overclocking a piece of junk

ThatFatCat5

Yeah.... so I've been overclocking my piece of **** and have come across a problem. If I bring the FSB of my P4 2.0GHz Celeron 400FSB socket 478 past 117MHz the computer refuses to boot, it posts and restarts constantly, so I'm wondering if I just need to raise my CPU voltage to make up for the higher FSB. Whenever I've tried to overclock I have never raised the voltage because I don't really know much about overclocking in the first place, but I heard in a few places that the voltage needs to be raised to allow stability.

So overall 3 questions
1. Should I raise the voltage? and by how much, my mobo's options for "CPU Vcore Regulator" are...
Default
+ 0.025 V
+ 0.050 V
+ 0.075 V
+ 0.100 V

2. Can my processor handle a voltage increase?

3. The system runs kinda shotty overclocked right now, being just below its "no boot" limit, would simply raising the voltage and not changing the FSB at all boost performance?

A few notes
The cpu external clock started at 100
And it's a celeron so it's CPU Ratio is locked at x20

pre-thanks

MAGIC

1. depends on what kind of cooling you have and what your temps are stock?
2. depends on temps but most likely
3. wont boost performance but would possibley make the computer more stable

what hardware do you have mobo memory power...?

ThatFatCat5

the stock temp is around 35c
and overclocked right now i get about 37c

my cooling is a simple fansink

full load for both situations is (at max) 65c

i'm using a p4xb-sa by VIA
1x512MB Corsair Valueram PC2100
1x256MB sony or something PC2100
450W psu

also, two more questions
1. Could the "no boot" be caused by the memory's frequency increasing? my mobo has HCLK and HCLK+33 settings for ram frequency, it is currently set on the latter (running at 150MHz, 300MHzDDR)

2. if i matched the FSB of my cpu with the original ram frequency (133) and assuming i am able to reach a FSB of 133, would it increase memory bandwidth and possibly system stability? or does this only show a major change on amd based systems?

muddocktor

I imagine that you might be running into problems with your mobo itself when overclocking. Since it's a Via board, it's using a Via chipset, which I've heard doesn't lock the AGP/PCI busses when overclocking. So when you get past 117 fsb, the pci or agp bus can't handle the overclocked speeds of the bus.

Another potential problem you might be running into with it concerns the processor itself, in which process it was manufactured on. If I remember right, the 2.0 cellie was manufactured both with the williamette .18 micron process and the northwood .13 micron process. If your cellie is a willie based proc, then you don't have much chance of getting a decent overclock out of it as the 2.0 was the end of the line for the willie based procs. If possible, post a cpu-z screen shot of what you are running so we can see if it's northwood or willie based; cpu-z should tell us if it's .18 or .13 process based. If it's a northwood based proc, then you will have a decent chance to overclock the hell out of it.

mmonnin

Well at load those temps are too high. The restarting could be due to heat issues.

ThatFatCat5

well muddocktor, i was wondering why my sound gets jumpy when i oc, lol
yeah, i havn't seen an option in my bios to change the pci/agp bus speed so that is most likely the case. It is a northwood, i've had cpu-z for a while now

After I increased my voltage a little bit it became tons more stable
now running at 1.525v

another few questions...
1. my ram timings suggest 2.5 (cas? i think) but can i run it at 3 for more stability?
2. my ram was originally set at 2.6v when i started overclocking, since then i moved it down to 2.5v, was that a bad move? should it maybe be around 2.64v or 2.7v if i'm overclocking? (ram's specs say its voltage is 2.5v)

btw, my overclocking has drastically increased the performance of this system, as i recall, at default settings i was getting 50 fps in the hl2 stress test at low settings (640x480, low textures and such) now im getting 70 fps at 800x600 and medium settings and high settings, the jump also may be accounted to a new stick of ram.

Thanks for all your help

muddocktor

Mmonnin also brought up a good point about your load temps that I had overlooked; 65 C is on the hot side for a northie I've found (but I don't have any experience with your mobo, which might report temps high).


Definitely crank the volts up on the ram; under 3.0 volts you don't even need any active cooling for the ram either. A lot of times, the extra voltage will help stabilize the ram when overclocking. However, some ram doesn't like high volts, like Samsung TCCD chips, where 2.7-2.85v seems to be the sweet spot. Also, you can play with your ram timings to see if your ram is running stable. Definitely run Memtest86 on your ram and see if your ram is the problem.

ThatFatCat5

When I last ran memtest86 I had absolutely no errors.
The only times I've gotten 65C is when it suddenly spikes up and goes back down to like 52 in 1 sec., which only seemed to happen when running prime95 or running 3dmark.

I will definately increase the ram voltage now, but what would you suggest for ram timings? my current timings are 2.5-3-3-6

Also, just for kicks my memory read speed overclocked right now is 2207 MB/s, my memory write speed is 816 MB/s, and my memory latency is 129.5ns (thanks everest)

muddocktor

If your memory is returning no errors at your present overclocked speed, you can try tightening the timings up a bit, then retest with memtest86. I would run at least 3 loops with no errors to call it a successful test.

ThatFatCat5

thanks muddocktor, it's working out great, i keep seeing my memory bandwidth rise i think i'll stop soon

so yeah, thanks for all your help