I'm having some problem OC'ing my CPU. My setup: Athlon XP 2500+ Barton "333" 2 x GEIL DDR RAM 512MB PC-3200 400MHz MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR Cooler Master Jet 7 Radeon 9800 Pro Lian Li PC65 350W PSU I've read SO many reviews from people who easily OC'ing with this 2500+ CPU and motherboard to a 3200+ simply by upping the FSB to 200mhz and the multiplier to 11. When I attempt to up my FSB to 200mhz, my system won't even boot up to POST. I seem to be able to up my FSB to 190mhz, and during POST, it displays my CPU as a 3200+, but then my DRAM clock bumps down to like 380 instead of 400 dual channels. Also, when I use this setting whenever Windows XP attemps the boot the whole system restarts. Do I need to adjust other settings as well such as play around with the memory settings? Thanks!
You might wanna look into raising the Vcore a little to get it to run at that speed, unless you're going to watercool that CPU, don't go past 1.85V--maximum. Of course, there is the possibility that you've got a chip that only OC's so far too. If you want to play with the timings, go with the highest value possible, but I'd really leave it as is.
I was able to OC it to 200FSB x 10.5 which gives me a 3000+ at 2.10Ghz. I raised the vcore to 1.7. CPU idles at around 35-38c and 43-45c at load. The OS itself seems to run fine. However, I noticed that some games were crashing after the OC. Games such as Halo and UT2K3. It seems to help after I bumped the vcore up to 1.7. Should I bump this to 1.75 or 1.8 to get higher stability? By the way, what is the disadvantage of upping the vcore? Is this what causes the CPU to die sooner? I also bumped the DRAM voltage to 2.7. Finally, is it recommended to rebuild the OS and re-install all apps after a satisfy OC? Thanks!
Try upping the Vcore and see. The main issue with this is that it adds additional heat and can lead to instability. When overclocking, just because you can get into Windows means almost jack. Get yourself Prime 95 or Super Pi off the web and run either one's torture test. If you can go for 24 hours without an error, the CPU is stable. Theoretically, overvolting the CPU can kill it. Some people were killing their P4's by overvolting too much, but typically, you're taking the total lifespan of the chip from 10 years to 5. By then, you're likely to have a new rig by then.
you might also wanna play with your memory configuration. Try one stick, then the other, and play with it, putting it in different slots. It sometimes solve problems.
