Another 1.6a OC

[s7e9h3n]

Hey everyone,

I know, I know.....you all must be tired of all these questions from noobs about OC the 1.6a, but I feel like this is the best place to get help. Please try to help me cuz I'm gettin so frustrated that I'm about to kick a hole in this rig....=(.....first of all, here's my relevant info:

P4 1.6a (Costa RIca if that matters) @ 133FSB = 2.13Ghz
Asus P4B266-C Mobo
1024Mb Nanya PC2400 DDR @ CAS 2 2-2-5
Sparkle 350W PSU
VCore Set to Auto (1.5) but actual is 1.6

Now whatever I do, I can't seem to get this setup stable past 133 FSB. I've tried to increase the voltage to the Vcore and to the DDR. I've changed the timing on the DDR, I've reinstalled XP Pro, pray to the overclock gods, and overvolt the vcore, but nothing seems to work. If there's anything I left out, please let me know. I'm here begging for the help of you experts. PLEASE HELP A NOOB! Thanks

-Steve

 

[DaveB]

You left out some very important info. What temp is your CPU running at when overclocked?

 

[s7e9h3n]

Sorry about that....MBM5 reads 71 degrees

 

[tainice]

71c?! OMG!! you have to LOWER your temp before you do anything!! that temp is going to ruin your chip for sure.. make sure you have a good contact between the chip and hsf, also considering purchase a temp probe rather than MB's readings, sometimes, they are just nonsense. Bring your temp to around 40+-, then you are talkking.

 

[s7e9h3n]

71 Deg F = 30 Deg C =)

 

[tainice]

hehehe..sorry man, i was like what the...71c! you know, usually in bios reading..it is C, not F. anyway, you temp is wonderful, i would say..read the sticky, and vidpin your chip or board, so your default volt will increase, thus, able you to do 133f fine. fooling around your ram timing more, see if it helps, but definity vidpin. good luck.

 

[s7e9h3n]

thanks tanice,
I understand that i may need to increase the voltage for my board, but I'm wondering how high I should take it. My board has an overvolt option which allows me to take it to 1.75, but I'm wondering how safe it is for my cpu.

 

[Overclocker550]

71c?! OMG!! you have to LOWER your temp before you do anything!! that temp is going to ruin your chip for sure.. make sure you have a good contact between the chip and hsf, also considering purchase a temp probe rather than MB's readings, sometimes, they are just nonsense. Bring your temp to around 40+-, then you are talkking.

how do you know if its celsius? here, we usually go by farhienheit!

 

[Overclocker550]

thanks tanice,
I understand that i may need to increase the voltage for my board, but I'm wondering how high I should take it. My board has an overvolt option which allows me to take it to 1.75, but I'm wondering how safe it is for my cpu.

northwoods default at 1.5v and 1.75 is already the safe max. if upping the voltage to that didnt help, then using more juice wont help. trust me. I speak from experence with my celerons. 80% of the time upping the voltage doesnt help. I have a celeron 366@550 that does 2 volts but at 567(turbo) it wont do that speed even at 2.3v! it doesnt even get hot. the transistors just wont do higher. your overclock is just fine. very few northwoods will overclock any higher. 8% will do 2.4GHz and about 75% will do 2.1GHz. you can use watercooling, but its $200. you can get another northwood for that much and sell yours on ebay for about $160. so its $40 loss to have lots of fun and try for at least 140fsb. another thing is maybe your motherboard's chipset wont overclock higher. wait for the new mobos that run at 133fsb default and take it from here

 

[s7e9h3n]

I haven't yet tried to go higher that 1.65v yet. So you're saying that it's safe to try? Also, the chipset on the Asus P4b266 has been taken as high as 160 FSB in other comps, so I know that it isn't the chipset. I'm just curious if I may have overlooked something which is preventing a higher OC. Thanks for your response overclocker.

 

[funnyperson1]

actually you could make your own water cooling system and it wouldnt cost too much:

Buckert-3$
Junked Car Radiator-20$
Waterblock-40$
Piping-20$

though yeah you hve enough speed its still not really worth it...

 

[s7e9h3n]

there's never enough speed

 

[Overclocker550]

I haven't yet tried to go higher that 1.65v yet. So you're saying that it's safe to try? Also, the chipset on the Asus P4b266 has been taken as high as 160 FSB in other comps, so I know that it isn't the chipset. I'm just curious if I may have overlooked something which is preventing a higher OC. Thanks for your response overclocker.

you might be able to get a few more MHz by upping the voltage to 1.75 but its not worth it. just live with 133fsb or use watercooling for more speed

 

[s7e9h3n]

Thanks for the responses,
I guess I'll just have to live with the 133FSB. I can now actually get my computer up at 145FSB, but I have to increase the Vcore to 1.65V which gives me a reading of 1.7-1.75V. Any idea why the actual output is greater than the set voltage? I don't have my mobo on the overvoltage setting, so there shouldn't be any reason why it's pumping extra voltage into the vcore right? I also have to increase the ddr voltage to 2.7. How much damage will that do to my computer overall? For now, I'm sticking with the 133FSB until I know it's safe to up the voltage sttings. Thanks

 

[Keruberne]

Hi All

I have a Northy 1800MHz@2400Mhz Fsb=133/33 will i be able to go for fsb=150/50 = 2700MHz?

 

[pacino]

Nice o/c by the way "so far" .. Temp is always your enemy, but I highly doubt it's a "temprature" issue here.. I'd say vcore voltage/memory timing/PSU .. The reason why I'm say'n that, is kuz I'm already @ subzero temps and can't even go higher, I knew for a fact that either my mobo or memory are holding me back! .. I'll get the exact same mobo tomorrow "P4B266-c" and I'll test again to find out which is which.. Good luck

 

[s7e9h3n]

I'm also pretty sure the temp is not going to be the biggest issue when I go for a higher OC. @145FSB (2320Mhz) MBM was reading about a 77-80deg F CPU temp. My memory timing was CAS 2 3-3-6 when it booted. My rig seems like it's ALMOST there, but I think some minor adjustments might make it stable. I'm thinking that I need to bump the Vcore a little more, but I'm not sure my CPU is gonna like that too much.

 

[pacino]

with GA-8IRXP mobo it has vcore overvoltage up to 1.850 which in another word, The limits. Keep 1.850 as your red line and don't cross it, pretty sure you can go higher

 

[s7e9h3n]

I think I'm finally getting to the root of my problem. Feeling a little uncomfortable - I finally got the nerve to push my Vcore last night to 1.75 (which reads about 1.8-1.85 on MBM5). Once again, I set the FSB to 150 and let it rip......................nothing. Reset......nothing. Reset again........nothing. Finally, I flicked the PSU switch off then on and guess what????? My rig gets to the boot screen and blue screens me. But this time, I saw a message that I never saw before - something about my IRQ settings. I figure that since I'm at 150FSB, my computer's having a hard time locking in at 1:1. SOOOOO...I ask my dumb self what's the logical solution to this? Of course.....go to 166FSB! So I boot up at 166, but this time it makes it past the boot screen and all the way into Windows. I quickly try to benchmark to see what kind of marks I'm sitting on and then....I blue screen. My rig now said it was dumping memory. I tried a couple of times backing off the DDR timing, but always did the same thing. I think I may have finally exposed the weak link in my rig. Although my DDR is rated PC24000, I'm thinking I've passed it's limits @150FSB. If anybody has any thoughts on this, please let me know cuz I'm about to trade in this Gig for a 512 of Crucial. Thanks.

 

[Overclocker550]

first get it stable at 150fsb before u try 166!!!!!!!!!