Is 250fsb on air too much!?!?! 2.8E

[BrandonV]

Abit IC7 Max 3
2.8E
2 x 512 Corsair pc4000 (3-4-4-8, stock)
Sparkle 400W psu
Zalman 7000cu w/ AS5
The mo bo & cpu are 2 weeks old, the memory is a few days old and the rest is well worn in.....

I was running 2 x 256 Mushkin basic (pc3200, stock timings)and able to hit 235fsb (1.38V) and run P95 with no probs, any higher FSB and it wont boot.

This is all at 1:1, which is what I want.
Now with the Corsair here's what happens in P95:
230fsb, 1.38v= all good, no errors
235fsb, 1.38v= tested fine 2-3 times, but did get errors once at 9 minutes in.
235fsb, 1.41v= all good, no errors
240fsb, 1.41v= boots, but random reboots and screen gets all whacked out
240fsb, 1.43v= same as above


Temps are at 49-50 idle and around 65 after running P95 for 24hrs, idle tems were the same even at 1.43V. Is it possible to get this sucka at 250fsb?
Is my setup too new and needs time to break-in (I got the memory last Fri)?
Need more volts?

Also, I have my Radeon running at 360/310 if that matters!?!?



Lastly, what test(s) should I run in P95? I usually run the random one where it stresses a little of everything and lots of RAM.

 

[aNTiChRisT]

I think thermal spec for a prescott is 70c, as the abit reads off the die its accurate i wouldnt go any higher.

~t0m

 

[batboy]

Could be several things. CPU temps are getting a bit warm, so that means the mobo mosfets must be getting hot too. Might be heat problems. Might need more voltage, but I don't recommend increasing vcore with those temps. You said the screen gets all wacked out. That might be an important clue. Make sure you have the AGP/PCI locked to 66/33. Maybe try running the vid card at default speed until you isolate the problem. I would put your old Mushkin RAM back in since it did pretty good and try using the 5:4 ratio temporarily to eliminate the RAM as being a problem. My old 2.8E would do 3.4 gig on default vcore. But, that don't mean they all will. I was able to benchmark 3.8 gig watercooled, but when I tried air cooling, 3.4 gig was about as high as I dared to go. Those Prescotts do run a little hot.

 

[BrandonV]

I did lock the AGP at 66/33, but haven't tried putting the GPU at stock speeds.
I returned the Mushkin, so trying that is not an option......

Are my temps getting to the point I need to worry? They ran about this hot when I had the CPU running stock speed!?!?!?!?!
Maybe I'll quit at 3.3 as I dont wanna smoke this thing.



Should I swap that pc4000 for 3200 since I cant take full advantage of the 4000 speed?

 

[batboy]

Maybe you can improve case ventilation a little? That would improve CPU load temp and also help cool the mobo power mosfets a little more. I might keep the RAM so you can easily upgrade in the future, unless you "have" to have tighter timings. For example, in a month when the new stepping Prescotts are readily available, you might want to eBay this CPU and get a much better one or something like that.