Overclocking 3500+

[akassasin]

Just got through prime95-ing my first overclock

Not a huge OC but I got my 3500 to 2.575 ghz stable. Havent tweaked with memory timings yet, i left them loose just to see what my processor could do.

I'm a little dissappointed though, after reading everyone's 2.6-7 ghz resuslts with their 3000/3200's I was expecting to at least get that with my 3500. Yet when I put my FSB to 240 (bringing my CPU to 2650 or so) I lose stability. So for now I have it at 235.

I've got the voltage set to 1.6 on the CPU with 30-35 C temps. The ram is 5:6 with 2.8 volts @ 391 mhz.
HT set to 4x.

Im happy so far with my overclock (wasnt even planning to mess with the hardware originally because its my first build) but Im still wondering why my CPU loses stability at 240 fsb. I'd like to get it up into the 2.6-7 range!!

any suggestions?

 

[thriemus]

Try lowering your vdimm to 2.7. Too much voltage is as unstable as too little

 

[akassasin]

Well its running stable right now at 2.8 volts... worth a try I guess though

 

[Koyanisquatsi]

didn't read close enough. disregard.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Been running mine at 2.8GHz to keep my heatsink silent.

 

[Painman]

If you're already at 1.6 vcore to hold stability, chances are you've reached the limit of the chip. Your PSU is good, your mobo may have power regulation issues which can contribute to instability, but I think you've simply found the start of the physical limit of the CPU.

In fact, I'd even suggest backing it off a little bit. Wanna know how many MHz my 3000+ has to drop when I pull the Vcore down to 1.54 from 1.61? 36. 36 lousy MHz. A 1.4% performance loss for dropping a 15% overvolt down to a much more comfortable 10%. If your chip behaves the same way as mine, you'd still be over 2.5 GHz, I know it's nice to reach those milestones with 2.6, 2.7, etc., but 2.5 is still pretty damn fast.