Max OC is dropping..?

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

Alright, here's what I'm working with

Sparkle 350W PSU
MSI K8N Neo4-F
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
2x512mb PQI Valueram

I had this sucker clocked at 2.4 for a long, long time at ~ 1.5V It's air cooled, with a decent Gigabyte heatpipe HSF.

The stupid processor's max clock was 2.5 at one time, and it trickled down to 2.4 over the course of 3 months or so. I check my Prime95 stability every so often.

Well, over the past week or so, the thing's clock has plummeted. I have to up the voltage to 1.55 just to get 2.2 out of it, and even then, I think I'm unstable. I think my chip is dying.

Suggestions? Ideas?

I'm betting that it's on it's way out, and I'll probably end up replacing it soon. So, if anyone has an X2 3800+ or a 3500+ or something, let me know, I'll probably buy it off of you.

Ryan

[Celcius]

Perhaps your 350watt psu can't handle the load? Are you sure the board isn't dying? Is there any dust in your gigabyte cooler?

I don't see any other reason why the chip should be dying; I ran my 3500+ venice at 2.7ghz on 1.73 volts with air cooling for months and it never had a problem.

[Jonas]

watch the ambient temperature ;)

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

ambient temp case is ~87*F
Processor temp tends to hang around 43*C no matter what voltage I'm putting through it.
The Gigabyte cooler is new, and is seated well. It's been there for about a week.
The PSU is a good one, no worries. I'm all about reading the actual amps to the rails. This PSU has ~36A on the 12V rails. Any other idears?

Ryan

[InSanCen]

Although Sparkle/FSP make very good PSU's, get a higher rated PSU. 350W is low for that system. a 500W will be more than enough. I'd personally reccomend a FSP 500W (I run one in my X2-4200 rig)

[Jonas]

ambient temp case is ~87*F


a bit high

[WeStSiDePLaYa]

its summer, ambient will go up, case temps will go up, cpu temps will go up, max oc will go down.

[billdavis]

i second a higher power psu
________
Fourth-Generation Ford Taurus (http://www.ford-wiki.com/wiki/Fourth-generation_Ford_Taurus)

[einCe]

believe it or not just a couple c can totally :banana::banana::banana::banana: your oc wait till night and get the room cold and see if it still does it, check your ram?

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

Ram is running on a divider, below the stock value.

You guys dont' think that a few ambient degrees would drop an OC by over 300mhz, do you? I mean, the best I can keep it stable at now is 2100mhz. That's the worst I've ever heard of for an A64.

This still doesn't explain why the temperature isn't changing when the Vcore is lowered. It's the same temperature at 1.35V and 1.55V. How does that make any sense.

*In a state of confusion*

Ryan

P.S. Don't be fooled by my post count. I'm no overclocking or tech newb. I'm in quite a dazed state here, and am thinking I may just have to spring for the X2 3800+ here when the price drops.

[WeStSiDePLaYa]

Ram is running on a divider, below the stock value.

You guys dont' think that a few ambient degrees would drop an OC by over 300mhz, do you? I mean, the best I can keep it stable at now is 2100mhz. That's the worst I've ever heard of for an A64.

This still doesn't explain why the temperature isn't changing when the Vcore is lowered. It's the same temperature at 1.35V and 1.55V. How does that make any sense.

*In a state of confusion*

Ryan

P.S. Don't be fooled by my post count. I'm no overclocking or tech newb. I'm in quite a dazed state here, and am thinking I may just have to spring for the X2 3800+ here when the price drops.

yup, a few degrees celcius can make or break an oc.

ive just recently expierienced this.

my rig has been down a while, and just recently got it back up at full force, putting my oc back together, i could no longer run 350x8 at all, which used to be an easy feat for my sempy, but it was no go whatsoever, raising vcore didnt help, lowering vcore didnt help, turn on the air conditioning, ambient drops 5c, boom, can prime and loop car low no problem.

although im still not back to my winter clocks, because ambient then is about 18c in my room.

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

although im still not back to my winter clocks, because ambient then is about 18c in my room.

Reminds me of last year in the dorm, I'd have the windows wide open, and the roommate would flip out. The temp was somewhere around 50*F average, but the wind blowing in was a crisp 30-35*F. I loved those temps.

Ryan

[davidk21770]

I've lost about 100 MHz off my OC from winter to summer. I'm thinking about trying to add a cooler to my system -- just enough to make up for hot days, but not enough so that I need to worry about condensation.

[SewerSide]

Tried re-mounting the heatsink with some fresh thermal paste?

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

did it about 2 days ago. The AS5 is starting to settle down and my stock temp is around 38-39 now.

Ryan