Help Overclocking a 2.4C

[[TN] Nathan]

Guys,

Post here with your system specs and I will try to help.

If you are new to this read this post:

http://www.tweaknews.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=698

If that doesn't apply to you, post here and I will love to help.
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[Mastah]

alright peeps, ive been recently wondering whats been holding me back when i overclock i use easy tune4 its a windows based program that comes with my motherboard (gigabyte GA 81pe 1000L). I pushed the system bus to 215mhz gettin a clock speed of 2620mhz and i have my voltage at 1.525 with a temp of 36 degrees celcius (96f) --> (cant get much past this without the comp restarting 225 max system bus, tried the bios went in there pushed it to 235 system bus and bios gets F'ed up had to take the battery out of the motherboard and reinput the cmos values....not fun) - the thing is i hear of people going crazy overclockin to mad speeds with the same processor i got p4 2.4c, speeds of 3.5ghz on stock cooling, whats going on i cant go beyond 215, do i need more ram?(256mb ddr 400 pc3200 dual channel) is it a voltage issue, memory timings?? argh..should i be happy with my overclock???....im gettin 3dmark 2001 se scores of 2856 at 800 by 600 (got a gefroce ti4200 8x agp) am i cursed forever?

thanx peeps

[[TN] Nathan]

First, off, you need two sticks of the exact same ram to get dual channel. Read you Motherboard manual!

you will need to bump up your memory voltage to 2.8 to overclock and set your divider to 5/4 so it starts the memory off at a slower timing so when you reach 3.0Ghz (250fsb) , the memory is at 400Mhz.
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[Mastah]

hey thanx for all the tips i figured out how to set the divider to 5/4 man was it easy i feel like an idiot not knowing how! everything was going smoothly i had the voltage to 2.8 and overclocking was going just fine until i hit 225 mhz, i get this error c:\windows\system32\config\SYSTEM " is damaged when booting up, i read around on the net and from some sources on the net i hear that its because i could possibly have shitty ram?? is that so!? when i took it back down to 221 mhz all was fine and dandy....whats going on here?

thanx

[CooLJoE]

Ok, a couple things...

If your getting 2800 score in 3DMark2001SE with a Geforce4 Ti4200 8x AGP, you have some serious issues with your comp. Even a Geforce3 can get passed that score in 2001SE. Are you sure you don't mean 3DMark 2003?

Memory divider is the key. Remember, PC3200 (400mhz) memory is only spec'd to go up to 200mhz (doubled). I have PC3200 on my setup and was able to hit 225mhz before going 5/4 divider. Then I hit 215mhz before needing the 3/2 divider. Basically, try and keep the ram below 200mhz or at 200mhz. Some ram will work above 200mhz, but you'll likely need to relax the memory timings to do it. Right now I have my memory at 184mhz and the timings are 3-8-3-3. If I speed up the timings, my system won't be stable. Of course I'm also OC'd to 3.3ghz. But make sure to watch your timings. When you change the divider, the memory gets dropped to a lower mhz speed and the timings get faster (lower numbers) which can cause problems later on. My ram is CAS3 and when I did the 3/2 divider, the SPD of the ram told the mobo CAS2 settings. This happens because your timings at DDR400 need to be more relaxed than when the ram is at DDR333 or DDR266, because when memory runs faster, its can't always use faster timings and be stable.

Also, you don't need to up the memory voltage to 2.8v or even 2.7v unless your running into errors. I didn't up my memory voltage to 2.7v (max the board will do) until I was at the 3.2ghz area. Infact I had completely stock settings for cpu and ram voltage all the way until ~3.2ghz.

Lastly, the SYSTEM erro your getting is a registry issue. Basically the SYSTEM part of your registry is corrupt or lost. You CAN fix it, but you may lose some settings in Windows that you had before. First, let me say that I hope this wasn't an important system. What I recommend people do when they OC, is to use another harddrive so they can do tests and get a stable OC before using it as their main setup or as one that may have important data. This way when errors occur, its not a big deal and you can reload the harddrive and continue your tests. This is what I did with mine (listed in my sig below).

Anyways, here's how to get it back up and running (WinXP):

- Put the XP CD in your drive and boot from it.
- It will come to the first screen with an option of "Repair from console". Choose this option (hit R)
- At the prompt, browse to c:\windows\system32\config\
- Do a directory listing and see if you have files named system and system.bak. Or if not a system.bak see if you have a system-named files that is similar in size to the regular system file. Generally it should have an extension of .bak (backup)
- If you do, rename the system file to something like system.old
- Then rename the backup one (system.bak or similar) to system

This should fix it. Restart your computer and you should load up into Windows. There is another method for those who don't have the system.bak file, but I can't find it on Microsoft's site. It has quite a bit of work though. Basically if this isn't an important Windows install, I suggest formatting and starting over. The fix above may still have errors just in Windows, but atleast you can get into Windows so you can save some data.
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[Mastah]

thanx alot man u really helped alot, ive got my system running now at 3007.0mhz and its STABLE
thanx so much!!

[[TN] Nathan]

Yet another happy Tweaknews member, LOVE IT! :)
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[alexvdl]

3007 Ohms? Am I missing something?
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[Mastah]

let me be more clear 3007.0 MHZ haah better? or 3.0ghz overclocked, update i had it up to 3.15 but..comp cpu is gettin too hot 55C it also doesnt help cuz my room is stuffy, was running cool when there was nice ventilation going but when i leave close all windows etc gets pretty hot. any ideas on what kind of cooling i should buy, im on a budget
thanx

[Mastah]

just another update for anyone whos wondering ive got the 2.4c up to 3.488 GHZ on STOCK COOLING :) BIg props to cooljoe and Nathan for their help!! peace

[[TN] Nathan]

WOW!
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[CooLJoE]

Nice!

As you can see by my sig, I've hit 3.3ghz max with crappy PC3200 ram and stock HSF. I think with better ram I'll hit the 3.5+ area (hoping anyways).

BTW, a good cooler for someone on a budget would be the Thermaltake Volcano 7+. There may be a better solution and maybe Nathan knows of one, but the Volcano 7+ runs about $23 at newegg.com. Not bad for an ALL COPPER heatsink with 70mm fan (that comes with a dial to control the fan speed).

I've been eyeing the Thermalright SLK-900U, but I'm not sure it will fit on my board without having to mess with my northbridge heatsink. The SLK-900U also runs $50 which isn't a big plus in my books. I'm definetely going to get a better HSF though. Stock has gotten me this far and probably will go farther, but I'd rather just play it safe and lower temps at the same time.
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TestOC PC
P4 2.4C @ 3.29ghz, DFI LanParty 875Pro, 2 x 256mb PC3200 @ 367mhz, 40gb WD, 52x LiteOn CD-ROM

[[TN] Nathan]

the volcano 7+ is a great heatsink for the money and will perform so much better than the stock cooler.

Plus you can control the noise.
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[Mastah]

damn just for any of u wondering wat was going on with my 3dmark2001 se scores..i was gettin 5000 or so with a geforce 4 ti running a 3.1ghz system....it was cuz i only had one stick of RAM!! i bought another and set it up to be dual channel AND OMG what a difference in score a 7500 point increase to 12596 man thats amazing....never doubt the power of the ram
hahha
peace out!!

[lloydho]

i am using a asus p4c800, two 512 pc3200 ram, a 2.4c and the coolmaster aero 4 hsf. For some reason, with my ac on, the cpu at stock speed has a idle temp of 40 C, about 104 F. And after i hit 3 ghz (max for winxp to load) the idle will get up to 45C about 110 F . I think itz because i am using the thermal paste that came with the fan . Second, i could not get over 3.007 ghz. can anyone give me a hand?

thx

[Mastah]

the best person to answer ur questions is usually nathan, but i will give it a shot since i got my comp all the way to 3.5 ghz on stock cooling, umm thermal paste i hear that if u put too much of that stuff on it actually makes it hotter..make sure ur running with ur case off, check ur memory timings set the dividers to 3:2 thats what worked for me and make sure the dimm voltage is up by .1v (2.7 ==> nathan suggest 2. download cpu-z and go to the memory tab and make sure u dont get ur memory above 200mhz if u dont, chances are u will stay stable, my max = somewhere in the region of 193mhz that is what i used and it worked, of course the best way is to experiment sure its harder but once u figure it out u feel proud and u wont forget how u did it if u figure it out urself. but anywhoo, right now im running at a cool 25Celsius on STOCK cooling so i dunno peeps i guess my comp is just gifted! *except for the dual channel saga and the 3dmarkscores ahha*inside joke* oh and set the timings looser to 3-8-3-3 (have to make sure ur bios is in advanced settings mode to mess around with most functions to get there i used ctrl f1but as nathan says READ UR MANUAL lol....
peace
hope my blather helped

[Mastah]

YAH!!! U CAN DOOOOO ITTTTT

[CooLJoE]

[CooLJoE]

[DMW]

[lloydho]

Thanks everyone for the quick reply

[Mastah]

Honestly peeps i dont know wahts up, the ram thing i dunno i have a theory behind that and i think its because the 256 mb of ram was the bottleneck for my graphics card, i think it was holding it back but once i went dual channel there was no bottleneck so it could perform as well as it wanted to. 25C thing i got that temperature at about 3 or 2 am it gets pretty cool at that time around here and i have to fans *regular ones* shooting air all around the room plus my room has a back door and thats open (and thats with minimal load) but right now its hotter and i still got the fans open but its about 4pm in the day and im gettin 30C now i dont know whats going on with my comp its either really messed up or really good but im finally happy, cuz those 3dmark2001 se scores were really getting on my nerves.
anywhoo i was thinkin about purchasing that thermaltake 7 hsf and was wondering if installation of a fan is pretty tough?

peaaaaaaaaacee

[[TN] Nathan]

you mean a 7+ right. The normal 7 is a piece of junk.
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[CooLJoE]

I still think your thermal monitor program is screwed up (or whatever your using to read the temps). 30C is still pretty low unless its like 70F in your room and you have REALLY good cooling setup in your case (like 6 fans properly moving air in and out of the case). 25C and your room would have to be like 60F in your room with the same level of cooling in your case.

I know your seeing those temps, but trust me when I say that an OC'd 2.4C processor with stock HSF CANNOT get that low of temps without a rather low ambient temp that you would not be able to sit in without being like "damn its cold in here". My guess is that your reading the wrong temp or are reading the BIOS measured temp which is probably wrong. Mine shows a 20F difference between BIOS and MBM. And since I've had 2 utilities tell me the same thing as MBM, I'd say my BIOS is off (which is probably the case for you as well).

With that said, what are you using to read temps?
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P4 2.4C @ 3.29ghz, DFI LanParty 875Pro, 2 x 256mb PC3200 @ 367mhz, 40gb WD, 52x LiteOn CD-ROM

[[TN] Nathan]

Not true CoolJoe.

If he is running at stock voltage and has a cool room temperature, he easily could be running those temperatures with proper case ventilation.

It's been cold in Canada lately.
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