Another 2500 Barton O/C

[MLJGTI]

Hi everone,

I have trawled through all the other posts to find a solution but nothing seems to work. I am trying OC to just 200 FSB to achieve the 2.2 Ghz speed but its not prime 95 stable, it fails after about 2 mins, here is my setup spec :-

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Coolermaster Aero Lite 7 with Copper Heatsink
Mobo Abit AN7
Crucial 512MB PC2700
GFX Abit FX5600 Ultra OTES
Jeantech 400W PSU
120 GIG Seagate Baracuda
Windows XP

Unclocked I run my system at Vcore 1.5 - Temps CPU IDle 41 Case 35

Ok I have tried this 200 FSB, upped the V Core to 1.75, run a divider 5/4 so the RAM is running at about 320Mhz. Upped to the RAM Voltage to 2.8 - I upper exverything in increments. Windows loads fine but fails prime 95 after about 2 mins. CPU Temps are about 49C idle and 60 under load. I tried altering the RAM timings to the various other settings / Optimal, Aggressive, Turbo etc and also tried 3-4-4-11 which I believe to be fairly relaxed.

Any ideas guys?

Thanks in Advance.

Mark.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Well, you're definately doing everything right. But, how do you it's not the board that's holding you back?

 

[lobadobadingdong]

60C under load is a bit to high for an OC'd barton, you may need better case cooling, or a better hsf.

edit: I have my motherboard set to shut down my proc at 60C. :Q

edit again, I looked up your hsf, it looks like it should to the job, I'd make sure you have the proper amount of thermal grease. I imagine it's either not installed properly or you lack good case ventalation.

 

[MLJGTI]

Thanks for your advice guys - the board should be fine for overclocking as it a N-Force 2 (With AGP/PCI Lock)

I have put the correct amount of thermal paste (Done it a few times now )
I suspect my ventilation might be a issue, its quite an old ATX case, only one intake fan and no additional Exhaust fans other than the PSU one.

Current Temps (Idle - No Overclocking - V Core 1.5)

CPU 40 / Case 34 / PWM 40

Do you really think it could be the temps holding me back? I haven't cranked my CPU fan up all the way - only about half - really noisy otherwise.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

Mark

 

[xbassman]

It's more than like that your processor AND your ram are holding you back.

I've got 3 Barton 2500+'s and only 1 of em will run 3200+ speed. (bought it a year ago)
The other 2 are @ 1.9ghz and 2.1 ghz.

pc2700 is rated for 166mhz (333DDR)

Replacing your power supply with an Antec, Fortron or other quality unit will give you more stable voltages so your overclock will be more stable.

 

[ponyo]

Not all Barton 2500+ will overclock to 3200+ Prime stable.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Not all Barton 2500+ will overclock to 3200+ Prime stable.

True, mine does not.
I can do 2145 MHz easy but the last bit to 2.2 GHz is hard.
60C is not to high and is not the reason for not OC'ing to 200FSB.

 

[Tetsuo316]

for the longest time my 2500+ would not do 3200+. however, upgrading to the latest bios (no easy feat for the a7n8x - they're notoriously bad at bios flashing) did the trick. you may also want to check out the Abit forum over at NForcersHQ to see others' experiences with this board and overclocking.

second, i know on my board i have the option to run the ram at 83% of the cpu (333mhz when fsb set to 200mhz), so you may need to make a change to your ram settings in order to increase stability.

lastly, imo, if your cpu is maxed at 60c according to motherboard monitor, you should be ok. however, any higher than that and things are getting pretty toasty.