Undervolted cpu by nearly 0.1v, with overclock and still stable!

[johnnr892]

Hi, I wonder if anybody else has ever tried this. I have my 2600xp overclocked to 185fsb and my vcore and vdimm were up a token volt each. But then I thought that raising the voltage had never really helped my overclock. I have had the vdimm upto 2.9v and my vcore upto 1.9v and it didn't even give me 1mhz more overclock. So I put my voltages back to default and it booted up, and impressively, I had an idle temp drop from 48 down to 42 and a load drop from 56 down to 49. How far could it go, well I am at 1.575v and still prime95 stable and 3dmark05 stable. My temps are now down to 37 idle and 45 load. Now I can run my arctic cooling ran on low and never go above 53 degreees load! So my question is has anybody else done this and how far did you go. I want to go furtehr but I don't particularly want to have to clear the cmos in order to boot if it doesn't. I await your thoughts, John.

[arthurleung]

Thats not 1v undervolt, thats 0.1V.

It is pretty good for 1.575 to overclock to 185 though. My 2500+ won't do stock 166FSB at stock 1.65V (need 1.7V) and it needs 1.8 to reach 200FSB. Mine is pretty crap IMOH.

[Akumu]

My 2500+ isn't a particularly good overclocker either, but it undervolts quite nicely... Currently running 9x200 at 1.5v, as opposed to stock 11x166 at 1.65v... Brings the temperatures down nicely.

As far how far you can go, well the voltage adjustment on the NF7 is quite fine, 0.025v steps... If it's stable in Prime95 at one voltage, dropping it down a notch won't make it fail to boot, so you shouldn't need to reset the bios. Just take your time and don't rush things.

[muddyfox470]

my 2500+ is at 200x10 stable at 1.65v

with aero lite, currently 37 @ stock and 42/43 under load

not mad me thinks

[Timmy!!!]

I have a P4 Northwood 3Ghz that is stock 1.5v and its currently running at 1.3v totally stable Currently 28 idle and 44 load and its in a shuttle!

I havent tried to overclock it but some people claim to get better overclocks with lower voltages (due to reduced electron ..er lol i cant remember the name, the electrons jump wires etc)

[weebroonieuk]

if they are getting better clocks with less volts it means theyre colling is rubbish as adding anymore heat is causing instability

[jimborae]

if they are getting better clocks with less volts it means theyre colling is rubbish as adding anymore heat is causing instability

Not necessarily true, my P4 2.4c hate's volt's & and has top notch Thermalright cooling. It'll go to 3.3ghz on 1.55v but pump more than 1.65v through it & it throws a paddy and won't clock past 3ghz. At first I thought it heat related but further investigation proved it wasn't and it's just a common quirk of this chip.

[unrealrocks]

Yeah - undervolting while overclocking used to be quite common with the XPs on some forums ... not totally sure why but it seemed to work.

[wutske]

My xp2500+ does stock at about 1.45v (little lower cuz nf7 undervolts) and does 185*11 @ 1.55v and 200*11@1.675.

[johnnr892]

I haven't tried overclocking at a lower voltage, maybe I will try and see how it goes.

[funnelhead]

well the 2500-m is 1800mhz @ 1.45v and i cant imagine that ALL chips capable of achieving this are turned into mobiles as there simply isnt the demand. So there must be quite a few chips out there that are quite happy with lower volts than 1.65.

By the time my chip gets to 1.65v its happy to run at 2400mhz... when running it at stock it never went a degree over ambient when idle, and barely 4 degs when under load.

good luck with the adventures

[wutske]

little correction, my XP2500+ does stock at 1,4V (real= 1.36V)
Too bad it isn't such a great overclocker :'(

[Steve]

I havent tried to overclock it but some people claim to get better overclocks with lower voltages (due to reduced electron ..er lol i cant remember the name, the electrons jump wires etc)

Electron... migration?

[johnnr892]

Nope, it didn't help because I orgot that it is my ram holding the cpu back, so I may never know...but that 1gb of pc3200 for £50 from aria looks mighty tempting...

[Rave]

My dually is running an XP2000 and a Duron 1400 at 1.67GHz with 1.4V. Not sure if they could go lower, I had to change the voltage by pinmodding and cutting traces. I pulled the fans off my Coolermaster X-Dreams and replaced them with some almost silent ebuyer cheapy fans and they never go above 50C even in a case with no real cooling. Means I can safely run them from a cheapo PSU too.

[Nein]

Yeah - undervolting while overclocking used to be quite common with the XPs on some forums ... not totally sure why but it seemed to work.

The same main reason Intel and AMD lowered processor core-voltage as years went by - Less heat dissipation for the same workload.

Most people have opposite problem to yours, they don't understand why over-volting worked.