Yet another 2.8C.. blame my dad! :P

[DaMouse404]

I've just been talking to my dad about him buying a new PC and just felt itching to break mine

Here's some random specs:
Pentium 4C 2.8GHz (Northwood)
Revision: D1
Stepping: 9
Cooler: Stock
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8S655FX Ultra
RAM: 2x 256MB Kingston 400MHz (I think they were hyperx since they look blue )

Any ideas what I can get this thing too.. also I haven't done this in awhile so could someone point out some good system stability tests

-DaMouse

 

[Goateh]

Not too sure about the overclocking on that boared, thats a SiS 655 chipset isn't it? But I'd say at least 3.6 would be a realistic goal depending on cooling, ram and well.. board..

 

[DaMouse404]

yeah, SiS 655FX chipset. As I say it's only the stock P4 2.8 cooler with the random pad thingy instead of paste..

-DaMouse

 

[Goateh]

Even if you're going to OC I would recommend either getting a new cooler and some AS5 or even just AS5 the default cooler... I'm not too sure about overclocking on the SiS chipsets... I used to have a board based on the 645 chipset... damn did that thing OC. Never know until you try though

 

[DaMouse404]

What's a good cooler for a P4 478 these days?
AS5 doesn't cost a lot so I might go for that.

-DaMouse

 

[Goateh]

Thermalright xp120 (At least I think thats the right one)
theres the sp94 as well I think... I'm not really up to date with coolers myself. Can't really go wrong with anything thermalright though

 

[batboy]

Unless that mobo allows you to manually lock the AGP/PCI to 66/33, I would not waste too much cash on a big honkin' heatsink since you won't be able to go much above 220 to 225 FSB anyway before the PCI bus is too far out of spec. As long as you don't bump up the voltage more than a notch, the stock heatsink should be perfectly fine up to at least 3.2 gig. Maybe more if you use Arctic Silver and have decent case ventilation. Besides, you probably want to run the RAM at 1:1 ratio anyway. Not sure how high that RAM will go with decent timings. Probably not much more than 215 to 220 FSB. Just set the thing to 215 FSB for a tad more than 3 gig using 1:1 with default vcore and call it good.

 

[DaMouse404]

I'm unsure if it's lockable.. I'll have to see if I can do some research.. how high do you reckon if it's able to lock?

[EDIT]
According to http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=1879&p=5
right at the bottom it says the AGP effects the PCI bus but the FSB is definitely locked away from those, nearer the top than this it says that memory bus speeds can be adjusted by selecting it's clock speed in the BIOS so that's probably ratio selection fancied up?
[/EDIT]

-DaMouse

 

[Lancelot]

My HyperX will do 228FSB 1:1 2-3-2-6 with 3.1Vdimm.
Oh and 3.6Ghz is NOT a reasonable goal for a 2.8C!!! I'm there but it took a lot of work and it only got Dual Prime stable when I went watercooling...

 

[DaMouse404]

Hmm.. I was thinking somewhere around 3.2GHz or 3.4GHz.. I figured I might need to spend a bit to hook it to higher than that.

-DaMouse

 

[batboy]

Yeah, I got 3.5 gig out of one 2.8C, but I had another that would barely do 3.3 gig.

Also, if that Gigabyte mobo is limited to 2.8v vdimm, then 220 might be more realistic for RAM at 1:1 with decent timings. If the PCI isn't locked to 33 MHz, I doubt you'll get much above 225 stable anyway.

 

[DaMouse404]

2.6v vdimm according to the website I gave :S

-DaMouse

 

[batboy]

Looks like I might have to stay with my original advice... 215 FSB and call it good.

 

[DaMouse404]

Ok, I guess I'll try that sometime later (to lazy to reboot right now ) what kind of things can i use to test my system stability afterwards? I think I'll try for 220 and maybe 225 just to see how well it goes but revert it back if it shows ANY problems..

-DaMouse

 

[batboy]

Of course, Prime95 is the ultimate standard in stability testing, but I've also found if you can run PCmark2004, that's a good indication it's fairly stable.

 

[DaMouse404]

Roger that.. I'll go blow something up thanks for all your help guys and gals.. anything more feel free to post.. more is better than less

-DaMouse

 

[DaMouse404]

Oops.. forgot something.. what's a good temperature to keep this below?

-DaMouse

 

[Goateh]

Depends, whats its temps atm?

If you can, try to keep it below 50-55c if possible
edit: i say that because you're using stock, and those temps are at load btw

 

[DaMouse404]

uhm.. it's almost 60C according to the gigabyte utility thing.. without overclocking.. O_O
that's bad.. isn't it?

-DaMouse

 

[batboy]

Northwoods need to be cooler than that before attempting to O/C. I would try to keep temps down below mid 50's. Sounds like it needs better case ventilation.