[johnb4467]

Hi there folks...I've got a question that seems to be giving me problems, and I'm not quite sure how to go about adjusting it in the p4c800-d's bios

Well, typically I've had my computer with the cpu multiplier raised one notch from default (one up from 1.5 I believe), because if I don't I'd get random restarts when running processor intensive actions.

Something I've noticed recently, however, that has me quite baffled and worried, is my front side bus reporting in programs such as 3dmark2005 ... which is only reported at "FSB 210 MHz" ... isn't this WAAAAY low?

Here's my full system specs:
P4C800-D (newest bios)
P4 3.0ghz
2GB 3200 RAM, dual linear mode 400mhz
6800GT 256MB

Think that's all the essentials. Pretty much I'm wondering what I need to adjust to get the fsb to the 800mhz setting which I think it SHOULD rightly be at, am I not correct? I don't see that there's any danger in this, as that setting should be what it would run at anyway, correct? I tried using the 5% overclock just to see if that would get it to the right setting, but that's actually the setting where the fsb is at 210, I think it was at 200 before. I'm getting waaaaay sub-par scores in 3dmark...some guys with almost identical systems are scoring almost a full thousand more than me, though I do realize that other variables are there (they may be crazy-overclocking)...I just want to make sure I'm getting the proper performance out of my system...WITHOUT putting it in jeopardy of dying on me.

So...any help is greatly appreciated.

John

 

[-=carlos=-]

Your FSB is the base clock speed. 200MHz is correct, everything else is multiplied from this. Therefore, increasing it as you have to 210MHz will also make your memory run faster aswell as your CPU. If you don't have good branded memory you're very likely to get problems and cooling could also be an issue with any lock ups...overclocking is not something you should do to cure crashes!!!!!!

If your bios has the option, lock the AGP/PCI to 66/33 if you must overclock, that way your ports wont be affected.

Oh, at 210MHz bus, your processor should be reporting as 3.1GHz, not 3GHz? Your friends may have faster hard drives (sata or 10,000 rpm raptors maybe) or better memory with a better bandwidth or for 3D mark score, they might have PCI-E where you might have AGP? I don't know, just guessing.

Stability is better than speed in almost all cases, stop trying to keep up with the Jones' and you'll be fine!!! :4-thatsba :laugh: :wink:

 

[please]

@ johnb4467
carlos is correct. Your FSB listed at 200MHz(before the P4 'quad-pumped' speed spec is applied) is stock speed. The 210 you are seeing IS the 5% OC. As for your scores, there are many factors that may skew results in favor of one setup over another, and they may not reflect real-world performance. Try several different benchmarks to get a better idea of where your strenghts and weaknesses are. SiSandra is a good one for this, as it tests your systems' subsystems seperately and compares them to similar components. There is a free detuned version available. Your OC and overall system performance will only be as strong as your weakest link, so strive for balance.

You can also try to google for your MB and 'overclock' and you'll get 1000's of links to see what others are doing in their BIOS to maximize performance. Also, try googling for your memory type and 'overclock' to see what kind of results others are getting.

 

[johnb4467]

Stability is better than speed in almost all cases, stop trying to keep up with the Jones' and you'll be fine!!! :4-thatsba :laugh: :wink:

Oh I'm definitely not looking to overclock...my previous 1.8ghz system completely DIED due to that. In fact, I wouldn't have anything different than default if the computer wouldn't restart at "stock" settings.
Any ideas why it would be doing that? Like I said, the less I'm tweaking performance settings...the better I will sleep at night.

As far as what I'm tweaking, I don't have a full-on "5% overclock"...I have it set on 'manual' and put up the 1.5V cpu core to 1.6 (I think...whatever is 1 up).

I can't remember if I wrote that first post when I was fiddling with higher settings, but right now the fsb is at 200, and I'm being reported at 3.0ghz (which I assume should be the case?).

haha, and I *DO* have a sata raptor, lol!

Thanks for the help so far guys...I'm really hoping to get this thing locked down & not have to mess with it at all anymore...at stock if possible.

 

[whodat]

greetings

can you give us the specs on your ram, psu, cooling and heatsink?

 

[johnb4467]

specs

greetings

can you give us the specs on your ram, psu, cooling and heatsink?

soytanly. :sayyes:

The ram is 3200 kingston, a 2-stick kit which was ordered straight from them. I'm pretty sure it was this in particular (only 2gb kit shown for my mobo): KVR400X64C3AK2/2G
details on it:
Standard 128M X 64 Non-ECC 400MHz 184-pin Unbuffered DIMM (SDRAM-DDR, 2.6V, CL3, Gold)
or head over to the product page at: http://www.ec.kingston.com/shop/partsinfo.asp?ktcpartno=KVR400X64C3AK2/2G

My psu is an Antec 480 watt truepower

my cpu is a big huge Zalman (sp?) fan/heat sink. I never planned to overclock, but when I accidentally busted the arm on the default intel heat sink/fan, was kinda "forced" to upgrade. I don't know the actual exact item # on this one though...hope that isn't a problem. If you really need to know I can open up the computer and pull the guts out. :wink:

Well, I think that's everything you needed...advise away oh Great Ones! :grin:

 

[whodat]

greetings
it could be your memory holding you back
try bumping up the voltage a notch on the ram
2.7 to 2.8

 

[pintofhooky]

Hi John, I've recently upgraded my pc from a 3.0 to a 3.4 as well as swapping out 1 gig (4x256) of generic ram for corsair twinx 1024 pc3200c2, and, because of the ram, I've learned a bit more than I wanted to about it. In any case, after getting the ram settings more or less right, and finding that in my case, the graphics aperature (default is 64, my card is 256) was changed to 256, without overclocking my 3dmark05 scores are now consistently 3015-3020. It seems that your ram settings make a huge difference, and with generic ram the best I could get was with all the settings to auto with enhanced mode enabled and system to turbo. Now I have the enhanced memory on and system set to auto, turbo doesn't help now.
I hope this helps somewhat, although I didn't have any problems with my old ram, the only way I could infcrease performance was by overclocking, now I don't have to.

 

[please]

@ johnb4467
That is great advice from whosdat. I think that may do the trick.
The Zalman is a fine choice for HSF and all models are excellent, tho some better than others, I am sure it will have you covered for quiet, efficient cooling for your no-OC or little-OC needs.
You might also want to back off on the CPU voltage to stock/default Vcore. Raising Vcore helps mostly when you are OCing and you run into stability problems. It won't be a factor when there is no OC, and can potentially do more harm than good.

Check this thread out for some helpful BIOS tweaks. You might try googling for your MB and 'overclock' just to see what others are doing in the BIOS with your board to maximize performance, even if you are not OCing

 

[-=carlos=-]

I however wouldn't recommend just randomly bumping your ram voltage "up a notch" if you dont need to!

Put your CPU vcore back to default, put your ram voltage and timings to what the manufacturers recommend...infact looking at that page you posted earlier, those mem chips are supposed to run at 2.6V. At a guess (as is with most mem chips) it's plus or minus 1V which means the most you should run them at stock is 2.7V.

What exactly are you trying to achieve here john? You started posting asking a question and I answered that question...you've said you "definately don't want to overclock" so with all due respect, what more is there to do? :4-dontkno

:smile:

 

[johnb4467]

What exactly are you trying to achieve here john? what more is there to do? :4-dontkno
:smile:

My main problem was that whenever I was running at the default cpu voltage, I'd get system restarts, usually when processor-intensive applications were running. I've bumped EVERYTHING back down to stock/default & haven't had any restarts yet...though I can't calim it "working" quite yet. So in that regard, it is as you stated -- the problem is fixed.

However, I am still having issues with my graphics card, which is giving me artifacts that are usually associated with one of two problems -- 1) not enough power from psu or 2)overheating of the card. Now that everything's back to 'stock', I would think any artifacts would have gone away...though they're still there. I was curious if there were any bios settings in particular that might be causing this (In conjunction to asking you all here, I've been emailing back and forth with the card manufacturer, BFG). They don't know specifics of all motherboards, so in this area you are my "go-to" men & women.

But like I said, under 'jumper-free config' everything is set to 'standard'...

 

[linderman]

As stated in previous posts / John doesnt want to overclock his system but he CANT get it stable without OCing / the stock settings keep restarting the computer on him.

I am leary of your memory modules myself / I personally am not a banner waver for Kingston memory by a lone shot / have had too many quirky problems in the past / I used to think they were the cats hinney back in the P3 days but not no mo !!!!

Is your memory working in dual channel mode / or single channel mode ??? the benchmarks should reveal that / some of the less scrupuleous memory manufacturers think a board running their memory in single channel mode means its compatible / to that I say B.S.

Also take the others advice and download Sandra lite and post your system temps, system voltages and cpu temps in here for review. Post them after you have been running defrag, anti virus scanner and a spyware cleaner all at the same time for about 20 minutes.

also check you memory (with auto settings activated in the bios) with memtest86.com let run for a minimum of one hour

I too am a througly convinced over clocker cured user !! burnt up a couple CPU,s good video cards, mobo chipset, and spent unending money on water cooling and faster memory / in the end I was very unimpressed and broke !!

let us know how you progress / all the fellas posting advice and answers in here for you are excellent knowledgable machine builders.


http://www.download.com/3000-2086-10018691.html


PS >>> dont drive yourself crazy with benchmark scores / they have little real world value. You dint say whether or not your runnign the most recent bios version ??????


regards

joe

 

[johnb4467]

So far I haven't had any reboots since bumping back down to stock settings...still seeing if that'll remain the case. I'll run the memory tester now (I have a bootable cd, not sure if it's the exact same one you have...but I assume it'll do the same?).
Once I get home later tonight I'll do the temp guage, etc.

Thanks for all the help, everyone -- it's been a great help to me!

Oh and yes, I'm running the newest bios version...that's not beta. I'm always a bit weary of installing a beta version of a mobo.......... :sayno:

 

[johnb4467]

here ye go...the mem test ran fine for 3.5 hours straight, so that doesn't seem to be the issue. here's the everest report. I took this after a fairly lengthy session of Far Cry, which seems to be a pretty good pusher for both gpu and cpu. So far no restarts, though the artifacting is still there...
And btw, I do realize I have a lot of hard drives, however, even when unplugging all but the main ones, the artifacting is still present, so I can't really attribute it to that....
--------[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST v2.20.405
Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Quick Report
Computer BUBBA
Generator John
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2005-10-05
Time 00:55


--------[ Sensor ]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Winbond W83627THF (ISA 290h)
GPU Sensor Type National LM89 (NV-I2C 4Ch)
Motherboard Name Asus P4C800 / P4P800 / P4P8X

Temperatures:
Motherboard 30 °C (86 °F)
CPU 37 °C (99 °F)
GPU 57 °C (135 °F)
GPU Ambient 51 °C (124 °F)
WDC WD800JB-00JJC0 35 °C (95 °F)
Seagate ST3300831AS 41 °C (106 °F)
WDC WD740GD-00FLC0 33 °C (91 °F)
WDC WD800JB-00JJC0 33 °C (91 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 2328 RPM
Power Supply 1592 RPM

Voltage Values:
CPU Core 1.55 V
+3.3 V 3.28 V
+5 V 4.76 V
+12 V 12.16 V
+5 V Standby 5.17 V
Debug Info F FF 91 6A
Debug Info T 30 37 208
Debug Info V 63 C8 CD B1 B1 00 02 (03)

 

[-=carlos=-]

Everything you've posted there seem absolutely fine. All the temps are as expected, the voltages are fine and you ran mem test without failure.

Therefore, I'm going to stick my neck out and say you're running out of options and might simply be looking at a bad card. However, I do have one thing more you can try. Bump your AGP voltage to 1.6V for a while and see if that cures the artifacing. I've ran my 6800GT at 1.6V for a few days before and it was no problem, but as usual, do at your own risk. If this doesnt solve it, and you've tried new drivers...maybe time to send it back?

 

[whodat]

greetings again
what voltage do you have going to the memory ?
for starters it has to be 2.7 to behave, and with kingston maybe more.
i am not saying its a cure-all, but it might be a start.
good luck

 

[johnb4467]

well I bumped up the agp one notch, as well as the ram...but I have gotten a couple 'restarts'...though they've only occurred when the computer is booting up...so I don't know if that's an OS issue or a mobo/hardware issue. Once it is booted up, it still hasn't restarted on me while in use.
I've been talking to BFG (vid card company), and the guy just said to return it for a new one. He's not sure that's the problem, but we've tried enough stuff at this point to warrant swapping out cards. Would be easier if I had another system I could just slap it into, but unfortunately that's not the case. Should still be easy enough though, as I can still return it to the place-of-purchase. I'll be sure ot let you guys know if that fixes the artifacting...though do let me know what you think about the restarting-during-bootup.

 

[johnb4467]

Ok well apparently the artifacts aren't due to the graphics card; swapped it out for a replacement and, if anything, there's more than there was before (good grief!).
So that leaves [I think] two possiblities -- either the mobo or the psu. It could be settings on the mobo but at this point I'm not thinking so. When swapping out vid cards I also gutted the computer and took out all my extra hard drives for better air-flow & less power consumption...but like I mentioned...that doesn't seem to have help at all.

Any thoughts on which one might be the more likely trouble-maker?

oh and I have tried the voltages for the memory anywhere from regular 2.5 to 2.7x [2nd from highest in p4c800-d bios]...didn't seem to help. I also bumped up the AGP voltage one notch, which also didn't seem to have any affect. hmmm this is such an odd problem.

 

[johnb4467]

Alright...the verdit is in...and we have a winner [or is "fiend" more appropriate?] -- it is the power supply.
Apparently the antec truepower 480 just wasn't cutting it. I took out a bunch of the drives, so I really shouldn't be needing even near 480 watts, but I swapped in a 500 watt antec (best psu they had at best buy), and no artifacting!
So now that we know the problem, I have one question left for you all: should I just stick with this psu, as it's working...or should I take it back and get a 600 watt one somewhere else (might have to go the internet route)?
I don't think I'll ever have as many hard drives in my computer as I used to...so I don't know if a 550-600 watt would be overkill? This one is kinda nice because it has support for dual core & dual pci-e ... but still, more wattage might be worth doing the return/search for a higher watt one?

Let me know, as I'd like to get this one resolved & OVER!!!

 

[Barry_R]

Too much power is never a problem. But stick with Antec or Enermax, they are among the best.