Overclocking a 2.4B

[BuddMan]

I recently aquired a P4 2.4B and after breaking it in was seeing how far I could push it with my GA-8INXP. Well, I got it up to 3Ghz (FSB is 167) at stock voltage. I was really excited as it is overclocking much better than my 2.8 (have to raise voltage to 1.60 to get my 2.8 to 3.2). However, when trying to go above 167, I start seeing things get a little unstable (Prime95 will give a warning after 15 min of the torture test, whereas at 167 it ran for hours, and on restarting I get no post, though cold boot is fine). Anyway, to make a long story short, I have basically tried everything to get it to run stable at 168 or above. I've tried adjusting RAM timings, I even raised the voltage to 1.75 (mobo won't allow it to go any higher). And still Prime95 will give a warning after around 15 min. If I move everything back down to stock voltage and FSB at 167 Prime95 will run for hours (this is my main test to see if the overclock is stable). I tried more aggressive timings at 167 on my RAM and Prime95 would generate errors after about 15 min.

So anyway, do you guys think I hit the limitation of my RAM? It is 3200 so should run at 400Mhz (or I would hope). Could it be a motherboard limit? Or could it even be the CPU (gasp), though I would hope not as I haven't had to raise the CPU voltage at 167, and temps never go above 41 on high load. And why will the system not post after a restart when I go above 167 though post fine on a cold boot (and it restarts fine at 167 and below)? My specs are in my sig, and I have AGP and DIMM overvolted by .1v. I also have my AGP/PCI clocks locked at 67/33 and have tried 68/34 and defaults, all with same results. Any help or info would be appreciated.

[BuddMan]

Hmm...guess there are not too many overclockers at MURC...

[UtwigMU]

I'd you're correct, it should be the motherboard or the CPU.

Corsair XMS - should be fine.

Antec PSU - you have plenty of power.

If overvolting does not help, it's likely the motherboard that's the culprit.

[BuddMan]

Yeah...I might just have to upgrade to Canterwood...heh.

[borat]

sounds like the extra volts are heating the chip up too much for me as its fine on a cold boot, try a more elaborate cooling system.

[Novdid]

Have you tried upping the vdd voltage(does your mb support this? Doesn't think so though). How's the cooling on your northbridge BTW.

All in all it looks to me by your description that it's a MB issue. the E7205 isn't the best OC'er around.

[gpremec]

It seems that 170MHz FSB is top for most P4 2.4B C1.
Mine 2.4B C1 went up to 177MHz FSB ful stabile on i845E board (AOpen AX4B Pro-533), but only with memory (Corsair) set to 266MHz.

On i865PE board (Asus P4P800) with 1006 BIOS it went up to 172MHz, but wery un-stabile (allaround). So now I'm using 1007 BIOS, which doesn't POST with FSB beatween 166MHZ and 199MHz. So my 2.4B C1 now works on 165MHz FSB.

[rylan]

Yeah can you increase the 3.3v I/O voltage for the chipset or the 2.5v memory voltage a little? I've found that generally helps a lot when cranking the bus speed up.

[mutz]

Novdid might have a point on the northbridge. Mine was overheating causing instability until I clapped a good HSF on it.

[Admiral]

Well, the 8INXP seems to have a generous active cooling sollution, so it might not be the northbridge.
Or it might, on my 8IK1100 with Easy Tune 4 (hardware monitoring), when running the system tray version (at startup or manually) the northbridge fan stops working
I've turned off that SmartFan thing, also turned it off in the bios, still happens.

[mutz]

On my first GA-8IHXP the northbridge fan and the northbridge burnt after about 3-4 months. On the replacement the fan burnt out last month, so I clapped a Titan TTC CUV2AB on the northbridge (tricky to fasten) and it has been quiet and much cooler since.

I have a sensor on the northbridge and before I replaced the HSF I noticed some instability when the NB temp would go over 45C. The alarm would also go off occassionally, particularly when running Adaware or Speedisk. Since the new HSF, no problems.

[BuddMan]

Well, the DIMM voltage was already increased. I dunno if I can overvolt the 3.3v I/O voltage. Is there another name for it? BTW, had the system at a Lan party on Saturday. Ran just fine at 167 with a slew of games (too big of a list to type them all here ).

[mutz]

Dunno what you are trying to pump Bud, but I'd suggest you either:

- Plunk your rig in a freezer and do what you like

- Ask your question here or here

- Accept settings just short of the limits you reach 'cause just changes in weather and room temps are likely to throw you into the red.

ET4 will get you close enough to the line so you have some control while monitoring temps (relatively).

Otherwise you might burn something and that's an expensive bummer. Been there.

[BuddMan]

Nothing is overheating though. At 3GHz the CPU stays around 38-41 degrees on high load, around 33-35 on idle or half loads. If it is the Northbridge overheating, then there must be something wrong with my waterblock or the way I have it attatched, because I took off the fan and watercooled that, so it should be well cool enough. If heat is a problem, I dunno where it is coming from. Is there any way to monitor the temp of the mobo chipset?

[mutz]

Aha! I forgot you were watercooling. Your temps sound good enough.

I think you can pretty much take the Winbond reported mobo temp as being the chipset temp. With a grain of salt. Try AIDA2 to find out if the OB sensors are being read correctly. ET4 is questionable, as is MBM5 and a few others.

Doesn't look like your instability problems are directly temp related. Sounds more like one or more components don't like the overvoltage, the overvoltage on one is unbalancing others, or the board doesn't like the whole combination of OC and OV.

I'd drop each, OC and OV, individually a point and try to pinpoint the culprit.

Some batches of CPUs are better for OCing than others. There are some charts on the net, I forget where. Same with other components.

How's your PSU?

How's your house voltage/wiring?

Finding the right balance that sticks can be tricky and tiring. If you get tired and fed up, quit for a couple of days, then come back with the Man from Mars approach.