allow me to get the general info out of the way before asking my question.... the basic hardware of my comp: Gigabyte GA-8IEXP P4 2.40 ghz w/TT Dragon Orb (currently 1.725V @ 2.664ghz, 148FSB) 1024MB pc2700 RAM (currently 2.5V @ 296mhz) ATI Radeon 9700 Lian-Li PC82COM Antec 350W psu My first attempt at OCing yielded a 6368 PCMark2k2 with FSB upped to 144mhz. It was set to 145 in bios but displayed 144. Bios setting 146 displays 145.. but set to 147, it displays 147... confused yet?? My best pcmark score prior to that was 5930 @ everything default on my computer. Freshly formatted drive and fresh install of XP pro. After tweaking the OS, I've notice 50-150 points LOWER than my initial benchmark! ...sooo, with my 1st OC, I gained about 300 pts. I've since then managed to hit 146 FSB, keeping the voltage defaulted at 1.5V CPU.. Anything higher and Windows crashes on startup or upon loading a program. I am able to run at 148 FSB (stable so far) *crosses fingers* at 1.7V~1.725V CPU. I've noticed I can run the FSB a bit more stable when increasing the voltage to the CPU. Anyone with any experience? I think my mobo/bios/EasyTune4 is preventing me to up the CPU multiplier as it is locked at 18 but believe it could do about 20 or higher?... or am I mistaken? Any software available where I could increase the CPU multiplier as well or is Intel slapping me in the face saying I can't clock that high?
i didnt think you can burn out a p4 as it slows down, or even shuts down when it gets too hot...thats probably why you dont get a big rise in the score, as the temp goes up it slows down the cpu... thats why tt products look great but dont work that great...
TT not working so great? Hmm... My CPU is idling right now at 92.8F or 33.8C.. The highest I can ever recall seeing the CPU temp under full load is around 99F, don't think I've ever went over 104F yet. I am getting a tad irritated with the noise generated by case fans and may consider switching to water cooling in the near future.. *sigh* this Dragon Orb is only 3 days old and I'm already thinking of replacing it with something quieter and more efficient! As for the voltages, I'm afraid of sending it too much power via overclocked settings and frying it altogether (before it has a chance to even overheat) Messing around with EasyTune4, I've dropped the voltage to 1.6V and I'm still maintaining 148 FSB @ 2.664ghz. The real test is seeing if my comp will restart and boot up with these settings. From what I've gathered so far, will higher FSB be more stable with increased voltage to CPU? What are "average" CPU voltages of OC'd P4s? 1.8V or 2.0V sounds a bit scary, or am I just being too conservative??
I think 1.75V is the maximum safe voltage for a p4 northwood. All pIVs are multiplier locked ... so increasing FSB is the only way to OC.
There is the voltage trick (it's not exactly for n00bs though, it involves messing with the processor's pins), I think that enables you to add an extra .1v, but since you're not really pushing near the proc's limits at that voltage, I wouldn't bother.
Indeed you're right on the 1.75V which I must've overlooked in my bios. I was assuming I could reach 2+ volts! I've since turned it down to 1.625V running at 150FSB as I type this. Last PCMark score was 6611 at this setting. Will continue stepping up the FSB till system becomes unstable.. I must be close since system was getting buggy at 155. As for the multiplier, I guess I'm stuck at 18x ?
*yawn* Should be goin to sleep soon, it's almost 4:30am here! Going to bed after this post.. I think I've maxed out at 153FSB @ 1.625V with score of 6736.. Will experiment more after getting some much needed sleep. Gonna see how much more FSB I can crank out with voltage stepped up a few more notches although I don't think I'll get much. I think my system froze at 1.725V running 160FSB.. will need to test again. Will dream of hitting 3ghz!
I think part of the problem here is that you are using a junky heatsink. The TT Dragon Orbs are known for being crap. There are lots of better choices out there, like the Alpha and Swifty.
Agreed.. running this hsf on high (~6000RPM) sounds like blowdryer/hoover! An unbelievably irritating high pitched whine for those of you familiar with it. It's set on high only when I benchmark, other than that the sound makes my ears want to bleed. I'm seriously considering watercooling this rig because the radeon 9700 tends to run hot.. (read somewhere the gpu has a shim which prevents direct contact between HS and chip!.. *mental note* remove shim) my ears and cpu would also benefit from the *silent* cooling as well. A damn shame since this dragon orb is less than a week old and it's already getting scrapped. Currently my CPU is running at 1.725V, 159 FSB. PCI/AGP frequencies are fixed at 33/66mhz. Performance seems to increase with DIMM overvoltage set to +0.1V, decreases at +0.2V and +0.3V. One of my concerns is somewhere along the lines of increasing the FSB, I've lost the ability to restart my machine. Pressing the reset button or choosing to restart will hang the system. System shuts down perfectly fine but can't restart. This must have happened somewhere around mid 140s FSB. 159 is the highest FSB I can run atm and only at 1.725V. PCMark also seems not able to recognize my FSB anymore. OC'd CPU 3DMark score can be seen here. Should better cooling/lower FSB bring back my restart?
Sigh, my cable died while I was posting and erased my message Anyway... The Dragon Orb isn't a bad heatsink just because of the fan. Look at the Dangerous Heatsinks sticky at the top of this forum and you will see it in there. Not to mention it isn't very good at cooling in the first place :/ A shim is used to help prevent the core of a cpu (or gpu I guess) from being crushed. It should not effect cooling at all (unless they were machined improperly). If it had was in the way, you would probably see a lot of burnt up 9700 gpus. They are probably there just as a way to prevent the cores from being crushed when heatsinks are attached. Although I don't know much about this, I never heard of that until now.
hmm i was running th TT Dragon on my intel perfectly pretty waste of space(the dragon that is) apart from hurting my ears th stock intel 2.4 hsf outperfomed it by at least 2c loaded or otherwise... unfortunately unless u can get hold of an engineers sample p4 you are going to be stuck with th intel multiplier (18x 20x whatever) . anyway best of luck with th tinkering sorry i can't really help anymore as i'm only just learning myself .. 1.6a@2.51 p4t533
frustrated! Well, under the advice that the TT Dragon Orb was a dangerous HS, I swapped back in the original HS and fan that came with the 2.4 chip.. TRUE, it runs cooler than the Orb but only under normal circumstances (133FSB, 1.5V).. With the Orb, I was able to hit 156FSB @ 1.625V all the way up to 159FSB @ 1.725V... the highest I've clocked so far with the orginal cooler is 150FSB @ 1.675V! The system hangs on the Windows XP screen with the scroll bar looping indefinitely at 1.65V and will only boot at 1.675V.. This is much hotter than the Orb and much less stable!! Basic summary = Much lower FSB and a greater CPU voltage core!!
