P4 3Ghz @ 3.75, want to go higher

[uniacid]

I need some help trying to go higher with my oc, I'm using water cooling so I should have a decent amount of room left cooling wise..

you can see my setup in my sig and notice that right now I'm only doing 5:4 since I hace PC3200, I'm also using dual psu's mainly b/c I have a Gf 6800 Ultra which didn't allow me to oc so I bought a new PSU for my rig and left a 450W for the card it's self

now when I try to oc higher (3.8+) after awhile it will crash or reboot, I want to know what could be causing this and how can I surpass it, I set my cpu vcore to 1.6 in bios but its reading 1.568v idle in cpu-z, I've tried to boot at 3.9 and 4.0 but no success as it gives me errors when trying to load windows (says a system file is corrupt why could this be?)

also to add I want to say that yes I do have a 30 cap P4 which I noticed when I setup my wc

here are some ss's of cpuz and speedfan

http://intenseghetto.com/o/albums/benchs/wc/cpuz.jpghttp://intenseghetto.com/o/albums/benchs/wc/readings.jpg

[OC_newbie]

I think that's the max OC you can do for that chip with water cooling.
Maybe you should try chilling the water with TEC or something.

[Gogeta]

What happens when you give her 1.7v (BIOS)? Have you noticed a larger vcore droop under load? Please list your idle and load temps as well. SL6WU or SL6WK? Pack date? We'll at least get you to 3.8GHz :D

[arj]

Pump up the vcore dude! You're still waaay below the danger level :D

[thomas66]

hi uniacid,

it might be that its the end of oc for your current cooling setup.
We have a similar mobo/cpu combination "see my sig" except iam running
aircooled - i can get also to about 250-255FSB stable @ 1,6v

Just a question can you boot at 1,7v vcore? ( i hate this large step in the msi bios 1,6-1,7v) because i have trouble with 1,7v well aircooled...

[chikitano]

Hello, Then to my it happens to me the same, I can´t more to 1.6 v vcore, to 1.625v it does not start, the screen is extinguished and no longer it does nothing.... probeaches to make droop mod him see if it improves

Salu2.

[uniacid]

Alright its an SL6WU but it is a 30 cap, and the pack date is 01/08/04

I bought this in Feb of this yr, I also take some readings at full load, and at 1.7 vcore I do believe I was able to boot up, I'll report back with some readings

[Gogeta]

Thanks for the info. I just wanted to know the sSpec and pack date to compare it to my 3.0c. Mine is a 12 cap SL6WU that is stable up to 3870MHz at 1.65v with my current watercooling.

Don't be afraid to use 1.65v - 1.7v with your watercooling if your load temps hover below 50c. Also, because of the undervolt you are experiencing, the actual vcore is lower than the value you set in the BIOS, so take that into account. However, anything above 1.75v (actual, not BIOS) would be quite a risk.

[uniacid]

alright thanks, I don't really understand the vcore, I'm going to try prime95 in a sec and take a shot of speedfan on full load, but yea to my knowledge I haven't gone above 40C

[uniacid]

Alright I ran prime95 for a few mins and here are the results

IDLE:
http://intenseghetto.com/o/albums/benchs/wc/idle.jpg

FULL:
http://intenseghetto.com/o/albums/benchs/wc/full.jpg

[Gogeta]

That's quite a droop in vcore!
Set the vcore in the BIOS to 1.7v and find the max stable fsb you can reach at that voltage. Post a cpu-z screenshot of your results, as well as the temps.

[uniacid]

I'll do it tomorrow, and yea I didn't understand that drop, also when I run quake 3 it only drops to 1.520v,

I have another question, how much would I benefit in using 1:1 instead of 5:4 with pc4400 instead of pc3200. and gettin the oc I have now just only in 1:1, would it help a ton, I'm debating wether I should sell my current pc3200 and go for ocz pc4400 el gold

[uniacid]

Ok I upped my vcore to 1.7v in bios and here are the results

IDLE LOAD
http://intenseghetto.com/o/albums/benchs/wc/idle1-7.jpg

FULL LOAD
http://intenseghetto.com/o/albums/benchs/wc/full1-7.jpg

[Gogeta]

Was 250MHz fsb still the max stable speed at this setting? If yes, set the BIOS vcore to 1.725v and see how high you can go. If you still don't get any improvement, you can try a BIOS vcore of 1.75v. If you still don't see any fsb improvement at these voltages, you are at the end of either your cooling, or the chip.

[uniacid]

Well I have to try again but my bios doesn't do increments of .25 unless theres some other way I can set it, it goes from 1.6-1.7-1.8+

[Gogeta]

Ah ok, thats my mistake. I'm guessing with the 1.8v BIOS setting, you'd be around 1.75-1.76v idle. You can take the risk if you like, but I wouldn't recommend using those voltages 24/7 with watercooling. Just to cover all the bases, are you using the latest BIOS version available for your motherboard?

Is 250MHz fsb the highest you can go with a 1.7v vcore BIOS setting?

[uniacid]

welp it looks like 250 is that stablest on 1.7v and 1.6v, I tried 1.8 and it crashes on 3.8 ghz same with 1.7v :/

anything else I can try and do? or would a ocz booster help at all?
or maybe should I try finding a diff cpu?

also just saw that msi released a bios update in late sept, I'm using 2.3 and they released 2.4

[Gogeta]

Update the BIOS and see if that makes any difference. The ddr booster only adjusts vdimm, so wont help the OC of your board or cpu. Once you update the BIOS, set the fsb:mem divider to 3:2 to ensure that your memory is not limiting the OC. If this makes a difference in the max fsb, set the divider back to 5:4, relax the mem timings, and set the vdimm in your BIOS to 2.8v to see if you can hit the same fsb speed that was attained at 3:2.

As of now, I'd say you are limited by either your motherboard or cpu, and maybe both.

[uniacid]

update I think it might be my cpu thats holding me up so in that case what cpu would you guys recommend if I wanted to reach 4.0+ and also IF I were to get a P4 EE would that be a good overclocker also?

[Gogeta]

What makes you think its your cpu? Have you tried the chip on another motherboard, or tried another chip in your current motherboard?

[luihed]

3750mhz on water is pretty good.... if you want to reach 4gs then you have to have better cooling than just warm water.......

[Gogeta]

It shoud at least do 3.8 though...my SL6WU 12 capper will at 1.6v on WARM water (bad temps with my current setup due to glycol based antifreeze among other things).

uniacid - Have you tried increasing the FSB above 250MHz with vcore set to 1.75v(or whatever your BIOS provides) and a FSB:RAM ratio of 3:2?

[uniacid]

I've seen some other people with a similar setup and they've gotten 3.8+

and no I haven't tried 3:2 and would that be worth it considering I only have pc3200 that I got a max of 225-230 on 1:1

edit: currently testing on 3:2
edit 2: it seems to be fine so far on 3.825Ghz, using 3:2 at 255Fsb with vcore set at 1.7v, ran pcmark and sandra, no crashes yet

also can anyone answer my question about buying another cpu (3.2 or 3.4 or even the 3.2 EE)

[georgesod]

My friend this mobo you have is a piece of crap. I had it too, and its memory controller sucked.

[uniacid]

My friend this mobo you have is a piece of crap. I had it too, and its memory controller sucked.

not really, I've seen many people with a similar board and they've oc'd very good

[Gogeta]

It may have clocked well for your friends, uniacid, because their cpu's did not require voltage above 1.7v to hit high fsb speeds. The vcore voltage droop on your board is pretty severe. Unless there is a mod, I would get a new motherboard before a new cpu.

[uniacid]

well I'm just wondering, say I bought a 3.2C or EE, think they would oc about the same and higher or would it limit me?

[Gogeta]

It would depend on the cpu's tolerance of voltage. Either chip wont get to high fsb speeds, and if they clocked well at any voltage below 1.65v, you might see good results. The EE would probably clock a little lower than the 3.2c, but the extra cache would make up for the difference in speed so long as the two cpus were within ~400MHz of each other. No matter what cpu you used, your OC would be limited by the motherboard's vcore droop. It would be worth your time to search for a vmod that stabilizes vcore under load.

[uniacid]

ok well where can I search to find a vmod or is there someone here who does custom vmods? I forget where I saw it but I know someone was doing custom vmods on all types of boards

edit: nvm found out it was Hell-Fire who does it, I'll have to inquire about this :)

[Gogeta]

Do a search for your motherboard here so you know what the mod entails. If HF doesn't have any previous experience with your mobo, he'll need to know what to use for the mod (trimmer size, solder location, etc.)

http://xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=86

You may not find a mod for your board, as I haven't seen many users on this forum with that particular MSI. If you can't find a previous thread that deals with your mobo, post a new thread requesting instructions for the mod, or try google.

[uniacid]

what do you guys think of abit IC7's ?