Has my 3500+ reached its limit?

[sawyen]

Was thinking of pushing my 3500+ venice a little further.. probably pass 3Ghz if possible.. but running out of ideas... Any ideas would be appreciated..

Highest Possible Setup that survived Prime 4 hours:

11 x 255 = 2805 MHz
Vcore = 1.65V
Idle = Summer (46C)
Load = Summer (66C)
Cooler = 3D Cooler GT Ultra
Mobo = AV8 3rd Eye K8T800 Pro
NB Voltage = 1.55V
Memory = 1GB 3200 TwinX C2PT
Memory Timings = at 333MHz on 2-3-3-6
HT Multi = 3x

Highest Possible Setup (highest HTT) that survived Prime 10 hours:

9 x 295MHz = 2655 MHz
Vcore = 1.575V
Idle = Summer (42C)
Load = Summer (63C)
MB Voltage = 1.65V
Memory Timings = at 266MHz on relaxed timings 3-4-4-8

Since my mobo tops at 295MHz.. I'm guessing my cpu is already at its limits... any ideas on how to get it further? highest post-able frequency was 2.95Ghz (11 x 268).. but crashed the moment in went into 3Dmark05.. or Prime... as a matter a fact... it crashed almost on anything except MSN messenger and Office stuff..

[Rave]

I doubt you'll get further without watercooling TBH.

[Dougal]

I always have overheating problems in the summer even when its not Overclocked.

I agree with Rave, water cooling or better is the only way to go now. Doesn't rely too much on the ambient air temperature.

[sawyen]

was thinking of going for water cooling as well... but its sumthing I've never had any experience at... Any help would be greatly appreciated... If I'm going there, I was hoping to get it to cool my boiling 6800GT as well... Do you guys know of any solutions which are good but won't burn a hole in my wallet?

[Dougal]

Water cooling will burn your wallet to hell probably. Looking at at least £150 for a good system. But can easily go higher.

Check bit-tech for guides.

[sawyen]

ouch... £150 was as far as I will ever pay for cpu cooling.... speaking of which... summer is really taking a toll on my system... my OC system can't even survive 2 hours of HL2 without me pulling out my mobo and pointing an 11'' desk fan on it... shuggs...

[Dougal]

You could find some cheaper systems on forums and ebay but you might not be able to get a GFX cooler with it.

***EDIT***

Just looked on EBay and saw the following:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...782587826&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...783821524&rd=1

[sawyen]

thanks m8... the thermaltake one looks pretty promising.. I guess I could do without the 6800GT cooling... I could stick my 2 extra 60mm on the block copper to cool it further.. was reluctant as both my 60mm tends to sound like a twin blade lawn mower...

[Dougal]

I do like the look of the thermaltake but haven't seen any reviews on it.

I have heard the Raserator (sp?) is good but haven't looked for it on ebay yet.

[sawyen]

Going away from water cooling, do you think switching to an xp-90c on a panaflo or a high output 92mm fan would help?... expensive.. but its always better than riggin 100 odd from my savings...

I'm usin a gigabyte 3d ultra cooler

[Rave]

Personally I'm tempted to get this at some point and add in the Asetek VGA block.

Edit: in answer to your last question, it'll not make much difference if any, the Gigabyte cooler is supposed to be pretty high end. TBH I would be more than happy with a 2.8GHz Venice, what sort of power-mad megalomaniac are you?

[sawyen]

hahaha... well said, I was just a little bored from office... tot I might try to push everything out from this little chip... maybe I'll have more luck when winter comes.. haha.. I'll pull everything out and stick in near the window... see if that'll help... well... 4 more months to go... winter.. ohh winter...