3.0 to 3.4

[madhobbit]

hi, I have a IC7 motherboard, right now I am running a 2.4c OC to 3.0.
I was wondering if getting a 3.4e would be worth it? and what kind of OC could I get ?
Right now I am air cooling with thermate 94( spelling), and have the FSB at 250.
I am running the latest bios for the mother board and have 2 gig of ballistic pc4000
4 512 meg modules.(bl6464z505)

and Im running the timings at 2.5-4-4-8. stock voltage,I am a bit of a newby when it comes to OCing, only OC this one machine and did it about 1 year ago.

It is my game machine and have a 6800gt 256meg video card

any help would be great, and if I could push the 2.4c higher that information would be fine too

 

[savantu]

I doubt you'll notice extra performance because the extra speed is negated by the lower FSB.

The 3.4E is burning 103w and OC it might be 50-50%.You could try it but you need powerfull cooling and you risk killing the mobo.

 

[kirbyrj]

Yeah, it might be a little faster overall, but you're adding a lot of extra heat. It's not worth the money IMHO. I'd just keep what you have until you do a full upgrade.

 

[Archaea]

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=979820&page=1&pp=20

I disagree...I'm in your exact same situation. I want 4Ghz if possible out of my current IS7 motherboard with my 6800gt and 1gb of pc4000 ram...i currently also have a 2.4c overclocked to 3.0. I decided I was going to go with a 3.2 chip and see if I couldn't get a 4.0 ghz overclock with a 1ghz fsb out of the 3.2 since that's the optimal 1:1 ratio for my ddr 500 ram.

If i could have a 4ghz chip with my setup it might hold me off on upgrading for another year. I would still like to get some life out of my IS7 and ram setup, and for me the 6800 GT is plenty fast. 4Ghz is plenty fast....next round I'll have to upgrade my processor, but there's no point yet.

 

[kirbyrj]

Yeah, I guess if your HSF is up to the task you can go for it. s478 Prescott's run very hot though. Either that or you can see if your 2.4C will go any higher. I've seen them up to 3.6Ghz .

 

[PrkChpXprss]

Take your 2.4c HIGHER!!! I have a 2.4c that will do 3.3 - 3.4GHz on air (depending on what RAM I put in). It is a waste of time and money to bother with a 3.0c or faster CPU when the same results (or better) can be achieved with your current CPU.

I know, I put in a 3.0c in an attempt to get to 3.5 - 3.6, but it only went to 3.3 stable at stock voltage-- worse than my 2.4c

You've got some good ram. Try playing with the divider and such -- you'll get further than 3.0 and it will be much better. the 2.4c has a shorter pipeline, and thus better performance than the rev E chips.

Hope this helps...

 

[Archaea]

i've tried...I can get nothing higher than 3.06 and even that is unstable after an hour of gaming...3.0 is perfectly stable...3.06 isn't. What's the highest v-core you guys would say is safe to use on the northwood C p4s. Mines at 1.625 at 3.0, and I'm half afraid to take it higher without liquid cooling. I've got a zalman cu7000 (copper flower) heatsink which was rated the best available back a couple years ago when I bought it.

 

[ZOMGWTFBBQ]

You guys arent pushing it enough, ive been running a 3.0c at 1.66v for 2 years without any problems, max o/c of 3.55ghz i wanted more but meh.

Northwoods are so much better than prescotts its not funny. Mine, overclocked to 3.55, idles at 25c (19c at night) and under load hits 38C heh (on quiet air). Also, dont forget about your chipset, they get really hot when you overclock alot so cooling that a tad better might get you a few extra mhz.

more on the OP topic, just keep o/cing it (give it a tad more voltage) and if you hit the limit, stay there, you wont get much more than a tonne of extra heat if you buy a prescott. SNDS (sudden northwood death syndrome) doesnt kick in till 1.7 and above.

 

[Archaea]

i got it to 3.2 at 1.7 volts but that's not worth the extra voltage....I'm selling my 2.4 anyway...

I got a 3.2 northwood on ebay that i installed last night.

It runs 3.73 at less than stock voltage. It runs 3.73 at 1.475 stable (so far) I'm hoping it will hit the 4ghz mark...I may need a new psu to do it though.

 

[chrisf6969]

did you ever try using a ratio? or only 1:1 ?

I bet thats your problem with the 2.4C's. I've seen it so many times before. People bought DDR500 used 1:1 and maxed out at 3.0-3.1Ghz b/c of the ram... then years later they actual try the 5:4 ratio and realize they could have been at 3.4-3.6Ghz with much better performance all around at the 5:4 ratio.

 

[Archaea]

i tried 5:4 and got nothing more...i think that is the limit of my chip/mainboard.....

not sure, but I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Donnie27]

i tried 5:4 and got nothing more...i think that is the limit of my chip/mainboard.....

not sure, but I appreciate the feedback.

I was fooled by 5:4. I got better performance with less Memory Bandwidth at 1:1. I got better Game performance with my 2.6C at 3.26/5564MB 1:1 than 3.46GHz 5:4 5918MB. Games really showed a diference. I use an IC7 G as well. You also have to worry about cooling the North Bridge on these boards. At 1133 FSB, my chipset held me back more than my PC-4000 RAM or anything else.

1.7v kills northwoods 90% of the time. If you need more than 1.65v, the overclock is NOT worth it.

You might want to go with a 2.8C, run it at 250 1:1 and if gives you a 3.5GHz that runs better than a stock 3.6GHz in many apps.

Donnie27

 

[chrisf6969]

Thats weird b/c my NB was barely warm ever, even at 300FSB. Probably b/c I was using 3:2 ratio by the time I got that high.

 

[Donnie27]

Thats weird b/c my NB was barely warm ever, even at 300FSB. Probably b/c I was using 3:2 ratio by the time I got that high.

Exact-O-mundo! It would be even warmer at 5:4 and 1:1. Keep in mind that at 3:2 the memory controller is still barely running at 200MHz or stock so you're not making the whole North Bridge work overclocked. Mine is passively cooled, no Fan.

Donnie27