OCing NIGHTMARE - please help !

[ristic]

I'm gonna give a lot of info on what I did and what I saw - please answer as many questions as you can and give advice if you know about the subject ...

Tried to OC my 1.3 GHz Athlon and MX400....
-Bought a new CPU cooling fan (cilindar with two fans on each end), I put a fan on my MX400 and added a fan (didn't have one but on Power Supply) for Case ...

- Few nights ago without any fans I ran 3D Mark @CPU @ 1430 (110FSBx13), but it rebooted twice after - so I went down to 103FSB till I get new fans in, for this test I left went to 105FSB ...

- I also bumped MX400 from 200(doubt that is right - prob +25 MGHz to real speed) to 215 Core and Memory from 166 to 200 MHz

- Ran 3D Mark 2001 - left my Comp - came back - it was OFF and could not be turned ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- First thought was CPU burned (I know my temps were with old cooling 45C/46C runing, with new it seems it was going to 50 but that was at 105FSB

- Second was Mobo - guess what it was ....... ?

- Power Supply - 400W (didn't even know they make them like that - back in my tme there were 200 or 250W ...) - is it temp ? is it added fans (extre 3 fans)???

and not all - MY HARD DRIVE ?!?!?! WHY ????
40GB Maxtor pooped out ... so trip to MicroComputer Center cost $150 for 40 GB Maxtor (at lest now I have 7200 RPM)and $50 for Power Supply (350W - all 400W ones are $100 a pop !)

I don't dare hook all fans now (no extra for CPU no fan for MX400 - will watch temps and report ...

- Last but not least - low 50s in Celzius are ok CPU temps ?(both BIOS and Mobo Monitor report same ...) ?

Thanks all - shoot away !

P.S. Maxtor gives 3 year manufacturers warranty - right ? How bout Power Supply - anybody ever got one replaced ? Do they have fuse inside ???

 

[AMD_Man]

Yes, get your hard drive replaced from Maxtor. However, it's not worth returning the PSU for replacement. You need a bigger/better PSU this time. What was the exact model name of your fried PSU? I suggest a 430W Enermax PSU (get the Whisper version if you want to get fancy with thermal sensors and variable speed fans). My 430W Enermax PSU works like a wonder, expect when overclocking (maybe I just have a un-overclockable CPU?). Anyway, I recommend Enermax because they put a lot of extra effort into little details when building a PSU (like gold-plating the fan-grills). That just assures me that I have a very high-quality product.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[SerArthurDayne]

Why in the heck were you running your computer without fans? Especially an Athlon system. What kind of motherboard did you have? What were your voltage settings at?

I had a little difficulty following your post - did a number of your system components actually die, or were you just unable to get your computer to post?

As far as overclocking and temperatures are concerned, you don't want an overclocked processor running over 50 degrees ever - not if you want a stable system at least. Non-overclocked processors can operate at much higher temperatures without problems. If you can keep your temps under 50 at full load after overclocking, your setup is adequate.

Another word of advice - when overclocking, do NOT overclock more than one component at a time. Overclock your processor first, see how far you can go stable, then try the video card. When overclocking the video card, up your core and memory settings a few mhz at a time individually and test the new settings with an artifact tester or comparable test. When you find the first unstable setting, bump down your setting by 5mhz or so and you should be within the margin of safety.

I would not recommend overclocking your fsb past 110 unless you think your pci and agp cards can take it. The only thing that's ever died on me while running out of spec was an ethernet card, but you never know. If your multiplier is unlocked and your motherboard can handle a 133(266)fsb, then lower your multipler and set the fsb directly to 133. You should be able to get at least 1.5ghz out of that chip, even if it didn't come from the best batch.

As far as power supplies go - you don't need some 120 dollar psu monstrosity. Absolute minimum of 300w, but I think you could do just fine with a 350. 400 is more than plenty.

Just make sure your cooling is up to par before overclocking again, and only overclock one component at a time. That way you always know which part is suspect if an OC attempt fails.

"Laziness is a talent to be cultivated like any other" - Walter Slovotsky

 

[Guest]

Power supplies come in the following categories:
Yumm cha = anyone’s guess what you get.
Joe average= OEM crap and some actually have good supply to the rails. (But as above generally)
Top shelf. (Already mentioned) and are excellent performers.

Do not be taken in by wattage, most problems are to do with "rail" voltage and amperes!
3v and 5v lines are the ones to be most concerned with.





<font color=orange>Beam</font color=orange><font color=red> me</font color=red><font color=green> up</font color=green><font color=blue> Scotty</font color=blue>

 

[ristic]

Thanks all. I did have extra fans (when Power Supply and HD died) - 3 (cilindar with two fans on each end instead of fan on top of heatsink on CPU, extra fan on case and I put the fan that was on top of CPU on top of Video cards heat sink...

My temp snow with new CPU cooling are 51 runing ... above 50 - I think my old cooling they were 46 ... so my new cooling must be worse !

Thansk for all the good advice, I'll be more carefull next time.

P.S. what is a good cheaper cooling for my AMD 1.3 GHz ? and where to get it ?

 

[ristic]

Buddy of mine takes cover off his PC and uses in-room fan to reduce CPU temp !? Any thoughts on that !?

 

[lhgpoobaa]

550W enermax man... oh yeah... feel the power!

Religious wars are 2 groups of people fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.