2.4C OC. What's wrong?

[Stain]

I'm trying to get a respectable OC but something is holding me back. Here is what I'm working with:

350w Turbolink PSU (rails: 3.3=20a,5=35a,12=17a)
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=1829&p=1" target="_new">DFI PRO875 Mobo</A>
2.4C P4 CPU (12x200Mhz)
Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu Heatsink
2x512MB PC3500(433) Kingston HyperX RAM
Radeon 8500LE
1 NIC
2 7200RPM IDE Hard Drives
1 DVD-ROM
2 80mm Case Fans
1 light 😀
Running WindowsXP Pro SP2 w/latest updates/drivers/firmware/bios

I should note that I plan to add a large 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, a DVD-RW, and upgrade the video card to a Radeon9800 or GeForce6800 soon.

Anyway, I can only achieve 2600Mhz stable (217fsb). That's of course 1:1 fsb RAM ratio with locked AGP/PCI. If I put the RAM down to 5:4 ratio I was able to boot 250fsb and run through 3dmark2001se but alas it meant little as crashes are frequent despite sometimes working. I was even able to boot 270fsb a couple of times. Upping the voltage on the CPU seems to have no effect.
From what I read this CPU generally has no problems at 270fsb and in many cases makes it past 280fsb.

Looking at the relevant hardware I'm compelled to blame my puny PSU (freebie w/case 😉. I do not believe that I am overlooking some sort of setting that could be holding me back this much. I don't know enough about PSU's to replace it (with what?) before asking though.

Let me know what you think and recommend I try.

 

[Cybercraig]

The little Turbolink ain't bad put will not kick out all the juice needed for your future additions. A CoolMax-450, Enermax 465, Fortron Source 400, OCZ Powerstream, etc. will do you much better. PS: If you have the "A" Hyper-X sticks you're not gonna do much better than 217FSB.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[Crashman]

Your RAM is only rated for 216MHz, you get 217, you're not getting much "bonus room" but at least it works.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Stain]

I'm at 1:1 225fsb stably now.

I ran 5:4 250fsb for about an hour before it froze up but then it refused to reboot into windows at that speed.

Motherboard Monitor shows my 3.3=3.28, 5=4.91, and 12=11.73 (average).

I'm only blaming my power supply because I can't think of anything else to blame. I know its an off-brand pos but what makes off-brand bad? It would suck to get a "good" one only to have the same problems. What can I do to confirm my PSU is holding back my OC? I don't have a different one to try either 🙁

 

[Unolocogringo]

Download and Install Motherboard Monitor. Set it to log voltages at .5 second itervals.

Now overclock. When it crashes reboot and check the voltage log. If your voltages vary by 10% or more you need a better P/S.

I aint signing nothing!!!

 

[Cybercraig]

225mhz at 1:1 is all she wrote then for those "A" sticks. Your PS volts look fine and that little Aspire Turbolink is not holding you back at this point. Your ram is.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot