Advice Needed on Barton 2500+ OC

[umheint0]

Well, as you may have guessed from my subject line, I'm overclocking my Barton 2500+.

Right now, depending on how I feel, I switch between 195x11.5@1.8V (2-3-3-6 mem timing) and 202x11@1.8V (same timing). Now the real question is this.

I have one of those Hardcano dealies that come with the Thermaltake Xaser II 6000A cases. I've got the thermistor right under the cpu. My temps are normally about 36-38 at idle, and 40-43 under load (depending on ambient temp, like if I have the door to the room closed or not, because this shizzy throws a lot of heat, but that's another issue).

I also had a Palomino 1600+ (no overclock), and it's stock temps seemed to be significantly higher (about 10 degrees or so, such that the heatsink's base felt much hotter to the touch).

I am wondering why I can't get any more performance out of my cpu? I have pretty good Prime95 stability (I tested one night all night, no errors, another time about an hour then an error, so it's good). The problem is that once in a while, either when playing a game, or running 3dmark01se, the system locks up, or crashes to the desktop, or a bsod.

Now I'm also overclocking my video card, but in the past, at least with the old system, I could run it at the exact same settings without any problems.

I really would like to know what my limiting factor is? Judging by the temps, I could make it as high as 195x11.5, maybe at 1.85v. The only problem is I'm no longer prime95 stable, if I can even load windows.

I have a Thermalright SLK-800 sink and a Thermaltake Smartfan II at nearly max rpm, AS3 paste, and all my case fans going like bats out of hell to move the warm air out of there.

Any ideas? The other specs for my system are listed below. I'm getting a 9700pro AIW in a day or so, so I can test if the video card was the limiting factor. Aside from that, what other system changes can I make?

XP 2500+ Barton @ 2256Mhz
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
MSI GF3Ti 500 @ 265/570
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio
3DMark 2001 SE - 10528

 

[svol]

That crash sympton could be caused by power shortage... it only seems to happen when the whole system is on full load and not only the CPU. So how much watt is your PSU and are how are you voltages?

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[umheint0]

I was thinking that. Here's the gist of it.

I have a 450W Enermax PS. Pretty good you say. I disagree.

I have been unable to get this stupid thing to blow any significant amount of air. Both fans are spinning (I slowly let a toothpick in the grill to see if the fan was spinning, it's too hard to move the thing to look), but the just aren't moving any considerable amount of air. I've plugged the fan controller into the mobo, which did nothing, and I've plugged it into a molex connector via the included adapter, and nothing. So, I got no clue.

According to HMonitor, these are my voltages:

+12v: 11.67
-12v: 12.00
+5v: 4.92
-5v: x.xx
core: 1.84
aux: 1.84
i/o: +3.38

Now, my concern is that HMonitor is reading my core and aux a full .04v higher than what my BIOS reports. I just upped the core to 1.85, and yep, the core and aux report as 1.89 each. So, there could be a problem there, I would think. Faulty mobo? Faulty PS? Any ideas?

XP 2500+ Barton @ 2256Mhz
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
MSI GF3Ti 500 @ 265/570
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio
3DMark 2001 SE - 10528

 

[jankphil]

acually i find that common with all psu's. I wouldn't worry about the core to much. As far as the PSU, the enermax's ones are top of the line. The point of the fans on the PSU is not really to move air out of your system, but to keep the PSU cool -_-

"What kind of idiot are you?"
"I don't know, what kinds are there?"

 

[umheint0]

Well, I had a 350w Enermax before, and it seemed to move more air. I'll just attribute this to the fact that this PSU is more powerful, I guess.

Still, no ideas on how much more snot I can get from my system? Right now, as I said before, it's stable at 199x11.5@1.85v. I was just hoping for 2300mhz, not just 2280, though that is higher than anyone else with air cooling I've seen so far. Guess I'll just have to settle.

XP 2500+ Barton @ 2256Mhz
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
MSI GF3Ti 500 @ 265/570
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio
3DMark 2001 SE - 10528

 

[AustinDude]

Here's what I am planning to get to upgrade my system:
2500+ Barton CPU (retail)
Epox 8RDA+ NForce2 MB
Kingston HyperX PC2700 512MB x 2 (1GB total)
Antec Super II Full tower case with 400W PSU
SCSI-160 HBA
36GB 10K LVD Fujitsu
9GB 10K LVD IBM

which I hope to replace:
Epox 8KHA+
AMD 1800+ (T-bird A I believe, not unlocked)
512MB PC2100 (CL=2)
20GB Maxtor IDE (x2)

Current sytem is Win98SE, moving to Win2K Professional
The 42X CDRW and 16X DVD (both IDE) stay, as well as GForce2 4x video.

Q1? Is the Barton CPU unlocked from factory?
Q2? Any potential gotchas? I plan to do some OC by boosting
FSB and (if possible) multiplier.
Q3? Suggestions for air cooling?
Q4? Anything I missed?

 

[umheint0]

It is unlocked from factory.

No real gotchas as far as I've encountered thus far. Make sure you keep the north bridge cool. I've upgraded the cooling on both my bridges, and then I'll see how much higher I can clock my system.

SLK-800/900 are the two best sinks out there. I have the SLK-800 and an very pleased.

XP 2500+ Barton @ 198x11.5@.185v
Thermalright SLK-800
Thermaltake Smartfan II
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
MSI GF3Ti500@265/570
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Soundstorm

 

[umheint0]

Sorry, the Thermalright SLK-800/900's. D'oh.

XP 2500+ Barton @ 198x11.5@.185v
Thermalright SLK-800
Thermaltake Smartfan II
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
MSI GF3Ti500@265/570
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Soundstorm

 

[FDTzeng]

AustinDude, I just got the same chip (retail) this weekend and yes its unlocked. I can oc thru the A7N8X BIOS.

Since you said you were going to OC maybe u should get some HyperX 3000? That way youll know that your memory can go to 185MHZ no problem. That might save you some time when ocing trying to figure out whats making your comp crash...

 

[AustinDude]

Thanks all for the info. Followup here - everyone here is on the A7B8X Mobo, I'm looking at the Epox 8RDA+. Still OK? Also, I read somewhere, during my researching, that the NForce2 boards did not sit well with Win98. Anybody care to comment? I am upgrading to Win2K, so that is not a show stopper. Lastly, any memory to stay away from? Go with?
Again, thanks in advance.

 

[svol]

The Epox 8RDA+ is the wet dream of every overclocker... it is fast, stable and has tons of OC settings.

Good memory brands are Corsair, Muskin and Kingston... Crucial is very nice too but doesn't have much high speed (PC3500 and others) memory.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[Joomy]

So why does everyone here have Asus mobos?

 

[svol]

I dunno... maybe because Asus is a well-known brand.

And if you see how many people have problems with the A7VN8X then it makes you wonder how good the board actually is. If I would had to buy a new mobo right now it would be the Epox board for sure.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[umheint0]

I'm not so sure about that svol, I've heard many bad things about the Epox, especially their after-purchase support. It seems the picks are either the Asus or the Abit. Frankly, if I had waited a bit, I would have gotten the Abit instead of my Asus. Though, I'm still happy with this board.

XP 2500+ Barton @ 198x11.5@1.85v
Thermalright SLK-800
Thermaltake Smartfan II
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
BBA 9700 Pro AIW
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Soundstorm

 

[Titanion]

Those of you that are messing around with this cpu, will it handle something like 145x14? How hot would it be? What type of cooling would it need? Would it need more voltage at that setting? 14 is my max multiplier and I want to stay below 150 fsb...

All I really want is to have a fsb higher than 133 and reach 2.0+ Ghz... yet I want my pci devices to be rock solid for video editing on my RAID...

I am already using PC 2700 ram running at 166x2... and I currently am using a 1900+

I am wanting to put one in a Soyo Dragon Ultra... KT333 but with a fsb max of 133... yet lots of overclocking ability... yet there is no 1/5 pci/fsb ratio...

<font color=red><b>To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.</b></font color=red>
John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, II 262-263

 

[umheint0]

If you're using the 2500+, it's stock at 11x166. Why would you want to lower your FSB? That decreases your memory bandwidth bigtime and can have the biggest impact on system performance. Higher FSB is better than low. If you're using a mobo which can lock the PCI/AGP clock, then crank your FSB like there's no tomorrow.

Handling 145x14? Are you kidding? I'm at 203x11 and it's stable. That's double the overclock you're going to make. I'm going to try to 205, but it starts getting a little unstable that high. My best seems to be 197x11.5, but I sacrificed mhz in favor of fsb.

XP 2500+ Barton @ 198x11.5@1.85v
Thermalright SLK-800
Thermaltake Smartfan II
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
BBA 9700 Pro AIW
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Soundstorm

 

[svol]

I dunno about Epox support... I never had to deal with them. Asus support seems to be pretty bad in some cases.

I did have contact with Abit support once... first I had to get through the n00bs but once I got to an enginere I got my answers pretty fast.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[Titanion]

When I talk about no 1/5 pci ratio and only a 1/4 ratio, that means I have to worry about increasing my fsb beyond 150... 150/4=37.5, and with my three 80 GB HDD (2 on a RAID) I am concerned about that other stuff.

I am aware of the desire to have a high fsb, and for my purposes, 145--148 is a lot better than 133...

14 is the max multiplier on my motherboard...

So I want to fing the best cpu to suit my perposes (and it may not be the barton). What would be the most stable cpu to run at 148x14? And if I am not going to push it too hard, it would be cool to not have to have it that hot and have to worry about extra voltage and cooling. I figures that if the barton was designed to run at 166x11, then perhaps it could run at 145x14 rock solid... underclocking the fsb but overclocking the multiplier...

<font color=red><b>To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.</b></font color=red>
John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, II 262-263

 

[Maverick494]

Titanion:

Most, if not all, of the most recent motherboards allow you to set your PCI/AGP clock independently of the FSB. This means you can run 33mhz/66mhz all day with a FSB of 200mhz. So you have no worries about that. You already have a raid setup. So you need a board with a raid solution and a good chipset, and you want to be able to o/c some. The ASUS A7N8X Deluxe has all the bells and whisltes (S-ATA that does Raid built in, built in dual LAN controllers, ETC.) but has only moderate o/c'ing options. The other board with S-ATA is ABIT NF7-S and it will o/c better than the asus (IMHO).

Just a computer junky

 

[Titanion]

OK, but I buile a new system last July with the KT333 Soyo Dragon Ultra, and it does not have an independent pci/agp setting (and the KT333 is just for ram, much to my dismay at the moment), so I do need to worry about the ratio... thus my desire to stay below 150 fsb... so I am getting lots of responces, but none that address my origional question... now it there is a patch or hack that will provide me of these options, great, or if I am wrong, awesome... but I have found none... and this motherboard is only a year old now.
Here is a review of my board...

http://www.overclockers.co.nz/ocnz/mobo/soyokt333/f1.shtml




<font color=red><b>To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.</b></font color=red>
John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, II 262-263

 

[svol]

I also have an KT333 chipset mobo (not Soyo though) and it does have an 1/5 PCI-divider... but it only becomes active with 166MHz FSB. Almost every KT333 board should run at 166MHz FSB with 166MHz RAM.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on