New to OCing settings: TH7II-RAID/1.6a

Hello all,

I've read most all of your posts in the "Abit Intel Boards" section concerning the TH7II-RAID. It seems that all of you are way more advanced in OCing than myself. But I would still like to ask a few questions that might seem very basic to most of you who post here. Would you mind helping out a newbie with some basics?

This is what I've got for my fist ever homebuilt:
TH7II-RAID that came preinstalled with BIOS 38, and HighPoint 2.0.1024
1.6a Northwood with Intel HSF (black thermal tape)
2x256 of double sided NEC rimms
PC Power and Cooling 400w Silencer
60gb Maxtor on regular IDE 1(not HighPoint yet)
ATI 64mb 8500
3Com NIC, Plextor cdrw, & floppy
Windows XP Pro
In an "Antec like" SX-1000 case w/ 4 80mm fans, two intake and two out. It was an Enermax case that it the same as the Antec for ease of describing it, but I think it has good flow.
Idle temp 36-37c average, Sandra burn-in 41c max with default BIOS settings

My first attempt at OCing ever, I raised the FSB to 105, left the vcore at default, set the AGP/PCI to fixed, and RDRAM at Auto, and this seemed to work fine for the day. Next day I raised the FSB to 110 and left everything else the same, and this worked fine too. Im not sure at how much to raise each time, maybe I'm raising to fast here.

Then the next day I raised the FSB to 115, but hearing about possibly needing to raise the vcore, I did, too 1.525v. I'm "pretty" sure I set the AGP/PCI to fixed and RDRAM to Auto. But apon rebooting I got a Blue Screen that said:

"A Problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. blah, blah, blah.
Technical Infromation
XXX Stop: 0X00000050(OXBF7F0020,0X00000001,0X8050B41F,X00000002)"

After setting BIOS back to default, I entered Windows and all seemed fine except when I ran Diskeeper or Chkdisk, I could not defrag or run disk error checking without freezing either program. And a Windows Repair would not fix the problem, so I did another clean install of XP Pro. And here I am.

Maybe I should mention that Hardware Doctor is showing my 12v between about 11.20 and 12.20v. I called PC Power and Cooling on this(this P/S is to have <1% regulation) and they said that this software stuff often is not correct, and I should check on of the molex(drive connector) connectors yellow wire positive and the black negative with a digital meter to see what 12v reading I get while the PC is running of course. I need to get a digital meter first, and maybe this is important if I am to be doing any OCing at all.


I don't really want to go through reinstalling again, because I use my home PC for some business related stuff and cannot really afford the down time or loss of data. Other than Office I do Photoshop and Studio DV for home video(which I plan on setting up soon). Also I don't see doing any of these CPU or MoBo mods most of you are doing "at this time" anyway. But I would like to get more out of this 1.6a and keep it COMPLETELY stable. Which I beleive I can from reading what most of you are doing here and getting out of these Northwoods.

Wanting to play very safe using the stock Intel HSF and stock case cooling and no mods(probably dose not sound to exciting to most of you I'm sure), would you guys tell me what I could expect from this rig and how I should go about acheiving it? What level of settings should I go through to get there?

Thanks, Grant

1.625 vcore
133 FSB
AGP/PCI fix
RDRAM 300

Go straight to it and fire it up. If that works then try setting RDRAM to 400, although I would be more confident in the 400 rdram setting if you had Samsung memory.

If it works then back off the vcore one step at a time till it fails a burn in and this would indicate the optimal setting for vcore at one step above this.

Have fun OCing!

Overclocking Errors

While I do have experience Overclocking I do not pretend to be an expert, but I have OC'd a dozen machines or so. I've dealt with all the frustrating heartache as well as the tremendous outcome of bringing a chips speed 40% above stock! AMD of course. I can say that I have seen the craziest of errors missing system files to the dreaded blue screen. I have recently joined Intel with the exact same platform you have. I found that tweaking the FSB in increments of 5 MHZ seemed to be OK. When I reached 2 GHZ it seemed as if I needed to run the machine for a few minutes or so before preceeding to the next level. I then around 140 began to adjust my bus in increments of 1 MHZ. My final outcome with stock heatsink and voltage regulated to only 1.625 was 143 FSB with as you said my AGP regulated to 66. The chip ran @ 2308 stable most of the time with the exception of a missing system files error that showed up maybe 1 out of every 5 or so boot ups. I broke the machine down because the utility that came with the board kept giving me voltage warnings which led me here just like you! I'd like to thank everyone for all the great tips! I'm almost ready for the mobo voltage mod as well as the vmem mod. I hope with these two I can achieve a more stable 2.3 and hopefully more. Here is a little insperation for ya!

http://www.vr-zone.com/guides/Intel/Northwood/

Yeah, I have the PIV 1.6 @ 2.2 FSB 140 @ 1.6 V with 256 Samsung Memory 16 device. Bios is 39C.

It seems that I can also cannot clock my P1.6 very high, as I would start getting errors like you guys are mentioning. I have a Swifty attached although my temps are really high, although I have tried reattaching it several times to no avail (48 idle, 54 load). So everytime I see people saying they clock their FSB to 160, I get depressed :-(. But I guess I'm happy with my current results. It's faster than any of my friend's computers at least.

If anybody knows the reason for these low overclocks (at least for the PIV, they are already high , please do share! Thanks

gone_fishin
What actually is being done when you set the RDRAM to 300 here? If overclocking would you ever set it to AUTO?

Also, would there ever be a time when overclocking that you would set the AGP/PCI to 2/3 or 2/4 instead of FIXED?
Grant

First off, when you're overclocking, it's common to get BSOD and error messges as you're tweaking stuff and looking for a stable overclocked speed. If you plan on overclocking (and even when you're not overclocking) and have mission critical stuff (work files or things that would be a disaster to lose) you better figure out a way to back it up, because guano happens, harddrives fail, operating systems get screwed up, etc. Burning critical files to CDs is a good method. I ended up buying another harddrive and I "Ghost" my primary drives over to the backup drives periodically.

Second, if you're a beginner who is still learning and are worried about losing data, you might not want to go straight to the max like Gone_Fishing suggested. Take it slow and easy like you've been doing. But, I really think you need to improve cooling a little before going much farther. That black thermal tape is worthless. Get some good Arctic Silver and reapply the CPU cooler. You're probably going to need more voltage, but before you can do that you need better cooling.

Ok, with the TH7-II you have three memory settings: auto, 300 (or 3X), and 400 (or 4X). The memory bus is "quad-pumped" which means the RDRAM runs at four times the speed of the FSB. At the default of 100 FSB, the memory bus is running at 400 MHz (plus it's dual channel, so 400X2=800 hence PC-800 memory modules). Generally, the auto or 400 setting can be used for up to 125 FSB in most circumstances. If you're having stability trouble at a higher speed, maybe try the 300 setting to see if it's the memory causing the problem.

For example, at 133 FSB with the setting at 400, your memory bus is running at 133X4=533, which is well above the default 400 memory speed. If you're having stability trouble and suspect it's the RAM, then use the 300 setting which puts this at 133X3=400 or in other words, back to default. Clear as mud, huh?

Ok, to begin with, it's easier and less trouble just to leave the AGP/PCI setting to "fixed". There are times you might want to tweak those settings to use 2/3 or 2/4 dividers, but in your case when you want to play it safe, it's not needed or desired. The main thing you want to do, if I understand correctly, is to get a semi-decent overclock that is 100% rock stable.

The auto setting will kick you back down to 300 setting at higher FSB speeds. If you are at 133FSB and the mem is 300 then the memory is running at PC800(133 X 3 X 2). If the FSB is at 133 and the mem is set to 400 then the memory is running at PC1066(133 X 4 X 2). If the FSB is at 150 and the mem is set to 300 then the memory is running at PC900(150 X 3 X 2).

You can use the other timings to purposely overclock your other devices (AGP & PCI) by a little bit to get a slight performance increase if your devices can handle it. Hard drives usually end up getting corrupted though.

Hey,
Sorry, I forgot to mention that my MB is FIXED and the RDRAM multiplier is already at 3x.

Cool

Hey! Thanx for breaking down the RAM/ bus settings. I have been wondering how you guys were getting the diff speeds.1066 etc...

Dreamnid, you really should be getting cooler temps with that Swifty. What type of thermal paste are you using? Maybe you're applying too much or not enough thermal paste? Those Swiftech heatsinks have a pretty smooth mounting surface, so you should only need a very thin layer of paste. Make sure you have the fan blowing down into the heatsink, not sucking air off the heatsink. Also, you need good case ventilation to provide lots of cool fresh air for that beast.

I'm using ASIII, I did apply it several times with a razor blade... I'm applying a layer so I can't see the IHS behind it. I try not to move the HSF while screwing it, though I find it quite difficult (I don't know if this would really affect performance, but AS guide said not to move it that much). Fan is blowing down, not sucking. I'm working on the case ventilation, hopefully getting a new case.

to Grantman
have you solved your problem yet?
you may try not to use the fix option when you overclock higher like 115 or 133
see if it solve your blue screen or not?