3.2ghz Prescot S478 Overclocking?

[apache_lives]

Intel P4 2.6c
1x512mb DDR400
Albatron i865 mobo
Nvidia GeForce 6600GT AGP

Im looking at upgrading my computer from my current P4 2.6C to something a bit quicker, im wondering - how far will a P4 Prescot 3.2ghz for Socket478 go? ill be buying from a local store so i have no idea what steppings it will be so whats the general overclocking potential? like whats the bare minimum overclock from one of the poorer steppings?

Im also thinking wether two new sticks of 512mb DDR466 will improve performance - i currently have 1x512mb DDR400 and i cant get a matching one - will dual channel + the extra ram boost the performance a fair bit?

 

[ChipDeath]

The overclocking potential of prescotts isn't bad AFAIK - a 3.2Ghz one should probably hit 4Ghz with the right RAM and cooling.... But that's the problem. The only 'right' cooling for ocing a Prescott is Water.

My advice? Forget the prescott and build something with an Athlon 64 instead.

---
A64 3200+ Winchester @ 258x10=2580Mhz, ~1.52 Vcore
1Gb RAM, running at various strange speeds... :lol:
Voltmodded Sapphire 9800Pro @ 450/350 w/ modded VGA silencer 3.

 

[mozzartusm]

I can almost hit 4.0 with my 3.0e. I run it at 3.6 on air with no problems.

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[scottchen]

If you insist on a P4 setup, then i would definently NOT upgrade, since your 2.6C is a very powerful chip, and i had one that hit 3.9Ghz, but with watercooling, but you should hit at least 3.2-3.4Ghz with that 2.6C no problem.

 

[apache_lives]

My 2.6c is one of the dud's - it wont reach any further past 3.125ghz or atleast with air cooling (and still a little unstable at that), even at 1.8v it wont hold at 3.25ghz so its currently sitting still at stock 2.6ghz, and i got crappy memory - Kingmax TBGA DDR400 - its a single sided stick of 512mb and i cant find a store that sells a similar stick.

 

[scottchen]

Ahh shitty... well i guess you could always try out one of those 3.2's, with good cooling, which i prefer liquid, but the XP120 should do the job.

 

[jammydodger]

Yeh the first 2.6c's were pretty pants overclockers. I cant get mine above 3.25 on water. I would get a 3.0 northwood, and try and clock that. I would be a little bit worried about heat problems with a prescott, esspecially if i were overclocking it.

 

[apache_lives]

When im doin gaming and video editing the case easily hits ~38ºc according to my coolermaster aerogate2 sensors - it reads the air temp just before its sucked out through the psu so that temp is an acurate case temprature. My case has 4 8cm fans (2 front + 2 rear) plus hdd bay fan and aerogate2 fan aswell as psu fan so its got as much cooling as posible - i live in Australia so it gets kinda hot.

So a Prescott wouldnt clock too far either with stock (air) cooling... Would a coolermaster aquagate water cooling kit suffice?

 

[lb19984]

Yea i have my 3.2e at 4.0
and i got it up to 4.3 stable but i had to put extra fans on my reserator and that made it noisy so whatever
But I thing u should stay with ure 2.6 and get a really nice air or water
I fot my friends 2.4 up to 3.5 with just AIR on mere zalman 7000 series
And my pressoct was a bitchh about it it took me a while
and i got my friends 2.6 up really fast
The newer Scotties take a LOT of tweaking



<A HREF="http://www.freewebs.com/lb19984/" target="_new">My Rig</A>

 

[apache_lives]

Yeah - the early 2.4's (while intel produced em) had the same steppings as the 3.2ghz so they had no troubles overclocking where as mine has a diffrent stepping, it stinks for overclocking - iv tried everything to get it at 3.25 - 1.8v, 2 diffrent boards (asus P4P800-s and my current Albatron 865pe pro) aswell as modifing the hsf (so the base is a mirror finish) and iv also tried the ram at the "266mhz" ratio (so it definitly runs below specs to rule out the ram) and iv atached a fan to the northbridge hsf and it still doesnt want to stay stable in prime95 for more then 2 minutes so yeah - a dud overclocker.