Overclocking XP-M even more

[f1nal_0men]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums and I hope I can get some help, as well as contribute.
I have an Barton Xp 2500+ mobile in my Abit NF7-S 2.0 And it is currently running at 12x200 @ 1.75volts (I think). I used to be able to get a stable overclock at 13x200 at near 2.00volts back in the day, but I just can't hit a stable clock much over 2.4ghz anymore. I think I have a pretty good cooling setup. I got myself a 7800gs (an amazing card!) I think I could really benefit from an extra 200mhz... Here's my system specs as detailed as possible

Cooler Master Centurion 5 with included 420watt psu
Athlon XP-M barton 2500+ @ 200x12 1.75volts
Abit NF7-S 2.0 Nforce2 (using latest Bios, not sure version #)
Zalman 7000cu cooler (modified to fit NF7-S 2.0)
Zalman NB47J Northbridge cooler (also modified to fit with 7000cu)
OCZ DDR400 Gold 512mbx2 2-3-3-6
BFG 7800gs 470/1.37 (not done overclocking yet either!)
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music

If anyone would know why I can't hit any higher, or any recommendations, would be greatly appreciated, thanks everyone!

Oh, one more question, what exactly does the extra 4pin power connector on the mobo do exactly? I can boot with and without it, never seems to be a probem, should it be plugged in or not? Thanks again for your help guys!

 

[TabrisDarkPeace]

Maybe your processor has aged prematurely from the excessive overclocking.

The 7800 GS only has 16 pipelines apparently, vs the 7800 GT (with 20) or 7800 GTX (with 24), so could get 'up to' +50% improvement video wise (assuming same clockspeed per pipeline) on a PCIe platform.

PCIe supports a higher wattage per slot, which permits more power hungry video cards, which still require a seperate 6-pin connector sometimes.

An Athlon 64 3500+ will outperform most overclocked Socket A systems, as the memory, video, and other system I/O all have dedicated paths, vs the shared path Socket A systems have to everything.

Just look at the comparison, gaming wise, between the two here:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=246&model2=269&chart=68
Note that they have similar clock speeds, and the same amount of L2 cache. They also are only benchmarking with a GeForce 6800 GT series card, on each system to compare the CPU only.

You may need to bite the bullet if more performance is required, and move to a Socket 939 or LGA-775 platform with PCI Express Graphics x16.

 

[f1nal_0men]

Thanks for the advice Tabris, actually you half-answered a question I had on a different thread. I will be upgrading my cpu soon and I need a socket 939 + agp board, wich I posted here: http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Opteron-165-__________-motherboard-ftopict176364.html
I did buy the 7800gs already so AGP is a must, I know I'm biting myself in the ass that I will need a new motherboard in a year or two so I can support a better videocard but I made the choice already. I was just trying to get out as much performance out of my champ xp-m until I can afford a replacement.
But thanks for your quick reply!

 

[gomerpile]

Take a look at your coils on the motherboard see if they are darkened, I had a serious coil problem and replaced with higher quality ones and that fixed the problem of what you are experiencing.

 

[Coyote]

Well, thats a pretty big vcore difference (1.75 vs 2.0). So only 200mhz with an extra .25v back in the day?

What are your temps?

Yeah, keep the 4 pinner plugged in.

And Welcome to the Forums!

Coyote

 

[f1nal_0men]

Well, thats a pretty big vcore difference (1.75 vs 2.0). So only 200mhz with an extra .25v back in the day?

What are your temps?

Yeah, keep the 4 pinner plugged in.

And Welcome to the Forums!

Coyote

Ya it took quite q voltage increase to get it stable at 2.6, (could boot on 2.7 but would rebstart constantly)

I think I used to run around ~75 celsius on load with a cooler master aero cooler 7 lite, now I use zalman 7000cu, my temps are about ~60 load now

Ok, what does it do exactly? Does the 4 pin power cable give more power to the motherboard or cpu? Was it just added because 20pin wasn't good enough to give a motherboard enough power in the later days? lol, it's just bothering, I need to know

And thanks for your help Coyote

 

[TabrisDarkPeace]

The 4-pin power connector typically provides more stable power to the processor (well the 12v VRMs that feed the processor) as sudden drains or releases of power by other components may cause undesirable changes in the processors flow of power otherwise.

Tip: EPS12V PSUs use a similar concept but with even more processor sockets - so search for EPS12V specs on the SSI website if they are still there. That and www.intel.com or www.formfactor.org might still have some older ATX12V 4-pin techdocs & whitepapers

It was made primarily for the Pentium 4 (a fairly electrical power hungry processor) but AMD adopted it aswell.

Using it will either increase stability or overclockability.... it depends what tests you run... I recommend 8 x Prime95 instances at once, each using 1/8th your memory, each in a Custom variet (to set memory to 1/8th total per instance, FFT's not locked) of the TortureTest / Blend mode for at least 2 hours to confirm the processor / etc is stable at a given overclock.

You'll need to unzip to 8 seperate folders to do that though , or just 8 seperate temp folders from WinRAR.

As the Athlon XP lacks decent thermal overheat protection remember to keep an eye on it, or make sure the heatsink + fan are working damn well before walking away for 2 hours.... less you return to a burned out Athlon XP-M processor at anything above 2.0 volts.

 

[f1nal_0men]

Awesome, thanks for all the answers Tabris! I think you and Coyote pretty much answered what I needed to know.