Overclocking a new Pentium D 920

[jph1589]

Well this is pretty interesting. I had a P4 520J in this motherboard until this afternoon when I installed an OEM 920 that I just bought (Cheap).

The 520J was stable at a FSB of 1000mhz for the last 3 months. After installing the 920 and running it few hours at stock speed, I pushed it up a little at a time. Funny thing is the FSB won't go over 900mhz with the D/920 installed. I tried increasing the vcore up to 1.35 from where it was at auto and it made no difference.

I assume the dual core is too much of a stress on the NB in this motherboard and since it has no voltage adjustments for NB or FSB that is probably what is holding it back.

The really nice surprise of this 920 is that it is idling at 25c with my Scythe Katana 775. It never got out of the high 30s with both cores at 100 percent. Now that is quite an improvement over the prescott.

So if there is no way around this, I'll probably buy a better motherboard and let it fly up to 4ghz. I'd like to wait for one of those nforce590 for intel boards that will support Core2. This will get me by until then, It is very quick just as it is.

Any ideas or comments?

[Capper]

Overclocking always various from CPU to CPU, so there is no cut and dried answer as to what to expect.
Having said that, I would first make sure you have the latest BIOS for the board

[jph1589]

I already had the latest bios and so I put the voltage up to 1.4 to see if that would matter and it didn't. I also disabled the Vanderpool (VIIV) stuff and that didn't matter either. Then I tried overclocking it above the 3.15 with clockgen since it supports all the nforce4 chipsets now. Same results.

I'm really not ready to assume that this cpu won't go above 3.15ghz. I've overclocked too many Intels to think that.....YET!! LOL

I sure would like to know how they got it up over 4ghz on that XMS review. That test was this same board and cpu but the memory was the XMS6400 pro. This board isn't even supposed to work on 800mhz memory. So maybe the specs on the test page were misprinted from another review.

[polobunny]

Try to jump over a few megahertz. I've seen a few board lock at (example) 300 FSB but not 340.

[Capper]

First of all, XS uses ES CPUs in all their reviews....like a lot of big sites...those magic processors are handpicked for the overfclocking potential.
I've seen a majhority of reviews show the new 6600 Conroe hitting 3.7-3.8GHz on air...but mine is crapping out at 2.88GHz, so don't feel bad.
Poor overclocking results might be why you got such a good deal on that processor.

[jph1589]

Originally Posted by Capper

First of all, XS uses ES CPUs in all their reviews....like a lot of big sites...those magic processors are handpicked for the overfclocking potential.
I've seen a majhority of reviews show the new 6600 Conroe hitting 3.7-3.8GHz on air...but mine is crapping out at 2.88GHz, so don't feel bad.
Poor overclocking results might be why you got such a good deal on that processor.

I did look at the picture in the review again and it was not an ES. But I understand what you are saying.

[jph1589]

When I push it too far, it actually seems to be posting and booting. I can see lots of hard drive activity just like it is booting. But nothing comes up on the screen. That happens anywhere above 225/900 FSB.

With the 520 in here it was perfectly happy at 250/1000 FSB.

I still really wonder if it could be that since it has a dual core in it now, the NB can't handle it without a volt increase. I might buy a better nforce4 board to test that theory out. When you get to my age you have more money than time anyway LOL!

[polobunny]

Oh no, you got it all wrong, Capper is also old. :P

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by polobunny

Oh no, you got it all wrong, Capper is also old. :P

Only compared to you high schoolers :P :P

As for the original topic, I'd say it is your processor's fault, not the motherboard. Particularly since you got a higher FSB on the same board with a different processor. The processor was the only thing that changes (as far as I can tell), so that is where the weakness lies.

[jph1589]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Only compared to you high schoolers :P :P

As for the original topic, I'd say it is your processor's fault, not the motherboard. Particularly since you got a higher FSB on the same board with a different processor. The processor was the only thing that changes (as far as I can tell), so that is where the weakness lies.

That sounded like the voice of expereince to me. I'll be content with what I got. A 3.15ghz dual core for $90.

My 520 used to idle at 39-41c with the Scythe Katana 775 on this setup.

The 920 is idling at 24-26c in the exact same setup.

I know the 900 series uses less power than the 800 series, but WOW.....those are water cooling temps.

Is there any history of 900s reporting their temps incorrectly?