socket 423 overclocking

[kallenin]

Yo,

I've got an "old" socket-423 system with RAMBUS and I was hoping to overclock it to squeeze some stuff out of it until my next upgrade. I know I've heard stuff about RAMBUS not being very happy about overclocking... I've got an Abit TH7-RAID motherboard, and I can set the CPU multiplier/frequency and the CPU core voltage, but for the RAM speed, the setting is only 300 MHz (PC600), 400 MHz (PC800) or Auto. The big question is what auto means. Does it mean that it will match my CPU base frequency? (Any of you guys have any experience with this?)

I have PC800 RAM, and want to clock that up to so I have synchronous RAM and CPU speeds. My CPU speed is 1.5 GHz, BTW. Optimistically, I'm hoping to get the RAM speed up to about 900 MHz (112.5x8), so that would mean that the CPU speed would be 1.6875 GHz (112.5x15).

Anyway...any thoughts?

-Kallenin

P.S. Here's a link to the Mobo manual

ftp://63.241.67.41/pub/download/manual/english/th7.pdf

 

[pIII_Man]

setting it to 800mhz will yeild a synchronous overclock...

You are right in saying that rambus does not overclock well...memory manufacturers were getting such low yeilds they had to squeeze the most out of every module from the factory...

I cannot give you a number but you will definitly be limmited by your memory...it would almost be benificial...if you could get your cpu up to pretty high speeds to use the 600mhz ratio...thus alowing your cpu to reach its potential without a memory limitation...

If i put my k6 in a Ferrari it would be faster than your your pentium 4 or Athlon XP :tongue:

 

[Crashman]

You should be able to get that CPU to 2.0GHz at 133MHz bus by using the PC600 option for RAM (overclocking by 33% brings it back up to PC800 speed). You'll probably need around 1.85v core for the CPU.

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[kallenin]

Probelm is that I set "CPU external Clock" and "RDRAM Bus Frequency" seperately, and I don't think I can overclock them in tandem. The only mystery is the Auto setting for "RDRAM Bus Frequency." If that actually does set the memory frequency to match (equivalently) the CPU clock speed then I might very well be able to get some operation at 850 or 900 MHz with the RAMBUS ( I doubt it since I have cheap OEM models). I guess I could sell my RIMMs and pick up some 1066 RIMMs, but then I might as well sell the CPU/Mobo/Memory (not many ppl have use for RAMBUS alone these days) and get a new CPU/Mobo/memory. I wanted to wait until the P5 gets out with the new BGA socket though (not the intro P5 with socket 478). You think I should just go for the upgrade now, or you think I can suffer through about half a year of 1.5 GHz? I plan on getting an AIW Radeon 9800 Pro sometime soon, so maybe I'll live (getting rid of my older nad chugging AIW Radeon 8500 DV)...


-Kallenin

 

[Crashman]

You're dealing with a single bus speed board. Instead of calling the CPU/RAM divider by it's ratio, they called it the PC600 setting. I'm still fairly certain that if you set it to the PC600 setting, it will remain a constant the CPU bus speed, giving you PC800 speed at a 133MHz bus.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[kallenin]

Hey,

So this isn't exactly working out...I've been able to clock up the FSB to 112 or 115 MHz, but not past that. I've been doing this in kind of jumps and leaps - 100 -> 105 -> 112 -> 120. 120/30 (FSB/PCI) is where it failed to even show me the boot up screen. On 118/29, it wopuld at least freeze half way through boot up. Will increasing the voltage help? How much can I increase it? The default it 1.7 V, and I can adjust it in 0.025 increments.

-Kallenin

P.S. I have experimented and verified that your suggesetion will work, though, assuming my computer can boot up.

 

[Crashman]

You shouldn't have any problems with a .18 micron CPU such as yours with voltage up to 1.95v, I suggest you try 1.85v first and see how far that takes you. Keep an eye on heat, because when you CPU gets too hot it will "throttle back" and you'll loose performance.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[kallenin]

*SIGH*

Well, I thought I could Voltage up, but it looks like 1.825 V is my ceiling. with 1.8 V, i can get a stable 112/36.7, but it looks like I'm not going to be able to get any higher. I can at least get 120/30 to start up, but it never finishes bootup/startup (sometimes failing before windows, sometimes during windows load). I'm also sometimes getting whiney alarms from my motherboard - I don't *think* it's heat - I mean I have this huge fan pointing in the case. Anyway, whatever it seems to be, it looks like its as good as it'll get. I'll just have to manage with this for now - I'm waiting eagerly for the P5.

Of course if you happen upon any creative solutions, or strange hacks, I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks for the help.

-Kallenin