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Help me pinpoint my problem

M

MGDMN

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 30, 2003
Messages
2,435
Ok, here is what I have going on. I want to achieve a higher stable overclock than what I keep getting. First of here I will list my system specs:

P4 LGA775 550 (3.4ghz)
Asus P5AD2 Premium motherboard
2 gig (4 x 512) DDR2 PC4300 (PQI Turbo brand)
Geforce 7800GTX (at 490/1420)
74 gig Raptor SATA
PSU is a cheap Aspire 500 watt

So, this is what I can get to. I cant get a post at 3.98ghz but crashes before entering windows. I can only get stable at 220 and below FSB with ram at 1:1, but on another note, I dont really understand how I change the ram divider. My option on the bios are 400 mhz, 600 mhz, and 800 mhz or something close to that, I am not at home right now so I cant really verify but I was under the impression that 400mhz was a 1:1 divider and that you needed to take it lower to change it to 5:6 and so on, although I dont have an option to lower it. I hope I am not being too confusing, its kind of hard to explain without having you guys just look at it. Anyways, I tried looser timings to stabilize my overclock but with no success. I also tried to add some voltage to mem and cpu but with no luck so what I am stuck thinking is that maybe I should get a higher quality psu and see if that helps. Any advice you guys want to give would be excellent. Just looking for some suggestions and some pointers. Thanx.
 
Hrm, someone has to have some sort of advice or a suggestion as to what to try.
 
Hard to get advice for Intel rigs round here! :)

If there's one thing i've learn't from overclocking, is use a quality components, starting with a good psu!

Here what the dividers are for your board:

1:2(DDR2-400), 2:3 (DDR2-533) and 3:4(DDR2-600), changed via DRAM Frequency option.


Also what voltages do you have set for your cpu, chipset & ram?
 
Those dividers are not correct. 400mhz is 1:1 and 533mhz is 3:4 and I dont know about 600mhz. I only know this because I can get my ram to post at both of those speeds. I have a nice 600 watt psu on the way (paid $175 for it so it better be good). As for voltages, I have all at stock. If I up the CPU voltage I can get it stable at 4.0 but I get ridiculously high temps that way and there is no way I would leave it like that.
 
I had the same trouble with a p4 540j 3.2gig processor. Got to 4gig (had to up the vcore, ddr & n/b volts), but on air cooling (xp-90) i wasn't happy with the temps i was seeing and clocked it back down to 3.8gig. Never went over 60c load after that. If i had bought a watercooling kit, i may have acheived a higher o/c at lower temps, but didn't have the cash to spare!
 
psu is a understatment, after rough estimating i think my prescotts real close to overloading my psu, and it dedicates 18 amps to the motherboard/cpu
my video card, pump, hdds, and fans stress the other 12v rail almost just as much, psu still is perfectly quiet stable and cool running so im not worried, its just wow... ~400 watts of power consumption total...(measured from outlet) my psu is the reason i cant increase voltage on the cpu past 1.55 :rolleyes: the difference between ~1.475v and 1.55v is 80 watts :eek:
 
I'll 2nd the need for a better psu. It's the most overlooked, and most needed piece in a oc'ers rig. The difference between my old cheap Aspire 500w and new Hiper 580w is night and day. My rails are super stable now and 12v rarely dips below 12.03v even with pump, 7 fans, 3 hdd, 2 dvd, card reader, lights, etc.

Is that new psu a ocz 600w? Price looks about right for that.
 
Alright, so far we have decided that I need a new psu which is on its way here already. Anything else for when my psu gets here? Anything about the dividers that I am missing or anything?
 
In my experience, the 7700alcu isn't enough for the P4 Presscotts. I got decent results with one on a CeleronD but when I changed to a 570J ES on the exact same board you have the temps skyrocketed. Everything was cleaned and fresh AS5 was installed. At the very least, I would get the all copper one, but for overclocking, I would go with a better cooler. Either a good heatpipe cooler or as I did, a Swiftech MXC775-V with a 80-120mm fan adapter and a Papst 120mm fan for quiet monster cooling. Outperformed a TR XP120 with the same fan. Then I went to water cooling and would never go back to air. I am running a Swiftech 6002-775, Dtek Pro single 120mm rad, Sunon fan at 7V and a Via Aqua 1300 with 1/2" tubing and dual priming never goes above 46C. Simple but effective. Also, your ram should be good at default voltage and SPD timings up to 266MHz fsb with the mem speed at 400 (1:1)
 
I know my ram is good. I can run my ram up to 270mhz at 1:1 but its my proc that cant keep up. Also, my temps with my zalman hsf are great. I have 31C idle and nothing about 55C load, and thats with a good 2 hours of the FEAR mp demo. I am thinking that my PSU is my main hinderance but of course, I wont be able to verify that until I get it. Should be here on Monday.



Thats shows my idle temp and also the highest overclock that I can achieve and keep it stable. Sucks I know, and I really want to surpass this.
 
Got the power supply today and installed it. Its a damn nice psu by the way, but with no luck keeping it stable at 230mhz fsb. I think my chip just cant get the high on air.
 
I boot at 4.0ghz but I really dont like the temps I get with it. Also, whats the highest safe voltage u can do?

 
i use water cooling, and if thats full load its fine, if dual prime95 is higher then 60~65C thats a bit much

there is no too much voltage, heat is what hurts prescotts, not voltage

i set mine at 1.643 or somthing like that volts to get 4 ghz, one hell of a voltage droop, should give it more air flow so that the voltage is more stable but the cpu runs fine so why should i care :p
 
That temp is at idle. Besides, I actually get a performance decrease when I try and run the cpu that high.
 
MGDMN said:
That temp is at idle. Besides, I actually get a performance decrease when I try and run the cpu that high.
Click to expand...
its called throttling... they throttle after they hit ~60C but most do it at about 65
 
Gives me a reason to look into watercooling ^_^ Thanks for the reply's man. I really appreciate it.
 
another fine point on 4 ghz vs 3.8 actualy meaning somthing except lower performance:
3.8 ghz:

4 ghz:


is water cooling worth it? imo yes... its the last cooling purchase you will make other then adaptations if i bought my water cooling from the start i would have saved $250 on heat sinks
 
basically with prescotts its hard to kill em unless you have a chip or mobo that doesnt do throttling or you are crazy and do somthing like try and feed it 2v where throttling will never save it, when it comes to voltage, heat will kill em' before the voltage does
 
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