2.4c P4 Prescott @ 3.0ghz

Hey folks. This is my first post, though I've been lurking. Hope it's not too much of a newbie question. Here goes:

I have my 2.4ghz Intel Prescott (C-series) processor clocked at 3.0ghz with an internal bus speed of 250mhz. I'm running PC4000 (DDR500) ram (timing 2.5-3-3-6) in synchronous mode.

I assume my specs are the equivalent of 3.0ghz processor at 1ghz FSB. I notice that I do benchmark higher with my system clocked in this manner, and that my memory in particular is significantly quicker than it was when I was running at 800mhz FSB.

My question is, where do I go from here? If there's a bottleneck somewhere, where would it be? I would like to crank a little more out of my system (it's really not straining in the least, no components are currently overvolted or overheating and all components run at less than 57C at full load in the heat of summer) but I don't really know where to go from here. What could get me a performance increase or a slightly better benchmark? Is it worth cranking my system over 1ghz FSB, am I likely to notice a difference?

Thanks for the time, geeks.

 

First off what do you use the system for ??? Gaming a presume...
If thats the case what video card do you have ??

 

Yeah, gaming, mostly.

I'm running a Geforce 6800 GT

 

Ya running it overclocked ?? Thats what will make the bigest dif...

 

No, the 6800 isn't overclocked. You think I should mess around with that?

 

Prescott is so hot so tº is verry important for you to get high at OC

 

Have you hit your overclocking wall or have you just chose not to go further?ATM your cpu is holding back your video card,if I were you I'd keep pushing until you find the limit then knock it back a peg or two,also have you tried running your memory at cas2,the first number in your memory latencies

 

I haven't hit the cpu's limit yet, and I'm still running at stock voltage.

Unfortunately my memory will only clock to about 220mhz with cas 2 instead of 2.5

at 250mhz it won't post with cas lower than 2.5

 

If your CAS ram At DF it can run at 2 2 2 5
You Can OC at 2.5 3 3 7 or 2.5 4 3 7 at Volt 2v9 or more

 

right now I'm running the ram at stock voltage with timing 2.5-3-3-6

 

How far can you get FBS at 2.5 3 3 6 Vdim 2v7 ?

 

Im running a 9800 pro ( flashed to xt ) with a athlon 900 @ 1ghz ....and overclocking the video card makes a big dif... most games are ~90% video card ~10% CPU the only exception is HL2 with its demanding physics.....

 

It'll go to 253 fsb with those timings

I can probably get it higher if I increase the timings slightly, but I don't know if my performance gain will be more than my performance loss.

Also, would asynchronous clock speeds be worth trying out? Again, I don't know if I can get my CPU to operate fast enough to bring the FSB back to 250 with the ratios I have. I suppose I will check it out tonight and see if I bench better and how my temps change.

 

Yeah that right,
If you run at DF you can set timmings at 2 2 2 5 for PC3200 and 2.5 3 3 7 for PC4000. You can oc it higher at 2.5 4 3 7 or 3 4 4 8 at highest Vdim 2v9 or more if your Mobo suport.
You can set ratio down to get higher FSB if your ram can.
the lowest timmings of ram the fastest performance you get.

 

Ah, I found some stuff I was doing wrong.

I left the RAM ratio on [AUTO] and it was running at a lower ratio (!) and running in Synchronous mode. No wonder I didn't notice a performance increase!

I fixed the bus speed and it's REALLY running at 500mhz now (250mhz cpu) and I'm stable at 3.0ghz with a huge increase in performance. I found out that my cpu becomes unstable at 3.18ghz and I have to overvolt it to be stable at 3.1, so I'm leaving her at 3.0ghz for now. I'm getting a score of 3889 in PCMark2005 now, compared to the 3463 I was getting before.

By the way, this is a 25% OC on STOCK AIR at STOCK VOLTAGE

I bought this thing for $80 haha what a deal, if you ever see a 2.4c prescott in the bargain bin do yourself a favor and buy it.

 

oh damn my bad, this isn't a prescott it's a Northwood

duhr

 

I saw this thread the other day and I was gonna say something, but I'm new, so I didn't want to begin by going making corrections, but yes it is a Northwood if its a "C". I run my 2.4c at 3GHZ 24/7 completely stable on stock volts. I'd try upping that FSB until you lose stability to see what you can manage. SOME completely phenomenal 2.4c's have hit 3.6Ghz+ (although its unlikely).