My unstable OC

[Viro]

I wanted to see here if anyone could help me out with a little quandry I'm having.

I am currently overclocking a P4 2.4ghz 800FSB Chip, on an Asus P4P800 Del.
with 1.5 gigs ram. My OC is 2.8, with ram @ 320mhz, with lowest vcore voltage allowed.
I have a zalman hsf and plenty of airflow. My chip rarely reaches above 35c full load, and sits at 20c idle.

I've been wondering if I could up the ante just a little more and push my chip to 3ghz. The only problem is that everytime I try, everything seems fine except for when I run a torture test.
My current oc has no faults or errors after being run for a full day.. yet when I run the test after overclocking to 3ghz, it faults on the first test!
I've tried lowering my ram speed, and upping my vcore voltage, but all to no avail.

Does anyone have any advice on what I could do to try and make it pass the test? Should I OC my system anyway even though its not as stable, so says "prime"??

 

[larva]

You can try increasing cpu and/or memory voltage, but chances are it's the last 512MB that is doing it. Just because 1.5 is a bigger number than 1 doesn't mean it won't ruin your overclock.

 

[Viro]

so bottom line, its because of my ram?

when I put in two sticks, it sits as dual channel, but when I put in the third stick, it sits as single channel.

I kinda need to keep that third stick in there though, simply because I work with audio and I need the ram space for working with larger audio and video files.

I guess what I wanna know is, if I was to oc to 3, does it matter all that much that prime fails? could the oc cause that many problems if I ignore prime and go ahead with it anyway?

I doubt any damage would be done to the CPU.. I'm more just wondering about stability and performance.

Oh, and one other thing.. what would be the better bet in the end? OCing the cpu and turning down the memory frequency, or keeping the mem frequency at full, and not ocing anything?

 

[Twigss]

I definately wouldnt recommend using an unstable OC... you mentioned you work with audio... well think of when your nearing the completion of a big piece and your PC locks up due to your unstable OC.... not good at all

 

[larva]

so bottom line, its because of my ram?

when I put in two sticks, it sits as dual channel, but when I put in the third stick, it sits as single channel.

I kinda need to keep that third stick in there though, simply because I work with audio and I need the ram space for working with larger audio and video files.

I guess what I wanna know is, if I was to oc to 3, does it matter all that much that prime fails? could the oc cause that many problems if I ignore prime and go ahead with it anyway?

I doubt any damage would be done to the CPU.. I'm more just wondering about stability and performance.

Oh, and one other thing.. what would be the better bet in the end? OCing the cpu and turning down the memory frequency, or keeping the mem frequency at full, and not ocing anything?

More than two sticks of ram will definitely kill the OC in the vast majority of the cases. If you really want to know what it does in your case, remove the third stick and find out. I won't stop you.

Performance will also be seriously impared by the fact that you are not in single channel. I would definitely try one of the tasks you fear you need the 3rd stick for without it, if you haven't already. It may be that the loss in memory speed is as big a factor as your increased memory size, or maybe it isn't. Again, testing of the rig in question is the only way to find out.

As the user above rightly pointed out, if you are doing real work on this machine instability is not acceptable, as it may be hours into a workflow before the machine craps--and there is no guarantee it won't cost you a lot of time when it happens.

 

[bobad]

The only real stability test is to do what you normally do for a few days.

Stability tests may run fine (even double Super PI), yet a certain game or app may not run until you back off a tad on your overclock. Stability tests are a means to indicate how stable you can run your regular software, not an end in itself. After all, who builds a killer machine to sit there and run Super Pi? (Boy is THAT ever boring! )

I would try running 1 GB dual channel and see how it overclocks and feels. The extra OC speed may be of greater benefit than the extra 512 of RAM. I find that you get quickly diminishing returns after the first 512 of RAM.

Happy New Year!!!

 

[batboy]

That 1.5 gig of RAM in single channel means you lose almost half your memory bandwidth compared to 1 gig in dual channel. Like others suggested, test it both ways. I doubt you'll miss that extra 512 stick, especially if you can O/C a little higher without it.

 

[Viro]

wow.. k thanks for the replies all.. I had no idea that gettin this extra stick would hamper it so.
I wish I would have known so I could get myself a dvd burner instead

oh well. We'll try and see. Thanks!