The Placid Casual

Just wondering as I have a Rev2.1 of the board and can't get any real stable OC on it. I have an unlocked Athlon 2600+, but if I raise the FSB over 333 at all, I get Prime95 fails. The best I have been able to do is raise the multiplier to 12.5 and get stable 2800+ speeds, but no more... My set up is: 2600+ EP-8rda+ 2.1, (Newest Bios, 20/2/04) Swiftec MCX462V, 512MB PC3200 (Generic, but passes fine after hours of Memtest) Radeon 9200 Chieftec PSU 350W, Stacks of case fans, Chieftec dragon. It *must* be a config error... Wondering if anyone has one of the boards and could tell me their OC settings in the Bios? Cheers, Marc

I have a 2600+ barton, and have had some problems overclocking... Cooling wise, I'm running a Swiftec MCX462V V-Fin Cooler with 90mm fan and 3 other case fans. Don't know if it my board, an Epox ep-8rda+, my dodgy generic RAM, or the chip, but the best I can get with things stable is 2192 mhz. 175.4 FSB on a 12.5 multiplier... I can get it to run at 200x11, but it failed prime95 in short time. I'll be more than interested to see how you go!

Well, having read it before I started , yep I do have a HW fault... but where! When I run it on the CPU only, It reads fine... PCI and AGP frequencies are fine, I just can't see what the issue is. I'm now running at below the recommended speed of the RAM, at 390FSB to see if that helps things...

I think was using 201/202 FSB by accident! Anyway, I seem to have got it stable! Prime95 ran for an hour before having any kind of difficulty... but then came in with an error. Best settings yet anyhow! RAM: 11, 3, 3, 2.5. 11.5 x 200 cpu 1.775 agp 1.6 dimm 2.77 When I say stable, I mean that I have no random reboots! Temp wise, I am at around 44C full load... seems OK so far. As for Prime 95, can it provide false errors or anything? I'm only wondering as at the moment, and for the last few hours, the system has been great at 2300 and 200fsb. No issues of any kind. Can I just run it like this? Or I am heading for disaster?

Thanks for the advice everyone... Think it has helped me track down the problem! Temp wise, I'm running 42-45C under full load at 2.3ghz, at idle I am at about 39C... Don't suppose it is too high, but I am pretty sure that the CPU is fine at 1.75 because: The RAM is PC3200 very cheap generic, and I think therein lies my problem It is the only part of the system that doesn't have decent parts and branded stuff... guess it kind of serves me right for being cheap! I have been running Prime95 for the last 1/2 hour on 'CPU only torture test' without so much as a glitch, but as soon as I try to make it use the RAM as well, I get an error in under 2 minutes. Hmmm. It was only cheap stuff, so I think I need to invest in some decent dual channel PC3700 and then try everything again. Also, the chipset temp goes up to about 31C when I run a 200FSB, would a NB cooler really help this? Thanks yet again Marc

Got my 2600+ up to 2305ghz. 11.5x400. Voltage at 1.775 Thing is, it seems to be unstable and reboots ramdomly... It fails Prime 95 pretty quickly I have set the AGP frequentcy to 66mhz only, and I think the PCI cards are locked at 33mhz. Anything else I should look at that may be to blame? Cheers, Marc

Ok, spec is as follows... Athlon XP 2600+ (Week 26) Epox EP-8RDA+ (Rev 2.1 meant to be 400fsb compatible) PC3200 RAM. (Generic - could be the issue) Swiftec MCX462V V-Fin Arctic Silver 5 Radeon 9200 Maxtor 80 Gig HD Windows XP Home 360w Chieftec Powersupply 4x 80mm case fans 92mm cpu fan chieftec dragon case Memory is not overclocked... I have run Memtest on it for a few hours and got no errors. Wouldn't know how to OC it. When I set the FSB to 200, the system won't post and I have to do a board reset... Anything over about 175 causes big Prime95 Issues... Can't see any real reason why things are not working...

Well, I have got to 2.1 ghz on standard voltage. Things run excellently. Anything over that runs, but I get errors on Prime 95 within about 5 minutes. I have tried upping the voltage to 1.725, but still get the errors... Anyone have any suggestions as to what to try next? Cheers, Marc

The application in this thread should answer all your queries... http://www.perfexltd.co.uk/forums/index.ph...t=ST&f=4&t=2473

I just bought a Swiftec MCX462V V-Fin and comined it with Y-S 92mm 2500 rpm Fan. http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/produc...d=17052&cat=299 Still within it's first 48 hours, but so far I am very impressed... temps down on average 11+ Degrees C. Well worth a look.

Well, the heatsink is installed, and running with a 92mm, 2500rpm fan. I've been running for about 10 minutes, but already temps are down about 10 degrees from what it was before... Full load is now about 36C, down from 48+C. Can't tell on idle yet, but I would say it is also 10+C down on the stock HSF. Wow. I am seriously impressed as the system is also about 2 times as quiet! ... One final question, how long to I have to let things settle down for before I attempt an overclock on it?

Thanks for the cool reply! Arctic 5 it is!

Just wondering which is best? I'm installing a new HSF later on, and have both pastes, just woindering which is 'best'... Cheers, Marc

Hehe. What happened was, that I am (was?) a huge Mac user, but refused to pay the price for a new dual G5 of the spec I needed... over

I bought a Thoroughbred 2600+ Athlon XP a few months ago, but a Barton of some kind was in the box... (512k L2 cache). Default clock is 11.5x166, but it is unlocked!! I have it running rock steadily at 2800+ speeds, eg, 12.5x167 = 2098.5 mhz on the original HSF. I *can* run it at around a 175 fsb x 12.5 on standard voltage with the original HSF, and hit about 2187 mhz. I get my new heatsink and fan tomorrow (Swiftec MCX462-V, Vantec stealth 92mm fan and some arctic 5), so what should I be aiming for? I can't really get to 200mhz FSB, I think due to a bios issue with my ePox ep-8rda+ board, although upping the voltage I can get about 185+. Just. So, once my cooling is in place, how far can I take it voltage wise, speed wise and keep things sensible? I use the machine for uni so don't really want to blow it up... Any advice appreciated! Marc