Overclocking (Main Thread)

Roger Wright94 said:I managed to hit 485, which is about 3880 MHz... I even touched 490 for a second, but then PCMark05 just totally crashed on me after about 10 minutes of running. I usually run that one during a quick break just to see if things are holding steady.
I haven't been able to dip below 13 seconds yet using Super PI (hitting 13.109)...

The voltages are looking like this:

CPU 1.55
Mem 2.20
fsb 1.40
NB 1.45
SB 1.8
SB 1.15

Should we push it further? 😁 I'm feeling a little winded from all this...

Of course, I should probably mention that I haven't actually run any real stability tests yet... up until now, I've really just been chasing those extra MHz...

You might want to check Everest to see what your actual CPU voltage is, because the motherboard is likely dropping some juice due to Vdrop... if the BIOS says 1.55, you're probably seeing closer to 1.5125V or something along those lines in reality... definitely double-check that.

You could always bump the FSB up to 1.5 and the CPU to 1.6 just for testing purposes...

But hey, don't do it if you're nervous; those extra 100MHz you might squeeze out probably aren't worth the stress anyway...

wiredmarlin5 said:Check Everest to see what the actual CPU voltage is. Your motherboard is likely dropping some juice via Vdrop. If BIOS says 1.55V, you’re probably actually sitting at something like 1.5125V or thereabouts. Go verify.

You could bump the FSB up to 1.5 and the CPU to 1.6 just for testing.

But don't bother if you're nervous about it. Those extra 100MHz you might squeeze out aren't worth the headache.

Thanks a ton!
I'll give it a shot. I need to watch how this thing cooks. I want to feel the heat coming off those heatsink fins.

It reminded me of when my old Pentium III used to hit 85 degrees while running DivX. Switching to an Alpha dropped that by 20 degrees.

I’m looking for some advice on picking out a new case fan...
I was leaning toward grabbing a Zalman FM-2, mostly because the airflow specs look pretty solid at 53CFM, and you really can't beat that price point of $10... but I wanted to see if anyone here has actually run this model... or if there might be a better alternative worth considering...
Thanks!

Go ahead and grab it, but just know it’s going to be louder than some of those pricier fans...
A lot of those cheaper ones are easy to find, like the Glialtech at Best Buy for about $7...

Douglas Reed4 said:I'm looking for some case fan recommendations.
I was thinking about picking up a Zalman FM-2—it seems to have pretty decent airflow (53CFM) for such a low price of $10... what do you guys think of this model? Or maybe there's something else out there...
Thanks!

I mostly just stick to Zalman fans myself—they work fine. I might suggest the FM-3 if you can find a 120mm version. They come with that resistor, which lets you dial back the speed and noise... makes them pretty much silent, I guess.

Does anyone happen to have any insight on those Panaflo fans made by Panasonic?
I've been reading some absolutely stellar reviews, but I can't seem to track them down anywhere here in the States... it's a bit of a dead end so far.

Come on, why make this so complicated? Just grab that Zalman or a Papst 🙂

northerncrane33 said:Oh, come on now, why make it such a huge ordeal??? Just grab one of those Zalman fans or maybe a Papst and call it a day... 🙂

A buddy of mine picked up some Zalman fans over at Best Buy—two 80mm ones and two 120mm ones—and honestly, they’re pretty loud...

Now, those Papst fans are just way too pricey for what they are... 🙄

Another friend mentioned he's using a Glacialtech Silent Blade and thinks it's doing alright...

But if you ask me, when you're looking at this budget tier, it all feels like the same old junk...

wiredmarlin5 said:A buddy of mine picked up some Zalman fans at Best Buy—two 80mm and two 120mm—and they’re loud as hell.

The Papst ones are way overpriced though. 🙄

Another friend has a Glacialtech Silent Blade and says it's alright.

Honestly? If we're talking budget gear, it's all the same crap.

Yet people make such a huge deal out of fans that cost a fortune. $10 🙄

They actually think spending $10 will get them something significantly better. 🙄

Does anyone know if the Thermalright Ultima 90 is actually available for purchase here in the States?
I’ve been noticing it’s being positioned as the successor to the TR EXTrem 120, and from what I gather, it’s been picking up some pretty stellar reviews lately...

Here’s my rig; it’s definitely an old-timer, but it can still handle some overclocking 😉
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=243255

( man, if I could just get my hands on an Athlon with a 200 FSB... wouldn't that be something? 🙂 )

Hey guys—would a newer BIOS version actually help me get rid of this error I get whenever I try to push my CPU past 2.5GHz?
It keeps throwing this message at me: "Now system is in safe mode please re set your cpu frequency."
A few people mentioned a BIOS update might fix it... any thoughts?

Casey Williams5 said:Guys, would a newer BIOS version help me get rid of this error I get when I overclock my CPU past 2.5
It says: Now system is in safe mode please reset your cpu frequency.
Some people told me an update might fix it.

man, Razarach, you're running 4100+ on an AM2 board??😕 😕 🤣 🤣 🙏 🙏

btw, no clue which CPU you actually have, but go ahead and try, though I doubt it's the BIOS. maybe it just can't take any more, try bumping up the voltage or see if your RAM is messing with you.

Douglas Reed4 said:Can I find a Corsair Dominator Platinum around here?
Looks like it's the successor to the Cooler Master Hyper 212, and reviews look solid.

it's not really the successor to the 120 ultra extreme, just its smaller brother. can't find it at any local retailers right now.

Intel Core i7 or maybe stick with 2.2? I’ve been running mine at 2.7—it works most of the time, but it freezes up occasionally... though at 2.67, everything runs perfectly. I tried pushing it further using some Gigabyte tuning tools, but once I hit 2.8, it just hits thermal throttling.
I think I'll just leave it at 2.67 and see if I can squeeze out just a tiny bit more...

I gave it a shot overclocking to 2.7, but once I boot into macOS, the whole thing just freezes up—total standstill. A BIOS update actually helped though, at least that annoying error message finally stopped popping up...
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/3446/untitledle1.jpg
Here are the screenshots.

I mean, I suspect the RAM is what's holding you back. What exactly are you running? If it's some cheap Kingston kit or something similar, 2.15V might be a bit low for 950+MHz. I wouldn't push it much past 2.2V though, since those budget sticks don't handle high voltage very well. Then again, the CPU clock itself isn't bad, so maybe it just doesn't want to go any higher. What are you using to cool it?

Set mine to 2.2V 😉

The RAM is Kingston. I'm pairing it up with my Rub Orb...

So I tried bumping up my RAM a bit more, but no luck there. The only thing is—I'm still scratching my head over how to actually save the settings in that software so they actually stick next time...

Casey Williams5 said:Intel Core i7 or maybe stick to 2.2? I pushed mine to 2.7, but it freezes up on me sometimes. It runs perfectly at 2.67 though. I tried some Gigabyte tuning, but once I hit 2.8, it just hits thermal throttling.
I'll probably just leave it at 2.67 and see if I can squeeze out a tiny bit more.

Honestly, I think you're hitting a wall with the CPU itself. I had a Venice 3700 back in the day. I could only overclock it from the stock 2.2 just as far as you're going.
Same thing happened with my 3200. If I remember right, the limit was exactly 25%.