Minor overclocking advice needed

[Barc0de]

I have a P4 rated @ 2.53Ghz by the manufacturer.

I wanted to play a game and it was a couple of frames short of 30Fps.

Thus, I decided to tinker with the CPU's speed (which did the trick, now it's at 30FPS)

Please consider the following:

I have risen the clockrate from 2.53 to 2.73Ghz. Is this indeed a "minor" overclock? the results are pretty good for what it's worth so far in games and browsing conditions too (ign still sucks shit at scrolling)

the operating temperature of the processor is 47C when idle and maxes at 56 when working heavy - this temperature is normal for my box, and the CPU fan runs at "regular 2.53 Ghz" RPM.

I have not installed any special thermal dissipation mechanisms other than the regular P4 fan and sink found in every run-of-the-mill PC, nor is there much thermal glue (or ever was) under the heat-sink. I have practically just bumped the speed 200Mhz while leaving everything else as is, voltage included.

What I would like to know is whether I am actually risking to shorten my processor's (or other components') life with this 200Mhz
increase.

PS: also, is there a need to bump up the voltage in order to keep up with the 200Mhz increase?

[easyXmode]

Wow idle at 47°c. idk much about stock p4s but that sounds pretty high to me. i'd clean out all the dust out of your computer if you havent done so already.

as far as voltage goes, if it hasnt become unstable yet (i.e. computer crash) then you should be fine. yes, you will shorten your cpus life by making it work harder but it shouldnt be a problem.

i overclocked my e6600 cpu from 2.4 to 3ghz and the only problems i've come across is random shutdowns from it becoming unstable (about every 6 months). but i just bump up the volts a little and and its runs fine.

if you want to read up more about overclocking, http://www.overclock.net/ theres an intel and amd section that should be able to point you in the right direction if your lost. ^^

[Barc0de]

thanks for your reply,

all PCs I ve seen of this generation generally run at higher temperatures with stock cooling solutions, so no worries there really. I have not experienced any instability at all, and I further lowered the speed to 2.715Ghz for the sake of the processor's health, smooth as butter so far.

would it be worth to throw in an old Hyper Threading-able cpu?my mobo supports it, but I have no clue as for how much they go for nowadays.

[madhatter256]

The P4 can handle that temp just fine. As long as you have a decent motherboard you ought to be fine.

What game are you talking about, by the way?

You are better off upgrading the whole PC. For less than $200 you can get a dual core setup, 1-2gb RAM and motherboard with decent on board graphics.

[Barc0de]

Trackmania Nations =) awesome game, works like a charm with modified drivers and an XBOX 360 controller (to force it into a generic PC controller peripheral, instead of that fancy GamesForWindows compatibility crap)

I don't have 200$ to get a new PC tbh, this one's working just fine so far.. it's got top of the line (by 2002 standards) components!:P

P4 Northwood, 2.715 Ghz

1280MB 266Mhz RAM (dual DDR, 4 slots)

ASUS P4G8X motherboard

SoundBlaster Live! 1024

Sapphire ATi 9700 Pro 128MB VRAM (based of course on the R300 chip designed by ArtX, after they were acquired by ATi.. )

Ricoh PCMCIA-PCI adaptor, hooked to a PCMCIA-SCSI interface for a special external drive (hint: used for something console related)

IEEE 1394 PCI board

Capture card (Pinnacle, cant bother with the model number)

Hudson Soft. NPDP ODEM Ver. 1, for use with GDEV

3 HDDs on IDE + DVD-RAM drive

Floppy Drive

Windows XP Professional, Corporate Edition

--


This baby is a decent development host and doubles as a good PC to this day =)

[Alien Workshop]

I have risen the clockrate from 2.53 to 2.73Ghz. Is this indeed a "minor" overclock?

the operating temperature of the processor is 47C when idle and maxes at 56 when working heavy - this temperature is normal for my box, and the CPU fan runs at "regular 2.53 Ghz" RPM.

PS: also, is there a need to bump up the voltage in order to keep up with the 200Mhz increase?

Yes, that is a minor OC, and those temps look about right for a stock HSF with the crappy thermal paste that comes on them. Those temps won't kill your CPU right off, but if you are worried about heat at all, you could upgrade to a better HSF with good thermal grease. Do you happen to know what socket your P4 is?

The only way to tell if you need to bump voltages is by running stress tests. Yes, even with so minor an OC there might be a chance that you need to up voltages. The best tool to determine this is Intel Burn Test, but seeing as you only have a stock HSF, I wouldn't recommend that. You could try running Prime95 Small FFT's for about 12 hours, then runnig OCCT for about 12 hours to see if any issues arise. If you fail either test, then you know you need to up your voltage a tad. Run the tests again, and keep upping voltage until you can pass both.

Here are some links:

Intel Burn Test, if you are brave (I don't recommend it with stock HSF though): http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=197835

Prime95: http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

OCCT: http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/index.php?Download

You might also want to use CPU-Z to keep track of your CPU's stats:
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

I don't have 200$ to get a new PC tbh, this one's working just fine so far.. it's got top of the line (by 2002 standards) components!:P

This baby is a decent development host and doubles as a good PC to this day =)

I hate to burst your bubble, but if it really were "top of the line by 2002 standards" it would have an Athlon in it. The P4 was garbage, and this is a well known fact in the Hardware/OCing community. The Athlon, at a "feeble" 2.8GHz was running circles around 3.8GHz P4's... Furthermore, the Athlon FX-57 is, by far, considered the most powerful single core x86 processor ever made.

[Barc0de]

so, even better than the ZIFF socket P4 with Hyper Threading?

I have a ZIFF socketed CPU.

[Alien Workshop]

so, even better than the ZIFF socket P4 with Hyper Threading?

I have a ZIFF socketed CPU.

What? ZIF stands for Zero Insertion Force... there's nothing special about it in regards to performance. Hyper Threading on the P4's was a joke, and produced no noticeable advantages for real world computing and was even detrimental in some cases.

Like I said before, the Athlons were kings in the single core days. Intel couldn't touch AMD then, even when having a full 1GHz frequency "advantage", the Athlons were just better. The FX-57 was released on the edge of the "dual core revolution", thus most people considered it a 'waste', but that doesn't take away the fact that it was the fastest single core CPU ever made, even faster than Intel's 3.8GHz Prescott P4. Here's a link if you don't believe me:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2456

[Barc0de]

I understand your point, nevertheless, I have to make do with what's available to me, and that's my current mobo - so even if the AMD is better, my motherboard is made for P4.

[madhatter256]

That p4g8x I wouldn't recommend for OCing...

I'd upgrade that video card if you can't upgrade the board, ram and cpu...

[BBaileys]

Instead of looking at buying a new processor just save the money. You can buy a debadged HP at geeks.com. I thought about upgrading my processor and went that route instead. For about a hundred more than a new processor I got a whole new system.

[Barc0de]

That p4g8x I wouldn't recommend for OCing...

I'd upgrade that video card if you can't upgrade the board, ram and cpu...

why, what's wrong with the motherboard? never had an issue with it the past 6 years

[Alien Workshop]

I understand your point, nevertheless, I have to make do with what's available to me, and that's my current mobo - so even if the AMD is better, my motherboard is made for P4.

Understandable, btw do you have any clue what kind of socket your mainboard has? From the sounds of it you've got a Socket 478. However, if you happen to have an LGA 775, there is a lot more possibility for relatively cheap upgrades.

[Twimfy]

why, what's wrong with the motherboard? never had an issue with it the past 6 years

Maybe not but being the center point of any system it will eventually slow you down and make all of your new purchases obsolete, it just seems a long way to go about it.

Best save up your money and buy a new system in 12 months or so.

[Barc0de]

i have an issue with not being settled down currently and i want to avoid getting a laptop, hence why I haven't got a proper PC yet :(

[retro]

Get a Shuttle - easily transportable ;-)

Trackmania Nations is an awesome game and should run fine on those specs! Crappy RAM, though. I'd run DDR400 in it if possible - maybe 2 1Gb sticks or 4 512Mb? As for the FPS, I'd look at the graphics card. Good card, but could be better! I'd look for a more modern AGP card - should be able to find something cheap enough.

That said, the cost of doing that makes it worth upgrading. Could you not sell that base unit and upgrade that way?

[Barc0de]

the issue with Greece is that you can't easily sell anything second hand, it's people's nature not to go for it unless it's utterly free!

[retro]

Come back to the UK, sell it, go back :110: lol.