P4 2.4C w/ HT overclocking

[ElementalDragon]

ok, i'm kinda wondering something here. I've read on some boards that people have OC'ed the same kind of CPU i have up to around the 3.0-3.4Ghz range running stable. the only problem is, when i try to up my system bus speed using Easy Tune 4 which came with my GigaBite Mobo, it resets back to default when i restart. would i have to try upping it from in the BIOS or something? i saw one thing in the frequencies/voltages part of the BIOS that said it isn't good to increase it due to the fact that it could cause a SATA drive to not work. i'll have to check that again later. gotta sleep now. but please, if someone could help me with this... maybe give me an idea as to how i can overclock... tell me.

 

[dreamliner77]

Never used EasyTune, but afaik, you overclock thru windows with that util, then you either have to start easytune when you boot to keep overclocking, or use it as a rough approximation to set the bios to. And the reason they say that the fsb overclocking could mess with an SATA drive is because chances are the SATA controller is connected to the PCI bus with is generally "in sync" with the fsb.

 

[champ2005]

see if in the bios there is an option to "lock" the agp and pci speeds at 66/33 mhz respectively. ive got a gigabyte 8pe667 ultra and have that option. you could also try pressing CTRL-F1 in your bios to bring up some extra options.

 

[ElementalDragon]

yep, there's an agp/pci/src lock. when i enable the feature to adjust those settings, the cpu host frequency is 100. i do have to adjust that up to the speed i want right? (200 being my current speed of 2.4Ghz, which i hope to try to get up to around 3Ghz)

 

[ElementalDragon]

hmm... what cha think?

 

[ElementalDragon]

hmm... so far... been runnin for about 3-4 hours, give or take a bit, no lock-ups, and reasonable CPU temp. around the range of 38-41. Hits i think 55 if i'm playin UT2004. should actually try that again, since i was only running my own server with 3 bots. maybe more bots might load the CPU more.

 

[desie]

http://users.bigpond.net.au/cpuburn/

CPU burn-in 1.0.1 is a great app, im running it now for 24 hours and 30 minutes (then I'm going to run it for another 24 hours and 30 minutes with error checking) all without reboots.

I've overclocked my AMD Duron from the stated 1700Mhz (although it was retailed at 1.8GHz) to 1932mhz. I want to get up to 2.0GHz but I'm running these tools to make sure EVERYTHING is stable for at least 48 hours and more (all without reboots, my comp has allready been on for 3 days & 12 hours as of posting for general computing testing).

Another good tool is

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

I shall be running prime95 after my CPU Burn-in tests for at least 48 hours (using the tortua test, not memory checking but CPU intensive).

Just thought I'd mention these tools, I really want my system to be stable since it's my first ever overclock they might be useful for you as well ElementalDragon and anyone else who overclockes.

 

[ElementalDragon]

wow.... thanks a bunch. gonna re-overclock it soon. turned it back to normal when i re-installed XP due to the fact that i didn't wanna trust the temps.

 

[ElementalDragon]

another question. is there a way to OC my CPU, while keeping my RAM at 400mhz? when i OC my CPU up to 3Ghz from 2.4, my RAM runs at 333mhz. at least.... i am pretty sure that's what it said...

 

[dreamliner77]

Short answer: no. The only way to oc the p4's are thru increasing the front side bus. The multiplier is locked. If you got lucky and got an unlocked engineering sample p4, then you could oc via the multipier.

 

[ElementalDragon]

wait.... refresh my memory on what the CPU multiplier would have to do with the speed the RAM runs at after OC'ing?

 

[dreamliner77]

Multiplier has nothing to do with ram speeds, but a FSBxMultiplier=clock speed. If you can increase the multiplier, you don't have to push up the FSB.

 

[ElementalDragon]

welp, got myself a new speed to run off of. tell me what ya think of this one. Might try to up my RAM speed later on if it's possible for me to do so.

 

[dreamliner77]

Ram speed is for all intents and purposes your FSB. So, you can't change that without changing the speed of your processor. However, you could try tightening up the ram timings.

 

[pacou]

Take asus p4c 800 e for p4 speed result

If you like have any result performances you don't have the choice.
The intel P4c fsb800 and p4c 800 E asus with corsair 3200 xls it's the best
choice. For the sata 150 this interface work best on INTEL SHIP'S ICH5R.

for the last hardware you don't take any result at this time.

a+

 

[w00kiec00kie]

go into BIOS, and you should be able to choose the FSB: DRAM ratio.
Most P4 boards with 865 / 875 chipset support the following for processors with 200 default FSB: 1:1, 5:4, 4:3. You do the math, and yeah. Make sure your ram can handle those speeds.

 

[ElementalDragon]

Ok... here's the deal. i'm tryin to figure out which would give me a better boost in performance. Right now i have my P4 2.4C running at 3.0 Ghz, which is a system frequency of 250 with the memory frequency at 333 which is what it was automatically set at, and i'm using dual channel DDR400. if i bump the CPU frequency down to 249, my memory frequency goes up to 413. I'm guessing that having the CPU frequency at 249 instead of 250 would give me a better performance rating due to the fact that it's allowing my memory to work at it's highest potential, and then some.

Also, in my BIOS, there's a part where all it says is "Memory Frequency For:" which can be set to either 1.33, 1.66, 2.0, and Auto. if i set it to each of them, here is their memory frequency values with the CPU frequency at 250:
1.33 = 333Mhz
1.66 = 415Mhz
2.0 = 500Mhz
Now, i'm guessing that having that at 2.0 WOUDN'T be a good thing. i'm not sure. what are your suggestions as to what i should do, and is there a good chance of it damaging something in the process?

 

[w00kiec00kie]

So they use the DDR rating... so 400:200 = 2.0, 333:200 = 1.6, 266:200 = 1.3.
First one: PC3200, second: PC2700, third: PC2100.

What I would do is to set it at 2.0, and decrease the CPU freq. to stock, making your ram run at its rated speed. 400mhz. then try to overclock as far as you can stably. Then once you find ou the max ram clock, use the dividers (2.0 / 1.6/ 1.3) to max out your CPU frequency.
Try to run some benches to see what yeilds more performance. Very high CPU with small ram freq may result in lower performance than fsb = ram freq. at a lower CPU speed...

 

[ElementalDragon]

well... the highest i went, going by standard CPU speeds, was 3.2Ghz. when i went to 3.4Ghz, i would have probably had to up the voltage, since it locked up right when it got into windows. other than that, everything works fine. my mobo even supports any of the CPU's from 2.4Ghz to 3.2, with 3.4Ghz saying it wasn't tested.

 

[Xie]

hmm... so far... been runnin for about 3-4 hours, give or take a bit, no lock-ups, and reasonable CPU temp. around the range of 38-41. Hits i think 55 if i'm playin UT2004. should actually try that again, since i was only running my own server with 3 bots. maybe more bots might load the CPU more.

An easy way to use 100% CPU would be to get something like Folding@home or UD and help some people out while testing your rig