P4 3.0 Northwood OCing ?

[phaxmohdem]

Hi all,

I've finally got my LAN Party rig up and running, and began OCing it last night. First... Specs:

ASUS P4P800 SE
P4 3.0/512/800/HT (Northwood)
2GB (4x512) Infineon PC3200 3-3-3-8
Zalman 7000B-AlCu w/ AS5
Antec TPII 480

I bumpd the FSB up to 220 making for 3300MHz @ stock VCore, rock solid, Dual Prime 95'd (with HT on) all night.

Question: Can the RAM keep its act togther at these speeds? I couldn't find an option to lower the RAM Freq to 333 and go up from there like my A64 rig. I'm guessing that is not an option after reading some p4 OC'ing threads... How fast have you pushed the FSB on a P4 before the RAM crapped out?

Any other Tips? I'm a P4 OC'ing nooblet here.

 

[phaxmohdem]

NM about the RAM thing, I'm a total dunce. There is an option in the BIOS that will let me run the RAM at DDR 320 instead of 400. I dropped the RAM to 320 and upped the FSB to 240 for 3.6 GHz, still stock VCore Super Pi 8M stable ( Running other tests as we speak ). Idles 35C Load 47C

How high will this beast go?? 3.6GHz on stock VCore, and respectable temps... I may hit 3.8-4.0 at this rate unless I hit a wall real soon.

 

[Leper Messiah]

Originally posted by: phaxmohdem
NM about the RAM thing, I'm a total dunce. There is an option in the BIOS that will let me run the RAM at DDR 320 instead of 400. I dropped the RAM to 320 and upped the FSB to 240 for 3.6 GHz, still stock VCore Super Pi 8M stable ( Running other tests as we speak ). Idles 35C Load 47C

How high will this beast go?? 3.6GHz on stock VCore, and respectable temps... I may hit 3.8-4.0 at this rate unless I hit a wall real soon.

Are you priming it? Northwoods were (maybe still are?) intel's finest desktop product, don't know if its thottling or not. Temps seem okay, I'd keep them under 55C or so.

 

[phaxmohdem]

I'm pretty sure its not throttling, My 8M Superpi times keep falling as clock speeds go up. Is there a util I can use to monitor clock speed in real time to see for sure. I was under the impression for some reason, that only Prescott chips had the clock throttling feature...

Right now I'm running it through the gauntlet of all 3DMark apps 2001SE-2005, as I've personally found those to be good overall system stability tests if nothing else... Then I will load up the P95 for several hours and see what happens.

 

[blckgrffn]

Try everest home edition, available at www.lavalys.com for all your system monitoring needs Awesome chip by the way, I am jealous! I have never had the pleasure of working with a northwood C processor.

Nat

 

[phaxmohdem]

Update: @ stock vCore 3Dmark03 & 05 would unexpectedly quit. I nudged the vCore up to 1.65 (+.10) and the system passed all 3Dmark tests, it is now Prime95'ing on the Maximum heat option Idle temps now 38C and 55C Load. Guess I won't be hitting 3.8-4.0 but I'm very happy with 3.6 if this turns out to be stable at this vCore. On mid-rangish air cooling no less. Once the AS5 sets in & cures (or whatever it is that AS5 does) hopefully it will knock a degree or two off the load temp.

 

[Mloot]

Originally posted by: phaxmohdem
Update: vCore up to 2.65 (+.10)

I hope you meant 1.65, because otherwise that's alot of volts to be running through that Northy. :Q

 

[phaxmohdem]

You're correct 1.65, pardon my typo. *Corrected in above post

 

[stevty2889]

3.6ghz is a great overclock for a northwood, they usualy top out at 3.4-3.5ghz. I wouldn't go any higher on the voltage, I won't go past 1.6v on a northy, too many horror stories of sudden northwood death syndrome.

EDIT: just wanted to add that a northwood @3.6ghz is about the equivelent of a 4ghz prescott when it comes to gaming. My 3.06 northy @3.45ghz was ahead of my prescott @3.82ghz in gaming, 3D rendering, and audio encoding, the prescott was ahead in video encoding, and some synthetic benchies, or things with SSE3 support.

 

[blckgrffn]

lol, my northwood loves the 1.675 I give it, and has loved it for the last 6 months or so, no problems I think that 10-15% max over stock voltage is a good rule of thumb.

Nat

 

[DRAGoNX515]

I have an Asus P4PE (533FSB) mobo with a 2.6GHZ (533FSB) Northwood P4. My RAM is generic PC2700 RAM (2x512).

1.) With a new heatsink, do you think that I could hit 3.5...ish?
2.) Will I be able to push my RAM up to DDR400 speeds? (possibly with relaxed timings?)

I don't mind cranking up the voltages a little, I went to an Athlon system, and now it's just lying around really. I think OCing it will bring a bit more life back in it right?

And for the Heatsink, I would get the SI-120, I know a little about CPU cooling.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Hehe I asked about the same thing earlier in another thread as I was also considering using a 2.66 for this build until I remembered I had a 3.0 at my disposal as well.

Your 2.66 Chip has a 20x Multiplier x 133FSB. To get your RAM up to DDR 400 speeds, you'd have to push the FSB up to 200 which would equal 4.0GHz CPU speed. SImply not going to happen unless you have a Liquid Nitrogen Cooling system hidden under your bed Not to mention I'm not to sure how far PC2700 will go. It is rated for 166MHz FSB. 20x166 = 3.32 GHz, which I think is a more realistic goal for you if you have decent cooling.

----UPDATE on my OC Progress----
Nudged VCore up one more notch to its final resting place at 1.675V due to a Prime error @ 1.65. It's been Prime95'ing for close to 4 hours solid at maximum heat settings... Will let it go for 20 more hours and see what happens.

Summary (Current)
- 3600MHz (240FSB/192MEM) 5:4 Ratio
- 1.675 vCore (1.55 Stock)
- Room Temp @ 29C (39C Idle 57C Load)
- Room Temp @ 20C (51C Load, Haven't idled it at this temp)

 

[DRAGoNX515]

Originally posted by: phaxmohdem
Hehe I asked about the same thing earlier in another thread as I was also considering using a 2.66 for this build until I remembered I had a 3.0 at my disposal as well.

Your 2.66 Chip has a 20x Multiplier x 133FSB. To get your RAM up to DDR 400 speeds, you'd have to push the FSB up to 200 which would equal 4.0GHz CPU speed. SImply not going to happen unless you have a Liquid Nitrogen Cooling system hidden under your bed Not to mention I'm not to sure how far PC2700 will go. It is rated for 166MHz FSB. 20x166 = 3.32 GHz, which I think is a more realistic goal for you if you have decent cooling.

Thanks for the tip, and no I don't have a liquid nitrogen cooling system hidden under my bed. I'll try to shoot for 200x15 to start, kind of a big OC on the bus speed (133->200?), and then try to do 1:1 with the RAM speed, relaxe the timings a bit and then tighten them up again after it's running at the OCed speed.

 

[phaxmohdem]

I don't think you can drop the multiplier down on these suckers. They are locked pretty hard. My mobo didn't have that option at all....

 

[DRAGoNX515]

Originally posted by: phaxmohdem
I don't think you can drop the multiplier down on these suckers. They are locked pretty hard. My mobo didn't have that option at all....

Then I will shoot for 166x20, and keep increasing till either windows won't boot, or Prime/Superphi don't work no more.

 

[Garster]

I have a P4 3.2 Northwood mobile chip, has HT and speedstep. i've been running it for about a year and a half at 3.6ghz vcore at 1.45v. It defaults to the 12x multiplyer so i've run out of fsb, this Abit IC7 i have will not run over 300fsb. It's Still a fairly fast system by todays standards and runs tons cooler then later edition P4's

 

[Hottuna64]

Hi

Just like 2 add that i have almost the same setup as you.
3ghz northwood (stock heatsink)
asus p4p800
1gb geil ultra-x
x800pro

and on stock everything i can get it up
3.73 stable with 249fsb (1.65v)
ram at 167mhz 2-2-2-5

i could boot windows at 3.83 but not very stable

 

[blckgrffn]

That is why the 2.26's rule, 17x multiplier == 3.4 ghz @ 200mhz FSB

 

[phaxmohdem]

Update: Finished Stability testing. Prime 95'd for 26 hours+ perfectly. Temps were reasonable given the cooler and I'm nothing but happy with it. So 3.6GHz it is. May she live long and prosper.