The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

i think i got an unstable iso of windows xp pro. Once again it is restarting by itself. Not sure what is going on anymore. If any of the components where bad it shouldn't be starting like everything is good. Going to see if i can get a better copy of xp. Lost my CD but at least i still have the serial...

Spec's Are
Mobo = GA-EP45-UD3P
RAM= Patriot Viper 1066 2x2gbs
PSU= Corsair 620hx
GPU= Gigabyte 4870 512mb

if you have any info please feel free im about to throw this pc out the window...

 

What CPU are you using?

Russ

 

Im using the E8400. But after the 4 re-install and changes in the order that i install the driver she seems to be working now. This is what i did. Removed one hard drive i have 2 80gb westerns. After os install i installed my video card software first cool so far no problems. Then proceded to install mobo drivers. Just what was needed to make all the hardware function. Did not install easy tune or dynamic energy saver or any of that stuff. Cool computer still acting right. So after i installed all necessary drivers and utilities computer seems stable. I did not plug the xtra hard drive in. im scared. Now should i plug it back in and get instability issues again then it would be i think my psu. Im kinda thinking it is since it was enginnered for previous vid cards. The 4870 takes both of the pci e power cables. no way i could run cross fire on that psu. Its a good psu but i think i might be maxing it out. Please feel free to throw your ideas. I finally installed all programs that i use and computer still not rebooting thank god. Im currently installing Wow in it and we shall see what happens then when i do play it. So this is where i am at now.

 

Actually the 620 HX can run crossfire. I run crossfire 4870s (albeit a 4870X2, but it uses just as much power) and only have the weaker 520HX. I doubt the PSU is the problem.

 

That puts a wrench in my troubleshooting. Well she is still working as im currently replying from the new build. Im going to be plugin in the the xtra hard drive so well see what happens if all goes well moving on to the next phase overclocking...

 

Don't be too downed if that does trigger the fault, even things like dodgy S-ATA or IDE cables can cause system instability.

 

well i plugged it in. So far so good (got my fingers crossed). going to let it run for a while then ill try to overclock. From what i read a lot of ppl have been able to get 3.6 on stock voltage. We shall see how my cpu performs as not all are the same. Im not looking for anything crazy 3.6 or 3.8 will be fine with me. I got the thermaltake armor case and the thermalright 120 extreme with artic silver thermal paste. 3 120mm fans and 2 92mm fans plenty of cooling going on there. cant wait.

 

Which CPU do you have?

 

I have the E8400

 

3.6 will be a piece of cake.

 

well first i have to fix this new issue that came up. It boots up to the third boot screen then says NTLDR is missing. any one ever have this happen before?

 

chop2113,
You could run Memtest86, but don't be running for the trash can if they fail. I had a bad bios that caused that once, but this last time it was the CPU and Electro Migration.

The last time I came across NTLDR is missing, it turned out to be the CPU that was corrupting the files. Google the error message and you will see a number of fixes for it!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

My wife and I both want a new case, and this one sticks out for us as a winner. I would just like to get some feed back on it from you guys as to what you think of it, ESPECIALLY you Russ!

 

go to the advanced bios setting in the bios and inside of there hit enter by where it says Hard Disk Boot Priority {press enter} from there make sure that it's not set on boot from addon device . if it's on there then set it to boot from the drive that has your OS( whatever windows you are running) then save the new settings and all should work fine.

 

Thanks guys. It turned out that it was booting from the wrong drive. Not sure why it did that after starting so many times before. But all is well now. Now i went and to try to overclock the cpu for some reason i cant get past 3.2. Settings are 9x356 @ 1.24v. Now i tried upping the voltage just to hit 3.3 9x367 and does not take at all. went one increment at a time for the voltage till i hit 1.3v then just went back to 3.2. Any ideas what might be holding me back i should be able to hit higher i would think. Any advice greatly appreciated...

 

chop2113,
As long as you keep the voltage below 1.35v, and your not having CPU heat issues, you should have no problem. I know that it's easy to get carried away and raise that voltage. Plenty of people here have gone above 1.37 for a short while and didn't encounter problems , buy I wasn't that lucky. I was luckier in a sense than Cincyrob though. He spent a good bit of time tearing his hair out until he finally replaced the CPU, and all was well again! Of course, that was after replacing the memory and then the motherboard first! LOL!! Mine took about 8 months to die, but I knew it was dying because every month or so I had to add more voltage. It went out when it was running at 1.492v for about a month! It took a bit of serious trial and error testing to figure out that the CPU was the problem. Since I wasn't bright enough to disconnect the other Sata drive, I formatted them both without knowing it. Was I surprised when I opened up E drive and it was empty! All my Software gone! It took me over 2 1/2 hours to recover the partition with scandisk and I had 3 corrupted programs, which fortunately I had copies of! I'm just so glad that no one bought my d-940, so I popped it in my computer! no problems! Runs great at a mild OC to 3.55GHz I can take it to 3.83GHz or more but then I have to mess with the fans. Turn one around and adjust the speeds. The E6750 should be here late next week, so no point in major changes for now. Besides, my 1066 memory is on "Holiday"! the D-940 only has an 800MHz bus, running at 888MHz. I think I can hear it yawning! My E6750 runs the fsb at 1775MHz at the same 3.55GHz speed with the memory running at 1066MHz! LOL!! I lose a lot of memory bandwidth, and almost half the fsb speed, so it's much slower than the E6750.


The big killer is that it would run fine for a day or so with a fresh install of XP, but I had to use my original non service pack XP-Pro to install it. I would get error messages trying to install from XP-Pro/SP2. It did weird re-boots, sometimes as many as 3 times in 10-15 minutes. Then you turn it on the next day and it won't boot because of corrupt files. That's what Electro-migration causes a chip to do. No rhyme or reason and no consistency in the problems you find either. Your screen starts locking up so you know the CPU is plenty cool and you think memory problem, run memtest86 and you get ton's of errors. Check the same memory in another machine, and there's no errors at all. It can drive you nuts! I really feel for rob because he tried everything in the book and it would do the same thing, run great, run hours of Orthos, then the next time you boot up, run like crap! Just a friendly warning, that's all!

Russ

 

Sheeny: Didn't we both post about that A380 case? Do you want more detail, or is there another case you'd like us to review?

 

Well i really think i got that bad pick of the litter. My Cpu wont go past 3.2 9x356. Even re-installed easy tune and tried to have it oc it to 3.6. Did not work. If anyone has any ideas on what else i could try or some generic settings i could please do tell. All ive done is tried raising FSB till it wont boot which was 3.25 then tried raising Vcore went up to 1.3v and still would not boot. So brought it back down to 3.2. Any help would be greatly appreciated..

 

You need to adjust your memory multiplier too. Change it to 2.00D at first, it can be fine tuned later.