IC7 - Bios revision matter?

[ewitte]

I'm running 1.5 BIOS at the moment. Are there any known issues with this version? I have trouble overclocking high at all. My "Game Accelerator" options are auto,auto,auto,disabled,disabled. Memory is set to SPD. I have the Mushkin PC3500 now. At about 220FSB I get Prime errors. Its stable even at 225FSB otherwise. (except for a few games that crash even at stock speed?). I tried 5:4 and 2.7v for my memory. That did not work. I upped the voltage from 1.525 to 1.6 and that did not help. At 235-240FSB I do not even post. I even upgraded my Power Supply from an old Antec 350 to a new True430. Temperatures are fine for temporary cooling. They start off around 45C. If I clock low enough to run prime stable for a long period of time it maxes out around 60C. Over 220FSB it only lasts about 2-3 minutes so it never gets even that high. I'm checking for thermal compound on the North Bridge when I get/install the Alpha heatsink. Could that cause this? Any other suggestions?

Eric

[natgun]

set the divider to 3:2, manually set your mem timings to 2-3-3-7, set your cpu voltage to 1.7v. start with 250fsb, depending if that is stable or not, move the fsb up or down in 5mhz increments. keep an eye on your temps, if they go above 65c the cpu will start throttleing. once you find a sweetspot, you can then start backing off the core voltage, and perhaps tighten up the mem timings. be patient, it took me a month to find the sweetspot with my system.

[ewitte]

Originally posted by natgun
set the divider to 3:2, manually set your mem timings to 2-3-3-7, set your cpu voltage to 1.7v. start with 250fsb, depending if that is stable or not, move the fsb up or down in 5mhz increments. keep an eye on your temps, if they go above 65c the cpu will start throttleing. once you find a sweetspot, you can then start backing off the core voltage, and perhaps tighten up the mem timings. be patient, it took me a month to find the sweetspot with my system.

3:2? Even at 5:4 (what I had it at) the memory at 220FSB is only 176Mhz. I can not see that being a problem with Mushkin PC3500. I'm also trying to keep the cpu under 1.6v. I may try higher but I do not see it necessary as bumping up from 1.525 to 1.6v gave me NOTHING on the overclock.

Eric

[shasha]

From what I have read...and I am not an expert here, the extra BW from the ram's speed is not going to be as big a boost in performance as the CPU FSB at this point. Benchmarks will show an increase in mem BW but real life performance you are not taxing your ram. So 3:2 won't be that big of a performance hit memory wise and the FSB jump will pay off.

Of course this could be a big load of crap, but it is what I have read.

[ewitte]

Originally posted by shasha
From what I have read...and I am not an expert here, the extra BW from the ram's speed is not going to be as big a boost in performance as the CPU FSB at this point. Benchmarks will show an increase in mem BW but real life performance you are not taxing your ram. So 3:2 won't be that big of a performance hit memory wise and the FSB jump will pay off.

Of course this could be a big load of crap, but it is what I have read.

I'm almost possitive now that the North Bridge is the problem. I was running mostly stable at 2.9Ghz (225FSB) and 1.525v to begin with. However I believe there was some data corruption at that clock. I was having problems with the video drivers. Programs kicking me out even at stock speeds, etc. I got Prime errors at 2.86Ghz (220FSB). Everything was completely stable at 2.8Ghz. Changing the CPU voltage, memory timings and memory speeds gave me nothing on my clock speeds.

Yesterday while installing my new heat sink for the CPU I checked the North Bridge. It did have the thermal pad on it. I messed it up checking so I removed as much as I could. There was a little still there. That stuff is really sticky! I then put normal silver thermal compound on it. Now at 220FSB I still just get Prime errors, but at 225FSB I got complete data corruption (with AGP/PCI locked to 66/33). I had to re-install windows. I'm guessing having some of the crappy thermal pad killed about 5Mhz off my max FSB. My max completely stable speed is the same (215FSB). For now I stuck it to 210FSB with a memory ratio of 1:1 to be on the safe side. Actually memory timings do count for quite a bit. My 3dmark2001 score is about 200 points higher at 2.75Ghz 1:1 than it was at 2.9Ghz 5:4. Re-installing windows at the lower clock fixed all the game stability problems I was having.

The heat sink helped did help my temperatures. Prime 95 never went over 53C. Before It went up to about 61C. I have not tried the new fan yet. I need to find shorter screws. My plans are to leave it at 2.75Ghz for now. Sometime I may take on the project of working on the North Bridge again... removing the rest of the thermal pad and putting a better heat sink on it. I'm also trying to quiet the system down. So working on the North Bridge will at least help in that reguards. I will try for higher overclocks then. BTW having a crappy overclocking CPU (Philippines) processor may still also be the problem.

Running the new CPU at 2.75 may not seem like too big of a leap over my old 1.6a running at 2.33Ghz but actually it is quite a bit faster. I'm running progams (SETI/3dmark, etc) at least 25% faster.

Eric

[kirkyg]

Someone posted on another thread recently there are two items in the BIOS you can change and overclocks usually increase alot on the ic7 after changing them.

kirkyg

[natgun]

never ever install windows while overclocking, allways set the system to stock speeds. also, do not set the "game accelerator" options, this will limit your overclock. if you want to find out where your processor can take you, follow my instructions, untill you do so, there really nothing else that we can do for you. you dont have to keep those settings 24/7, its just to see how far your chip can go dude.

[mikead_99]

Maybe I missed it in this thread, but I didn't see where you mentioned that the PCI and AGP frequencies are locked either. This would explain your lock-ups at relatively low clock increases too. They need to be locked, don't use SPD either.

[ewitte]

Originally posted by kirkyg
Someone posted on another thread recently there are two items in the BIOS you can change and overclocks usually increase alot on the ic7 after changing them.

kirkyg

Those were the first things I dissabled Yes PCI/AGP is locked. While I was putting the Heat Sink on I noticed some circular marks on the back of the PCB. I did not check when I got the MB. The are a slightly lighter color with random positioning. Most of them are not under any chips of any kind.

Eric

[ewitte]

Originally posted by natgun
never ever install windows while overclocking, allways set the system to stock speeds. also, do not set the "game accelerator" options, this will limit your overclock. if you want to find out where your processor can take you, follow my instructions, untill you do so, there really nothing else that we can do for you. you dont have to keep those settings 24/7, its just to see how far your chip can go dude.

How much does 1.7 hurt?

Eric

[natgun]

it doesnt, abit undervolts too so when you set it to 1.7, your actuall voltage will be 1.66 like mine if you go over 1.7 then your hurting your processor. but as i said, you dont have to keep these setting all the time, its just so you can stress your chip and see how far it can go. after that, you can then back off the voltage and tighten up the divider and mem timings.

[ewitte]

Originally posted by natgun
it doesnt, abit undervolts too so when you set it to 1.7, your actuall voltage will be 1.66 like mine if you go over 1.7 then your hurting your processor. but as i said, you dont have to keep these setting all the time, its just so you can stress your chip and see how far it can go. after that, you can then back off the voltage and tighten up the divider and mem timings.

I thought the readings were just off I know everything but temperature is low. The 12V rail on both PSU's were about 11.68.

Eric

[natgun]

yea my 12v rail reads 11.68 also, but my 3.3 and 5 look ok. either way, as long as you dont go over 1.7v your ok.

[ewitte]

Originally posted by natgun
yea my 12v rail reads 11.68 also, but my 3.3 and 5 look ok. either way, as long as you dont go over 1.7v your ok.

I tried your suggestion. Here are my results with the following settings:

CPU 1.7v
Memory divider 3:2
Memory 2.7v
Memory 2.5-3-3-7
Game accelerator auto, normal, auto, disabled, disabled
Prime tests all for 15 minutes (quick test)

At 250FSB
Temp in BIOS about 52C
Posts but it does not make it to updating DMI information (hangs)

At 240FSB
Posts but it does not make it to updating DMI information (hangs)

At 230FSB
Posts and now hangs right after DMI message. Still windows does not begin to even load

At 225 FSB
Goes to starting windows but I get BSOD

At 220 FSB
Seems stable now. Prime no longer gives me errors at this speed. My max temperature went from 53.5C @ 29C room (210FSB) to 63C @ 27C room

At 220FSB 1.65v CPU memory, 1:1
Prime still seems stable. Max CPU temperature down to 61C @ 26C room

At 220FSB 1.60v CPU memory, 1:1
Prime still seems stable. Max CPU temperature down to 59C @ 26C room

At 220FSB 1.55v CPU memory, 1:1
Prime still sems stable. Max CPU temperature down to 56.5C @ 25C room

I could not improve past 2-3-3-6-1 at 220FSB. However 2-3-3-7-1 gave me close to the same memory results.

So far Prime has ran for about 30 minutes at 220FSB, 1.525v and memory at 1:1, 54.5C at 25C room

Should I drop to 215 just to be safe? Would there be any problem staying at 220 if Prime makes it overnight?

Update. Prime95 gave me an error at 1.5 hours. I bumped the Vcore up to 1.55. It has been running since then (4.5 hours).

Eric