Maximizing my P4 3GHZ system

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mayakindaguy

Gawd
Joined
Jan 28, 2004
Messages
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Hi, I'm a relative noob at the overclocking scene and was simply wondering how to get the best out of my system.

my specs are:

P4 3ghz
P4P800 deluxe
4x512MB (2GB) Kingston PC3200 @ 3-3-3
Hercules (9800 pro)
160 GB Maxtor hardrive

with 400 watt powersupply

I don't even have a fan for my power supply and I'm basically running with an open case, but my cpu temp goes from 25-40 degrees celcius and the mobo is usually at around 38-40ish.

I heard that people are able to oc the 3ghz up to around 3.8 and get the fsb really high also (which I have no idea how to do).

I simply use the AI overclocker that's in my bios and it wont post at 30% overclock which is 3.9 and it won't run windows at 20% overclock which is 3.6. I can only run a 10% overclock at 3.3ghz and it by default i guess bumps my fsb to 220.

Is this normal? or am i supposed to run my comp stably at the higher settings? perhaps manually setting the options (which i don't really know how to do)? Does overclocking really damage your cpu and lower the lifespan dramatically.

I will be rendering a lot on 3d applications, which does drain the cpu so i'm quite worried about this. I was rendering abou 350 frames of a pretty complex scene and my fans started to get a little high pitched....scary.

Lastly, for this long post. Should I sell my rig and rebuild it dramatically cheaper or upgrade when the next set of prescotts and 64s are released? I'd be looking to get rid of it for about $1600 but don't know if that will work out.

Any help? THanks
 
Can you put the ram on a 5:4 divider? If that 10% oc is running 220 fsb, it may not be keeping the ram at 200MHz. Which is way out of spec. No supprise 30% OC (260MHz FSB) wont work at all.

If the %OC feature locks the ram at 200MHz, ignore everything I said.
 
Almost all 3 Ghz P4's run stable on air cooling at 3.5 Ghz (like mine). Just set the AGP/PCI speed to a fixed 66/33 Mhz, raise the CPU voltage to 1.575 V (you can decrease it later if the comp is stable in stress tests), set the RAM divider to 5:4 (FSB : RAM speed) and you're set Of course you'll have to set the FSB to 233 Mhz for 3.5 Ghz CPU speed.
 
Well, thanks for the info guys, but how do u change those settings in the bios? (the FSB and the ram timings and cpu/ram etc) most of my settings are on auto.

Also, my vcore voltage is at 1.62 then i have something else thats like 12 V, 5V and 3.3V.

Is that high?
 
under the jumperfree configuration menu in the BIOS turn the first option to Manual. then you can tweak everything yourself.


and the RAM timings are under the Chipset menu. disable set SPD by default (or sumthing, cant remember the exact phrase)
 
hmmmm...can't seem to find the fsb:ram spread. when u disable spd it does open up options to change the ram settings. for some reason my pc3200 thats only 3-3-3-8 gets switched to 2.5-4-4-8
and it takes it down to like 150mhz or something. awfully strange. I don't know if anyone's familiar with america megatrends bios but i have the enhanced and turbo features all on, does that alter any of the settings?
Cause i can't find the fsb:ram ration anywhere. Every time i change the fsb up to like 230, it will alter the other settings automatically and change the ratio to like 3:2 and stuff.
ANy ideas?

Is it better to run the timings at 2.5-4-4-8 rather than 3-3-3-8 because when I ran the 3 Pcmark04 wouldnt due the divx test and would crash, but the system seems to run fine. Under PCMArk04 it says that my ram is running at 0 Ghz and CPU-Z says its running about 200MHZ.

Many strange things for noobies. sigh
 
THe FSB:RAM speed can be set under the first BIOS heading (softmenu), where you set the FSB and core voltage. It's called northbridge strap or something like that.
 
actually his would be called "cpu external frequency"

hit shift+= key to raise it. and just "-" to lower it.
i raised mine in increments of 7. i forget right off hand where i stopped. made it to 3.6 and everynow and then my screen would just freeze. just like once or twice. i lowered back down to 3.5.

go to THIS THREAD to read what the guy told me to do. we have similar setups for the exception of the ram.
 
10% isnt bad. I would think the CPU probably has more in it. But you will have to drop your memory ratio to 5:4.

You need to benchmark it at 3.3Ghz at 1:1

Then try at say 3.5Ghz, (234FSB) at 5:4 ratio and benchmark it there too

See what gives your best scores in the what you like.
Games = 3dMark2001
Office apps = Winstone, etc

Sisoft also gives you a decent idea of performance, but does not always correlate to real world performance.

3.3 is good
3.4-3.5 would be very good
3.6 would be great, but not very probable
 
well i have it up to 3.45 or something and i changed my ram timings to 2.5-3-3-8-8. and i set the dram frequency at 320mhz like the other post said, but it set the clock speed down to about 180mhz. Does that cause my system to run slower? When u overclock are u supposed to make your ram run at a slower frequency?
I'm a noob so bear with me, but u guys have really been great in all your help.
 
under jumperfree config in the BIOS there should be something that looks like DRAM FREQUENCY. this will allow you to manually set your RAM dividers. its right underneath the cpu frequency.


400 = 1:1
320 = 5:4
266 = 3:2

setting it to Auto will do it for you. I have never tested that so i have no idea how well it works. imo manual > auto
 
I'm using the 3:2 ratio which makes my ram run 33% slower than FSB.(but which @ 300FSB coincidentally is at the spec speed of 200)

The 5:4 ratio that you're using makes the ram run 20% slower than the FSB. (at 250FSB your ram would be at spec again, but you probably wont get that high)

THATS not a bad thing. As the FSB historically been the bottleneck, especially with dual channel DDR, its most important to increase FSB (which also increases the CPU speed)

at 3.45Ghz, Im assuming that you're at 230Mhz FSB (920) and 184Mhz (DDR368). Thats a great overclock.

Its fine that your ram is at slightly slower speed than spec. The mother board being dual channel provides plenty enough bandwidth. Use Sisoft and test your memory bandwidth.

Thats probably going to be your maximum. Go benchmark it and test for stability. You may even find that if you test it with Prime95 that you will have to slow it down a little more.
 
thanks for the info, you guys are great. It seems the system does run stable for the most part at those clocks, but for some dumb reason I can't run benchmarks like 3d mark 03 or PC mark 04. The comp freezes up usually when I get to compression tests or the graphics test on PC mark04. Wonder why that is. Well Im gonna go try sisoft and see what happens =)

Oh and what timings should I have my ram at. I have kingston PC3200 thats supposed to run 3-3-3-8, but I currently have it at 2.5-3-3-6...is there some sort of ratio or math involved in how fast my casL should run compared to the rest of my system for optimization?

wow, 300FSB I admire u guys
 
It sounds like its not stable if you cant benchmark it.
So you need to go down some in speed probably or increase timings for ram.

run Prime95 if you want the super stability test.

If it can run Prime95 for even an hour, it can run just about anything.
 
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