Hey, I got an Asus P4S533 and a P4 2.0ghz chip. I got it overclocked at 2.4 ghz @ 120 fsb. But in order to get it to run stable I need to get the VCORE all the way up to 1.675 volts. It runs ultra stable, I am having trouble determining the heat though. At stock (2.0ghz) it runs at 30 c but at 2.4 it runs at around 40-45 c. I backed off to 2.3xx @ 116 fsb for now. At this speed I only need vcore at 1.55. Will running the vcore at 1.675 damage the CPU in the long term? @ 1.55? Will the voltage destroy it or just the extra heat? At 2.4 ghz it really only performs slightly better but it generates much more heat and I am afraid of that high of a vcore setting. Although at that speed Sandra reports it being slightly faster than a real 2.4 ghz P4. I suppose I could get it up to 2.5 at @1.7 volts but I am really afraid to run it that high of a vcore. 1.55 doesn't scare me too much it's only slightly higher. Oh, with my crappy ASUS Probe utility it reports that the vcore is @ 1.712 volts at 2.4 ghz not 1.6775 like in BIOS. ALso it will not report CPU temp below 40 c which is plain stupid. My bios reports much lower temp than this thing. Thanks

Hi, May be you can check out "P4 Stock HSF" I wrote on 12/5. It may help the concerns you addressed.

Cool I didn't see that one, thanks. But I am still curious, can the literal voltage destroy the CPU or just the heat it generates? I'm not an EE, but I know voltage is a force on the electrons. So at 1.7volts you are forcing more electrons onto the chip? Couldn't that destroy it somehow? Or is just the heat and the electro-migation thingy that ends your CPU life? It doesn't matter really I will upgrade in another 2-3 years and resign this CPU to my render farm or give it to my brother but I would like it to live as long as possible. Also why does my CPU need so much power to get to 2.4ghz? My BIOS only goes to 1.7 I am nearly at the end of my rope on it. Yes I tried every voltage and test quite heavily for stability! At 1.65 it locked up. I run Sandra burn in wizard and use Quake 3 to get it to heat up as much as possible by playing and running timedemos and such that should be a good indication of how hot it will get. Quake 3 is probably far more intense than any other app I will be using. Thanks

Hi Mojo, I am not an EE neither, although I hang around with them long enough. They are weired. Yes, electro migration is always the problem. I believe heat aids the acceleration. According to Intel published thermal document, P4 2.4 generates appr. 60 Watts. Since you have Windows, try Prime95. If memory and or Vcore shows weakness the program stops. My 2.0A does not need voltage increase to run at 2.3 Ghz. Memory timing setting other than Vcore attibutes to 50% of instability in overclocking. So, check the memory settings and begin with slowest timing or 1:1 ratio or 4:5 if there is selection in the BIOS. Good luck.

Oh, regarding at the end of the rope of available Vcore, that's the wire trick that I stated to mod the CPU. Check out the following link. http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=278 I stay within the 1.7 volt over this limit the generates too much heat for air cooling, unless you can stand the noisy fan.

Well I am not sure if I have it right but I think I just got a crappy P4 2.0A. I have a hard time getting it up to 120 FSB and to get it stable I have to have it at 1.7 volts and even then it has a tendency to not want to boot most of the time. By stable I am quite demanding, it must play Quake 3 for 30 mins without overheating and shutting down (have another program to do that in the background) and it must survive a Sandra burn in test in the background while I surf the web and do stuff. If it can survive both than I declare it truly stable, and if it remains without rebooting all night than it's official after that. I bought the P4 for stability as stability is the most important element to what I need from my PC. The best I can do is FSB 116 = 2324 MHZ @ 1.575 volts for true stable system with no intermittent reboots. Why does this suck? I see people taking it to 2.7 and beyond. I realize to do this I need a better cooler than what I got, but it's not even possible to try to boot @ 133 FSB with 1:1 ratio at all even at 1.7 volts. I have a fight at 120 to be honest to get it to even come on. I have overclocked my older cpu's so really this CPU has actually been the best overclock so far with standard hs/fan. My p3-550 won't run very stable above 600 mhz. My K6-450's won't run above 500 very well. Considering my oclock on the P4 is more than than my Pentium Pro 200 clock than it's a good rate. I'm happy with 116 ir's already a very fast machine for my needs but I don't understand how people achieve such high marks without it crashing and rebooting or even failing to load at all.

AHh sheet I think I know why it sucks at getting high FSB I just realized my dealer was out of 400 watt PS so I got a crappy 300 watt which is probably not enough for the system to run at above 116 FSB well. I'll bet you anything that is why I can't achieve better performance right now. I am getting a new PSU when they get them in but this one works OK at normal speed. I bet that is my problem and also I didn't have thermal grease to put on the HS. I have to go to Radio Shack and get some today.