After reading the article over at THG the other day I decided to go for it and order a new Pentium D 805 etc. to replace my XP-2600M set up. Main components Pentium D 805 CPU Asus P5WDG2-WS i975X Motherboard 2 x 1Gb OCZ PC2-8000 Dual Channel Extreme Edition XTC Platinum Series EL-DDR2 RAM PowerColor ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB OCZ PowerStream 520 watt PSU Cooling CPU block - Danger Den RBX Chipset block - Danger Den Maze 4 GPU block - Danger Den Maze 4 Acetel Radiator - Austin Mini with 4 x 120mm fans Pump - Eheim 1260 The watercooling set-up uses 25mm ID pipe from pump to radiator and to and from the a custom build inlet and outlet manifolds. 1/2 inch ID pipe is uses from the manifolds to the waterblocks and back. So far I haven't really pushed the system until it fails, but have reached 4Ghz using the same Vcore voltage as suggested in the THG article with no problems at all. Here are some screen shots: Not sure why the Whetstone result is so low, perhaps someone could explain why that might be? Not bad at all for an £80.00 CPU. Later I will push it harder and see how much further it will go.
No problem, here you go. I think that puts me in the top 30, and this was while the PC was formatting a USB drive at the same time.
Thanks, I'm already in the top 30. With a bit of tinkering I should be able to get in the top 20, who knows, maybe even top 10. The watercooling rig seems well up to the task, looks like it can keep the temperature below 45 celcius, even at full load. I'm actually quite surprised, I thought that the Pentium would run a fair bit hotter than it is.
exactly my thoughts...so, I have nto posted my pie time on here, but last time I did it, I seem to rember a sub 30sec time, with my Dothan at 2600 (not 4000 or anywhere close)...and that system is getting mighty old now...is it just me or is this new p4 not at all impressive?
Thanks, but to be honest, so far I haven't really had to put in much effort, I just upped the voltage and FSB to the same value THG used and bingo, a completely stable overclock. From the THG article: From the same datasheet, you can also observe that this CPU can accept input voltages ranging from 1.2 to 1.4 V. These voltage levels, however, can actually vary within the same series of CPUs; actual values for the CPU in hand are stored in ROM on the chip, and aren't specified on the packaging or in the Spec numbers. The lower the standard voltage of a CPU, the lower its resulting power consumption and cooling requirements. It's necessary to jump a few hurdles to access the CPU registers and read the actual voltage levels they contain. - http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/05/10/dual_41_ghz_cores_uk/page13.html It mentions that you have to jump through a few hurdles to access these CPU registers, but it doesn't explain how, does anyone know?
This puts me in at position 12 in the Super Pi results. I'm going to muck about a bit and see if I can get in the top 10.
Around 35 - 45 celcius, depending on load with room temperature at around 20 celcius. I tried to push the clock higher, I got it to boot into Windows at 4500Mhz, but it wasn't stable and couldn't complete a run through Super Pi, so it looks as though 4400 is the limit, for my chip at least. However, I'm very happy, I currently have it running at 4200Mhz with 1.6v Vcore and it seems stable, which is better than THG achieved and means that the system performance should be similar to that of a top of the range, £500.00 plus, Intel or AMD chip.
It's not a new Pentium, it uses the same architecture as the P4 Prescott but shrunk onto a 65nm process (and obviously there's two of them). They're not great performers at stock, but at clock speeds like this they're competition to anything AMD for significantly less money. Number-crunching power doesn't tell the whole story - it'll be a lot faster than any Dothan when the going gets tough in Windows usage...
...cheers for that!! I shall rember to put my n00b hat on next time I come to the bit-tech forums! ...my initial post was as a response to all the "congratulations" and "amazing overclock" when it did not seem that amazing, and it was a "newer" generation cpu to an Athlon XP or something similiar... and thank you once more for telling me that number crunching is not everything, as I said I do not post my super pi times, or go rambling on about it....anyway have a good day!
The D 805 actually still uses a 90nm process, but all the other Intel Duals are 65nm. However, all the models above this have a FSB of 200, but with lower multipliers, so to get the 3Ghz D 930 up to 4.2Ghz you will need to raise the FSB to 280. Beyond the 930 prices start to climb towards the eye watering £670 Extreme Edition.
I stand corrected - I assumed that they were 65 from the sheer overclockability. That makes it all the more impressive
Just a little update. I've been using the D 805 at 4.2 Ghz, 210 FSB x 20, for a week or so now and it's rock solid, no crashes or BSODs. CPU temperature is anywhere from 30 to 45 Celcius, depending on load and room temperature. Dual core is nice when you want to do two things at once, the virus scanner can run while you're doing something without it stuttering and slowing everything down. I also have a USB TV tuner attached to my PC, with my single core, if I did anything while the TV was running, like check my E-mails, browse the web etc., the TV would stutter and drop-out and it would screw up a recording. Now it's absolutely fine, so I can do some work while I'm half listening to/watching a program or recording it in the background. As a £280.00 Motherboard-CPU combination I reckon it's hard to beat, the new AMD socket AM2s and Intel Conroes that will match the D 805 @ ~4Ghz are looking like they are going to cost considerably more.
