P4 yet). Like the post above me said, when you start on your quest for the treasured overclock, download motherboard monitor and keep an eye on those temps. 40C is a good # to try and stay under, the closer to 30c the better.

[jazztrumpet216]

Originally posted by TUK101
Hey, most peaple say that you should try to keep temps under 40C for stabile operation. And with that P4 chip, I have heard that when they get too warm they start to "throttle" down. Which I am sure that you have heard, means that they lower the power too them and run at a lower speed to "cool" themselves down.

Very true! My P4 does throttle down at times due to wonderful Dell cooling... a flimsy aluminum HSF ducted to a weak 120mm exhaust fan in back. I'm going to buy a new HSF for it, and drill some mounting holes for a fan in the back so I can cool it decently and put some decent ventilation in the case too. Dell makes a wonderful, nice, stable computer (reason I got one), but the guts of their computers leave a bit to be desired.

[batboy]

Tuk, it is good to keep the CPU load temp of overclocked Coppermine Celerons and P-III at 40 or below, but it's tough to keep those P-4's that cool. The Northwoods do ok if you keep them under 50 degrees (or better yet, mid-40's).

[Grande Juan]

If I tried to stay under 40c load, I'd have to underclock, 50c sounds a little more resonable to me. I would invest in a better HSF and open up the case a bit more before you overclock very much at all though. Also follow previosly stated advice from JAZZ it is sound. I've never suffered a "throttle down" problem, with temps. as high as 59c. [tip] The sunflower is'nt much better than stock.

[jeffro]

Great help...thanks. Took FSB up to 110 last night with stock everything and seemed fine. I backed off back to 100 though until I do get some cooling. Looks like swiftech is the best, any other reco's? Don't know if I want to drop 75 bucks on HSF. Any word on Thermaltake Dragon Orb?

Also..My Asus P4B266 came with Asus Probe software for monitoring fans, temps, etc. Is that a good utility for monitoring the temps?

Also, any good reco's on burn-in utilities for the Northie? SANDRA seems to work OK but are there any others?

Thanks again and again, etc.!

[Ralf Hutter]

I would'nt worry about using anything other than the retail HSF unless you plan on doing some hardcore OC'ing. I've had my 1.8A up to 2.4Ghz and the temps are barely higher than stock (42-44C under Prime95 load)

If you overdo it on your OCing and BSOD (or whatever) the Asus P4B266 will reset itself to default speeds and inform you of this when you go back into the BIOS to fix your "over-enthusiasm". You will see it called out in red to the right side of the "Advanced" menu screen. This has happened to me several times.

The Asus Probe is worthless for monitoring your temps, it's goes no lower than 40C. (Do some searches on this topic here, on [H]ard, Anandtech, it's been covered in much depth).

What you need to monitor your temps is Motherboard Monitor. Set it up using sensor "Asus 1" for your MoBo temps, and sensor "Asus 2" for your CPU temps. Most people using this board/CPU config are getting around mid/high 20C for Mobo at idle, high 20/ low 30C MoBo at load, low/mid 30C CPU at idle, mid 30/mid40C at load. If your temps are in this area you'll be fine. Remember though, as has been stated above: the P4 is thermally protected so it will throttle itself down if it gets too hot, it won't burn-up.

Don't be scared of OCing this chip, it runs very cool, and will give massive OS's even with the stock (quiet) HSF.

[jeffro]

Sounds like good advice! Thanks. Any idea at what temps the CPU throttles down? Any need for any thermal paste with stock HSF?

Haven't used Prime95...sounds like a good burn-in utility???

[Ralf Hutter]

I don't actually know what the throttling temp is but I've read that it's anywhere from 70C to 90C. I don't know what to believe, I suppose you could dig up the exact figure from the Intel site somewhere.

Prime95 seems to use your CPU harder than any other utility. It definately heats it up more than anything else I've ever tried. In my experience if you can run Prime95 for 12-24hrs with no trouble your system is stable.

I also use Memtest 86 to test for RAM stability. It seems to pickup errors that other utilities miss. I always run it whenever I'm building a new box, and especially when I'm OCing the RAM.

[jeffro]

Nevermind the latest questions. I'm stupid and don't read previous posts/threads closely enough!

[jeffro]

About O'Cing the ram....any need to do that along with the processor or is that separate and I can just leave it alone if I'm just doing the CPU for now???

[jazztrumpet216]

As you raise the FSB of your processor, the RAM will be overclocked with it, as well as all cards you have and your IDE controllers. Basically, overclocking with your FSB overclocks the entire system. Don't worry about the RAM too much, it'll get overclocked along with everything else.

[Ralf Hutter]

With your P4B266 you have options in regards OCing your RAM and PCI/AGP busses.
You can set your RAM at 3:4 or at 1:1. 3:4 gives you memory speed 2.66 times your FSB, 1:1 gives you 2x your FSB. (ie- 125 FSB at 3:4 = 333Mhz RAM speed, 125FSB at 1:1 = 250Mhz RAM speed). At 133FSB RAM speed becomes fixed at 1:1, you can't change it.

You can also lock your PCI/AGP bus speed so they don't riase too much out of spec as you OC higher and higher. The "Turbo1" and "Turbo 2" setting is what does this. Turbo 1 locks your PCI?AGP at 37/74Mhz no matter what speed your FSB is, Turbo 2 locks it at an even higher speed (40/80 has been suggested.

I keep my setting on Turbo 1.