The common Question, but i need your help!

[fadi]

Hi all,
I am new here, and I really need your help.

I've decided to play around with my Motherboard and 2.8 HT P4 CPU.
Ummm, honestly the bios gives me way to much to play with resulting
in unstable system.
here is my sys info:
CPU : P4 2.8Ghz FSP 800, 512 cache
MB : MSI 865PE NEO-2
Graphics : dual cards, one pci one agp (sis and geforece 4)

I would like to understand how and what each thing in the bios mean
when i overclock.
I also would like to know what options do i have for over clocking!

i.e what are the nubmers that make sense and keep the system stable.
(i am considering water cooling so cpu temp. is not a problem i guess )

Thanks a lot

Fadi .K

(P,s its most importat that i understand what and why i am doing the settings in a specific way,i hate to stay ignorant in such things :s )

[GrahamGarside]

check out these 2 faq's

Dave’s Ultimate Guide to Overclocking

Ultimate guide to CPUs (cooling and overclocking)

they cover mosy of the basics when overclocking

[fadi]

Thank you very much.
I took a glimps and it seems those faqs are great
(i should learn to read FAQs before asking, sorry!)

I also won't mind if you or anyone else on the board can share with me
some settings (tried out) as its great if i can run my system
on settings that have been tested and verified. (then i can feddle around
with them after i gain more exprience)

Thanks,

Fadi .K

[GrahamGarside]

one set of settings that work for some one else may not work for you.
the only way to overclock intel systems is by way of the front side bus (fsb)
you need to lock the agp and pci bus speeds to 66/33 and then increase the fsb until the system is no longer stable, to test this use prime95

http://files.aoaforums.com/code.php?file=937

you will also need to make sure that your memory is running within it's capabilitys and by using dividers to set it's speed to managable levels.

[Pitch]

Duplicating others settings will always yeild different results.

Your configuration, hardware and system tolerance are unique. Therefore so will be your boundaries and optimal working speed of your system.

[cloasters]

The most comprehensive guide to BIOS that I know of is: www.rojakpot.com . It's worth the click.

[fadi]

Thanks again guys.

I am getting a better understanding of this all in all, but still i am having trouble.
Ok so basically I can't use other people's overclocking (darn it)...
i can control the following in my bios:
-CPU bus clock (from 200 to 500 Mhz) default its on 200
-DRAM Frequency (Mhz) default is on auto, but i can choose 266,333,400,433,450,466,500,532,501(4:5),533(3:4)

-AGP/PCI clock (Mhz) its on 66.66/33.33 and i can change it or it changes (recalculates) when i change the cpu bus clock..etc.
-cpu voltage
-ddr power voltage
-agp power voltage

ofcourse i can change also dram timing:
cas#
ras#
ras# to cas#
precharnge delay
burst length


I have been testing my system for the past day and this is what i came up with:
cpu clock = 235 Mhz
dram freq = 333
(calculated ddr clock mhz = 395 or so)
cpu now at 3.290 Ghz

DDr v. @ 2.75v (i increased it a bit)
V.Core (cpu) @ 1.52 v

dram timing @ 2.5-3-3-8

I ran Memtest (from bootable CD) a whole night and it didn't give errors
now i go into winXP Pro normally, all is ok. if i run CPU burn-in test (www.7byte.com)
it raises the temp up to around 55c (i am cooling by fans only, waiting for water cooling to come, idle temp ! 35-38c) so basically its not that high when we are talking about cpu burn-ins!! but when i run prime95, using torture test, when it reaches test10, i get a fatal error (round error expected 0.4 or 0.5 something like that)
what does this mean??
also my pc did hang once or twice, meaning it is not 100% stable.
So please any suggestions on what to try/do...etc

seriously, i dunno how we lived before the internet age..so thank you all beforehand for your help and input.

Fadi .K

[GrahamGarside]

have you made sure that the agp/pci bus speeds are locked to 66/33 so that they don't recalculate when you increase the front side bus sped?

[fadi]

Nop :s i didn't know that until i read the postings today
and i am in a state where i can't restart my pc until an hour or so..
so first thing i will do after an hour is restart my pc and set the agp thing
to 66/33 or closest to that possible (as i don't think i have edit capabilities, only selection from given ratios!)

will give back my resutls soon.

Oh just noticed that my sound cad (built-in) is not seen by my OS. so its either a case of not being enabled from the bios (coz i rest the CMOS) or that the overclocking is somehow related..will check that also after i restart.

[GrahamGarside]

I can't see overclocking stopping the onboard sound being detected, that does sound like it's just disabled

[fadi]

Update

ok now my agp/??? ratio is very close to 66/33 and seems that my system
is stable, whole night with no hangs!! (even at heaby usage by prime95).

One thing though, before i got your help prime95 used to give a fatal error at TEST10, now it goes up to TEST3000+ the thing is i ran it twice today
and first time it gave a fatal error (rounding was 0.##### expected less 0.#####) at TEST3030, i gave it another go and it went to TEST3260 before giving me the error does this tell me something?

What more can i improve? I am happy at 3.290 Ghz (from 2.8 originaly) but would love to hit the extreme

[GrahamGarside]

That just means that your system is only just unstable, probably a heat issue with it running for so long before there is an error. Download throttlewatch from the files section and check there is no throttling going one whilest you are overclocked.
If there is then the cooling isn't up to it.