I am attempting my first ever overclock and due to not being minted, I dont want to fry my system.

here is my spec and my bios readings;

P4 3.0E prescott @ 15x200
Abit Ic7 Mobo
1.5Gb PC2700 DDR 533 Ram
Winfast A310 fx5600 256Mb

Bios:
CPU

CPU/AGP/PCI = 200/66/33
CPU - DRAM ratio = 5:4
CPU Voltage = 1.2875

RAM

2.5-3-3-7

2.6Volts

AGP voltage = 1.55V


Also, I have just put the extra 512 MB of ram in my system and it seems to have disabled dual channell. Am I better having 1Gb in dual channel or going for 1.5GB in single channel.

I know this is a biggy so thanks for readind

Dual channel has to work in pairs it should be stated this in your MOBO manual.

The prescott can be overclocked but there might be a limit on your MOBO if you go to high. Start slowly and see what happens. Did you replace the standard FAN for the CPU. You might get away with it but I've tried it on my Intel Prescott to the max, it work but was a bit unstable.

If you can do it go with 1GB dual channel, cost is coming down though...

thanks. I was already running dual channel with two 512 sticks and when i put in another one it stopped. thought that i could run dual channel with just those two sticks and single with another:-P obviously not.

on the overclock, my cpu idles at around 44C so i am ok with temp. i just want to try it to learn how to do it before i invest in a major system overhaul with the latest technology.

will i just increase the fsb and see what happens or do i have to simultaneously alter other settings and voltages?

well I just increased the FSB to 220 to see what happened and I had no probs at all running prime95 for an hour. so it has went to 3.30 Ghz with an increase of 4C in temp. what else do I have to do to push it further? when will the fixed agp/pci start going haywire?

thanks

You should able to push the system 3.60GHz, but that depends on your MOBO limits as you can see already PCI/AGP start to act up. Right now hold off in getting the latest and greatest, as when the Quad Core and AMD tries to play catch then go get your upgrade. But you might find what you have is more than enough.

thanks tipster, I needed a general upper limit. should I change my ram timings at all or just keep upping the FSB. how about voltages, do i just increase if it wont boot or crashes? thanks

Be very careful with the temps; Prescotts can become very, very hot!

yeah they run vv hot. i have moved it to 3.6ghz now with 240fsb with no probs whatsoever and not even upped the voltage and with no increase in temp. surely it is not that easy??? or maybe the increase from 166mhz to 192 in ram has coped.

strange stuff this:-)

Good keep it at 3.6GHz and try your best to keep things like the CPU and the case as cool as you can. Some cases have 3 more fan slots and the PSU some have 120mm case fan built-in.

Do you have the original fan and heatsink, because if you do, I'll be damned if the overclock went that far without overheating. Also, have you tried testing the overclock when the cpu is under load (i.e. stability tests, heavy duty games, etc.)?

sorry was away for a week.

I have ran prime95 for a few hours and also ram several benchmarks as well as running chessmaster 10th edition and numerous other games for hours. the highest temp I reached on full load was 61C in a warm room. I have 5 case fans with the stock heatsink (soon to be changed) I have managed to create a mini vaccum inside the case to aid the air expulsion from the heatsink.
idle
sys temp = 25
cpu = 47.50
PSU = 35

I am happy with the cooling at the moment. attempted 3.9ghz for a short while and although system just stays cool enough I cant get system stability without upgrading ram.

Question..... which is better? running 3.6gz with a 3/2 ram ration or 3.3ghz with a 5/4 ratio? benchmarks dont seem to be definitive on either

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic9388.html

Hi easystreet,

that depends on your memory needs... most people don't even require a full 1GB, in which case it would be useless to add another 512MB, and would hurt performance by disabling dual channel operation. but if you require more than 1GB of RAM (your system would heavily use virtual memory and run sluggish) then you would benefit more from the extra 512MB than dual channel. the best of both worlds would be 2GB in dual channel (4x512MB or 2x1GB).

your AGP/PCI bus is locked by default (unless you manually change it). your AGP/PCI bus will never go haywire as long as you leave the speeds at 66/33

generally yes, but be careful. too much voltage is how you'll fry your CPU. raise it in very small increments. if raising it still doesn't stabilize it then you know you've hit the CPU's ceiling.

lol... yes it is that easy

ideally you want to run a 1:1 ratio on Intel systems. but since you're only using DDR333, you can't run 1:1 even at stock speeds, so I don't think it matters much either way. you would probably benefit more from the faster CPU speed and the 3/2 ratio

out of curiosity... what's your superPI speed now that you've overclocked?

cheers

just checked what a superPI was:-) i will run it when it when i get the chance. I have upgraded to corsair platinum pc3200 (2,2,2,5) ram also so that should give my system a kick.

thanks

my super PI is 36sec for 1m. that is with new corsair platinum dual channell, 2.5,2,2,5 . (400mhz, 2x 512)