my new toy... P4 1.8 @ 3.06! =)

[Flakk]

I had some fun the past few days and bought a 1.8 p4 chip for $78 (retail box and everything). I thought to myself, why not just get a really old chip that has a new core and the potential to be super overclocked, and save myself some bucks. The chip is a C1 stepping so I figured I could get it pretty far.

Well, it looks like it was a good gamble. Got this puppy to 3.06 on near stock voltage (it's a bit low in the picture due to drooping under full load of Prime95). I'll let the picture do the rest of the telling...

ran it all night and 100% prime stable. yay =)

I tried for 3.15ghz but it didnt seem to like that too much without a BIG voltage jump (to 1.6volts-- that's a lot to me ) so I'm happy to let it live long and prosper at 3.06ghz.

All in all, I thought this was a pretty good bargain: A chip over 3ghz for $78 It was originally going to be for my secondary rig, but needless to say when it beat my pathetic 2.4B (b0 stepping running at 2.88ghz) I slapped that puppy in my primary. =D


I hope maybe to inspire someone else to do the same. eBay is the overclockers gold mine. That's where this chip is from (a Gateway-direct eBay dealer who goes through lots of chips and had some recent revision chips). You can get them cheaper on eBay and they usually tell you the sSpec so you can be pretty assured of getting a good overclocker!

 

[Digital_Cowboy]

Very impressive. Nice OC!

 

[KrisMCool]

That's a keeper! Great OC for such a "lowly" chip.

 

[vipergtsr1736]

had my 1.8 @ 2.92 for a while, then started getting unstable after about 3 months. I had to run it lower and lower and lower to run stable, now it wont even post at 2.3. must be SNDS, but i never touched the vcore........ any ideas anyone?

 

[Flakk]

wow scary.. i hope that doesnt happen to mine. So far it's ok, running stably at 3.06ghz with 1.535 volts (basically stock). If anyone else has experience with SNDS with this type of a huge overclock on a older type chip please do tell

 

[Rio71]

had my 1.8 @ 2.92 for a while, then started getting unstable after about 3 months. I had to run it lower and lower and lower to run stable, now it wont even post at 2.3. must be SNDS, but i never touched the vcore........ any ideas anyone?

first off all, snds was only for b0 steppings.
i saw an chip thats died immediately within 14 days with only upping the vcore to max 1,600v.
your chip ist possibly one of this, less vcore but longer run.

 

[larva]

To my mind, 3GHz is just the start of the acceptable range for 1.8a's. I've tested many, the worst topped out at 125fsb (2.25GHz) and the best at 190 (3.42GHz).

I would not fear harming the chip. I ran my B0 chips at as much as 1.79V for extended periods, and they are all still performing admirably for their current owners.

I run my current C1 1.8a at 1.71-1.73V, and it shows no signs of distress. To be honest I'm not sure what you have to lose by giving it some voltage, it's only a $78 dollar chip. Every single cpu I have personally used (in excess of 7000) has lasted longer than it was useful from a performance standpoint regardless of how mightily I abused it. I'm not saying a chip cannot be killed, but that the frequency with which it occurs does not mandate the level of hysteria that this possiblity often engenders amongst the users here. I'd give it at least 1.65V and see if that chip has some legs.

 

[Flakk]

first off all, snds was only for b0 steppings.
i saw an chip thats died immediately within 14 days with only upping the vcore to max 1,600v.
your chip ist possibly one of this, less vcore but longer run.

well mine is a c1 so that thankfully doesnt apply even if it was true.

To my mind, 3GHz is just the start of the acceptable range for 1.8a's. I've tested many, the worst topped out at 125fsb (2.25GHz) and the best at 190 (3.42GHz).

I would not fear harming the chip. I ran my B0 chips at as much as 1.79V for extended periods, and they are all still performing admirably for their current owners.

I run my current C1 1.8a at 1.71-1.73V, and it shows no signs of distress. To be honest I'm not sure what you have to lose by giving it some voltage, it's only a $78 dollar chip. Every single cpu I have personally used (in excess of 7000) has lasted longer than it was useful from a performance standpoint regardless of how mightily I abused it. I'm not saying a chip cannot be killed, but that the frequency with which it occurs does not mandate the level of hysteria that this possiblity often engenders amongst the users here. I'd give it at least 1.65V and see if that chip has some legs.

i like your view on it. i believe you have convinced me to push it to its extremes. as you say.. why not it would be cool to get in the 3.2 ranges or higher. more to brag about 1.65 sounds like a good top voltage. i'd do 1.7 but im kinda scared thats too high. i plan on upgrading to a better chip within the next few months anyway, so thats all this has to last me. 1.7 too much or no?

ill keep you posted

 

[west1]

very nice OC

 

[Flakk]

well here's the results of further testing with this cpu:

to reach 170 fsb (3060 mhz) i need 1.538 vcore
to reach 172 fsb (3096 mhz) i need 1.600 vcore
to reach 174 fsb (3132 mhz) i need 1.625 vcore
to reach 176 fsb (3168 mhz) i need more than 1.65 vcore (still not stable)

as you can see it's not too promising considering the big voltage jump for such minimal gain. i think i'll stay at 170 for now



i realized something which may or may not be helpful to understanding this limit:

i had a 2.4c chip (m0 stepping) and had a similar situation, except of course those chips start at 200mhz fsb. With it I could get to 270 before i had to raise the voltages in similarly large amounts to gain only a few fsb from there on out.

now maybe this is just because the chips were reaching their natural limits. in both cases these would be considered to be fairly good overclocks any way you look at it. i just thought the similarity of losing overclockability after 70 fsb past the default fsb (100->170 in the 1.8A's case and 200->270 in the 2.4C's case) to be interesting. i was wondering if there is any chip onboard that would maybe overheat after this "70" more fsb.. some kind of relation to this same amount of overclock of fsb.

i'll get to the bottom of this theory though. i ordered a laser-sighted Raytek MiniTemp (but from somewhere cheaper) to help locate hot spots/chips on my motherboard =). maybe i can cool the northbridge and be off to new high levels of overclockability.. *dreams on*... should be fun anyway =)

 

[Tyrinon]

Very nice o/c to say the least!

-Tyrinon

 

[cV]

Yeah, it's just like the a0 1300 sl5zj I have in the other rig... 1.75 for 100MHz more... go figure. I tend to like the max overclocks before great boosts in vcore are required because they balance performance the best with heat.

And Larva, I understand what you're saying but if a CPU dies after a few weeks at 1.6v then I can see why some people are ''hysterical''...

 

[RubiX³]

Awesome overclock man. You said it... a 3 gig processor for 78 bucks.

 

[vipergtsr1736]

I think i have C7 stepping, but it still seems like my chip suffered from SNDS. Here is wCPUiD and what it says. I was running the chip at stock speed. Could this chip suffer from SNDS?

 

[Flakk]

i dont think there is a such thing as a c7 stepping.. not positive about that tho. from what i've seen it goes a0,a1,b0,b1,c0,c1, or something like that. never seen much higher #'s

looks like we had a pretty similar setup, vipergtsr1736. both highly overclocked 1.8's with same cooling and similar voltage. hope mine's fine i think it will be-- im not worried anyway. Plus, if it died its a whopping $78 down the drain. boo hoo.

i just wonder what the d0,d1 stepping 1.8's can do! i kinda wish i got one of those =) probably 3.2-3.4ghz stable

 

[Evilsizer]

well i bought a 2.4b that does 3.06 @ 1.61v D1.... thinking i should have gotten the cheaper 1.8a from newegg..... though i could get 3.2 stable with 1.71 volts but after restarting i would get a bios check sum error... still not sure why..... i know its stable in prime95 i was using the uGuru oc program... quite nice

 

[Ceylon]

At wich stores can i get this crazy & cheap c1 steppings? Here in germany, this P4's cost about 117,- €.

 

[Flakk]

ebay my friend =)

it takes a bit of work.. u have to search for all 1.8 cpus and look for one that states the stepping, then hope it's a good price or keep looking. it took me a few days to find the one i wanted, but i'm happy now that i took that effort

 

[Ceylon]

Ok... but it must be a new chip isn't it?

 

[Flakk]

yeah.. dont buy some random person's old cpu lol (unless for some rare reason they were selling a new stepping)... just go by new stepping, nothing else. i suggest looking for major dealers dealing on ebay because they go through tons of chips and always have the latest steppings... for example, i got mine from a gateway direct seller on ebay.. there have to be more, just gotta look