Crappy mobo = impossible to overclock?

[pmr]

I ran hundreds of tests and... shit! Just can't overclock. Since overclocking would bring me some advantages, e feel a little disapointed.
I run a P4 Northwood 2.8 HT, MSI 648F Neo, 2x512 Buffalo pc3200, Eurotech 400W psu and NOTHING. Even at 2.9ghz it comes really unstable. Is it from the mobo? I heard that p4 HTs are difficult to OC, but man...2.9 unstable?
Can you give me a hint? I think i've tried all.... MSI have this shity tool on their site called corecenter, and they claim it can overclock these mobos, but even with it I really can't.
Anyone?

 

[pwnage]

Check your voltages. you may have OCed it but you may not be getting enough power.

Also your PSU may have something to do with it

If you can give a little more info such as errors that would help in the diag.

 

[Crashman]

Overclock in BIOS. Set your CPU to 1.65v core voltage as 1.70v might get it a little further, but with a much greater amount of heat!

At 1.65v you should be able to get it to around 3.2GHz, maybe more! Again, the best method is to use manual settings in BIOS.

One more thing that might get over-stressed is your memory. In fact, that's probably what's causing your current problems. When you overclock the CPU bus from 200 to 205MHz, you also overclock your memory from DDR400 to DDR410. A lot of RAM is already close to the breaking point using Intel's aggressive memory controller. So you might want to drop your RAM speed to 166MHz clock (DDR333) before overclocking.

BTW, when you overclock starting from 200 CPU (800) and 166 RAM (333) to 220MHz CPU (880), your RAM gets clocked to DDR366. So you can see where your RAM could eventually get back "up" to stock speed.

 

[pmr]

Overclock in BIOS. Set your CPU to 1.65v core voltage as 1.70v might get it a little further, but with a much greater amount of heat!

At 1.65v you should be able to get it to around 3.2GHz, maybe more! Again, the best method is to use manual settings in BIOS.

One more thing that might get over-stressed is your memory. In fact, that's probably what's causing your current problems. When you overclock the CPU bus from 200 to 205MHz, you also overclock your memory from DDR400 to DDR410. A lot of RAM is already close to the breaking point using Intel's aggressive memory controller. So you might want to drop your RAM speed to 166MHz clock (DDR333) before overclocking.

BTW, when you overclock starting from 200 CPU (800) and 166 RAM (333) to 220MHz CPU (880), your RAM gets clocked to DDR366. So you can see where your RAM could eventually get back "up" to stock speed.

It's impossible, I managed to get 3.2ghz fully stable but it didn't reboot, so i kept descending till' 3.0ghz (allways stable) but the reboot problem was there. What the hell's happening? I did everything u said, and I just can't manage to do it. Am I missing any trick?

Scruze my Engrish

 

[pmr]

Updating: finally got my system stable at 3.2. Temps running high on full load (48º it's a northwood). But to be stable i've got mem clock like pc2900. Will i note de difference? Or the higher clock of the cpu will "cover" it?

Scruze my Engrish

 

[Crashman]

Obviously it won't be "as fast" as it would be with the memory overclocked to match the CPU bus, but it will still be faster than stock speed due to the increased CPU speed.

48C is fine, that's not hot at all. If you'd like you can probably go higher.

 

[pmr]

Obviously it won't be "as fast" as it would be with the memory overclocked to match the CPU bus, but it will still be faster than stock speed due to the increased CPU speed.

48C is fine, that's not hot at all. If you'd like you can probably go higher.

Thanks man, that's what i thought obout the ram speed. I think i'll stay in the 3.2 because my crappy mobo is designed to support only "up to 3.2". So maybe it will be unstable. About the temps: i run a combo cool thermaltake pipe 101 with a coolmod smart fan that reaches 3900 rpm at 48º, and 1500 at 33º idle. So i think i won't have problems.
Thanks again.
Scruze my Engrish

 

[Crashman]

Designed to support "only up to 3.2" because the fastest Socket 478 processor was the P4 3.2. Haha, you can clock it as high as you like, the CPU or RAM will become unstable before the board does.