Overclocking P3-700E & Soyo 6BA+IV

[ominous]

Question. I've seen several people say they've gotten the FSB up to 133 and beyond stable. When I go +10% VCore (up to just over 1.8v and runs about at a temp of 102F), the system is unstable, and/or dies.

I have a large brass circular fan on the Slot-1 CPU and the max I can OC it to stable is 880MHZ. I desire to push it simply to max, but I really don't know of a resource where I can read about the things that are important to tweak, and what one must do to overclock as high as possible, safely, and stably.

On a cold night I can open up the window and let the dry cold air seep into the case and keep the CPU around 94F-98F, and then and only then can I achieve 933mhz stable. Well of course, you can't consider that stable being if it's not winter out, I run 880, if it's winter I can do 933? Eheh...

I really wish most to have a resource about common and not-so-common options in BIOS so I know what to tweak, what everything means, etc.. The manuals provided by Soyo are quite lack-lustor and don't explain what things do. They rely very much on the "If you're doing this stuff, you better know what you're doing, we're not going to help you".

The aggrivating thing is my friend (this weekend) purchased a Abit VP6 with a single P3-700 on it (socket 370 coppermine). He can kick his up to 1,065mhz and leave it looping 3dmark 2000 demos all day without a problem. Is it his motherboard able to handle that better? Does my 130W stock case vs his 300W case make any difference? Does his AGP 4X give him any substantial ability over my AGP 2X?

On running the systems neck to neck (both p3-700s, I don't know if his is 700E but mine is). 256MB SD, 100/33 FSB (stock) @ 700MHZ, all optimal defaults loaded. He runs a Geforce 2 MX SDR and I run a Geforce 2 MX DDR. He gets a 3dmark 2000 score (win98) of 3900 and I got a 3800. In my opinion, the DDR should have more than defeated his SDR with the system running the same. I have NO idea how his system squashed me like that. His KTriangles/sec were almost DOUBLE mine (not that I know what that is).

I'm basicly looking to find out how I can O/C this 700E to at LEAST 933MHZ stable. If it requires installing a cooling system, I'm not interested. I've seen my share of people, even in these forums, OC to 933mhz without a problem. I know the CPU could have manufactured slightly different and thus that's why I can't achieve what other 700Es can, but it also could be my minimal BIOS tweaking experience.

Things like setting up the SDRAM properly (delays, what mode to run in, anything else I'm missing). Setting up the FSP + VCore right. If there's any other settings I'm entirely overlooking (Like the AGP frequency or similar. It reports Auto = 66mhz, 1.0 = 124mhz, 1.5 = 66mhz. I don't know what that means).

I'm sad this mobo (which is just months old for me, lack of research) is old. I also read someone installed an updated BIOS (which I'm pretty sure I did, SY-6BA+IV 6BA4 I believe is what I run) and they lost like 30% system performance. I find that hard to believe but, I also know nothing.

Where can I turn? What can I read? What can I do? Thanks for your time and patience with us newbies .

If anyone plays CS (www.counter-strike.net), you can catch us at:
cs.prism.net:27015
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Thanks again.
- omin
[email protected]

 

[Jon]

Can't comment much on why your chip won't run stable @ 933...mine won't do it at all, but the DDR MX is not as good as the SDR. The DDR on your MX is only 64-bit memory as compared to full 128-bit for his SDR. This makes for quite a bottleneck on your card.

 

[marty]

Have you thought about buying a more expensive cooler - that is a high performance heat sink/fan combination?

I don't own a Slot 1 but I like my Alpha for my Socket PIII. Maybe you should consider this and post a question about which cooler would be the best for you.

The fact that you can get better results with the Window open makes me think a better heat sink would help.

When I bought my PIII700 I bought what I thought was a high performance orb. It was a waste of money. With the Orb I could only reach 840 MHz. When I put the stock Intel cooler and some Radio Shack heat sink grease on the CPU I reached 875. When I bought the Apha I reached 933 to 960. I just upped the voltage from 1.9 to 1.95 volts and was able to run Wintune at 980 MHz.

If you want to try before you buy the heat sink, buy some Radio Shack heat sink grease and try it with the case open. If that does work, buy an expensive cooler.

Also, you need a software cooler, too. Your post is long but I didn't see any mention of a software cooler. Are you using one?

 

[DaveB]

Part 1

Question. I've seen several people say they've gotten the FSB up to 133 and beyond stable. When I go +10% VCore (up to just over 1.8v and runs about at a temp of 102F), the system is unstable, and/or dies.

Your problem is the limited core voltage setting due to your selection of a slot 1 CPU. The Soyo SY-6BA+IV is ideally suited for an FC-PGA/Slotket setup. My PIII 700 has been running rock stable since early October at 994 MHz (142 MHz FSB). But, to do that, I had to set the slotket at 1.85V and increase that by 5% in the BIOS to get the core at 1.95V. At 1.81V, I couldn't get stable at 933 MHz either. That took 1.85V. Regarding the FSB setting, while testing a friends PIII 533EB I had it running with the FSB at 155 MHz. So, high FSBs are no problem for the board or GeForce AGP cards.

I have a large brass circular fan on the Slot-1 CPU and the max I can OC it to stable is 880MHZ. I desire to push it simply to max, but I really don't know of a resource where I can read about the things that are important to tweak, and what one must do to overclock as high as possible, safely, and stably.

What is your CPU temp at under load? It sounds like you're using some kind of an Orb, which are not the best coolers. The temp you gave, 102F corresponds to about 39C (if I'm doing the math right). If that's your idle temp, it's way too high. My idle temp is 28C (19C using Rain) and only goes to 34C max under load. Try an Alpha for overclocking - I use the PEP66. There are Alphas available for slot 1 CPUs also. Here's a link:

http://www.kdcomputers.com/

On a cold night I can open up the window and let the dry cold air seep into the case and keep the CPU around 94F-98F, and then and only then can I achieve 933mhz stable. Well of course, you can't consider that stable being if it's not winter out, I run 880, if it's winter I can do 933? Eheh....

This experience reinforces the need for better cooling!

 

[DaveB]

Part 2

I really wish most to have a resource about common and not-so-common options in BIOS so I know what to tweak, what everything means, etc.. The manuals provided by Soyo are quite lack-lustor and don't explain what things do. They rely very much on the "If you're doing this stuff, you better know what you're doing, we're not going to help you".

No mobo manual will give you a step-by-step overclocking guide. Just do the usual stuff. Disable all video and BIOS caching, set the SDRAM at the lowest CAS@ settings, etc. Here's a link for BIOS stuff:

The Rojak Pot Error 404 Page Not Found Explained!

Meowwww... We are sorry but Error 404 means this page has either been PERMANENTLY REMOVED, or is TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE... What Is Error 404? Also known as HTTP 404 - File not found error, thi

www.rojakpot.com

The aggrivating thing is my friend (this weekend) purchased a Abit VP6 with a single P3-700 on it (socket 370 coppermine). He can kick his up to 1,065mhz and leave it looping 3dmark 2000 demos all day without a problem. Is it his motherboard able to handle that better? Does my 130W stock case vs his 300W case make any difference? Does his AGP 4X give him any substantial ability over my AGP 2X?.

130W!!!!!! Get a new PS today. You should have at least a decent 250W PS in your system. The AGP 4X means virtually nothing. He could have a better CPU, better cooling, a higher core setting, or all of the above.

On running the systems neck to neck (both p3-700s, I don't know if his is 700E but mine is). 256MB SD, 100/33 FSB (stock) @ 700MHZ, all optimal defaults loaded. He runs a Geforce 2 MX SDR and I run a Geforce 2 MX DDR. He gets a 3dmark 2000 score (win98) of 3900 and I got a 3800. In my opinion, the DDR should have more than defeated his SDR with the system running the same. I have NO idea how his system squashed me like that. His KTriangles/sec were almost DOUBLE mine (not that I know what that is).

The MX DDR only has a 64-bit bandwidth as opposed to the MX SDRs 128-bit bandwidth. So, he should beat you in a 16-bit color benchmark. All things being equal, your BX chipset has better memory and AGP bandwidth than his VIA chipset and should beat him every time. But that MX DDR is a POS.

I'm basicly looking to find out how I can O/C this 700E to at LEAST 933MHZ stable. If it requires installing a cooling system, I'm not interested. I've seen my share of people, even in these forums, OC to 933mhz without a problem. I know the CPU could have manufactured slightly different and thus that's why I can't achieve what other 700Es can, but it also could be my minimal BIOS tweaking experience.

 

[DaveB]

Part 3

Sell your slot 1 CPU and pick up an FC-PGA PIII and slotket. I'm using an Iwill Slotket II which works very well on my Soyo board. Get an Alpha PEP66 for cooling. The slotket gives you unlimited core voltage settings and the Alpha will keep the CPU nice and cool.

Things like setting up the SDRAM properly (delays, what mode to run in, anything else I'm missing). Setting up the FSP + VCore right. If there's any other settings I'm entirely overlooking (Like the AGP frequency or similar. It reports Auto = 66mhz, 1.0 = 124mhz, 1.5 = 66mhz. I don't know what that means).

Your AGP divider should be 1.5 from 100 MHz on up. For the memory, I have to be home to get the exact settings. But I have the Auto Config enabled, all timings set at 2, and the Precharge whatever enabled. Make sure the CPU cache error checking is enabled.

I'm sad this mobo (which is just months old for me, lack of research) is old. I also read someone installed an updated BIOS (which I'm pretty sure I did, SY-6BA+IV 6BA4 I believe is what I run) and they lost like 30% system performance. I find that hard to believe but, I also know nothing.

I've upgraded the BIOS 3 times since I got the board back last April. None of the upgrades resulted in any problems or reduced performance. So, I don't know who posted that or what their problems were. You have a very stable and very overclockable board. With a slot 1 CPU limiting your core voltage setting to 1.81V, and mediocre cooling, you're not gonna get very far. As I said above, your only option is to sell the slot 1 CPU and get an FC-PGA/slotket setup. That is where your lack of research shows. Your Soyo board is one of the best overclocking boards available. I've had my PIII 700 since June. By July it was stable at 970 MHz. In October I got bored, upped the core a little more and have been at 994 MHz since. You can be there too with an FC-PGA/slotket setup.

 

[ominous]

Arr . Slot 1 out the window eh? . Problem is I have nothing but large corps selling low quality boards for cheap prices (outlets like CompUSA, Best Buy, etc. No PC speed shops :-(... Business opportunity?).

There WAS one, but it opened its doors, sold me the P3-700E Slot 1 and Soyo mobo, and went out of business hehe. That was.......ungood. The CPU/Mobo performs perfectly, no problem there, I just can't get any adequate voltage as mentioned and the heatsink/fan (which is a round device with spiraling metal lines coming out of the processor with a fan stuck in the middle of them. Here is a link to an exact image (or at lease almost exact, same color and look, but I know you picky people................if I'm just 0.00001 wrong.. hehe):

[img="[URL]http://store3.yimg.com/I/sagetac_1625_2555696[/URL]"]

So...er...I guess this thing is no good? I hope I can find a heatsink at a local shop, because I'm...no good with online purchases . I hate the thought of something 'not working' and having to deal with mail returns. Just so......s.....l....o.....w....... buying local is just my way of overclocking the purchase process

Well, yes the processor runs at like 34C/94F and has seen 40C/104F at 880mhz in CMOS idle (which I run). If I open the window I can get that thing down to 92F (32C?) with the cold air on the floor.

Anyone know if CompUSA or a retail outlet such as them has these kinds of things, or a large scale outlet I can look local for? (browsing yellow pages now.....)?

BTW, Thank you all for your very informative information. Much appreciated .

Jason / omin

 

[DaveB]

I think you're SOL with that. Only smaller shops sell the good stuff. Good luck anyway.

 

[ominous]

Is that an ORB cooler? Or something else?

- om

 

[DaveB]

It's a Golden Orb a.k.a. GORB.

 

[Mr B]

The first thing you should upgrade is that gorb....I replaced the one I had on my Celeron, and with the better cooling, was able to run a shade faster.

Gorbs are only good to a certain point, and then they just don't dissapate enought heat. I've got an Alpha PEP66T on my celeron/slocket assy. now.

Faster, AND cooler. say no to that.

Mr B