Hello,
I'm having some weird trouble overclocking my 3500+ Venice. My specs are

3500+
1GB OCZ Premier (2.5, 3, 3, 7)
Gigabyte k8 triton nforce4 SLI (vanilla)
510W PSU w/ 26 amps on +12 V rail

The issue is that I can set the FSB to 210 with no problems and no changes to anything else, and it's rock solid. One MHz higher and it reboots after POST. I've tried lowering the RAM ratio and HTT multiplier to very low levels and bumped up vcore voltage to 1.475 (from 1.4) but nothing changes.

What's the deal? Is some BIOS setting limiting my clock? Any help would be appreciated.

Solution...

Your 3500+ run at 2.2Ghz stock at 2200=200x11... You set to 210x11 = 2310Mhz and 1Mhz higher then the system crash regardless vcore increase. In this case, either your motherboard is limiting the external clock overclocking or your CPU has reached its limit. To find out which one is the cause, you will need to test the followings...

(Assuming you set HTT to 3x and RAM set to 166Mhz)*

Suppose your CPU can run 210x11=2310Mhz, by lowering the multiplier to 10x and set the external clock to 231Mhz x 10 = 2310Mhz should also work... But if it doesn't, then it is motherboard limiting your overclock for 210Mhz external clock the motherboard can handle. But if you can still run at 231x10 = 2310Mhz and 1Mhz increase in external clock would crash the system, then its the CPU holding you back.. But before that, make sure your idle and load temperatures are within limits. Reasonable temperature idle range is <45C and load <60C... Also besure that your vcore doesn't drop like crazy under load, some motherboard is very famous for vdrop under heavy load....

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4100Mhz 1.525v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 2000RPM FAN + AS5
1GB Corsair 2-3-3-5 DDR400
40GB 5400RPM/120GB 7200RPM HD
Radoen 9500 mod 9700 @ 375/600 CHS+RHS

Well my system won't get past POST with 232x10, but it doesn't sound right that my motherboard is limiting my overclocking to such a pathetic amount. I mean, the bundled motherboard software offers more intense "overclocking" options that that!

There has to be something else going on here.

Hopefully you're O/C'ing via the BIOS using the M.I.T menu & not using EasyTune? Here's a few suggestions (I deliberately left out RAM timings & voltage settings, those you'll have to figure out as you go):

HT Frequency ratio = 4x
CPU Frequency = 250MHz
K8 CPU Clock Ratio = AUTO
CPU/DDR clock Ratio = 2/1.66
CPU Spread Spectrum = DISABLED
PCIE Clock = 100MHz

Top Performance = DISABLED

Yes, I've been using the BIOS. I don't bother with that software overclocking crap. Except for my video card, which actually does a good job of getting extra performance.

Thanks for the settings jam. I'll try them out and see what happens.

Ok I tried those settings, and once again it reboots after POST. I tried upping the voltage again as well as loosening the timing on the memory, but nothing works. Am I missing something entirely or what?

I'm not too familiar with the Dual BIOS feature...could that be causing a problem?

This is the vanilla board. It does not have dual BIOS. There are three versions of my board, and mine is the cheapest.

Looks like your CPU has reached its limit if the external clock isn't holding you back... In this case, your best performance would be to set external clock as high as possible like maybe 231x10 or 256x9 or 288x8. You said you set your CPU voltage to 1.475v and it still restarts, have you tried 1.5v yet? I'd seen people go as high as 1.55v for overclocking...

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4100Mhz 1.525v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 2000RPM FAN + AS5
1GB Corsair 2-3-3-5 DDR400
40GB 5400RPM/120GB 7200RPM HD
Radoen 9500 mod 9700 @ 375/600 CHS+RHS

I'll try higher voltage, but I shouldn't need to bump it up that high. I just don't understand why going a single MHz over 210 FSB is like hitting a wall, with total instability.That shouldn't be happening. 3500+s should overclock much higher than that without much effort.

Yeah it's def not your processor. I've seen them overclocked to 2.8ghz without any sort of extra cooling and stock at least 2.6ghz.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ OC 2.7ghz
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 7800GT
SATA II 2x 200gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

I'm not much of an expert in overclocking. Have you tried locking the pci-e and pci bus.

I know that with my board I had to statically set all the rams timings after a set multiplier. This was because even though the ram was running at 400mhz the mobo tried to tighten the timings for the slower setting according to the SPD on the ram.

Nothing's broken until you choose not to fix it.

hay TMP-MAN
in your sig u have:
Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4100Mhz 1.525v

I just got a same setup.
I want to go to 4.0GZ with a (arctic 120mm fan all coper) anyways I read allot that this thing can be stable for a while at 4.0gz @ 1.48v.
u got a little higher but at 1.525v ?
huge difference.

what voltage would u recoment for me at
4.0Gz?

thanks abunch.

oh and I use
NOS to bump up the bus. on OS
how do I get the voltage up?
how do u do it?

i'm new to this setup.

thanks