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Topic: Affects Of Overclocking CPU ??? (Read 5229 times) previous topic - next topic
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Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

I'm currently in the process of overclocking my P4 1.8A.  I've got it running smoothly at FSB133 which gets me up to 2.4Ghz.  I had to up my core voltage to 1.60v to get it running smooth.  Prime 95 has been stress testing for 5+ hours with no errors reported at this voltage.  100% CPU usage has my temp at 52c.  Idle temps are in the low 30s.

Anyway, my question is this:  What affect on MP3 encoding, if any, will overclocking my CPU have on quality?  I don't want to find out later that my MP3s are corrupt or something as a result of me jacking up my FSB.  Should I assume if LAME doesn't report any errors or problems after encoding that everything worked the way it should?  Or is that assumption the mother of all f'ups?

Daffy

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #1
If Prime95 didn't show any errors it is very likely that your system is stable.

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #2
There has been reports of EVERYTHING going smooth besides Prime 95 (got errors), so if Prime95 is ok you won't get into any troubles...

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #3
So what you guys are saying is:  Prime95 stability = overclock stability = LAME stability (encoding w/out errors or artifacts).  Cool.

Prime95 has been running 7 1/2 hours now with no errors.  I'll let it go for another few hours just for good measure and start encoding again.

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #4
i'd rather put Quake3 into a heavy demoloop for at least 12 hours or so. if i'm right Prime95 only stresses the integer part of your processor. Instead a Quake3, or any other similar system-intentive app, will stress your entire system, which is far more valuable than a CPU only test, because it is a REAL WORLD test.



I usually test my systems stability by running 100 loops of Crusher demo Q3A.
It it survives that, i doubt there's anything else than can break it because of the overclock

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #5
Good advice witchboy.  Don't laugh, however, when I say I don't have Q3A anymore (gave it to my brother).  I do have Return to Castle Wolfenstein loaded on my PC.  Can you tell me how to loop a demo with that game instead?

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #6
for memory testing you still need something dos based. memtest86 gives you in 30 minutes if your memory is on par. Your computer could run for weeks without hitting the "worst case scenario".

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #7
but....memtest86 isn't dos based  great tool, however

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #8
Just for the record, I've seen some systems which will run fine for days in prime95, but still throw some errors in LAME during heavy encoding.  I wouldn't take anything for granted.  Encode a bunch of albums back to back and make sure LAME doesn't give any errors (they will usually be about resevoir size mismatch if there is a problem).

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #9
Quote
Originally posted by witchboy
i'd rather put Quake3 into a heavy demoloop for at least 12 hours or so. if i'm right Prime95 only stresses the integer part of your processor. Instead a Quake3, or any other similar system-intentive app, will stress your entire system, which is far more valuable than a CPU only test, because it is a REAL WORLD test.



I usually test my systems stability by running 100 loops of Crusher demo Q3A.
It it survives that, i doubt there's anything else than can break it because of the overclock


One of the problems with running a test like Quake3 though is that math errors which pop up may not be critical (perhaps you might see a bit of screen trash or something, maybe not), and so the application will continue to run "fine"... causing you to think there's nothing wrong.  I've seen prime95 reveal overclocking instabilities which games were not able to (q3, unreal, etc)... and I've also seen LAME reveal some problems which prime95 didn't.  You just can't really take anything for granted when testing for stability in an overclocked system, especially when the integrity of data processing is at stake.

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #10
Daffy - I assume you're running the "torture test" in Prime95?  It uses more complex FFTs to really stress the FPU of the processor.  Another great stability test (if you have Linux) is to repeatedly compile the Linux kernel for a day or so.

Incidentally, I have a P4 1.6 GHz that I've been running for 4 months or so at 2.4 GHz with nary an issue.  The P4 Northwoods have a ton of design margin.

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #11
The thing which really showed up an error when i overclocked was not Prime95, any other windows programs which i ran to test stability. It was infact a compile in Linux. I only installed Windows for testing my overclock and typically use Gentoo.

When reinstalling gentoo overclocked, all compiles go fine, Kernel, Gnome, X etc. appart for one package when doing an install from scratch. Im very sure the package was Binutils (one of the first few packages and began with a B!) and is one of the most sensitve packages due to its high assembly optimisation. When droping the overclock back down, it compiled fine.

This is, in my eyes, the best test as it is the only thing that ever showed an error with my oc and so now i tend not to oc as i find it worrying that errors can be occuring and yet all the tests do not highlight problems! long period system and data corruption is not fun in my eyes! Not saying that oc is generally bad, i have a secondary system which i overclock, mod and really mess with, keeps me from screwin with my main system to much. 

Cheers,

Kristian

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #12
Well, I've been testing all day.  Memtest-86 V3.0 passed my memory.  I finally turned off Prime95's torture test after 8h44m no problems.  I ran a few game benchmarks, including Jedi Knight's demo jk2ffa.  Everything worked fine.  Then I went to run 3dmark2K1 again and, guess what, my computer froze.    After all that testing.  My temps were only in the low 40s, so I'm not sure why 3dmark froze up.  Anyway, after reading Dibrom's post I'm starting to think I'm best served leaving things at spec.  Afterall, a 1.8Ghz and Ti4200 are plenty fast for today's games and encoding.  I'd rather not take the chance of gigging up my MP3s.  At least I know I can get to 2.4Ghz if I make a few more modifications (probably need better cooling).  Anyway, thanks for the help guys.  I'm going back to 100FSB for now to ensure top quality MP3s.

Daffy        :too_hot:

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #13
That's why I didn't post anything about 3DMark. It depends not only on the CPU and memory stability but also vastly on your 3D subsystem. If you don't have the right drivers and bios settings 3DMark can freeze.

Nevertheless, your safest bet is to stay within the specs.

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #14
I wouldn't worry about the 40 degree temp..  Certainly don't buy more cooling.  My p4 1.6 @ 2.1 typically hits 50-51 degrees under full load, and I NEVER get crashes (uptime 3 1/2 weeks with win2k).  Prime95 gave no errors, hours of quake2 crusher demo looping did nothing.  I haven't run 3dmark, but all games - and LAME - run fine so there isn't much point.

I noticed that if I raised my memory settings past 'normal' on my sis645 motherboard, I'd get alot of crashes, so you may want to play around with memory timing, but I wouldn't give up on getting that 1.8 @ 2.4 just yet  Encoding a couple cds with lame and listening to them would be a good idea too.

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #15
Quote
I've got it running smoothly at FSB133 which gets me up to 2.4Ghz.


Maybe P4 can be overclocked to 2.4 ghz, but overclcked always
stress components. And, pentium4 is a fast fast fast cpu,
where is the need to overclock it?
At Fsb133 the Motherboard, the cd-rom drives, the hard disk, etc...
can result damaged...
errors reading/writing files, shorter life of components.
On P4 1.7-1.8 Ghz, encoding a song, it takes up less than 60sec...
[ Commodore 64 Forever...! ]

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #16
Not necessarily. Most modern P4 motherboards allow locking of PCI/AGP frequency to 33/66 MHz. Thus you can increase FSB all you want and none of your external devices are in any kind of jeopardy.

If you lock your PCI/AGP frequencies, the risk of data losses and external device failures are reduced considerably. But don't forget that increasing FSB will still stress your CPU, memory and chipset beyond spec. Also, don't forget sufficient cooling. You should have at least front/rear 80mm fans to reduce case temperature. Northwoods don't get very hot (gotcha, AMD fans ) unless overclocked to the extreme maximum, so you don't necessarily have to install a heavy duty heatsink. It won't do any harm though.

Especially with Northwood and freq locking, it is possible to have extremely stable oc'd Intel system nowadays. I already have one

And indeed, Prime95 (as well as PiFast) are pretty good indicators. If anything goes wrong, the program will shout it out loud.

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #17
What's the lowest end you can set the voltage to for a p4 anyway?

-Jeff

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #18
i set my voltage at the lowest setting: 1.475 v.  Probably could boost my voltage and go for even higher speeds but I have only the retail heatsink so its not worth the risk.

 

Affects Of Overclocking CPU ???

Reply #19
The spec voltage for P4 Northwoods is 1.5V, so I personally wouldn't go any lower than that.  I'm not quite sure what the spec voltage for the older P4s was, but I suspect it was 1.7-1.8V, which is typical for a 0.18um process.