"P4C800-E Deluxe" OC'ing tips etc.

[cool_case]

Oh ... didn't know that. I moved the vcore up to 1.7 when I was tyring out DanX's stuff. It got me to post at 242 and it gave the good Sandra score at 238 fsb. But, it didn't create stability. I saw some posts tonight with people above 1.7 vcore on the Northwood.

In fact, with the ASUS vcore flux, my current vcore setting of 1.675 occasionally lands at 1.712.

I'll look up the Intel spec page. I belive 1.7 is the vcore limit, but it may be a touch higher.

[CrowdAds]

[VSEKH]

I've got vcore set to 1.6v in the bios. But, under idle it reaches 1.696v sometimes. Under load, it stays at 1.6v.

When I set the FSB to 250, I tried setting the vcore to 1.625, 1.65, 1.675, & 1.7. But, it would reboot whem trying to get into windows.

Looks like the p4c has this voltage issue that everyone is talking about. Something called droop mod.

[cool_case]

I believe the droop mod is a hardware fix to the ASUS voltage fluxuatoins. Couldn't find it though.

Don't think voltage is holding you back, though. You're running in the 1.6-1.7 range as you need to for the kind of oc's you are doing. Everyone's very cautious about going beyond 1.7v unless you have super cooling capacity.

[VSEKH]

I'm gonna find out how to run prime95 and test stability with the 245 FSB setting for now. If the test does not fail, I'm gonna live with 245 FSB for now.

I'm gonna conclude for now that the memory is what's holding me back right now. Also, the cpu might have reached it's limit at 245.

Maybe when memory prices drop, I'll consider buying OCZ or Corsair PC4000 memory.

[cool_case]

You can get the prime software at this http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm site. It's a pretty easy install -- runs with a spartan interface, while it checks for really large prime numbers.

[VSEKH]

I've installed it. I have to read some instructions on how to set it up to stress test the CPU.

[cool_case]

It's a pretty intense test.

It just crashed my 235 fsb though nothing else had throughout the day. I'll give it a try again, though I don't really need to do number crunching type computing here.

For me, the more important tests are a game test like 3DMark and Sandra memory scores to make sure the mem is working right.

[VSEKH]

I'm gonna decide in the next few days on whether I want to keep the p4c800e or return it as I already have an ic7-max3 and a p4s800d-e.

The ic7-max3 has always worked great for me with standard settings. I also like the otes cooling and the active northbridge fan, which is why I got this board instead of the p4c800e last November. One negative is that the temperatures that are reported are always high, around 122F during idle and 154 during load with the stock cooler. Another negative for me is that if I load bios 14, the system hangs for about 30 seconds when scanning the IDE bus to see if there are any bootable cds in any of the cdroms.

The negatives with the p4c800e is that high vcore reported during idle and maybe the fact that there is a heatsink on the northbridge.

The main thing I need to consider is which board will allow me to reach 250FSB in the future if I get some OCZ or Corsair PC4000 memory.

Your thoughts or suggestions?

[cool_case]

You are running stably on the P4C at 245 and on the IC7 the top stable speed was 240. You have no risk running the P4C at this speed because your voltage is staying (well?) below 1.7. The only thing that might be giving a higher fsb on the P4C, compared to what you got on the IC7, is the Zalman on the p4C's cpu.

If it were me, I'd put the IC7 back in one more time with the Zalman to see what it can do. If the top is still 240, then you could conclude that P4C is a +5 stronger board with your chip than the IC7. Maybe you can infer that 240 is it's top fsb without putting the board back -- don't know.

Since you know your memory runs at least at 490 Mhz -- and you presumabley set it to latency specs in the IC7 -- you can (if 240 is it's top fsb) to a much larger extent rule out memory as holding back the 480 Mhz memory running IC7, than you can on the P4C.

If one board runs at +5 fsb to another, that would be the one I would keep and that would be the one that you might expect to squeeze more out of later.

However ... if you can get the IC7 to go much beyond 240, then it's a new ballgame.

p.s. you can put a NB cooler on the P4C pretty easily. Not sure if it did me any good with fsb, though the NB never gets above 32 (90) .

[VSEKH]

I'm gonna put the ic7-max3 back into my case tomorrow upgrade to bios14. I'm keep my SIIG PCI ultra133 controller out of the system as I suspect this is what's causing the hang when the system is looking for a bootable cd in the cdroms. If this issue gets resolved, I will reinstall XP as usual at stock speeds. Then, I'll see if the system is stable at 240FSB. Then I will try 245 and check for stability by playing a game. If it is stable, then I will set it to 250 and see if I can bootup into windows as before. I will monitor the temperature and start playing a game to see if it will reboot as before.

I'll report back my results. Hopefully I'll have reached the 250FSB on the ic7-max3.

I really appreciate your insights cool_case and the time you have spent with me.

EDIT: I'm not going to consider the NB cooler as an issue with the p4c800e.

[cool_case]

My pleasure and thanks for the beer cheer.

Good luck and have fun with the next round of tests and keep as as you can.

--

Hope xxx (don't remember his name) doesn't swoop in and fire off an unwelcome zap because we have spoken about 40-50% about the IC7 in this P4C thread .

[VSEKH]

I doubt it. If he DanX does stop by, I'll thank him for his OC tips and that he's got a fine thread here.

I'll update this thread tomorrow with the results. I'll keep my hopes up that I can reach 250FSB on the ic7-max3.

It's 11:10pm here. I'm gonna have goodnight sleep knowing that I got to 245FSB today on the p4c800e.

Have a goodnight cool_case.

[cool_case]

You did do a lot of nice oc work tonight!

I really enjoyed it and I'll look forward to your posts tomorrow ...

[VSEKH]

Hi cool_case,

Curerntly browsing the web with the ic7-max3 plugged in with the FSB set to 250.

I had to set the vcore to 1.7V. The CPU temperature is hoving around 42C right now. I have not played a game yet.

[cool_case]

Nice ... dare I say, "let the games begin"?