Need some help..

Zuma

Hi there!

I wanna give my system a boost (dohh ) but am having problems trying to overclock.

These are my system specs:
MSI 865PE NEO-2
P4 2.6 200FSB HT (stock cooler)
Sapphire Radeon 9600XT (stock cooler)
-=GeNeRiC PS=- (says 500W)

Well my problem is: I just can't get anything higher than 210FSB without crashing. Tried to increase Vcore a bit but that didn't help. I suppose the problem is my ****ing generic PS because temp. is ok even though it's stock cooling.

Also tried to touch the 9600XT (500/600) using ATITool but I can't get any better than 510/630 artifact free. Boosting AGP doesn't help either and system crashes as well.

I'm almost sure it's the PS but I'd appreciate some advice before I buy a decent one. I'm thinking of Antec True480 (decent enough?) but my main question is: How high should I be able to get to with those specs and a decent PS?


Appreciate any help. Thanks in advance!

edcentric

What about your memory settings? I don't know about your mobo, but mem is oftern the limiting factor. Is there a review of this mobo at Anandtech where they overclocked it? How high did they get?

Zuma

Hi edcentric, yeah sorry i forgot to say that. I got 2 x 256mb 400mhz OCZ Ehanced Dual platinum.

About the mobo, there's a review at Tom's Hardware wich compares the best mobos of 2003 with the 865/875P Chipsets and mine was awarded as the fastest of all: Click Here.

Straight_Man

About 2.9-3.1 GHz out of CPU, with an HT capable Processor, depends on if you want to settle at 210 base. The video card is not OCing (with current PSU), I would try locking it at 66 MHz base for bus or VERY close to that until you change out PSU for a new one. DRAM should go 1:1 to CPU if you stick to 210 FSB base for now. IF OTOH, you want to push CPU to 215 base, then the RAM might flake, that would be in essence tossing RAM BASE to 430 if you keep RAM at 1:1. See if you can go to 215 for CPU, AND set CPU:RAM ratio to 5:4 (look at how your BIOS does this, if it uses RAM:CPU unlike mine, the ratio you want is 4:5 and NOT 5:4).

Is your RAM speced as Dual Channel capable??? If not, then that might be a large part of the stability problem at the settings I use here (and I am using Corsair RAM which will do dual channel ops as DDR (Dual Channel) 450 at 2.5,8,3,3 just absolutely fine) right there, given an HT capable CPU.

Yeah, I think another part of your problem IS the PSU. The Antec 480 should be enough to reasonably OC, a PC Power and Cooling 450-500 should also be enough.

Zuma

Thank you Straight_Man!

Yeah Dual Channel is on. 2-2-3-5

Well we've found out what my problem is...I went to BIOS to check the FSB:RAM ratio as you said, it says CPU ratio selection is locked (damn!). So, it's exactly what you said. As i can't change ratio, it's 1:1 by default so my RAM was limiting me to those 210FSB. Then what I did: changed DRAM frequency (wich was set to AUTO) to 333mhz, kept FSB at 200, saved and rebooted. This way i was able to reach 240FSB (3.120mhz) while my RAM moved back towards 400 MHz...perfect...

Thanks again for your help. My only problem is now the video card wich doesn't let me overclock it. Usint ATITool i get max. core running at 510 only (default=500) and mem. at 630 (default=600), any higher than that i get artifacts. Could it be temp. (as it's stock cooling and no mem. heatsinks) or just the PSU or both?

GrayFox

Temps try putting a better cooler on ur ati card

Geeky1

This should fix your video card OCing issue
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5211