I'm new, and I'm looking for advice

[TheOnlyFool]

OK, I've had my custom computer for a wile now and its a decent computer, but I hope to get a little more juice out of it.

Here are the full specs (According to CPU-z and my knowledge)

Motherboard: ASUS P4P800se
BIOS: American Magatrends Inc.
CPU:Intel Pentium 4 (Northwood) 3.0ghz Socket 478 mPGA 800mhz fbs
RAM:512mb pc3200(142mhz), 1024mb pc3200(200mhz), 512mb pc2700(166mhz), and a 512mb pc3200(200mhz). DRAM: 148mhz timings 2.5,4,4,8
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 256mb (NV34)
GPU: 270mhz, Memory: 400mhz
Cooling: Stock heatsink and fan, additional fans throughout tower (7 fans, including power source CPU and GPU fans)

So far I have managed to overclock the CPU to 3.33ghz (bus 221.9mhz, fbs 887.7mhz) with reasonable temps (idle: 29-32c, load 50-57c), and the GPU to 300mhz, but I cannot raise it any higher than that, otherwise windows won't boot, but I'm pretty sure it can go higher, because I've looked around and people have managed to get this cpu up to as much as 3.9ghz (though I don't have sufficient cooling for that, but I should be able to get a little more)

In addition my bios are particularly limited, there are 5 settings bus speed (100-400), Dram speed, AGP/PCI, CPU Vcore voltage, DDR ref, and AGP VDDQ.

The current settings are: Bus speed=222mhz, Dram=auto, AGP/PCI=auto, CPU Vcore=1.5375v, DDR ref=auto, and AGP VDDQ=1.5

Also any tips on safe temps for this CPU?

Any other advice, tips, suggestions will be greatly appreciated

 

[dejo]

been a long time since I had a p4p board but I think maybe you just need to drop the dram clocks and should go quite a bit more. my old 2.6 would un 3.7 all day long, you may have to give some voltage also

 

[vgta88]

i'm not familiar with that chip.

if you have the option, run the agp(66) and pci(33) at default speeds manually.

dram is probably a ratio(memory is overclocked when cpu is overclocked), pick the one that corresponds to your memory or make your memory speed lower while you overclock to see if that is holding you back.

as for the cpu vcore, up that slightly only after you have eliminated the memory from stopping your overclock. you will need better cooling if you up the voltages because it's usually this that raises temperatures besides clock speed. you should look up the max specified by intel for that chip. and go up by the lowest steps.

i don't see a bench tool or stability tester, just because you can boot doesn't mean your system won't crash as soon as you sneeze.

use prime95(takes 12 hours to run) or intelburntest (should run in 10 minutes) these programs will get your cpu closest to it's max temps at those speeds and volts

 

[TheOnlyFool]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Dejo

I would try to lower the dram clocks, but my motherboard only goes as low as 266mhz for some reason, also, I'm trying to be careful with the vcore voltage because I've heard that apparently the P4 northwood tends to die when too much voltage is applied, but I've just heard that so I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking around, I'd rather not kill my comp.

vgta88

The dram is in mhz (266-533), and again im scared of raising the vcore, because I hear p4 northwoods die at high voltages, ever hear of this?
I haven't tried a stress test because i use my computer too ofter that I don't have the time, but il try "intelburntest" if you say it takes 10 mins.

Thanks for the advice

 

[TheOnlyFool]

I ran "intelburntest" at 2047mb (the max I could put on 32bit os), and it passed. its max temp got to 57c.

 

[vgta88]

i did hear of some intel p4 chips dying you should look into that.

your ram config is really weird. you can always try overclocking with your best stick of ram to see whats up.

take all of them out except 1 of the best rated chips (low latency and high clock)

there should be some option for ram ratio I'm not sure why it won't let you do lower than 266 but that should be low enough.

you have ddr400 ram and you are running 266 so that any fsb increase won't affect ram so much. this should let you go a bit higher on the cpu side.

the thing about intelburntest is you should run at least 10 times for a quick test and around 100 for a real test. some people claim to have the test fail at 70th run.

 

[TheOnlyFool]

i did hear of some intel p4 chips dying you should look into that.

your ram config is really weird. you can always try overclocking with your best stick of ram to see whats up.

take all of them out except 1 of the best rated chips (low latency and high clock)

Will do, thanks, Il tell the results after

 

[TheOnlyFool]

Removing the ram made no difference, I experimented for a wile, and the most i got was making it to 3.35ghz and when it booted everything started to fail, processes had errors and closed, it was completely unstable. I don't think a difference of .02ghz should be causing that much trouble...

 

[KonaKona]

Ah, been a while since I saw a northy and a FX 5xxx. Those were last generation tech when I built my first computer! Didn't stop me from putting a 5700le in there though...

That is an awful lot of voltage to be putting in there, IIRC you shouldn't be using any more than 1.5, or that northy will just cough up and die. Silly 130nm chips. Uh, if I had to say what the problem was I'd call it on that funky ram config. What stick of ram did you try? Did you try just one stick of ram? I'd try each stick individually and see if you can find one that works better.

If all else fails you can pick up a old (but much newer than that) C2D setup from the for sale section for pretty cheap nowadays.

 

[TheOnlyFool]

Ah, been a while since I saw a northy and a FX 5xxx. Those were last generation tech when I built my first computer! Didn't stop me from putting a 5700le in there though...

That is an awful lot of voltage to be putting in there, IIRC you shouldn't be using any more than 1.5, or that northy will just cough up and die. Silly 130nm chips. Uh, if I had to say what the problem was I'd call it on that funky ram config. What stick of ram did you try? Did you try just one stick of ram? I'd try each stick individually and see if you can find one that works better.

If all else fails you can pick up a old (but much newer than that) C2D setup from the for sale section for pretty cheap nowadays.

thanks for the reply

As a matter of fact, I cant lower the vcore voltage, the lowest possible is 1.525v, so I figure that this cpu is sepposed to handle it, I will try every ram stick separately later, but I'm hoping to work around that because I use quite a bit of my ram wile gaming, so I need the ram

 

[Hey Zeus]

I have some advice for you....

GO GET YOUR ****ING SHINE BOX!!!

Kudo's to anyone who can name what movie that line came from.

 

[KonaKona]

Lowest possible is 1.5v? That can't be right.

What does CPU-Z say the voltage is?

 

[TheOnlyFool]

CPU-Z reads it as between 1.53-1.60v, its quite strange that regardles of the fact that its set to 1.525v in the bios, it still seems to run between those voltages... Along with that, even though its voltage is high, It still runs at decent temps, 30c at idle and 57c on a burn test, 57c may be a bit hot, but its not bad for a stock heatsink and fan.

 

[TheOnlyFool]

Also an additional note, I've got my ram running a 222mhz now, not sure what that will do, but il find out.

 

[Parad0x420]

Lowest possible is 1.5v? That can't be right.

What does CPU-Z say the voltage is?

Maybe you missed that it's a socket 478 P4... those always had a lot of voltage run to them. All the old tech ran on higher voltages than the current stuff.

Hell I wasn't aware that there were ANY 478 P4's to have a stock speed of 3ghz.. I thought that came out with 775 and prescotts lol. I have never messed around with clocking one of those so I am totally clueless about it's capabilities.. good luck and hope ya can get it around 3.5 at least.

 

[TheOnlyFool]

Hehe, my comp is apparently quite unique, a unpopular mainboard mixed with a rare cpu

Anyways, a little update, I tested for a wile with my best ram stick (got it to run at 222mhz with a clock ratio of 1:1), and it barely helped, I was able to get the cpu up to 3.35ghz(from 3.33), and beyond that it either didn't boot, or booted completely unstable.

Also after I had run intelburntest the first time, a single loop got my cpu up to 57c which was a bit high, so I decided to do a little cleaning, I cleaned out the heatsink, which was chalk full of dust, and then ran intelburntest again, and I ran it on 1600mb 15times and the cpu temp only got to 49c!! shows what a little cleaning can do. Also in that time the mainboard chip got pretty hot, about 44c, so I taped a fan to it and now it only gets as high as 38c.

I really don't get it, somethings holding it back and I can't figure it out, I'm sure I can overclock it higher than that...

Again, any more advice, tips, suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[TheOnlyFool]

NVM EVERYBODY!!.

Game over, the notorious dieing northwood.... died.... and it wasn't even hot....

Thanks for all of the help

LOL what a bunch of gibberish, turns out I had forgotten to plug in a wire LMAO!!

Its all good, it still works