Some overclocking questions

[Darkish]

Recently for £130 I've gone from a 533mHz fsb P4 and 2 Gig of 3200 ddr ram to an e5200, 2 gig of Corsair XMS2 6400C5 TwinX ddr2 and a new motherboard.

Motherboard is a 4CoreDual-SATA R2.0 with the bios upgraded to latest version (2.10) and have finally been able to let my saphire 3850agp off the leash.
The performance at stock is a least twice that of the old P4 - happy.

But I thought I'd tweak it a bit and have a few questions.

1) At stock volts anything above 2.95gHz on the CPU results in a failure in the 2nd core under Prime95 - is it normall for 1 core to go way before the other?

2) Any fsb over 240mHz and I lose the ability to connect to the internet!  am I hitting a wall with the motherboard here?

Current settings....

Core speed 2950mHz, x12.5 multiplier, bus speed 236mHz, rated fsb 944mhz, memory DRAM frequency 314.7 with ratio of  3:4 fsb:DRAM.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

n.b I bought the 800mHz ram with view to future upgrades - and there is a hard mod to change the e5200 to a 1066fsb.
At the moment I can't even get it to post with the ram set a 533mHz - I figure there isn't a ratio high enough.

[Fulmar]

Are you just upping the FSB etc without touching the voltages?  (i.e. your CPU/NB voltages are still stock values)

[Denholm]

I'm not an overclocker by any means. But from what I've read, if you're hitting the wall the way you are now, increase the voltage. Afterward you should be able to continue on your overclocking journey. Just be safe when you do these things ensuring your overclocking journey isn't a short one.

[Darkish]

yes, stock voltage - this motherboard doesn't allow any vcore adjustments ... it insists on auto - though they can be hard modded to the cpu with a bit of strategically placed tape, but am not willing to take that kinda plunge just yet.

Current vid is 1.237V which, from what I've read is kinda high for this cpu - maybe I just got a duff one?

[aaronr]

Right now voltages don't matter! you are losing Ethernet (internet) because the on-board Ethernet chip set can't cope, that is all that's stopping you at this point! (ALSO A VERY COMMON ISSUE WITH BOARDS WITH ON-BOARD VIDEO AND ETHERNET!) any reference to modding voltages are insanity as your CPU is still fine as is your memory. I can't even imagine why anyone would recommend doing some other things if your only issue is loss of on-board Ethernet?.
I guess if you want to bolt on a double-pumper 800 carb with a broken fuel pump nobody can stop you lol.
The problem and answer to your question Is yes it is a motherboard issue that can be somewhat improved but NOT by messing with voltages much more with disabling on-board devices that can't cope with the elevated FSB.

[Darkish]

Just a note - game is maxed out and stays pegged at 60fps refresh rate- so am well chuffed.

I can't find anything in the bios to lock down the usb/ethernet speeds - guess I hit the wall.

What gets me though is if you do mod the cpu so the board recognises it as a 1066 chip you can push the puppy into the mid 3's - I just don't get why my ram and periperals are crapping out?

[BaldEagl]

Sounds to me like you need to bump the north bridge voltage a tad and try it again.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

He needs to get the PCI bus speed back to normal 100Mhz to restore peripheral functions. If your motherboard lacks options for this kind of stuff you're doing OC on wrong kind of hardware.

[TilDeath]

Some MB makers "lock" their lower end boards since the boards will fail fairly easy when pushed.  If you give me the maker and model of the board I will see what I can do to assist you.

TD

[Fulmar]

Some MB makers "lock" their lower end boards since the boards will fail fairly easy when pushed.  If you give me the maker and model of the board I will see what I can do to assist you.

TD

Motherboard is a 4CoreDual-SATA R2.0 with the bios upgraded to latest version (2.10) and have finally been able to let my saphire 3850agp off the leash.
The performance at stock is a least twice that of the old P4 - happy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157115

[aaronr]

This is in your manual for that board the very first setting is the one to focus on then you will see where you can "Unlock" the pci bus below and fix it at 66/33 mhz or other options..




2.18 Untied Overclocking Technology
This motherboard supports Untied Overclocking Technology, which means during
overclocking, FSB enjoys better margin due to fixed AGP / PCI / PCIE bus. You may
set “CPU Host Frequency” option of BIOS setup to [Auto], which will show you
the actual CPU host frequency in the following item. Therefore, CPU FSB is untied
during overclocking, but AGP / PCI / PCIE bus is in the fixed mode so that FSB can
operate under a more stable overclocking environment.


AGP/PCI Clock
Use this item to select AGP/PCI clock. Configuration options: [Auto], [Sync
with CPU] and [66/33 MHz].

Spread Spectrum
Select [Auto] for the spread spectrum feature.

Boot Failure Guard
Enable or disable the feature of Boot Failure Guard.

Ratio Status
This is a read-only item, which displays whether the ratio status of this
motherboard is “Locked” or “Unlocked”. If it shows “Unlocked”, you will find
an item Ratio Setting appears to allow you changing the ratio value of this
motherboard. If it shows “Locked”, then the item Ratio Setting will be
hidden. If you use the ratio value to time the CPU frequency, it will be equal
to the core speed of the installed processor.

Ratio Actual Value
This is a read-only item, which displays the ratio actual value of this
motherboard.

Ratio CMOS Setting
If the ratio status is unlocked, you will find this item appear to allow you
changing the ratio value of this motherboard.

[Darkish]

Quick update -

modem was 7years old - failed & replaced, now fine

also looks like I got a duff processor, but it performed within manufacturers specifications.

r.e. previous - had locked locked out the pci bus - sry misunderstood.

A couple of bits of stategically playced tin foil and sticky tape have managed to up the default mb voltage by .1 volts and fool the motherboard into thinking it's got a 1066 cpu.

So in the end have got a 25% overclock on a dog of a cpu and a legacy board running an AGP card.

Does 1mil superpii in 17 secs, prime stable overnight and plays fallout3 on ultra smoothly - well happy.

If you are still hanging onto that p4 - do it - the performance increase is astonishing.

[Fulmar]

uh, tin foil and sticky tape?  what is this MacGyver?

[Masherbrum]

uh, tin foil and sticky tape?  what is this MacGyver?

 

[aaronr]

No Duct Tape???? What would Red Green say?