Newbie help OCing P4

[sarlen]

This is my first time overclocking and I've been sure to read all the necessary documentation on the website (atleast everything that looked relevant), and I've searched the forums for the solution to my particular problem to no avail.

Here's the deal: I have a P4 2.4 OC'd to 2.7 (up to 150). From what I understand, this is a very realistic goal (I'd have liked to go higher, but I just want stability on this now). My heat is fine, and I ran memtester for 9 hours with no errors - but prime95 fails within 5 minutes on blend. I upped my voltage up to 1.7 and nothing changed. I don't think I would need to raise it any higher just for this speed (from what I gather).

Mobo is Asus P4S8X. Mem is 1G Kingston PC2700 DDR, latencies set as high as they'll go (w/ windows still loading) tho again, no memtest errors. AGP slot is Radeon 9200, and I have a Soundblaster Audigy in PCI.

Can anybody suggest some further troubleshooting steps? Maybe something that will pin down my particular problem? All help is appreciated.

- Sarlen

 

[enduro]

Try some other burn in tests first. The Vcore that you're running is really high for what you're doing. My brother has a P4 1.8 running at 3.1 Ghz and the voltage is only at 1.58 I believe. His stock Vcore might be different than yours though. His was 1.53 or something of the sort. 1.7 is more of an AMD voltage, mine is at 1.65 right now. I'd try a few other burnin tests, drop the voltage down, you might damage something. Try 1.6 or even lower than that might be better. I've never heard of memorytester, but it sounds like you're testing the wrong thing maybe not. But try BurnIn Test or go stock and try Prime and see if you get errors still. If you do, the program and your comp. might not mix well.

 

[enduro]

All right, I checked his signature, and he's running a 1.6 Vcore when he's at 3.1 Ghz. So lower your voltage down, a lot.

 

[Lan_Of_Malkier]

Welcome to the Forums!

Yeah ~ Ease up on the volts. Intels may need a little juice to get higher at times, but they don't respond well to too much power.

Second, what do you mean by high latency (tight or loose)? If you times are too tight, even with Memtest sometimes Windows doesn't like it. (Have you bumped your memory voltage? If not, do that, it will help)

Prime is not the end all. If there is anything you should learn here it is that the only way to really know if a system is stable is to check with multiple proggys because every system is different and you must take into account o/s bugs and such. But on Prime you will do yourself a favor to know exactly what each type of test stresses. That way you can better understand and diagnose issues.

Also there is the burn in factor to account for. Over time your system will become more stable and require less juice to o/c as your setup becomes accustomed to the higher performance demands. You'll see in my sig that my CPU is at a little over 3.3GHz, my vcore is 1.50v, stock is 1.525. So I am achieving an o/c with an undervolt. This was not always the case. When I first got this rig I hac to overvolt just a touch.

Use like 4 different benchys/burning apps to test with. Prime, Sandra, Memtest and maybe Aqua. Another option is to Fold too. That is a DEFINATE system stresser.

Perhaps read just a touch more, have some patience with your system as it may take time, and do your best to understand the results you are getting with each program so that you can giagnose the issue (pin-point it). Good luck mate!

 

[sarlen]

Well the purpose of bringing the volts up so high was to determine without a doubt it wasn't my voltage - I've since lowered them and high or low isn't making a difference.

I've just increased my memory voltage slightly and I'm trying now at 2627. Though, I don't think memory is the issue and I'm trying to determine what other factors would cause my processor to fail Prime95. Perhaps my system just doesn't like it - I'll run some other apps and see tho I don't like the idea of my proc failing anything =x

- Sarlen

 

[mtb856]

Have you tried changing you fsb:ram ratio? If its crashing at 1:1, you could try changing it to 5:4 and see if that helps. If you need more info, the ram stickie in the ram section has it.
Good Luck

 

[sarlen]

My bios doesn't allow the option of changing the memory ratio, I've upped the DDR voltage to 2.7 (highest my bios will allow) and it's still failing. Though, if I read the documentation correctly, my PC2700 ram would run @ 166 FSB and be considered at spec, so I can't imagine my FSB at 146 would be causing the memory problems.

So I can safely assume I don't need to up my CPU voltage, and my ram doesn't seem to be the problem. So what's left? I burned with Sandra without error, but from what I understand it's not *entirely* effective at finding flaws. Memtest runs fantastic, but Prime95 fails. I'm thinking of bringing it back down to 2.4 and seeing if prime still fails =x

- Sarlen

 

[TheNewbie]

I am also a noob to intel junk.My fried has an Asus p4s8x-x for sale w/ a p42.4 for a $150U.S. dollars should I buy this?