P4 3.2/3.4EE VCORE? (n00b)

[ComatoseTed]

what is a safe vcore on a 3.2 or 3.4EE?
What clock can a realisticly bee looking at with a 3.2 or 3.4EE?
1. on air cooling.
2. on watercooling. (for wc I'll be using dangerden rbx and dual procore radiators)

[saaya]

i think 1.8v is safe with good cooling, afaik they can be run with 2v or even higher with phase change cooling, at least for benching, without dieing...

for 24/7 id say 1.8v for good watercooling should be ok, pm freecableguy, he had several ee chips on air, water and chilled water :)

i think the average for a 3.2ee on air is 3.7-3.8ghz and for the 3.4ee 3.8-3.9ghz

i think you can hit 4ghz+ with watercooling, but it depends... ive heard of some lousy ocing ee's...

[masterofpuppets]

My 3.4EE could almost hit 4GhZ with the stock cooler. Max I could get it to was 3.85 stable. 4GhZ would crap out in Prime95 and caused endless errors in loads of apps until I restarted.

[jjcom]

yeah, 1.75-1.8v is a safe rage to be in, but you must watch your temps. You can't do 1.8v if you've got a high load temp. Then the high voltage could decrease your overclock good luck

jjcom

[Falkentyne]

Wow....you guys are a bit -too- liberal with the voltages...

Here are some caveats:
1) a Northwood "M0" stepping chip is simply a P4 EE with the L3 cache disabled (possibly for defects).
2) Several people have had M0 steppings (just like other steppings (D1), etc), degrade over time (a few months), with voltages higher than 1.625v. (heck, some ppl had regular northwoods degrade after a long time (a year+) when run at -stock- voltages.

3) One user had 3 chips degrade over a couple of months, two M0's and a D1. The M0's degraded the most (this is a small sample to judge by, though).
Though they were 2.8's and 3.0's, IIRC. The degradations stopped when the voltage was dropped back to 1.65v.

4) Going by the above, since an EE is simply the M0 with the proper L3 cache working-- it stands to reason that it might NOT be wise to put more than 1.65v into one, on air cooling. Even though others have run at higher voltages, that does NOT mean that you will get to do the same thing.

BTW, note that the max VID for a P4 3.4EE is 1.60v (contrast that to a 3.4C northwood that has max VID of 1.55). These VIDS are 'within spec' vids. So you -should- be ok at 1.65v. But on air, I would NOT go above 1.65v with such an expensive chip. Water, 1.675v, phase change: 1.70v.

Unless you have $$ to replace the chip *IF* something goes wrong. Feel free to push it but remember the risks.

Oh--and about 1.8v being "safe"--that's a bunch of hogwash.
Absolute max voltage (not "functional voltages") on EVERY northwood, including the P4 extreme edition, is 1.75v. This is the absolute max. Operating at or around this voltage can potentially be very detrimental to the chip, even on extreme cooling. And just because master of puppets, freecableguy and a few others have fun with the chips at these voltages does not mean that you can do it without problems, too. Can it work: maybe. Is it safe? Most definitely not.

(Note about the absolute max: it's there for a reason-- I had two out of three 3.4C's REFUSE to finish POST at ALL (One said "CPU is unworkable", 2nd wouldn't pass verifying DMI, at 1.775v, when they posted fine at 1.75v. The third would post and load windows at 1.85v...).

Anyway:
Air cooling should get you between 3.7-4.0 ghz, with strong air setup.
Water, hard to say; depending on how good the system is, it might give you an extra 50-100 mhz.

[jjcom]

yeah if you've got the cooling, you can push the voltage. What all you have to do is mod the board to get 1.8v :D maybe more than what he wants to do...same for me. So some chips do end up degrading overtime...so on EEs you probly wouldn't want to take it really high, but if you've got good temps you can take it alittle past 1.65v.

[One_Hertz]

Sorry for a noob question... but how do you find out the stepping of your northwood?

[masterofpuppets]

You get Cpu-Z, WCPUID or CrystalCPUID and find the revision code ;)

[One_Hertz]

damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn.
My stepping is D1. Curse this northwood. I was hoping I can safely reach 4.2ghz from 3 on water. There go my dreams...

:cussing: