P4 overclocking 1.8 Northwood

[Guest B52Drivr]

HI All,My neighbor, who is also a simmer, has a 1.8G P-4 Northwood and desires to overclock it for more performance, he asked a few questions last night I couldn't answer.1. CPU Frequency . . how high can you go?2. CPU Memory Freq Ratio. (ditto)3. CPU VCore setting, (voltage)(ditto)4. Temp in C or F which is danger point.I figured if someone could answer these questions, we could probably get the job done safely.Thanks in advanceClay

[Guest Simpit]

Try this:http://www.overclockers.com/tips802/and there's a lot more information too, if you just browse the site.Simpit

[Guest]

Here is a good site to answer those and any other questions he has: http://forum.oc-forums.com/I was able to take my 1.6A northwood to 2.4 (150FSB) at stock voltage (vcore 1.5) and my 2.26 @ 2.72 (160FSB 1.5vcore). I plan on trying for 3.0 in the next couple days. The 1.8A guys can go a little further than the 1.6A and that chip is the best bang for the buck right now. Have your friend check the pack date and batch# of his chip, that'll give you a good idea of it's OC'ing capability.Alot of other factors come into play when OC'ing such as: motherboard, memory, vidcard and so on. OC'ing has a effect on all the components. Also very, very important is cooling. You have to keep that chip cool. Some folks are doing ok with the stock HSF, but you should really upgrade that. I myself am using the AX-478 which is keep my nice and cool. Some of the more ambitious types are using water cooling.Tell your friend research alot before attempting, or he may end up spending alot of money better used elsewhere. There is also a forum member by the name of "Trip Lane" he seems very knowledgeable on the subject. Ask lot's of questions!! I'm by no means an expert, still learning myself. but will help where I can. Andy

[Guest]

Clay - I'd agree with those who caution about doing a lot reading before you/he get too far into the process. Most all P4's can he overclocked to a fair degree but, as Andy points out, there's a bit of research to do first. There is a very good chance that the 1.8 will OC to 2.4 simply by changing the FSB to 133 (the FSB is all that can be changed anyway as the multiplier is locked ay 18). OC'ing is sometimes just a matter of luck when it comes to how well a particular system does. Some chips do better than others and there is no way to know in advance how any given CPU/system will perform. Trial and error in small increments is the order-of-the-day. There isn't a wealth of really solid information available and that's why reading a lot is really important. Given a little time, the link that Simpit gave will yield all the info required. A lot will depend on the motherboard, memory characteristics, and the video and sound cards but...with luck the CPU will allow a 133 FSB setting at a reasonable voltage. Assuming the default voltage is 1.5, I wouldn't take the Vcore any higher than 1.6 with the stock cooling unless the temp there is less than 55C under a full load. And in no case would I take the Vcore over 1.7 volts (some folks are running it much higher but it's a risky proposition). The P4's will all throttle back at around 68-70C and eventually shutdown at something just over 130C. Anything under 60C is no problem but a maximum temp around 54-55C makes me feel a little better. One of the key factors is going to be how well, or poorly, the motherboard allows for the adjustment of the AGP/PCI buss frequencies. The default AGP frequency is 66Mhz (FSB/2) and it's 33MHz (FSB/4) for the PCI slots. And these are the frequencies that the cards in those slots expect to see. However, absent some other action, raising the FSB will also raise these buss frequencies. On some of the newer boards there is a BIOS option to lock these frequencies. On some other boards it's done via a series of frequency dividers. You'll need to know which method the particular motherboard uses. Without doing anything you can probably raise the FSB by 10% with no AGP/PCI problems but it's problematical beyond that without also changing the frequency dividers. (But if the CPU will let you get to a 133 FSB then by simply choosing the 2:1 divider all will be back normal). The only other advice I'd offer now is to go slowly. When increasing the FSB do it in 5Mhz increments. And only increase the Vcore voltage at the point where either the box won't POST or won't load Windows. And then increase it in the smallest possible increment. The video and sound cards will let you know if they don't like the frequency increase. And don't try to OC the video card at the same time as that could mask other problems. Oh, one last thing. Be SURE you know how to reset the CMOS. There WILL be a time when the box won't POST and you'll have to reset CMOS back to the defaults to get things going again. The motherboard manual will show you how to do that.TripNorthwood 2.2a at 2.72Ghz Abit TH7II-R512MB Samsung 40ns PC800Gainward 64MB GF4 Ti4200 300/57030.30's DX8.1 WinXP ProInwin case / Enermax 431W PSU3DMark2001SE = 12055http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4088814

[Guest B52Drivr]

Hi All,Ok, I've been to the sites, but still am a bit confused. (thats normal in my old age, . We'll leave the VCore at 1.5 where it started. And I take it that the CPU frequency is what we want to play with . . .Correct?There is also the CPU Memory Freq Ratio which give me a choice of 1-1 of 4-3....any suggestions, and of course we will get a monitoring program before we cook anything. a wee bit more help on the above mentioned two and we're on the way.Thanks in AdvanceClay

[Guest]

What motherboard are you using? Ideally you want 3:4 ratio, If you have what i'm using then there is a trick to get that.

[Guest B52Drivr]

Crabster,I have an Asus P4B266 and it has the option of 1:1 or 3:4, so I can easialy switch it to 3:4, what exactly does that mean and do?Clay

[Guest]

3:4 enables the memory to perform at it's best. My friend has the same board you do, but anything over 132FSB and the memory reverts back to 1:1. It's a good board. There is a trick you can do to prevent that. Here is a link for you on that subject www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=422172

[Guest]

The 3:3 (1:1) setting locks the memory speed (and increases) to the CPU FSB. The 3:4 (CPU:memory) setting will independently increase the memory clock and, thereby, increase the bandwidth. How well the 3:4 works depends on the memory installed. It may run at that setting or it may not. The throttleback on the memory clock with the FSB at 132 was probably done on the assumption (correctly) that most memory won't take the additional OC. Trial-and-error again :-) but use the 3:4 as long as it keeps running (it's probably the default anyway). And, yes, the major change you need to make is to increase the CPU FSB.TripNorthwood 2.2a at 2.72Ghz Abit TH7II-R512MB Samsung 40ns PC800Gainward 64MB GF4 Ti4200 300/57030.30's DX8.1 WinXP ProInwin case / Enermax 431W PSU3DMark2001SE = 12055http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4088814