Hi, I have a dual socket 370 motherboard, Acorp 6A815EPD, fitted with 2x Intel Pentium III Socket 370 1Ghz CPU's (1Ghz/256KB/133/1.75v) that I want to overclock. I have managed to overclock the board to 150Mhz using air-cooling however I have stability problems, after reading some articles I worked out that voltage had something to do with it. Can anyone explain to this overclocking newbie how to correctly overclock my motherboard, what and how the voltage of the CPU's is changed as I can't find any mention of this in the BIOS or any indications on the motherboard. Thanks in advance,
It may well not be possible to increase the voltage supplied to the CPUs on your motherboard, and it may also be that it is not the CPUs, but something else which is causing the problem, since 150FSB is pretty high. Interesting motherboard you have there by the way...when acorp released that motherboard was the first time that intel knew anything about the 815 chipset being able to run dual CPUs....
Like Isaac said, 150MHz is really quite high. Generally your voltage is a setting in the BIOS, although it may be a jumper or swithc ont eh mobo itself. Check the manual, if that doesn't help, start reading the mobo for labels around switches and jumpers and such. Another thing I should point out is that your instability may actually be from the dual CPUs, overclocking dual CPUs is extremely hard, as normally the computer struggles to keep the CPUs in sync, but overclocking makes that task even harder, so once you reach a certian point it just may not be possible for the system to maintain sync. Being Intel you can't change a multiplier can you? As that would be a nother way to amybe get higher speeds, with stability. Also what temperatures are you getting, as heat may also be playing into your problems. Good luck, and I hope this helps at all.
Hey, Thanks for the replies guys, yeah the motherboard has got an interesting history but I the board has amazed me with its stability at standard settings. It comes with onboard RAID and ATA100 IDE channels as well as 4 USB ports and a few extra's like the Winbond chip ( have started to play with this to get board readings etc). Yeah I gathered that running two cpu's makes the overclocking job harder, I was able to clock the board using just one cpu to 150 without any stability problems, everything ran fine so it appears to be limitations of the chipset or the combined cpu's. I have the same issue with the Dell dual Xeon machine, you can't do squat to these, being Dell's nearly all of the config is done via software using a hidden partition which you have to boot into with the Dell boot disk - I am not too bothered about this machine though as it can't be matched for processing power at the moment (SiSoft proved that!) and I use it primarily for 3D and business stuff. Yep, they are locked but I don't want to fiddle around with that. Actually they are very good surprisingly, I am using a cheapy ATX case at the moment (new one being built) but the airflow is good as I have used modded cables and some good fan placing to move the air around. I was using CoolerMaster heatsink/fan combo's but they were too noisy, after switching to Akasa Silver Mountain 2Q's I have noticed the temp has stabalised at around 35^C idle and 50^C at full load - quite high but I think this is down to the fact that the Akasa's have really crap tension when clipped to the board and a combination of thermal compound not being applied properly and gravity, the heatsinks weigh a tonn (no joke) which may cause them to lose contact with the cpu's. Thanks for the feedback guys, out of interest what CPU's are you running and do think its worth investing in a single cpu motherboard now that we have some really fast gadgets available?
While your full load temp is a little high, it isnt anythign that should be causing problems. I run an Athlon Thunderduck 1400Mhz, currently at 1485MHz because my Enermax PSU is pants. But I can get it up nice and high, it's just not stable (crap 5V line). Otherwise I'm very happy with it, as it performs great. especially for the price. Single CPU setups are cheaper than dual CPUs, like getting a dual 2GHz system is insanely expensive, where as you can probably snatch up a single 2.6 GHz system for the same or close to the same price. But it all depends on what you need. It also appears that for your dual setup, that's as far as you cna go, just too much to sync them, try going lower though, say 135, or 140 MHz..... You might get something. Oh yeah My CPU with stock pants copper HSF sits at 39C idle, and 46C loaded, but that's in teh Winter now, and with my window open
Ha haa, yeah I know about that one, whats up with the british weather? I just got some more cooling gear for my Acorp PC but the case is a little cramped now - I purchased 2 x Akasa RamSinks, these are great and make allot of difference, the machine is now stable at 145Mhz FSB. Good thinking about the 5v line, I realized that with the Dual setup my 350w PSU is running out of juice, after contacting Acorp and emailing one of their tech's I have been advised to use something like a Enermax 450w PSU as the two CPU's put allot of demands on the system. Makes sense as I now have 8 additional fans running, I managed to build a Rheobus panel after allot of reading and eyestrain, its pretty cool and does the job, I have got four control knobs with two 80mm fans running of a single control and a switch to start the 120mm fan when its required. My case is crap, I am in the process of building a new one from a reclaimed old Unix server, its one of those really old but spacious full tower AT cases made out of proper aluminium (2.5mm thick) with a solid steel case, needs some modifying as it was designed for an AT motherboard but I am sure I can cope, its got a cool LED display on the front.. I need to wire this up somehow. I think with the 450w PSU I should be able to reach a much higher rating, one thing I never understood with overclocking, especially these water cooling nuts, if your CPU is clocked so high won't this put a strain on the motherboard, I am sure those little IC's can't handle it... you would have put heatsinks on everything on the board! Your Athlon is still running faster than I can manage, I have only ever used one Athlon, the K7 700 Slot A, I had this thing clocked at 850Mhz without a problem but for some reason I have stuck to Intel, that might change with the new Athlon's appearing, I might just have to get myself a Athlon XP 2000+ for gaming... What cooler do you have on your CPU at the moment? I would recommend the Coolermaster heatpipes, these things are wicked, my mates Athlon PC has one fitted with a 80mm fan adapter, when setup correctly these coolers work a treat. Cheers,
Yeha a 350W is really pushing it with a setup like yours. Although you could away with a 400W, but 450W gives you 50W more of braggin power I'd recommend staying away from Enermax. I know there is Q-Tec out there and they seem to be pretty good for people. I don't know what cooler I have, it's this ugly tiny littel piece of junk I got FREE with my CPU. I should note I bought my CPU OEM. I have no need for anythgin better, this cooler keeps it plenty cool, and when I do overclock, at 1650MHz it still keeps it at 49C loaded, it's just my computer reboots after about ten minutes Also about your motherboard, yeah it does put a little more strain on some of the components, but not much of anything. Mostly just northbridge, which is why they often have heatsinks and even fans (like mine needs) on them. EDIT: Also I'm not British, although my friends doub that statement (silly BiT-Tech has warped my fragile little mind ) I actually live in Canada.
Hey thats cool, Canada is the better half of that big chunck of rock called US... something I did some tests last night on the system, constant temp, fan RPM etc and I determined there is a voltage drop of about 0.05 to 0.10 across the board which is not good news - handy thing I found is the board controls the fans, when more strain is put on the system the fans speed up and when its idling the fans slow down (CPU fans) but it still doesn't help, this setup has got allot hardware inside. Your the second person to say that about Enermax, why is there something I should know about? I love their PC case though, the big $400 job, looks cool. I found a unbranded power supply that should do the job, spec reads dual voltage, fan control, dual fans, 650W and its coated in a goldish colour so looks cool in the process - this should fix the problem and I should be able to feed more voltage to the core now. I read up on the i815E chipset, good news surprisingly it includes allot of features that should compensate for the extra voltage required - I followed your advise and strapped an old 486 fan to northbridge, knocked almost 10^C off the system temp. I have got the AMD bug now and I am looking to get a system, what would you recommend, I am looking to purchase the motherboard, ram and CPU and the same time but there are so many out there I don't know what to get - I don't want to spend big bucks, just as long as I can have room to overclock in the future. Thanks,
Enermax have a problem with their 5V lines, they are really faulty, wavering really low under even only moderate strain. I've heard that they fixed it (one person) but I'm not trusting any more of my hard earned cash to them. Enermax make cases? As far as recommendations, I can't really say much on mobos, as I don't have much experience with them. My current mobo, the ABit KG7-RAID is rock solid and been beautiful to me, but it's quite an old board, about a year or two now. I'd recommend you look at BiT's roundup (see front page). For RAM, I'd say your probably don't need much more than 333MHz, as the current AMD chips can't fill that anywayz. But then again, for overclocking, the 400MHz RAM is garanteed to go that high (it's the stock speed) so you might be able to push it a bit further. It all depends on money, the 333MHz will obviously be cheaper. For CPU I currently have a thunderduck, 1400Mhz, it's great, but certainly not the fastest, I'd probably recommend an XP 2100+ as those are fast, and overclock really well. Otherwise I believe its the 1800+ is another one that overclocks well too. Both are pretty quick, and will handle pretty much anything you throw at it. So whichever fits your budget better. Hope that helps you a bit. For more info on mobos, just search the forums or post in Hardware as there is a lot of info here, and a lot of people who can help you well. Teehee'su!
