New Budget System, Overclocking not as high as others

[taz23340]

HI Guys,

I have been reading Tom's for a few years and this forum for awhile.
The time has come for me to get a new system, On a tight budget mind you.
I have overclocked the system but not nearly as much as others have obtained.

Here is my system and what I have done.

From Previous p4-478 System:

Case: Cooler Master cm690
Power Supply Extreme Power 600
LG Dvd Burner
80gb WD sata HD
200gb WD sata HD
Zalman 7700cpu cooler

New:
Asus P5k-SE MB
Intel 2160 stepping "d" revision "mo"
Asus 8600gt Silent
2gb ddr2-667 kingston ram

I installed everything, used artic silver paste.
I use cpuid Hardware Monitor and cpu-z.
I have been able to overclock to 2.61ghz. which is 290fsb * 9
vcore is at 1.45
ram is at 725 at 1.9v
i put the pci-e at 100


anything higher than this and it will not post.
At this setting I ran prime 95, one on each core and temp on each core was about 67'c idle 38.
I know that tom's was able to reach 3.2-3.3 and suggests 3.0 with a 333 fsb without a problem with only a bit of voltage.
For me this would be perfect because I could then keep my ram at 667. In the bios I cannot choose a better ram option, it gives me choices of auto, ddr2-725 and another one higher...its runnin 4:5 fsb:dram right now. sucks.

I think to go higher I need better ram because the next setting brings me to 753. when i use 295fsb.

Another this there is this fsb to northbridge setting that the manual says should be set to 200,266,333 depending on the fsb being used.

Can anyone shed some light on what I may be doing wrong?
Any suggestions?

oh I scored 9827 in 3dmark05
and 4643 on cinebench multiple cpu render test
4820 on cinebench open gl test


thanks in advance for the help
Kevin

Ya learn something new everyday, If ya don't, Ya dead.

 

[Dunkel]

First of all, I have the same chip. While every chip and every chip/MB combo is different, there is no way you should need 1.45V to do 2.61GHz (290x9). I can undervolt to 1.28V @ 2.8GHz. Once again every chip is different but that is drastically different.

Second, I'm not familiar with your board so if you've read the sticky guides on OCing on these forums I'll assume that you disabled speedstep, EIST and such. Do you have a performance enhance option? Set it to standard not turbo.

Is that RAM really only rated for 667MHz? I would assume that if they are they could do 753 but might require +.2 to DDR Overvoltage. I don't think this is as important as getting your CPU voltage down but consider some new DDR2-800.

Finally, how old is your power supply? I don't know how having an old or poor quality power supply effects CPU voltages but it seems an obvious option.

 

[taz23340]

hi Dunkel,

Thanks for the reply.

I started with the voltage higher and then will lower it a little at a time to see if it's stable.

I have disabled speedstep, not eist. But even with the bios showing speedstep disabled, I still see the lower multiplier in cpu-z.

the ram really is ddr2 667, generic kingston, that I regret and will change it to ddr2 800 ocz or corsair. almost samy price.

as for the power supply, its pretty much new, got it in november 07 and only started using it in january.

thanks
Kevin

 

[Dunkel]

No problem.

There are a few options you need to turn off or on for optimal OCing. Check the guides, they really help.

There is also a Tier breakdown for Power Supply's http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088 If your power supply ends up being a tier 4 or 5 you might consider selling it on eBay along with the RAM.

Good luck.

 

[taz23340]

HI Again Dunkel,

I have read the guides, i reviewed it once more last night, I disabled a few more things. but i still find a few things odds

1-the bios shows the speedstep off, cpuz shows the multiplier lowering at idle.
2-i cannot use less than 1.4 vcore or i get the blue screen,

does anyone know which revision and stepping overclocks well?

 

[Dunkel]

For us, M0 stepping is the best I think.

I don't know why you comp is still throttling down.

Can you post pictures of your bios or just list all your settings from you advanced page. I don't know what heading has all that info on the Asus board I have a Gigabyte.

There are a lot of people running a similar board here, they will be able to help more than I.

 

[taz23340]

im not sure how to post the bios, unless i take digital pic of it.

but i can enumerate it to you tonight when i get home.

thanks for the help though.

and i am going to switch the ram for some ddr2800 instead of 667 and see it that helps me overclock more.
I cant figure out why i would need to put 1.4 volts when your stable at a higher speed with 1.28, very weird.

 

[taz23340]

does anyone know if the motherboard could be the culprit with the cpu requiring more voltage than normal?

I was thinking about switching the motherboard to a gygabyte p35ds3l. seems to have much better overclocking options.
and is a few bucks cheaper.

 

[Dunkel]

This forum seems to be dead of late. Sorry you couldn't get more help with your board. I know that a lot of people here love the Asus P5K-E, and a lot of people love the Gigabyte DS3L including myself.

If you plan to upgrade to a 45nm chip in the next year you should consider the P5K-E.

Try starting a new thread with your specific question. Sorry I couldn't help more, I've only been doing this for a few months and although I've learned my board quite well, I don't want to give you bad info.

Good luck.