My first overclock - didn't quite go to plan

[Stoddy]

Finally took the plunge and overclocked my PC but, things didn’t go quite to plan. I have been reading around on the Internet for a couple of weeks now about o/c’ing so that I could understand the basics. I also found a cracking setup & tweaking guide for my P4S533 (not sure if I can mention the site so I won’t). Okay, my board has a VEN1 jumper, which gives the CPU an extra 2% of juice. This guide recommends enabling the jumper and going into the bios and setting the vcore manually to 1,575 volts. Great, so I enable the jumper and go into the bios. Erm, only manual settings I have are 1.750/1.775/1.800/1.825/1.850 which confuses me straightaway. Anyway, I put the FSB to 133 and restart and it won’t boot – just brings the bios screen up. I go into Hardware Monitor into the bios and see the vcore is knocking 1.9. I remember that I have seen not to push a P4 over 1.7 so I switch off and take the jumper off. Before I forget, as per this guide I put my memory at 1:1. What I do then is put my fsb to 110, which puts my pci at 37 and reboot. Windows starts up okay and I surf around downloading Prime95/Super Pi/Sandra and install them all. I run the 1M test on Super Pi and all seems ok. I try to run Prime95 and it craps out after 6 minutes. So, I run 3Dmark 2001SE which completes (although my score is less than when I ran it on Sunday with no o/c’ing at all). I try Prime95 again and it craps out after 12 minutes. What I also did this time was to have Asus Probe visible on screen and noticed that my CPU temp was running 50C/122F. This quite concerned me as I have only done a little overclock and didn’t think it would run this high.
I feel really disappointed and downhearted and have put my system back to stock. Has anyone got any hints/tips/advice/help as to what I may have done wrong or what my problems might be?

 

[micamica1217]

Hi,

and WELCOME TO THE FORUMS.

first, I have no idea what cpu you have...I know it's an "a" cpu.

also, how is your case cooling...how many fans?
are you also using the stock HS?
are your room temps hot?

I've never used your mobo, but you may want to try 133fsb as it puts your pci and agp back at stock....yet if you have pci/agp lock, then turn that on.

give us more info, and maybe we can help.

mica

 

[batboy]

You need to give us more system info. I was thinking that mobo don't allow the PCI/AGP to be locked (but I might be wrong). It almost sounds like you have a Willamette CPU, which are not good overclockers. The Willamette is the older style P-4 and the Northwood is the newer and much better P-4. The Willamettes had a default vcore of 1.75v and ran hotter than the Northwoods. If it is a Willamette, then 1.8v will be fine and if you improve cooling a little, 1.85v will be ok too. Sounds like you need to imprive cooling a little and increase the voltage a little more (assuming this is a Willamette). But, we need to know more info about the CPU and RAM.

 

[Stoddy]

Sorry about the system info - forgot to tick "show signature"

Yes, it is a Williamette P4. I'm using a Thermaltake P4 Heatsink/Fan and my CM case has 2 front fans sucking in and 1 at tha back and 1 at the top drawing out. Unfortunately you cannot lock the pci/agp on my board. As for memory, well it's a 1GB (2 x 512MB sticks) of generic stuff I got off an online retailer here in the UK. There is nothing fancy about it and I fully expect that at some point this will hold me back.
Hope this info helps you to help me more.

Thanks

 

[batboy]

That explains why it won't do 133 FSB. Those Willamettes just plain max at at about 2.0 to 2.1 gig. About the best you can hope for since you have the Willamette 1.8 and since you can't lock the PCI bus is probably 112 FSB. That should be a reasonable goal with your system. If that works ok using the 1:1 ratio (if temps look ok and it's stable), next try using the 3:4 mem ratio to get more memory bandwidth (112X3/4X2=DDR298). Even generic PC2700 should handle that.

 

[larva]

I don't think the SiS 645DX chipset his board uses offers the 3:4 ratio. I know above 133fsb you get 4:5 or 4:6 ratios, and I think those are the choices below 133fsb as well.

 

[Merc Zephyr]

The P4S533 has ratios of 1:1, 3:4, 3:5 and 3:6 for fsb settings 100 -> 132. For 133 -> 166 the ratios are 1:1, 4:5 and 4:6.

Just a noobie trying to help.
Cheers

 

[Stoddy]

Just want to say "Thanks" for all your help. It's given me some food for thought.

 

[larva]

The P4S533 has ratios of 1:1, 3:4, 3:5 and 3:6 for fsb settings 100 -> 132. For 133 -> 166 the ratios are 1:1, 4:5 and 4:6.

Just a noobie trying to help.
Cheers

Cool, thanks for clearing that up. It's been a while since I retired my P4S533, and I never ran it at less than 150fsb anyway.